November update

Please forgive my negligence once again. I've been meaning to write; I swear! But you know what they say about good intentions...

Anyways, for those of you who don't know, I'm a fall fanatic. As I write this I'm listening to an autumn playlist on 8 tracks while drinking chai tea and burning a pumpkin-scented candle (courtesy of my wonderful family's care package--thanks mom and dad!) So naturally during the month of November I've been trying to soak in as much crisp, apple-cinnamon, red and orange and yellow goodness as I can. I've been back to visit my favorite outdoor places, and if I thought they were beautiful when I first arrived at the end of the summer, then they're absolutely magnificent in the fall. I know spring/summer is supposed to be the peak tourist season in Paris, but I personally recommend the autumn months. I guess I'm a little biased, though.

With regards to the Lyon trip, it was a great weekend! I think a pretty apt analogy would be to say that if Paris is New York, then Lyon is the equivalent of Boston. It has a slightly more laid-back feel but is definitely a city in its own right. A city with excellent cuisine, I might add! Two of the standouts for me were a cheesy polenta side dish and a soup I had with lentils, chickpeas, pepper, and lamb. The absolute best though was a Lyon-ese (I think I just made that word up) specialty called quenelles. They're essentially cheese dumplings that you can have either grilled or fried. I chose grilled, and they almost ended up like a toasted ravioli with cheese instead of meat inside. ALMOST but not quite. Or maybe that's just my wishful thinking because I really miss toasted ravioli...

Lyon used to be a textile capital, and now there are only 5 master weavers in France who know how to operate one of these bad boys.

At Les Halles market in Lyon 

Quenelles!

Not bad, Lyon. Not bad at all.

Between Lyon and Paris we stopped at a teeny tiny village called Pérouges. It has about 150 inhabitants and looks like a post card. Also--some of the best fall foliage I've seen! :)

A cow? I don't think we're in Paris anymore...

The town "center"
 

A lovely countryside panorama taken by my friend from his wall-top perch.

Back in Paris, we've been exploring the Bastille and Saint-Martin neighborhoods a bit more, as they are both adjacent to our little Oberkampf district. The Place de la Bastille is surrounded by lots of great little restaurants and bars, and on Sunday mornings they have a giant outdoor market. Saint-Martin (the area around the canal by the same name) is a very young area with a kind of hipster vibe. Lots of cozy cafes!

Back on Oberkampf, we've steadily become friends with a waiter and bartender at a place right next door to us. It's kind of a hole-in-the-wall, but they play awesome music and its reasonably priced, and it's usually fairly crowded but we can typically find a place to sit which can be rare on Friday and Saturday nights. One of my favorite things in the place is a sign that says: "The bartender is always right. If they aren't see rule number one." A far cry from the customer always being right in the states, eh? But I'd say that pretty much sums up the French dining experience. There's also this gem.

Yoda is saying "Drink you have; but hurry I should, because 8:45 it is." Happy hour ends at 9...such wisdom.

Other than that, it's been pretty standard routine. I've been to a few more cool museums. The Jeu de Paume has an amazing photography exhibit by Garry Winogrand right now. It's sort of like a primitive humans of new york project with just pictures and no accompanying stories, but he essetinally traveled from coast to coast from the 50's to the late 70's taking candid photos of people. I also got to go on a tour of the French National Assembly with one of my classes, and I visited the National Museum of Immigration. Very cool! And in an attempt to be budget and eco-friendly (full disclosure: mostly the former), I switched out my metro pass for a Velib one, which is the French equivalent of the city bike system, and I've been trying to bike most days when it isn't raining! European drivers are crazy though, so please keep my in your prayers as I navigate the bike lanes of Paris. Hugs to everyone back home...the countdown stands at less than 5 weeks! :)

Halloween French Style and Meet the Kiddos

Last weekend was Halloween (duh), and I was intrigued to see how the French celebrated. I already knew it wasn't nearly as big of a deal as it was in the U.S., but I still didn't know exactly what to expect.There were several bars and clubs advertising Halloween-themed events, some even went so far as to call is "American Halloween," and we decided to check out a couple that were close by and also free entry because why not?

I decided to keep my costume simple, and boy am I glad I did. I wore red pants, a striped shirt, my glasses, a beanie, and voila...where's Waldo? (Fact: My costume was inspired by the episode of Modern Family I watched the night before where Lily is Waldo.) We ventured around to several options that were awkwardly empty before ending up at a place on our street. At first glance you honestly wouldn't have had any idea it was Halloween. No tombstones, no spiderwebs, no Monster Mash, no candy, no witches, NOT EVEN A JACK-O-LANTERN. Once we got inside though, we had several costumed comrades. The reason I was relieved to have chosen my simple costume was that people seemed to have general half-tried like me, or gone all out. And the ones who committed hadn't gone for the cutesy costumes, either. I'm talking wigs and fake blood out the wahzoo.

When I got home that night, I naturally checked under my bed, in my closet, and kicked in my shower curtain to ensure that Michael Myers wasn't hiding in my apartment. Before going out, we had watched Halloween in my friend's room. I voted for Hocus Pocus, but I was sadly outnumbered. Needless to say I don't handle scary movies well.

Now onto this week... I'm officially a working girl! I'm after-school babysitting for a French-American family; the mom is from Paris and the Dad is from Washington D.C. They have 3 little boys: Ulysses is 6, Nelson is 4, and Salvador is 3. They're all blond-haired, blue-eyed, adorable little Frenchies. They're all learning English, but they (especially the younger 2) still feel more comfortable speaking to me in French. I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I'm able to communicate with them in French, but thank goodness Ulysses is there to act as a translator when necessary. One of the things I did understand was when Salvador said, "Est-ce que on peut aller chez toi aux États-Unis?"
He asked if we could go to my house in America :)

Here's Nelson! He usually holds domain over the stroller.

Salvador got a little cold, so he borrowed Ulysses' coat...

One day, the younger two were still on fall break so they were visiting their grandparents in the north of France, so it was just me and Ulysses. We went to the Parc des Buttes Chaumonts, which happens to be (in my opinion) one of the most beautiful parks in Paris, and incidentally one of my favorite places to run since it's almost exactly a mile and a half from my apartment. They do pony rides, and Ulysses decided that's how he wanted to spend our "activity money" his mom had given us.

He named his horse Duncan. He loved Duncan.

While I'm vaguely on the subject of horses, this chien de Paris was more like a cheval de Paris!

 Also going on this week was "Les Automnales de Saint Germain," a sidewalk craft/food fair a block away from the NYU building. They had everything from soap to nougat to jewelry to paella. And also "authentic American donuts," but I took a pass on those. I love all the random markets that seem to just spring up around Paris! Although I could do without the crowds that block the sidewalks, but oh well. C'est la vie.

On Thursday, I went out to dinner with Annie and her parents who were visiting. Our friends Melanie, Jaci, and Leah also went. They had used Airbnb, and we tried a restaurant that was highly recommended by the woman whose apartment they were staying in. I had beef bourgignon, which was delicious, and "tarte au tartiner du pomme" for dessert, which was basically a warm apple crumble.

Mmmmm.

Annie's parents were awesome! They were so happy to meet us and see who she's been bummin' around with in Paris, and they offered up a place to stay in San Francisco whenever we'd like, which I really hope was for real...

Yesterday, I had a Skype call with student government representatives from the groups of freshmen starting at the NYU London and NYU Florence campuses, the other two options for doing your first year abroad. We're planning to set up a weekend exchange among all three campuses so students can visit and have a place to stay and someone who knows the city to show them around, so it's looking like more weekend trips may be on the horizon! :) Speaking of trips, I leave tomorrow for Lyon, France's "second city" known for its gastronomy, so expect more food pictures to come :)

And one last picture to close on...

Look what I found at my favorite thrift shop! Almost bought it.