Questions or Other Dialogue

Maxine & I would be happy to answer any questions about this trip, how we planned it, or how to manage taking a dog abroad. My email address (for this purpose) is: specialid2002@yahoo.com. It would help if the word PARIS was in the Subject line.

"What Did You Enjoy Most?"

In two months it is possible to do a lot of things, and particularly to cover sights and experiences that wouldn’t make practical on a shorter trip (for example, taking a ½ hour ride out to see La Defense, a modern Arc de Triomphe). What Maxine & I are going to do in this entry is to pick out 5-10 of the moments, things, people, or whatever that meant the most to us on this trip. We recognize that this list may very well not correspond to a ‘normal’ best of Paris list. Here goes:

1. Being told that Cassie was “adorable” by an elderly man the first afternoon we were in Paris. We’d be traveling for hours (and hours!). We’d gotten to the apartment, dropped off our bags, and decided to take a walk of the neighborhood to get some air. We’d just gotten to the end of the street, 100 feet down from our door, and a man stopped Maxine to make his comment. Welcome to Paris!!! !!!
2. The morning of flight home day, at our neighborhood bakery. One hundred feet the opposite direction was our neighborhood bakery. We’d probably been there 60 times (sometimes we’d go in the morning for breakfast pastries and later for bread). Cassie had been in there any number of times and two of the people who worked there had mentioned how nervous she seemed (in other words, she'd been noticed, and it was OK with them that she was in their store!). This last morning we told the woman behind the counter that, after 2 months, we were heading home to Los Angeles. She wished us a good journey. She then filled a small bag with pastries “on the house” for our trip!
3. Being able to be in touch electronically. Using Skype we were able to call immediate family (at 2 cents/minute) and talk without thinking about how much it was costing. Via this blog we stayed in touch with quite a number of you. The internet meant that we didn’t feel out of touch despite being gone so long.
4. Eric the Cheese Guy. In France, he would more likely be known as Eric Lefebvre, Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2004 Winner. The “MOF” award recognizes the best artisans in the country. For Eric, it is about cheese. He runs a tiny (3-400 square foot) shop, the 3rd generation in his family in this business. His good spirit and enthusiasm as he talked about cheese was infectious.
5. The Eiffel Tower. Aside from its obvious role as a landmark in Paris, it was also a personal landmark. In two months, we never went to the top. But, neither did we go a week without seeing it up close. First off, the American Library was 2 blocks away and we were there frequently. Second, when we’d leave the apartment on Saturdays so that it could be cleaned, we’d picnic with Cassie at the Seine river park underneath it. And finally, one night Maxine, D, and I went over to it after dinner to enjoy how it is lit it up like a glittering Christmas tree every night.
6. Church of St. Chapelle. On vacations to Europe, there’s always a 1000 year old church to visit! I was pretty much done with old churches and cathedrals when I got to this one. And, this one doesn't make it easy on you either. You have to wait on line 30+ minutes to get inside. You have to climb a flight of stairs to get to it. It’s small and isn’t even in use any more. BUT, the walls inside are almost entirely of stained glass. For argument’s sake, if you imagine that in a typical modern church the walls are 30% glass, and, in a cathedral they are 60% glass, St. Chapelle is probably 85% stained glass. When the sunlight came the place glowed.
7. My (Maxine) 50th birthday lunch at Pierre Gagnaire. The food was creative and wonderful, the service and atmosphere helped to make this a celebration and Pierre himself wished me Bon Anniversaire.
8. Our last lunch with Cassie. It wasn’t the food. It was the idea that we were in a restaurant with our dog. Given our crazy dog’s behavior before Lori, our trainer, this would have been impossible to imagine a year ago. Yet, here we were with Cassie acting as we imagined Parisians did. And, to cap it off, the waitress told us our dog was well-behaved and gentile (nice)!
9. Luxembourg Gardens. Our apartment was only a five minute walk away for this beautiful park. This was my walking place to see grass, flowers, and nature, albeit in an extremely well-groomed state. I liked it best in the morning before the schoolkids and the other crowds arrived.
10. Macarons from Pierre Herme. For those who don’t know, macarons are not the same as macaroons (which are coconut). Macarons are basically meringue sandwich cookies in various flavors. I (Maxine) absolutely love them and I made it my mission to taste macarons from many different bakeries. I can tell you without hesitation that Pierre Herme’s are the best. My favorite flavor is caramel with sea salt, but I also love the chocolate + passion fruit and the vanilla + olive oil. Once I discovered Pierre Herme, I went there almost every day for my macaron fix. This will be one of the things I miss most about Paris.
11. Robert Doisneau photo exhibit. Doisneau was a photographer working in France from the 1930’s to the early 1990’s. One of his black and white photos, of a couple kissing, shows up everywhere (on this blog entry we have a photo of the photo). There was a free exhibit of his photos of Paris scenes being exhibited at the Hotel de Ville at the end of our stay. Tom was intrigued and saw it first. He urged me to go and I did our last week-end in Paris (while Tom was gorging on chocolate at the Salon du Chocolat). The exhibit exceeded my expectations – the photos were so evocative of Paris. I may have appreciated them more because our stay was ending but I’m happy that we bought a book so that I can look again and remind myself of Paris and our experience there.

Some More Pictures -- Gerard Mulot Bakery Tour

Here are the last of the 'missing pictures' -- things we forgot to include in earlier blog entries.

This series is from another of our Meet the French programs. In particular these are from the 'factory' of Gerard Mulot.

We were lucky -- he has 2 stores, this one and one a block away from our apartment. They make chocolates, pasteries, breads, sandwiches. They're considered to be one of the best bread and sweets shops in Paris (having them a block away is what was lucky!). As to this being a factory, I'd guess it was under 2000 square feet in size. Maxine is posed outside of it.


Making chocolates. These are the multicolored ones with fillings -- you can see 3 of them on the marble counter in the foreground.












The chocolatier at work. They are pouring out fruit filling from a very 'used' copper pot.
















Making macarons -- Maxine's favorite sweet snack in Paris! (the green things in this photo)

Goals We Had For The Trip -- How We Did

OK, we’re inveterate planners. And, we had goals for the trip. So, as it comes to an end we're looking back to see how we did.

While we enjoyed Paris enough that we might very well go back and do this all again -- really this was planned as a grand trip. Knowing we were going for such an extended time, and knowing that the duration would present us with opportunities that are not possible in an ordinary vacation, before it started we gave some thought to what we might want to get out of the experience.

In the spirit of self-disclosure, here’s how we did:

1. Improving our French language skills. It was too easy to lapse into English and we simply didn’t put enough effort into the struggle. "C"
2. Act as if we actually were living in Paris. We knew this trip, including the chance to live in a residential apartment and bring our dog, would give us the opportunity to experience Paris as residents. "A"
3. Figure out what to do next. Neither of us left corporate jobs behind to make this trip. We know we’re very fortunate. Some days we say we’re retired and other days we say we’re living a “projects” lifestyle. Being in Paris gave us an opportunity to think about our choices. "B"

Some Pictures

Here are some pictures from earlier in the trip that got overlooked:

...Taken from a boat on the Seine River













A fountain at Versailles















A Hallway (minor) at Versailles













Maxine & I outside Willi's Wine Bar, one of our favorite restaurants in Paris.














Coffee being roasted at the artisan coffee shop I went to on the Meet The French program. The guy in the photo is the store owner, 2nd generation. They've been making and selling coffee in this shop (using that roaster) for 60 years.

"The Numbers"

In the spirit of Maxine having been Chief Financial Officer of several companies, here’s what we did on this trip in terms of numbers (estimates):

Number of different wines drank – 30
Number of different beers (all French) – 11
Number of different cheeses – 33
Number of different types of bread – 8
Number of different chocolates – 40+
Number of times we walked by St. Sulpice Church (plays a prominent role in The Da Vinci code) – 200
Number of times Cassie went to an outdoor café/restaurant for a meal/drink – 4
Number of times Cassie went to an indoor lunch – 2
Number of French dogs Cassie met – 18
Number of books read (Tom) -- 18
Number of nights in Paris (Tom) – 55
Number of nights in Paris (Maxine) -- 49

Things I'd Prefer To Have Been Different

Here are the things that didn’t live up to expectations or were otherwise frustrating:

1. The noise. Maxine & I have lived in suburban houses for 17 years. Paris is urban and noisy! Motorcycles buzzed and buses rumbled as they passed on the street. While in the apartment I would hear people in the halls and people from the floor above. On average once/week I’d be awakened by noise from someone on the street (2AM-6AM!). I was tempted to buy some balloons and teach the late-nighters what a water balloon was from our 6th story window. I slept with ear plugs in for 2 months.
2. Brew pub beer. Some of you know that this past spring I’ve taken up home brewing. So perhaps I’ve gotten a bit critical in my judging of beer. But, Maxine willingly (as opposed to, ‘while I was twisting her arm’) agreed that the beer I’ve made is better than we could buy in Paris. Brew pubs seem not to have taken hold in Paris and, at $10/pint, the equivalent wine was considerably better.
3. Salon du Chocolat. See my earlier blog about this event. I think my hopes were probably too high for this one. I like chocolate – Maxine & I met working for M&M/Mars. But, at the end of the day, this was a chance to eat a lot of chocolate – something that was fun but not transcendent.

Things We Would Do Again

Here’s a brief list of things about the trip that worked, that we’d do again

1. Buy a monthly transit pass (Carte Orange). Single use tickets (one bus or train ride) cost about $1.50. One month (they also have one week versions) unlimited use passes cost $70. Never having to decide if it was worth spending money to go someplace made us feel freer to explore the city.
2. Meeting The French program. It’s a new program in Paris where you meet people interested in talking about their specialty. We focused on food artisans and met coffee roasters, candy makers, bread bakers, and cheese sellers. Every meeting was a highlight of the trip.
3. Croissants and 'pain au chocolats' (basically, square croissants with chocolate bars melted inside) for breakfast. OK, lots and lots of calories in this suggestion! But, they taste so much better than anywhere else that you won’t bother eating breakfasts any other way.
4. Join the American Library. This only works on a relatively long stay, but it proved worthwhile for us. The library is quite extensive and current – many books, magazines, newspapers, videos. It’s a place to go – in a strange city, I can only hang out in café’s for so long.
5. Meetup.com. Maxine & I used Meetup to find out about and go to a number of expat/English speaker events. This broke up a diet of museums. It was also an opportunity to meet people with widely different personal circumstances. People we met included: an Australian couple there for 18 months, an American woman on a month long project from DC, an American woman who moved to France 8 years ago, a New York couple who moved to Paris last spring, a grandfather who spends ½ the year in Paris and the other ½ in Pennsylvania, a 23 year old French Structural Engineering student, etc. P.S. If this sounds interesting, there is one name you need to know, the master organizer – Andy Coyne!
6. Learning a few French words. With each successive trip to France we’ve found more and more people speaking English. In our neighborhood, you could hear snippets in English every time you walked down the street. Despite this, we felt more connected by trying to speak French. The French will NOT bite your head off if you speak French badly, we almost always found the reverse to be the case, that they will struggle in English to help the conversation along. More advice – it is pointless to ask someone, “Do you speak English”. If someone were to ask me if I spoke French I’d either hedge or say no. But, late one night someone came up to me and asked where the grocery store was. I don’t really speak French – but I did.
7. Bring your computer. There were plenty of free WiFi spots (the American Library, the café 4 blocks away, probably the apartment next door!) Aside from being able to stay in touch, it gave us access to unlimited tourism resources. Almost all the museums had sites that told hours and days open, etc. The RATP (city buses and subways) website plots out the quickest or least amount of walking required way to get to any place in the city, etc.
8. Bring your dog. It is true – the French love dogs!!! Aside from commercial transactions, i.e. a waiter or a clerk in a store, more than 90% of our conversations with French people began through our dog Cassie. They would express an interest in her, would bring their dog up to her, their children would try to pet her, or the like. I simply cannot express how much more connected we felt to Paris and Parisians by virtue of the connections Cassie made for us. All of that time with our trainer, Lori, paid off!

Photos From Our Last Day

Tomorrow we wake up at 6AM, get picked up at 8AM, and are on a noon flight to Chicago. After 4 hours there we are on a flight to Los Angeles. And, after two months in Paris, we are both happy and sad that this trip is coming to an end.

While we're flying I will write up some other blog entries: best memories, final totals (i.e. how many different cheeses we tried, etc.). Those will be posted Wednesday. For now, here are some photos we took today as we made our way through Paris one more time!

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Maxine went on a 'tour' of Pere Lachaise Cemetery (two days before Halloween). It's known for some of the people who are buried there. Here are some photos:






Oscar Wilde











Jim Morrison (The Doors)



















Heloise and Abelard (star-crossed French lovers from 700 years ago)

















Memorial to WWII Concentration Camps

















Memorial to WWII Concentration Camps

Salon Du Chocolat

In an earlier entry I mentioned my particular interest in the chocolates of France. During walks through the city I’ve sampled products from a variety of producers. I always tried to find shops that produced their own chocolates on their premises as opposed to stores that sold stuff made in a factory somewhere.

Aside from my on-the-go research, I knew when we planned this trip that we would be in the city during something called the “Salon du Chocolat”. Every fall they have what amounts to a public-access chocolate show in Paris (imagine a large exhibit hall with roughly 200 chocolate-related vendors). Maxine & I were in town 8 years ago but I didn’t go, and regretted it. This time I made the ½ hour train ride out to the convention center for the show (FYI admission was $15.60). Here’s the URL: http://www.chocoland.com/uk/index2.php

Some of the chocolate products I saw and tasted at the show included:
- Chocolate beer – 2 different producers
- Chocolate and Bailey’s liquor
- Chocolate and Grand Marnier liquor
- Chocolate bread
- Dark chocolate, light chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate covered nuts, chocolate covered bananas and other fruit, chocolate covered etc…

And things I missed seeing or trying:
- Seeing Ms. Cocoa Butter
- Chocolate teas
- Chocolate cosmetics
- Getting a chocolate massage ($50 for 40 minutes)
- Participating in the kiddie program (I think they were educating the next generation of French chocolate lovers!)


I also sat through a 50 minute lecture on ganache (filling for chocolates). I’m not planning on making any, but since the speaker was working from a PowerPoint presentation I thought it would be an interesting way to test my French comprehension. I figure I understood 60-75% of what he said which felt pretty good.

If you enjoy chocolate as I do and happen to be in Paris in late October, this is certainly a useful alternative to a museum visit!

The photos:
Outside the exhibit hall.
Looking in at the kiddie program
Chocolates molded and painted to look like fish (I don’t like fish, but might make an exception for these).A chocolate sculpture – it reminded me a bit of Venus de Milo, a photo of which I’d included in a prior blog entry!

Two Months In Paris -- Starting To Wind Down

We’ve started to get anxious because the trip is winding down. While we still have nearly a week left here we find ourselves doing things “one last time” (this despite the fact that we’ve enjoyed this extended stay in Paris so much we will almost certainly come back!). We took Cassie on her last picnic at the Seine. She seemed to enjoy it. In this urban environment it has been her weekly chance to run as fast as she can on the grass – in an unbelievably classic Paris environment with the Eiffel Tower looking down on us. We also stopped by the American Library so we could turn in the last few books we’d checked out. I was surprised when I was there last week to discover that there was a downstairs too, with many more books plus videos we could have borrowed! Next time…

Yesterday I saw two different men wearing purple suits. Neither was “Barney”. I was reluctant to take a picture of either of them, not sure how someone willing to wear a purple suit would react to his picture being taken.

Some of you might know about the French habit of kissing hello… When the police near Notre Dame changed shifts yesterday I saw two French police people kissing. What was most incongruous about it was that they were in uniform. I have a cousin who is an NYPD officer – I’ll have to ask him how this would go over in New York.

I saw a “‘greve’ double header” yesterday (the photos are from the first one). What’s that?

As it turns out there are a number of different terms for describing the various ways in which people here go on strike or otherwise express their protests. There are ‘greves’, ‘manifestations’, etc. The ones I saw yesterday (whatever they were officially called) seemed quite serious at first glance. In both cases, the police had riot shields, were wearing helmets, had hard protection for their legs from ankle to knee, and similar shoulder pads. However, Maxine & I suspect that, in most cases, the reality is not as serious as the outfits. This is what we think is really going on (of course we could be wrong). First off, in France, you are entitled to strike freely, much more than in the US. Since protests are protected behavior, the police are there to make sure things don’t get out of hand. As you protest, if you want to light some flares, burn a garbage pail, carry banners, blow horns, bang drums – all of that seems to be OK. But there are barricades and very seriously outfitted police to make sure things stop there.

In one of the photos you can seem someone coordinating things on a walkie-talkie. I suspect he works for the city of Paris even though he was hanging around with the protesters.

By the way, by double header, I mean that I saw two different ones at two different locations in the city, in one day. It has been a rare week for us, within even the limited scope of the city that we are travelling, to see at least one protest.

At the first of yesterday’s ‘greves’ I had a conversation with a French attorney who was interested in practicing his English. The salient sound bite was this: “I like the blue uniforms, the red flares are colorful, but this is not a circus – these people need to get back to work.”

One of the most poignant and in some way sweet things I’ve seen in Paris is this. Paris is a city, there are poor people, and sadly some end up sleeping on the streets. Life in the big city? Insufficient social services? The safety net failing? I just don’t know. But what I’ve found so poignant was the several occasions where I saw that other people had left loaves of bread along side the people who were sleeping on the streets. I don’t know if this sort of charity occurs in other cities, but it is touching to see here.

I’ve also included, since this entry has a winding down component, some retrospective pictures of things I’ve mentioned earlier. First, there is a photo outside the very small church, St. Julien, where I saw the classic music concert. Second, a photo of the Hotel de Ville (city hall). The picture is of the 2nd story window where, on the night of Nuit Blanche, I saw the techno/rock band performing the next day. There was scaffolding set up at that spot – the mismatch of music to classic building actually added to the experience.

There are also 2 other photos to reinforce what I’ve come to really appreciate about Paris, just how pretty a city it is. One is a view through some trees to Notre Dame church. The other is simply one of the sun setting on a building. This really is a classic city…

Toulouse Excursion

Friday morning we set out on our long planned excursion from Paris to Toulouse, in the southwest of France. For as long as we’d been planning this trip to France we were planning on visiting Toulouse.

Why Toulouse? Tom’s college roommate, B, moved to Toulouse with British Aerospace 10 years ago. In 2005, we went to Toulouse for his wedding to “I” (Tom was the best man). Now 15 months later, they have a new baby E in their family, along with “I”’s 9 year old son R.

A digression to talk about weather… It rained a few hours one night while D was here and another evening once we were home. It has drizzled very slightly a few times. But, other than that, the weather in Paris has been phenomenal! Today (Oct 27th) it was not necessary to wear a jacket!

Back to Toulouse… Our only sustained rain on the trip was during the 7 hour drive south. In a way that was lucky because in the car it didn’t matter. And, when we got to Toulouse it had cleared. The weather did make us a little bit late, but in Toulouse they’re used to things being late. They’re building the new giant Airbus A380 here and it has been repeatedly delayed. Weather wise, this city is more like our Los Angeles than Paris. We saw palm trees in backyards, most days we wore short sleeve shirts, etc.

Since in this blog I’ve mostly been writing about things we’ve seen of a more general nature, I won’t take too much text to describe our visit. Simply put, we spent it with a good friend (B), developed a relationship with a new friend (his wife, “I”), and met their children.

While we were there we did take one excursion, to Gaillac, which is a wine region, and to the nearby hilltop town of Cordes-sur-Ciel. The photo of Maxine in the field of vines is from Gaillac, the photo of Tom with Cassie at lunch was in Cordes. The photo of the young boy with Cassie is their son R. It was a very nice trip, a long-planned excursion to mix a visit with friends into this larger trip to Paris and France.

By the way, when we got back to Paris MasterCard had a question for us. They didn’t understand how we could have charged $100+ to pay for gas within a 4 hour period – but we did! While driving is cheaper (with 2 people) than the train, it is still expensive.

No blog entry would be complete without at least a short comment on our travel companion – the 12 pound Sheltie we’ve brought along. Here is today’s. Cordes is a small but extremely ‘cute’ hill town. As we were walking through it we passed other visitors to the town, including a set of 20 teenage British girls on a lecture tour. What was funny was what happened as we passed them walking Cassie. On each occasion the lecturer had to stop talking and regain the girls’ attention since the majority were ignoring the talk in favor of cooing as they looked at Cassie (who was, as usual, oblivious to the attention).

Mid Week Update

Since Maxine and D got back from Provence we've been busy with restaurants and sightseeing with D before she headed back to San Diego...

Saturday night we went to dinner at a restaurant called "Willi's Wine Bar. http://www.williswinebar.com/. It has been here for 26 years and is run by a British guy. The point is that the wait staff speaks English which simply makes it easier to order French food -- fewer surprises*. Along with good food and wine another unique thing about Willi's is that every year they issue a new poster advertising the restaurant (you can see them on the website). Willi's is a special place for me -- in the early 1980's I was living in New Jersey and saw their original poster and to this day it reminds me of Paris. Yes, the irony of a poster for a British-run restaurant reminding me of Paris... Over the years we've been to Willi's 6 or 7 times and have always been pleased with both the meal as well as (for Tom) the reminder of the link to New Jersey.

*Maxine ordered what sounded like 'goat' the other day and got 'cod' instead. No bad intentions on anyone's part. We just misunderstood the English pronounciation of the French waitress.

Sunday Maxine, D, and I went someplace differend, to "dinner at Jim's". Here's an article that describes the dinners: http://www.jim-haynes.com/press/articles/2006TripReport.htm. We'd read about these dinners, oddly enough, in the United Airlines flight magazine 10+ years ago and Maxine put the article into her "France" file (which is between the "Finland" and the "Germany" files -- she has good travel files!). When we were in Paris 8 years ago we went, cautiously at first. We really enjoyed it. What happens is that he organizes Sunday night dinners at his place, somewhere between 50 and 80 people, 'bulk' food (as opposed to individually ordered dinners), and the widest span of English language conversations and people you could imagine! Plus, Jim is really an interesting character as you can see from his website. At this past Sunday's dinner we talked to a 23 year old French structural engineering student, a retired guy from Philadelphia, an Alsatian-Parisian woman (who Maxine ran into again Tuesday at a completely different type of event), and many others.

Monday our friend D helped us out by accompanying us on the bus from our apartment over to the Eiffel Tower. We wanted some pictures of Maxine, Tom and Cassie in front of it. You can see some of the results in this entry! Cassie has become a real trouper. The process of travelling outside the neighborhood with her goes like this: We walk her on her leash to the bus stop, open up her bag and she hops in as fast as she can move. I carry her onto the bus and ride with her in her bag on my lap. When we get to our destination we open the bag back up and pull her out -- she's both shy and comfortable in the bag and would prefer staying in it to facing whatever 'world' awaits her at our latest destination. However, we get such a kick out of taking her out in Paris that we have occasionally been making her part of our excursions!

Tuesday morning we said goodbye to D. In the evening Maxine & I went two different directions. She went to a knitting group organized by our new friend V (Tom had been to V and B's for dinner while Maxine was in Provence). One of the 12 people there was the Alsatian-Parisian woman we'd met on Sunday! Tom went to Notre Dame for the first concert of the fall season at the church (http://www.cathedraledeparis.com/FR/e2.asp). It was pretty extraordinary to hear a concert inside Notre Dame, with a choir of 30 and music from both an orchestra and the church organ overhead!

Wednesday evening we decided once more to treat Paris like home -- Maxine made dinner and we've spent the evening reading and catching up.

Provence Photos -- Maxine & D Return From Cooking School

Isle sur la Sorgue

















Maxine & D on the Pont d'Avignon














Roussillon













Maxine at Gordes



















Pont d'Avignon









Goult (view across from the restaurant where they were staying)

Various Observations

At the risk of yet one more mention of food, here goes. Walking the other day, I found a small Italian grocery store. In their window they had 9 different fresh, probably handmade, pastas for sale. The Italian grocery by us (Marche St. Germain) usually has 4. They looked pretty compelling.

Also, the chocolate makers have started to put out displays of their 'automne' chocolates. I'm not yet sure if, in the chocolate world, autumn flavors are different than summer ones. I know that there are seasonal differences in beers -- but they are cast into fall shapes like mushrooms. I'll do some research on flavors...

On a different subject, whenever I launch Yahoo Mail, Yahoo pops up an advertisement to 'click here' and participate in the American green card lottery (Yahoo can tell from the IP address assigned to my internet traffic that I am in France). I understand from someone that I met here -- an Italian, living in Paris, who wants to move to the US -- that some portion of immigration slots are given via this sort of lottery. I would have thought that immigration was done in a more considered way than a lottery -- maybe some portion of it is?

On another subject, it is interesting to discover the pervasiveness of English. First off, we are living in an area with lots of Americans and tourists. So, we cannot help but hear at least some English as we walk down the street. It also makes it extremely easy to deal with shopkeepers -- they humor us as we try to speak French, and often switch immediately to English. However, even outside of this area, the French see things in English every day. For example, there is an advertisement on the metro to go to the "wall street english school" (or something like that). We saw a French boy the other day wearing a Torrey Pines (San Diego) sweatshirt. There are lots of logo'd items in English. There are at least 3 English language bookstores within a 10 minute walk of our apartment. What I find interesting is twofold. First, that over Maxine's & my 20+ years of travel, we've found more and more done in English. Second, I suspect that in Los Angeles I could go many months without any direct reminders of 'things french' -- or reminders of specific other languages/cultures as well (aside from those that have been incorporated into American culture.

One other comment about speaking French. My language skills, such as they are, are enough to converse in restaurants, ask for specific help, read museum notes, etc. I've come to realize that all of this is context specific. I was at the post office yesterday buying stamps and someone was sitting in the corner talking loudly to himself (or at least he was being ignored -- maybe he was the postmaster?). I couldn't understand what he was saying and it occurred to me that he could as easily be reading names from the phone book as asking for money or commenting on Chirac's administration. Without context it is difficult at this stage of my learning.

Final observation for this blog. The other day I went by the bookstore Shakespeare & Co. Twelve years ago Maxine & came through Paris and I stopped there to buy some books. As I was fumbling through my pockets for money to pay him, the owner told me not to bother, that I was in all the time, and I could just pay him next time I was there. The reality is that this was my first visit, I hadn't been there before, and I was leaving the next day. But, the conversation was a very powerful one for me. It started me on a path of WANTING to be someone who was in there all the time, etc. I feel luckier than I can begin to express to be in that situation years later. And, I thank the owner, George Whitman, for planting the seed!

A Busy Sunday Night

With Maxine in Provence attending a cooking school for the week, I needed to find my own entertainment. Here's what I did Sunday night, between 6PM and 11PM.

Took Cassie for a walk... She made friends with a Cocker Spaniel... The Spaniel's owner said Cassie was "magnifique".

Attended a concert at a church built in the 12th century. The soprano sang a variety of classic compositions including Ave Maria.

Attended the last 1/2 hour of a candlelit slide show on the history of Notre Dame Cathedral... The screen for the slideshow was at the altar of Notre Dame.

Saw the Eiffel Tower lit up like a Christmas tree in the distance with thousands of flickering bulbs.

Walked home along the Seine river.

Had a Grand Marnier crepe made while I waited... Ate it outside the cafe where Hemingway & Sartre used to go.

Paris -- Apparently A City Of Festivals

This weekend we (I) went to two festivals sponsored by the city of Paris. The first was the Montmartre Harvest Festival and the second was Nuit Blanche. More on both of these is a moment.

Some activities and observations since the last post:
1. I saw a man who otherwise looked like he was in good health fall to the ground in either a heart attack or a seizure on Saturday. (He was quickly helped by passers-by who made him comfortable and called for an ambulance). This is the 2nd near-death situation I've observed here in 5 weeks (see earlier blog entry). My point obviously isn't that more people take ill here in Paris. Rather, being in a city is just a very different experience than living in a place like LA which is one big suburb.
2. I saw a Smart Car parked wheels toward the curb Saturday AM. Check out what they look like here ( http://www.smart.com/ ). Smart Cars are Mercedes' launch of a very small urban car. They are so small that when you look at one you can conceive of it being parked wheels into the curb (versus cars typically parked wheel to wheel with other cars AGAINST the curb). It was funny to see an owner who had actually done it!
3. Maxine & I ran into a 3rd person we knew the other day on the street. (Not someone we'd arranged to meet, but someone who we were surprised to see). I've read that Paris is the smallest European capital in geographic area. We continue to experience that, running into English-language people we've met while here.
4. In the category of dogs living well here -- I saw a dog in a shoe store the other day. Presumably he was tolerantly waiting while his owner shopped...
5. Saturday Cassie & I made (without Maxine who is travelling -- more later) our weekly trip to the park at the Seine River (so she could run off leash on grass) and to the American Library (so I could stock up on more books).

Festival One -- Montmartre Harvest
http://www.fdvm.fr/
Maxine, D, and I went to this festival Friday night. It's up the hill where the community of Montmartre and also Sacre Coeur church are. The event was mostly a food festival -- there were probably 50 booths with small producer foods, wines, cheeses, candies, etc. from various areas. The official purpose of the festival is the annual launch of the Montmartre wine (they make about 500 bottles from a hillside vineyard a few blocks away), but it seems to have expanded to being an event to attract people to come visit Montmartre. The photo (with ribbon in hand) is of the mayor of Montmartre (each of the Paris arrondisements has its own mayor, along with there being a city-wide mayor) officially starting the festival.

Interestingly, in the brochure about the festival they mention a role within the city of Paris government -- coordinator of Festivals. That seems like a great thing! I like the idea of the city working at having a variety of interesting things going on for the residents (and for us tourists!)

Festival Two -- Nuit Blanche
Here's the link: http://www.nb2006.paris.fr/

This is the fifth annual. Nuit Blanche means "White Night" and the festival is about art and staying up all night. I went to about 8 different art expositions (check the URL if you are interested in the details of the art). Mostly what Nuit Blanche struck me as was both an excuse for Parisians to stay up all night (I left at midnight -- some were just arriving), and another festival for the city! To me the most interesting art display was an instrumental (rock?) band playing on an elevated platform, illuminated by large neon lighting tubes, against the side of the Hotel de Ville (the city center), a very classic grand building. The contrast in styles was great!!!

Saturday Maxine & D caught the TGV (fast train) to Avignon and rented a car to head to their cooking class in Provence. I'll share info on her trip when she returns. For now, know that my editor is gone! Typos and grammar mistakes are mine! Cassie & I are here in Paris.

Paris Becoming A Zen Experience

We've been here for 33 days now, which in dog-terms means 100 trips to the park across from Saint Sulpice church! There's a Zen saying (which I am sure I am mangling) saying 'before enlightenment you do the laundry, then enlightenment comes, then you go back to doing the laundry'. How does this semi-Zen saying apply to us in Paris? This morning I took Cassie for her AM walk and as usual we went to Saint Sulpice. The things I noticed on this particular morning were the construction crane 18 stories up renovating the church, and that street sweepers (think Zamboni machines) clean the area in front of the church. Somehow I missed the fact that I was in front of Saint Sulpice church, one of the more interesting ones in Paris, and that people make a special trip to see this. I'll try to reopen my eyes!

We've had friends visiting. Maxine's friend D arrived yesterday -- the two of them are going to Provence this coming week long cooking class. The night before we had J&L over. They'd just come from Provence where they'd met Peter Mayle. Our friend interviewed him because the movie based on his book "A Good Year", with Russell Crowe, is coming out this month. (Peter Mayle has also written "A Year In Provence").

Another 'dogs life' story. This morning when I was out with Cassie we passed a cafe with a half dozen guys inside having a morning coffee, and a yellow lab too.

Yesterday I went to the City of Paris Modern Art Museum (city museums are always free). One of the pictures on this blog post (Eiffel Tower) is from there. The other art sight there that I particularly enjoyed -- alone worth the effort of visiting the museum -- were 2 Matisse dance paintings. They are each are about 80 feet wide by 20 feet high. The photo (on this posting) of the one with pink has been with the city of Paris since it was done in the 1930's. The other one, "Dance Interrupted", had been rolled up and forgotten until 1992.

Free Museum Sunday

Even the plants eat well here in France -- only meat for them!

Actually, I saw this shop on the way to "The Academy of Beer" where I went for lunch. In LA, over the summer I took up beer making as a hobby (have made and bottled 2 batches). Joining a club, the Maltose Falcons, has educated me about different beer flavors and the ways in which smaller brewers can make things that taste better/more distinctive than the large mass brewers! So, one of my food goals while here is to taste some interesting beers. There's a brewpub 2 blocks from our apartment, but Maxine & I weren't impressed. So, I'm in search of other places to get good beer. The "Academy" isn't a brewer, but they have about 20 French, 50 Belgian, and assorted other beers. They're a 15 minute walk from the apartment so I went there today for lunch ---- avoiding the meat eating plants along the way!






This is one of the "41 most important pieces in the Louvre" -- more on that in the text lower in this entry.









This is the table at the restaurant we went to for Maxine's 50th birthday.














This is Venus de Milo's rear end. I actually took the picture because I was more interested in the number of people taking pictures of a sculpture!

The first Sunday of each month the national museums in France have free admittance so I took advantage of it and spent Sunday at the Louvre. I was there for around 5 hours. The museum is more enormous than you could imagine, but they make it easy for you by printing a map of the entire place with tiny pictures of each of the 41 of their most important museum holdings. In what is purely a move at being compulsive, I'm planning on viewing each of the 41 items before we leave at the end of October. I'm half way there and my feet know it! It is a bit silly though to wander rapidly through this enormous museum looking only for 41 specific things -- sort of like a scavenger hunt through centuries of art! But, it's all I can do!

P.S. That picture above wasn't the restaurant Maxine & I went to, it was from "Napoleon's Apartment" -- each of the 3 Louvre pictures in this blog entry are among the '41'.

Friday With The Baker

I've mentioned in prior posts going to events organized as part of the (www.meetingthefrench.com) french artisan program. So far, I've just talked about cheese guys, coffee roasters, and now bread makers. There are other choices -- we just haven't been to them yet.

Anyway, Friday we got to learn about what goes on in a combination boulangerie/patisserie. Most shops are either one of the other, but this one has been particularly successful and, starting with the boulangerie they also bought a patisserie next door. The boulangerie sells bread products, the patisserie sells sweets (chocolates, caramels, cakes, ice cream).

The important things to note about this particular shop are: 1. They make everything themselves including the sweets; 2. A few years ago they were judged as making the best baguette in Paris.

The baker/owner was great (the guy in the crew cut with the white smock on). In one of the photos you can see him explaining the differences in types of baguettes. For making the best one in Paris your store gets to supply the President's residence with them for the year (I assume that you get paid!). I wonder if anyone knows if the White House has any similar artisan programs???

The close up picture is of a tray of gold dusted chocolates. We went into the chocolate prep area as well as the freezer. Along with making the chocolates they make the ingredients that go in -- so, when you bite into an 'orange chocolate' or a 'banana and caramel chocolate' they built it up from scratch. It was interesting to see the slabs (about 12" square) of orange jelly they'd made.

The ice creams weren't photogenic so I don't have any pictures of them.

I wanted to point out especially the picture of the 'train'. Throughout Paris we've been seeing desserts (maybe it's just that I notice them more?) Quite a few are very intricate and it always had me wondering where they came from? Was there a Costco factory outside the city that made all of these cakes and pastries? I'll try to put up a few more photos of various other ones over time so you can see what I mean about how involved they look)? It turns out they are made by hand. So, that train is made by hand. It's about 2 feet long, the round things are individual 'puff pastries', etc. For a special occasion!

Two Pictures Plus A Success Story

The flower arrangement picture on this entry is simply from a shop I passed while out walking. This florist is one of many that I've seen with very nice arrangements in their windows.

The other picture is of Cassie ready for sleep in the 'bedroom' we have created for her in our bedroom closet. She needed a place to huddle into that was her own. When we get ready to go out she tends to head off there to take a nap.

As for the success story, today we took Cassie to lunch. The restaurant, Les Editeurs, is 2 blocks from our apartment. When we got there the hostess didn't blink at all as we walked in with Cassie, who laid quietly on the floor under our feet for the entire meal.

Since we've gotten to Paris we've taken Cassie to cafes and various outdoor activities. She's met innumerable French dogs and had many French people comment on her (although we are now starting to think that the older man who called her 'adorable' in French the day we got here may have been a plant by the French Tourist Office to make us feel welcome...). Up until now she has never been a full Parisian dog who simply walked into a restaurant and hung out while her owners had a meal.

Thanks again to Lori, our trainer in Los Angeles!!!

It's A Dog's City + Other Things Going On

First off, I wanted to point out that, as I predicted, I've cut back a lot on dog-in-Paris stories as Maxine & I have begun to do things here.

However, Paris really is a dog's city! Some places we've seen many dogs in France:
1. At the grocery store... in line... waiting to pay
2. Eating the same vegetable soup as everyone else at the table (the bowl was put on the floor!)
3. Under the table at a one star restaurant.
4. On the metro (subway)
5. At the Farmer's market checking out the produce for sale.
6. At a cafe
7. Shopping -- various stores.

As I've briefly noted before, we have had many more conversations with people here as a result of our dog being with us. Most recently we were out at the end of the evening with Cassie and ran into another couple taking their dog out for a last walk as well. The two dogs stopped to check each other out. We owners joked about it, then went on our way. This sort of exchange hadn't happened in any other trip we've had to France -- Cassie is an excuse to talk to people.

As to other things going on, the pictures on this blog entry are from the Musee des Art et Metiers (these specific pictures are from the portion of the museum that is in a decommissioned church). It is a museum of 'things' related to engineering, electronics, flying, robotics, printing presses, photography -- sort of a progression of man's mastery of the world. As a museum it isn't one of the central ones, not the Louvre, not one with Monet's or Picasso's or Rodin sculptures, if you find it interesting to see how many has progressed, this museum had some very classic pieces of that history.

A few examples: a Cray computer, an early printing press, a maritime compass & navigation tools, a movie projector from the Lumiere brothers (Edison era movie makers!), a voltaic pile (an early battery), a calculator invented by Pascal (who was a philosopher, but clearly a practical person too), early measuring equipment... OK, I'll stop now. Here's the link. If you like this sort of stuff, the museum is great! http://www.arts-et-metiers.net/

Some oddly derivative things I've seen while here. First, they are advertising "Cabaret, the Broadway Musical". That just seems like a circuitous routing. A musical about Germany popularized in New York now being shown in Paris. My second derivative item is this. There's a big Disney animation exhibit at a museum here. (Supposedly Sleeping Beauty's castle is based on a French castle.) So, a French castle popularized by a company in California being exhibited now here in Paris.

This past week I've also been enjoying the slightly cooler weather (meaning it is cool enough to wear a long sleeve shirt -- it has been warm here). This has also given me a chance to hang out in some parks. There are many, but the past 2 days I've spent some time in one about 10 minutes from here. In all it is about 2 acres in size, very groomed, benches, some late roses, etc. It has been both a good quiet place as well as a popular place for people to eat a sandwich for lunch. One of the things I'm starting to enjoy more and more about Paris is the scale. Yes, it's a big city with more noise than I'd like. But, there are all sorts of little outposts of quiet, of green, of beautiful buildings, of stores with interesting things in the windows. In terms of interesting things in windows, the chocolate shops have started to put out displays of fall chocolates. I haven't tried any yet but will tomorrow! I'm not sure what makes fall chocolate different other than that they make chocolate leaves and chocolate nuts (nuts fabricated out of chocolate), but we'll see.

Maxine Turns 50

Maxine turned 50 today and we celebrated by going to what is literally the best restaurant in France ( http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2090.cfm ) -- Restaurant Pierre Gagnaire. It was quite an experience. The food was off the charts! In the lunch menu they served us 25-30 different items including, for example, 4 different preparations of tomato. At the end of the meal, along with coffee (after about 6 other deserts) they served 2 different chocolates. The service was great, the wines impressive, and each of the flavors very unique.

When Mr. Gagnaire came by the table after the meal, I managed to tell him we were celebrating Maxine's 5th birthday (my bad French), but once we cleared up that I meant 50th, he wished her a "Bon anniversaire".

(From Patricia Wells', "Food Lover's Guide to Paris" website): "There is no chef more creative than Pierre Gagnaire is: I love dining in this cozy, grown-up, grey and white dining room, savoring Gagnaire’s thoughtful fare. It’s never the same, but I’ve been wowed by everything from tiny clams fried in polenta and set on a bed of mushroom purée; an unusual serving of grated coconut paired with bits of cauliflower and a celery root purée. Who else could make us collage with pleasure over a single fat raspberry rolled in sugar?"

Happy Birthday Maxine!

Food Stores, Oranges, Small World, Etc.

First off, food... It really is an obsession here. (OK, we're feeding into that obsession by some of the things we're doing while we're here, but it is very accessible...). Specialty food choices are everywhere. Bakeries, chocolate & pastry shops, coffee shops, cheese stores -- everywhere! But, there also happens to be one particular area where a lot of the very good stores have ended up locating, called Place Madelaine. I went there the other day to check out the following stores:
* La Maison de Miel -- sells only honey and honey products
* La Maison de la Truffe -- same for truffles
* La Boutique Maille -- same for mustard
and, if you want a more general purpose 'grocery' store, Madelaine has two choices:
* Fauchon and Hediard -- both are to grocery stores as Beverly Hills is to Detroit

Second topic for this particular blog, transportation. We continue to marvel at the usefulness of our "Carte Orange" (see, I wasn't going to talk about food when I mentioned Oranges in the subject of this blog). For roughly $70/month we can travel anywhere within Paris, on either the subway (Metro) or the very extensive bus system. When we left LA it was costing about $60 to fill up my car with a tank of gas, so this seems like a bargain. We'd recommend either the weekly or monthly Carte Orange to anyone coming to the city. The alternative at the other end of the system, buying a single trip ticket for $1.70 (needing to spend $3.40 for a roundtrip) makes you think twice before you go somewhere. With the Carte Orange, you can hop on the Metro and go cross town to check out another chocolate store...

Third topic, small world instances. We went to Rosh Hashanah services Friday night. The rabbi came over to welcome us as visitors. We mentioned that we were from LA and he asked where in LA -- it turned out that he'd lived in Studio City (the next town over from us) for a while when he was studying. In another small world instance, we've twice run into people we knew from other circumstances. In one case, on the Metro we bumped into someone we knew. In the other, we were at a cafe and ran into someone we knew.

Coffee, Versailles, Speaking French, People in Tents

On Wednesday I went to a coffee shop as part of the MeetTheParisians program (we had previously been to a cheese shop through this program -- a prior blog entry). The guy at this coffee store is a second generation coffee roaster/retailer. His father opened the store (at this location, with this coffee roasting machine) 60+ years ago -- his father retired from the business 6 months ago at age 97.

I've had other coffee that I've enjoyed. I'm not even sure that this is the 'best' tasting coffee I've ever had. But, I have never been more pleased to drink coffee that someone has made for me! By 'made' I mean that the beans were selected from a burlap bag at my feet, they were roasted in a 60 year old machine 10 feet from where I was standing, and brewed on the spot. I enjoyed the taste, I could taste a depth of flavor that I don't ordinarily notice in coffee, and I respect the idea that someone would be spending their work life getting good at coffee, something that is so ubiquitous.

On Thursday Maxine & I went to Versailles. It's very famous so I won't add anything by writing about it. The one particular thing though which struck us was this. We went to Versailles before, in 1985. At that time the guy who sold the tickets could speak only French and we had to enlist the help of a passer-by to communicate. This time the ticket person (a different one obviously) was happy to joke with us in English. We've really noticed a strong move towards speaking English. People are definitely pleased when you speak French to them, but it is also the case that just about everyone we've met (retail and otherwise) can speak more English than we can speak French (and, we put what seemed to us like a pretty good effort into improving our French language skills before we got here!)

Finally, a contrast we've noticed between Los Angeles and Paris. In LA it is very easy to be insulated from the rest of the city. You get in your car and you drive from your PointA to the Point B you are headed towards. You might see some economic diversity, but in LA, not very much. However, here in Paris we've seen many people living in tents (mostly along the Seine River). This paragraph is not a comment on poverty in France versus the US, or about how economic diversity (OK, the poor) are treated in other places. All I'm looking to do is to observe that, at least for me, seeing people in such bad circumstances matters in a different way -- you know they exist differently if you pass them by than if you read about them...

Some Photos

Maxine, Charlotte & Lisa with Monet in the background...
The steel drum concert at the Luxembourg Gardens...
Another view of the Luxembourg Gardens...
Does Disney know that Quasimodo is from Paris???

A Less Structured Day

This photo -- Cassie & I at the Eiffel Tower. On Saturdays we need to leave the apartment for a few hours. We've found a dog-friendly park near the American Library and Eiffel Tower!

Maxine & I feel incredibly lucky to be able to spend time in Paris in this way. We don't have to rush from sight to sight and can instead soak up the city in a different way.

This afternoon was a study in contrasts for me. I had lunch at McDonalds. Then I listened for 2 hours to a 25 piece steel drum band from Trinidad -- the singing was in English. The concert was in the Luxembourg gardens (200? years old) and introduced in French. Just a very relaxed way to spend some time. One of our goals for this trip is to have felt like we'd moved to Paris for a short time. I guess this is it?

We've also repeatedly been pleased to discover how many friends are also passing through Paris during our 2 months. We've been attending various ex-pat and other orientation events and have met a half-dozen or more people that we're in touch with/planning to get together with. But, it is certainly pleasant to see old friends:
* J, who Tom went to grammar through high school with - in from a business trip to Geneva.
* D, who Maxine went to high school with -- coming next month for the cooking class in Provence.
* R & K -- friends from Long Beach on their way back from Florence -- we may see them at the airport during their layover.
* J & L -- Tom's ex-boss from years ago -- on their way to ?Provence.
* D -- worked for Tom 5 years ago

Some Random Notes:
1. Throughout Paris the hard side garbage pails have been replaced with metal frames holding plastic bags. Sad...
2. The police outside the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre are carrying very serious looking rifles. Also sad....
3. I saw a police man stop an 8 year old boy for riding his bicycle too fast through the park and cutting off an older lady. That I like!
4. The weather has started to turn a bit cooler. We're switching from t-shirts (all we had for this unexpectedly warm weather) to long sleeve shirts. Others are wearing jackets, scarves, and down vests -- we don't understand this at all, and we're the Californians!

An Artist, A Cheese Seller, and A Church, and Other Stuff

We finally went to Eglise St. Sulpice -- the church that is the early focal point of The DaVinci Code. From the front door of our apartment building to the front door of the church is about 200 steps. We've been by there at least 50 times with Cassie! (I'd been inside on a previous trip to Paris). In our wandering around the church we came upon the brass line (about 200 feet long) marking the winter equinox that is referred to in the book/movie. One thing off our checklist!

Today we also went to an art exhibit. One of my friends from Viking Office Products days put me in touch with a friend of hers who lives here in Paris. A friend of hers was exhibiting at an art show. I imagine that we were the only Americans at this exhibit which was in a more residential very nice area of Paris, the 12th arrondissment.

My point about being the only Americans -- our apartment is in the 6th arrondissment and you cannot walk down the street without hearing someone speaking English. It is very easy to get by in this area speaking only English if that's what works for you.

We also went to learn a bit about cheese today. I hate to push this too much with superlatives, but it really was a fantastic thing to do. We've been to cheese tastings in LA, but this was at a new level! The city of Paris runs a program called "Meet the Parisians", http://en.parisinfo.com/paris_sightseeing/rub7865.html, and as Maxine put it, they are doing an terrific job recruiting Parisian participants.

There are tons of cheese stores in the city -- within a five minute walk I'd guess we have 10 stores that beat anything we can get to in LA. We went to the store for this class, "La Fromagerie De Paris" ('the cheese store of Paris'), without any particular expectations. It was something to do, a bit of a trek (30 minutes by metro) to get there, ... It turns out that the owner, Eric LeFebvre was the Parisian we would be meeting. He's a winner of the "Meilleur Ouvrier de France" for Cheese (basically this makes him one of the maybe 10(?) best informed cheese people in the country! This was beyond great! We spent about 1 1/2 hours there, learned about cheese, about what it took to win the MOF (he was quite modest and I had to ask him to tell us), went into the store's 'cave', and tasted 5 very different cheeses. If you enjoy cheese even just a little bit, this was a great thing to do; we're planning on going to more of these Meet The Parisians activities, and would heartily recommend them to anyone else...

Other things today:
1. When Eric was handing out the cheese samples I was the only one who could identify that the Roquefort was actually from goat milk rather than cow.
2. There's a Thai festival across from St. Sulpice that we went to briefly.
3. We ran into someone we knew on the Metro last night -- the odds against that are off the charts.

Cassie at the Louvre (she didn't go in...)

Deyrolle -- The Taxidermist #2, Cassie Getting Nervous

Deyrolle -- The Taxidermist #1

In Adam Gopnik's book he talks about taking his young son to Deyrolle. We were wandering neighborhoods the other day and found the store. Here's the link to their website, along with some photos I took: http://www.deyrolle.fr/home.htm

Good Stuff & Bad Stuff -- Chocolate Report #1

One of my 'projects' on this trip is to research chocolate stores. Really, I'm only doing this as a research project, but, it is an important one. Maxine & I met working for M&M/Mars and this is simply a continuation of that work.

Okay, so I like to eat chocolate. My first research trip was to a nearby store called "chocolates of Bayonne". I don't think they were talking about Bayonne, New Jersey, but I did notice that they are somewhat of a chain store with branches in numerous places.

So, my first real chocolate research was to a store called "Denise Acabo/A L'Etoile D'Or". Her store is, because of metro connections, about 20 minutes from our apartment and near the Moulin Rouge. Here's what Patricia Wells says about this store in her book, "Food Lover's Guide To Paris", "How does a chocolate-lover visit Paris and yet manage to sample all the best homemade chocolates from all over France?... reach the charming old-fashioned storefront of Denise Acabo. She's round and pig-tailed, with an obvious passion for chocolate. Show a little interest and, no questions asked, she'll take you on..."

When I got there (a very tiny! store) I managed (or mangled), the phrase, "I understand that you have the best chocolate store in Paris and since I like chocolate, I am here to visit". She agreed with me and was, as Patricia Wells says, very welcoming. She told me that she'd just gotten back from a swimming vacation (I'll guess that she did other things as well, but my French is limited) and that all her chocolates were fresh. I spent about 20 minutes in the store, learning about different producers, products, regions, etc. In the end I bought a 3 day supply (!) including handmade marshmellow, handmade caramels, and about 20 pieces of chocolate. When I left I told her that I was here for 2 months and would be back!!!

... As to the "bad stuff" I refer to in this blog's title, here it is. Denise's store is about 2 blocks from the Moulin Rouge (Maxine & I think the movie is very good) and I was at the corner trying to place in my mind where the various camera angles/view points were. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a small car buzz by (someone I'd read referred to the small cars as being powered by blowdryers for engines). Just around the corner from me I heard a sound like three or four 2 liter plastic soda bottles being crunched together at ones, then a gasp from a number of people. I went around the corner, the little car had managed to hit a woman hard enough that she broke the windshield, and was now laying on the street. In the 10 minutes I was there she did not move her body, a young frenchman put his jacket over her and knealt on the ground talking to her until the ambulances arrived. It took 5 people to move her onto the stretcher. I don't know how she is -- I only know that it looked very sad. Without trying to be too profound in this tragedy, I guess the lessons are to be careful as a pedestrian because cars are more powerful than people, and, as a driver not to rush too much.

A Great Day

After nearly 2 weeks, I have finally embraced being in Paris!

OK, I've known all along I was in Paris. But, we've beeen pretty focused on making sure we're here in a way that at least somewhat resembles living here. So, rather than visiting many museums we've been checking out bread stores, restaurants, grocery stores, how the Metro works, etc... So, we haven't spent much time at all yet doing the things that are singularly 'Parisian' in the sense of a visitor.

Today, I stopped by the American Library in Paris (http://www.americanlibraryinparis.org/). I've gotten a library card and needed to return some books. The library is in a great neighborhood over by the Eiffel Tower. So, after I picked up my books I walked the 2 blocks over to the Eiffel Tower's park grounds. There were hundreds of people in the park, and quite a few more at the base of the tower.

What I chose to do was to find a bench in the shade (it has been in the 80's and maybe low 90's here!) and read one of my books. From where I was laying on the bench I could see the base of 2 of the legs of the tower and (let's call it) the thigh of one of the legs of the tower. That was it, for 45 minutes. After I stirred from my book I started walking towards the Tower. Everyone has seen it, either in pictures, a movie, or in person. I can't really add much at all to the description of it, so I'll just say that as I came close to it, the feeling became more majestic.

Yes, I can see that I'm in Paris! The weather is great! The parks are pleasant, and the Tower is the Tower.

P.S. Unlike the Luxembourg Gardens (very near our apartment) where dogs aren't very welcome, they seem to be quite welcome at the Eiffel Tower parks. So, at some point Cassie will get to go there -- and I'll put up on this blog a picture of Cassie in front of the definitive Parisian sight!!!

Politeness In A Large City

Just a couple vignettes about Paris.

Recall from a prior post that we'd taken Cassie to a nearby cafe, where she'd met and befriended our waiter? (Actually, what she really did was amuse our waiter with her valiant efforts to defend her space when he came to our table!). We went back again a few nights later. The waiter has in some small way adopted us. When we arrived he shook hands with both of us -- and again when we left he did the same. I don't think I've ever otherwise shaken hands with my waiter before.

The weather here has been stunningly good. I imagine that the Parisians are a bit surprised -- everything we've read says that September is fall weather. We've seen more than a few days in the 80's. With such good weather, there have been very many people on the streets. What I'm used to, from living in New Jersey and Los Angeles, is that when there are crowds of people you occasionally brush shoulders as you pass them by. Sometimes it's more than a brush, you collide shoulder to shoulder. I've discovered that I've developed an instinctive reaction to brace for the collision. It has never happened here. Somehow with all of the people moving by, they manage to do it without the collisions. I'm not sure I'm describing this well enough. Maybe I'm being too generous of the Parisians (I'm sure that at some point I will collide with someone). Maybe I'm just being cautious in what I write because shoulders colliding happen to me more than to others???

Next blog -- pictures from the taxidermist!

St. Sulpice Church

We are staying down the street from St. Sulpice (the picture placed in this blog entry), which we've read is larger than Notre Dame. We haven't had a chance to go inside yet, despite having been at the front door at least 20 times.

What is St. Sulpice? If you've read or seen Da Vinci code, it's the church at the start of the book/movie where Paul Bettany (in the movie)/Silas (the character) digs up the stones inside the church to find what he hopes is 'the secret' (I won't say more).

Anyway, we're staying just down the street, which means people walking by all the time. Cassie has taken to looking both ways when she leaves the apartment to make sure no one is coming at that moment.

Blvd. Raspail Food Market

A Sense of Place

It's a bit of a trick -- and I hope I'm managing it reasonably well -- to straddle the line between writing a journal of my experiences, and writing something interesting in a more general sense, about our trip. Here's a continuation, on the theme of a sense of place (but, maybe I'm holding myself to too high a standard?). Anyway....

We've managed to find a great outdoor food market, on Blvd. Raspail! The one nearer to us, rue Buci, seems to be experiencing the economic transformation that this entire area has seen. In other words, prices have run up so much that it's hard to make a living selling olives or peppers or stuffed chickens in the area. That's just life -- it always struck me that in (US) malls the Mrs. Fields stores had more people paying for things than anywhere else! Anyway, the one on Raspail 'meets or exceeds our expectations'! We've discovered that it is as easy to find great food for $10 as it is for $100. Both have their benefits (for one, the $10 meal is eaten at home). But having the alternatives makes it easier to conceive of being here for 2 months.

It's Saturday morning right now. We've been in the apartment for exactly one week. The jet lag is long gone. We've figured out how to do the dance of moving around in a small apartment and not bumping into each other. We know (now) where to buy great food. We have train passes. We've found a place for Cassie to hang out. We have a cafe that welcomes her. What don't we (tom) have yet? A great chocolate place...

On other vacations I've made it a project to test out the various chocolate alternatives. They seem especially prevalent here in France and also in Belgium (something to do with speaking French?) Yesterday we realized that we've been here much too long not to have bought any chocolate. We took care of that. But, it was good and not great chocolate. Our research will need to continue!

Yesterday we concluded our local bakery research. We went to Poilane, which has at various times been written up as 'the greatest baker/bakery' in Paris (he died a couple years ago). Our bread research was a bit more limited than I envision our chocolate research being. We've tested 3 bakeries. Within the range from our apartment to Poilane I'd have to guess that there are 100 bakeries. So, researching 3 isn't much. The ones we've gone to are, first of all, the 2 closest. The corner bakery and the next nearest. The next nearest is Gerard Mulot, which, conveniently, is another one of those 'best of Paris' bakeries (we feel like we're in a good neighborhood). The corner bakery has the benefit of being perhaps 50 paces from the front door and friendly in a local way. Mulot is maybe 150 paces and the sign on the door is in French, English and Japanese... Poilane has become something of a corporation after all the reviews they've received. Probably a bit too much attention, and not worth the distance to walk. SO, we're making Mulot our local bakery.

Why did I bother with that prior paragraph??? Simply, bread products here are just different. Maybe each area of the world has it's food expertise (and some have more than one). But, I'm thinking of Portland, Oregon, where the beer is unlike anywhere else. Here, the bread beats out any other bread (the LA stuff from La Brea Bakery, is pretty good, but not as good -- and yes, they've gone corporate too!)

Cassie is staring out the window of the living room right now. You might be able to see from the picture that the window starts around 12inches from the floor. So, even at her small size, she can look down the 6 floors to the street. She appears to be endlessly fascinated by the people, cars, etc. moving by. It is more than she's ever seen.

While I'm on the subject of Cassie: two nights ago we went to the cafe for a late beer. Our waiter was quite the stern looking young frenchman, very professional, keeping an eye on 40 tables quite well. He was the sort of guy who could put a bottle down on your table, open it, pour it, and continue to balance a tray with 6 other open beverage classes in his other hand -- all while standing with great posture. We had Cassie underfoot, but we were being very careful because we didn't want her barking at this stern/french/waiter. Unfortunately, she did after he made a surprise pirouette in front of her. (He didn't have the sort of demeanor that led you to think he would do a pirouette, but it fit with his efficiency and professionalism). When he did it, she began barking at him. It turned out to be a good thing -- he was very very amused that this little dog was there and had the courage to bark! For the rest of the evening he kept coming by to talk to her. We told him that she was from Los Angeles, Maxine had to explain to him that Cassie didn't speak French, etc. At the end of the evening he asked Cassie's name -- just to make this even more obvious, he didn't ask our names, just hers.

Washington Mutual Bank

Just a very short rant!

We've tried our ATM cards (6 cards, for 3 different bank accounts at Washington Mutual) at 5 different French banks (roughly 10 branches in total).

Nothing works. We cannot get money out.

I've spent over one hour on the phone back to the US with WAMU (washington mutual) in 8 phone calls (luckily free calls since I'm using Skype). They cannot help us. They simply do not know what is wrong.

I won't waste any more of your reading time by going into more details.

Just wanted to express, OUT LOUD, how UNBELIEVEABLY DISAPOINTED WE ARE WITH WASHINGTON MUTUAL.

Early Impressions -- First Week

In Paris, by far the most typical way to get around (outside of walking) is to take the metro. I don't know what single use tickets cost, roughly 1euro. On a prior trip we'd learned about a 'carnet' which is a slightly cheaper solution -- a bundle of 10 single use tickets. In our research for this trip we read about a "Carte Orange" -- a monthly metro/bus pass. On day 2 we headed over to our local metro stop (Mabillon) and attempted to buy them (having packed passport size photos we'd had taken before we left the US). For reasons that are not yet clear to us, but that I'm sure we will encounter again, the ticket purchasing machine at Mabillon did not take Mastercard. In an encouragingly productive conversation (in French, which is what was encouraging given our efforts to learn to speak it), we were told that the St. Germain station, the next one over, could take Mastercard. So, we've got our Carte Orange(s) now and feel even more settled into being here!

After our positive experience with our first purchase (we're trying to manage our expectations here and recognize even the small successes), we used our transportation capabilities to head over to the Louvre (...the place where they filmed the first 20 minutes of The Da Vinci Code...). A LARGE museum (OK, an understatement...), we managed to view 4 of the 41 items at the museum that they are most proud of. We didn't make it to the Mona Lisa, but certainly plan that for a future excursion. My purpose in mentioning this excursion is to give some sense of just how extensive the Louvre collection is, that in the scheme of things, their collection is significant enough that a significant item is at the level of the Mona Lisa.

As I continue to write entries for this blog I expect less and less about the dog and more about what we're doing, seeing, how we're getting by, all of that. But for now as we spend a good portion of our time adapting, a key component is the dog. So, with indulgence, a few early impressions that relate to us being in Paris with Cassie.

At the Luxembourg Gardens (a very large park 10 minutes walk from our apartment): We come up to 2 older women (60's-70's) standing and talking while their dogs interact. Cassie walks up to them and at the moment our dog makes contact with their dogs we hear "Bonjour". If the dogs interact, so do the people.

11PM, a last trip outside for the night: A young woman walking her dog and the dog marches up to Cassie. She comments on her "baby" and we tell her that Cassie is 7 years old. A dozen other dogs with owners out one last time for the night. In several cases, young couples on benches while their dogs wander nearby.

At a cafe: We settle into an open-air cafe across from Luxembourg Gardens for coffee (the jet lag is still generating problems!). Cassie settles in under the table. It feels pretty protected -- she is against one wall. the table shields her from above, my legs are in front of her. We realize that this table, while providing some protection, is at a busy intersection. We do some population sampling and come to the conclusion that roughly 30 people pass directly in front of us each minute! So, in the hour we spend at the cafe, Cassie has seen 1800 people -- more, we estimate, that she has seen in the rest of her life! She handles it fine and, as we leave, the waiter acknowledges it by saying "petit bon chien" (good little dog). We feel incredibly validated -- our work with Lori has been successful!

When we think of these and other dog-based interactions we've been having it is clear that the vast majority of our interactions with French people have been precipitated by our dog. We'd read that this was likely to be the case (and maybe this is just self-validation), but it seems to be happening.

Our next hurdle, taking the dog into a restaurant for lunch!

Travel Day -- Part 2

I'd mentioned that we kept Cassie in her bag on the floor of the plane near our feet. That seemed to work out fine. Originally we'd had in mind things we'd seen other people do (on one or two occasions) -- taking their dogs out of their bags, etc. But, it just seemed unfair to hold out the hope of escape knowing that there were so many hours to go.

A side benefit of this discretion was the complete surprise of our fellow passengers as we disembarked. Everyone around was surprised to see me holding a bag with a dog in it. This was, to us, an accomplishment. In our pre-Lori days we had a great deal of fear that she would bark her way through the flight. In fact, we deliberately did not take Ambien on the flight (the very effective sleeping pill) because we wanted to be able to deal with it if Cassie became a problem on the plane.

The trip from the airport to the apartment was uneventful. After a quick settling in, we took Cassie for a walk (remember the 12 hours in the Sherpa bag!) The 6th is a very multicultural neighborhood with more than one or two English language conversation snippets to hear as you walk down the streets. Yet, what made the troubles of bringing our dog start to make sense was the comment from the elderly French man we passed, who paused when he saw her to say "adorable" (it sounds a lot more evocative with a French accent). Later still, we passed a young couple. As we came up towards them I could hear the guy saying "petit Lassie" -- he reached down to pet her and all went fine. We were feeling welcome in our new temporary home -- our dog was welcome.

Jet lag is troublesome!!! Asleep by 7 or 8PM after eating a prepared foods dinner from the local grocery store. Awake again at 2AM, etc. throughout the night

In this string of largely good and positive experiences, we have unpacked and are settling in for the duration!

Travel Day

This morning we woke up at 4AM in order to make our flight! We'd been trying to build up to it and had over the past few days been rising at 4:30, but, aside from some people I know who get up that early because they work in the financial markets (in LA, but dealing with NY time zones), it is difficult to think of another reason for getting up so early. I suspect that some number of us (myself included) used to think that 4AM was an at least occasional bedtime.

Anyway, sob story aside, we got up early!

We'd enlisted our friend Lori Peikoff's help one more time to take us to the airport. The theory here was that while we'd done a dog training session with Cassie at LAX before this was the real thing and we needed help! Check in went fine. From the standpoint of United Airlines and Cassie (the dog!), the thing that took the most time was their verifying what her 'ticket' was going to cost (being anal-retentive, we already knew).

By the way, it doesn't make any sense to us that we had to pay a fare for our dog to travel, in something the size of a gym bag, underneath the seat in front of us....

LAX-Chicago (ORD). Perfectly fine. 4 hours on the plane. We planned for 4 hours on the ground in Chicago for Cassie to 'go outside'. Not clear any other way to take care of what was necessary.... That too worked fine. I have a friend who lives in Chicago, who travels a lot!, who gave us directions on how to get to grassy spots... enough on this...

Chicago-Charles de Gaulle (CDG-Paris). 8 1/4 hour flight plus roughly 2 hours on either side for poor Cassie in the bag. That also worked surprisingly fine! The doggie drugs worked better than expected. On occasion during the flight when it got particularly turbulent or flight attendants were hanging around, we would open her bag and put a hand on her to reassure her. More than anything, I think we were disturbing her when we did so. She seemed resigned to being in the bag, not really happy or unhappy (how Zen!), and welcome of the attention when it surfaced.

(part 2 coming -- arriving at CDG and our first ((very)) jet lagged day)

Getting Ready To Go -- Getting Nervous

This Friday, we're getting up at 4AM, heading to the airport for a flight to Chicago, and then after four hours there, another to Paris. There we hope to be met and taken to the apartment we'll be staying in for the next 2 months.

I have this vague feeling of nervousness about the whole project - the project being going to Paris for 2 months. Why? Were you to ask I could give you a million reasons. One stands out as the 'drop dead' hurdle we face. I'd read years ago a story about Rupert Murdock, then an Australian citizen rather than a US one, getting ready to board a flight with wife & children to come to the US. They discovered that the boys did not have their passports. So Murdock and his wife boarded the flight (or so I recall the article saying) and left the boys to (presumably with the help of someone who worked for Murdock) go home, get their passports, and fly the next day. Our 'drop dead' hurdle is anything that involves us having problems getting our dog Cassie a) onto the LAX flight, b) onto the Chicago flight, or c) into Paris.

Years ago I'd read something that said a problem where you can determine the price to get out of the problem was a no longer a problem, but instead a budget item. Okay, maybe this is a bit simplistic. Some problems, redefined as budget items, have prices too high to pay. But, this trip and my feelings of uneasy, are mostly small potential issues -- ones we can buy our way out of. All except ones involving dog transport.

Despite this confidence that our potential problems are small, that we've done everything we can to mitigate against them (for example, we're bringing BOTH our computers along with 2 printouts of passwords so that we can manage remotely), the feeling remains.

Without trying to be too poetic about it, the feeling is a squishy one. Examine any particular issue (what if our ATM cards don't work and we can't get money) and it is plain that a)we have lined up other options, and b) the risk is pretty low.

What occurs to me is this. We've never tried anything like this before -- closing down our house (secured by alarm systems, watchful neighbors, several regular visitors to check on it, etc.) -- and moving ourselves to somewhere 1/3rd of the planet away. So, we prepare for it by considering everything we ideally want to happen (i.e. that we can speak, even if just haltingly, to French people we interact with), and everything we don't want to happen; and making preparations accordingly. We've done that. And, for every possible reason to get nervous there is in fact a solution and, likely more than one, back up solution in place.

What strikes me is that the loop of concern, the "what if's", and the "yes, here's the solution" exist because I don't have a meta framework for planning this trip.

What could a "meta framework" possibly be????? I just mean that for most of the things that come up in life it is possible to think first of the meta issue and from there the lower level aspects of it. Say you're planning on baking a cake. You don't sit around thinking about salt, flour, sugar, the water, whether your oven will work, etc. You start with the cake recipe and drill down to what is needed. Same thing applies to a trip like this. In the details, it can be an enormous thing. But, thinking about the aggregates of it, if you take care of the big picture and what you believe to be the most important or critical components within each aspect of the big picture, you do get there!

The trick with something like this is to first determine what the big picture is, to step back and see the aggregates, and then to have confidence that you've dealt with them. Then (maybe next time!!!) you are less likely to get nervous about the details...

"Taking Your Dog To Paris" versus "Bringing Your Dog To Paris"

After re-reading some of my earlier posts I wanted to make a distinction between "Taking Your Dog To Paris" and "Bringing Your Dog To Paris". At Cal State LA's Philosophy MA program I learned to make distinctions in words and, in the context of this blog, making this kind of dog-distinction seems useful.

It seems to me that Taking Your Dog To Paris has a similar meaning to Taking Your Wife To Paris, or Taking Your Daughter To Paris. In this sort of usage, you are saying that what is important about Paris is that your dog/wife/daughter get to visit the city, that there is something good about going to Paris that you want to share with your dog/wife/daughter (although I guess the reverse holds as well, that you could be Taking Your Neighbor To Work, for example).

Bringing Your Dog To Paris is, to me, something more similar in usage to Bringing Your Raincoat To Paris or Bringing Your Credit Card To Paris. In this usage, what you bring you are bringing because it is useful to you. So, if you've brought your dog or raincoat or credit card it's because you think you'll find them useful.

So, we're bringing our dog Cassie to Paris. We think she'll be useful to us (no, not as a guard dog!). We're looking forward to seeing if we are right!

How Did Lori Do It?

Just a couple quick comments on how training with Lori Peikoff was different.

Believe it or not, Cassie had actually been to two other trainers. The first, part of a city of LA program, was just about the mechanics. For example, "this is how you teach a dog to sit, to stay, to come, etc."

The second trainer was a private trainer, and expensive. We thought that made him different than city of LA trainers. After 4 sessions with Cassie he gave up. Six months later we called asking for more help and he said there wasn't anything else he could do.

Lori 'gets' dogs. When she would tell us how to interact with Cassie she did it from a standpoint of (at least it seemed this way to us) understanding what Cassie was thinking.

I don't mean for this to sound 'woo woo', mysterious, or Dr. Doolittle-like. But what we found is that Lori had an understanding of why Cassie was acting the way she was when she would mis-behave. And, starting from that understanding Lori would work with us to change how we related to Cassie, how we exposed her to situations, and how we indicated what we expected of Cassie.

It worked. Our trainer, and now our friend, Lori, gave us a new dog! And gave us a chance to go to Paris and live there (for 2 months) in a way that we had only fantasized about 10 months ago.

"And Then We Met Lori"

In several prior entries I've mentioned our dog trainer. Now it's time to explain just why we are so enthusiastic about her.

At the start of our planning this 2 month trip to Paris we'd had 2 goals -- to speak some (as much as possible) French while there, AND, if we could, to enjoy the trip with our dog Cassie. I've written about what a difficult dog she was, how she would bark at and lunge at people, etc. Yet, we were somewhat locked into taking her to Paris -- because we couldn't come up with anything else to do with her, short of calling in BIG favors and asking one of our siblings to take her.

Our minimum definition of success was that Cassie improved to the point that she could hang out in the apartment and take occasional walks (at least to go to the bathroom) without getting us into trouble. For the rest of Paris, we'd have to be on our own. Our fantasy definition of success would be that we could take her into stores and cafes, on walks as we explored the city, and into some restaurants.

Cassie 'graduated' yesterday. We had our final session with Lori. And, on the ride home Maxine & I were as happy as we could possibly be. Lori had made it possible for us to get to our fantasy level of success with Cassie. Graduation included Cassie laying under a table while we ate lunch, and going into stores, and laying on the floor in one store while we talked to the people working there. Besides, it's nice to be able to go to Malibu with your dog!

So, for anyone else who needs, or wants, *the best* dog trainer, here is Lori Peikoff's email address: LEADK9@sbcglobal.net. Please be aware that while I have her permission to include this address, she in no way asked for this praise. Maxine & I are quite simply ecstatic that we now have a dog we can take to Paris.

THANKS LORI!!!!!

Tom & Maxine

Field Report

Until last October ('05), Maxine would take Cassie for walks in our neighborhood. While they were satisfying as walks, she always felt that she had to be on guard against bad behavior by Cassie. These included not walking by Maxine's side (heeling or something close to it), barking at other people who walked by, and barking/moving towards dogs who barked from other houses.

Roughly around the time that Maxine stopped taking Cassie for walks, we began to work with Lori, our dog trainer. In a future post I'll go into the process we went through, etc. For now, just a field report on how Cassie has changed.

This morning (August '06), Maxine took Cassie for a walk. She was almost completely well behaved! A 180 degree change! Nothing more to report, other than success! Cassie is a normal companionable dog!!!

Speak French

I've had 7 years of French language classes between 6th grade and college. Maxine has had 5 years. But, based on prior experience we knew that while we could say hi and ask for coffee, we couldn't really have a conversation in French, nor could we deal with anything complicated.

In January we began a prolonged effort to improve our French skills. This took three forms:
1. We borrowed a full series of language CD's from the City of Los Angeles Library (there are 56 CD's in the set and we're both at roughly CD 30 right now -- we'll be cramming to finish before we leave LA).
2. We've been listening to daily broadcasts from RFI (Radio France International). I don't know for certain, but I suspect that their mandate is somewhere between Voice of America (but in this case the goal being spread the French perspective in French) and CNN. One of their broadcasts, which runs 3 times/day is 'francais facile' (easy french). This is a news broadcast which is updated over the course of the day. Even more useful, the first broadcast of the day comes with 'le script' -- meaning you can follow along (pretending to read french now too!)
http://www.rfi.fr/radiofr/statiques/journauxFrancaisFacile.asp
3. We're working with a native French speaker as a tutor. Basically, what we do is to meet with him once/week for an hour and try to keep the entire conversation in French. He helps us in many ways, from pronounciation, to disciplining our sentence construction, to idioms.

All in all, we hope when we arrive to be able to converse at least a little bit.

Beside, we have to be able to warn people off when they try to pet Cassie! How do you say, "She doesn't like people"?

Goals -- Enjoy Time In Paris: Speak French, Take Dog

Last fall, we began to contemplate a trip to France. It started with the idea that Maxine was going to go to a cooking school in Provence, then Tom jumped in with, "If you're going to France, I want to go too...". We ended up conceiving of this as sort of a blow out trip -- Two Months In Paris!

Being planners, we started thinking of what needed to get done to make this happen. Most importantly, what was going to have the longest lead times. And, aside from airline reservations (necessary far in advance if you want your dog to accompany you in the cabin!) and finding an apartment, the two largest priorities were learning to speak French well enough to get along for two months, AND, working with Cassie so that we could take her with us (we've heard, and seen evidence of, the fact that French are pretty accommodating of dogs).

Why not leave Cassie home? Simple -- who could we convince to take her for that long? Anyone we knew well enough to ask had already met her. And, likely she'd barked at them. So, Plan B -- take her with us.

Our minimalist goal was simply to get her to the point where we could leave her in the apartment while we were out and about in Paris. And, if she happened to be with us, on a walk or at the park (she's pretty much an urban dog, living in Los Angeles), that she not create a disturbance to the point that the French started thinking of Maxine & I as the Americans with the badly behaved dog.

Or, to put a better spin on it, rather than the type of dog I've been describing, we wanted to turn her into the sort of dog that could accompany us to cafe's, help us get croissants in the morning, and fully participate in this adventure.

But all of this was a great deal of distance. We were talking about taking Cassie from a dog who was shy/afraid (I'd heard of dogs shivering with fear, but never one whose teeth would chatter) and would act aggressively to anyone who threatened the small world where she felt safe; TO some idealized companion dog who would be receptive to meeting people on the streets, could go shopping, and really could hang out with us in cafe's.

We talked about our plans with our Vet, who introduced us to Lori Peikoff!!!!!!!!!!

Bringing Pets Into France -- Requirements

We were unable to find any single, authoritative source that described all the requirements to bring our dog into France and then take her out and back home to Los Angeles. So, what we know, we've pieced together. Here are the basics:

To leave the US/Enter France.
1. Dog must have a current rabies vaccine (given at least 30 days before the trip)
2. Dog must have a 'chip' or be tattooed (note that the tattooing alternative is being phased out and w/in 5 years only a 'chip' will work.
3. Dog must have a dual language (English, French) health certificate prepared w/in 10 days of the trip, signed by your vet, and stamped by the USDA (luckily for us the USDA office is 45 minutes away -- I understand that you can fedx the documents back and forth to them as well)

To leave France/Return to the US.
1. We don't believe that there are any French requirements to leaving
2. The California Department of Agriculture defers to USDA requirements (as I was told in a phone call)
3. The USDA only requires a valid rabies vaccine (meaning the dog was vaccinated w/in the last year)

Here are some resources.
1. French embassy in the US page on pet importation requirements.
http://www.ambafrance-us.org/intheus/customs/7000.asp
2. US Customs Requirements (PDF)
http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/publications/travel/pets.ctt/pets.pdf
3. California Department of Agriculture
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/ah/permits.htm
4. French (actually EU) health certificate PDF (see #3 above)
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ncie/iregs/animals/fr_ee_cn_passport.pdf
5. USDA alerts of French specific requirements.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ncie/iregs/animals/fr.html

***The USDA alerts on French requirements contain a special warning***
"Note:France will accept only the ISO 11784 microchip."
As I understand it the EU has approved the use of either the ISO11784 or ISO 11785 chip, BUT France REQUIRES (per this USDA warning) only the 11784 chip. THE TRICK IS THAT CHIPS SOLD AS 'EUROCHIPS' are 11785. Just as importantly, you can't (as I was told by Avid, the maker of the Eurochip we had implanted in Cassie) buy an 11784 chip in the US. In other words, Cassie has a chip accepted by all of the EU, EXCEPT France.

What to do? The Avid representative told me that standard practice is to rent a scanner which can read this chip, bring the scanner with you to France, and use it to demonstrate that your dog has a chip. Complications! If this last piece (on French chip requirements and how to satisfy them) isn't clear feel free to comment and I'll add more detail!

Dog Training, Report #1

Saying that Cassie is a small dog does not capture the implications that her attitude had on our plans for Paris. As a Sheltie she is very protective of us and, frankly, jittery and nervous. Until she was 5 she had an 'older sister' who could be relied on for household management (telling us what to do, greeting neighbors, etc.)

After our first dog died, and, for the last 2 years now, Cassie has decided she had to take on household management responsibilities. But, unlike her 'sister', she saw her role as discouraging visitors, rather than greeting them.

We largely ignored this bad behaviour -- we live in a secluded area, few unexpected visitors, away from the street, etc. She wasn't harming anyone, even if we found her a bit noisy. OK, to concede, I'm quite sure none of our visitors found her charming. She expecially did not like men. And, that didn't go over very well when either of my brothers, or my father-in-law, visited.

More on her behaviour. In the car she would bark if we drove past people (she has an uncanny ability to differentiate women from men at 50 feet!). If we took her someplace like an outdoor mall she would either hide behind our legs or, if someone came towards us or tried to pet her, would lunge (all 12 pounds of her) and bark dangerously (or at least, she was trying to be dangerous). Despite being cute she did not make friends (other than children who seemed to find her comfortingly small). This picture is with my nieces Catherine & Julia.

Last October MaxineP and I started thinking about an extended trip to France. One obvious hurdle loomed -- what to do with Cassie, take her with us, find someone to care for her in the US, board her,???

Then we met Lori Peikoff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Initial Entry

The Beginning. Last in 2005 MaxineP and I decided to take an extended trip to Paris. Why:
* Other than English, French is the only language we have any skill with (even if just a little)
* We'd been to France on numerous occasions and liked it
* We wanted to spend time in an urban setting. Paris, unlike LA where we live, is a city for walking.
* The food.
* We believe that the French will accomodate our plans to bring our dog.

As to "the dog", her name is Cassie. She's 7 and has grown up with little exposure to other people or dogs. She's timid, but unfortunately expresses that by barking when people get close. Aside from wanting to take her, we were pretty convinced that we wouldn't be able to find anyone to watch her if she'd stayed behing!

In 31 days our dog will finally (we'd like to think) 'get' what we've been saying when talking to her about Paris. Right... We do understand that she doesn't -- understand, that is. But, in one month we're all going to wake up early, bundle together last minute packing and head to LAX for a long flight to France.

So, we're thinking that in 32 days, after we've arrived, at least she will 'get' that she is someplace different. And in the following days we wonder if she'll in turn wonder what happened to Los Angeles, the backyard, the warm weather, the privacy, and all of that.

In turn, we wonder how we'll react. Sight seeing is always fun. But, 2 months is in some ways equivalent to moving someplace. And, we're looking to both enjoy and learn from this trip!

Our adventure begins.