Sugar

It is Friday and Sylvia's birthday eve and we are doing our best to consume as much sugar as possible. The girls and I began this quest by mixing up some chocolate cupcakes.

Giddy girls--even before sugar intake

The movers packed most of my baking ingredients, so I didn't have to search for baking powder or soda.  I did need to work hard to find the right sugar for frosting.  Powdered sugar in the US of A and icing sugar in Canada goes by a different name in France.  I asked a guy who worked at the grocery store what I needed to make frosting.  He pointed me towards sucre en poudre, but this is not what I needed.  After checking with David Lebovitz, I realized I needed sucre glace (and I learned what I will need to use for brown sugar when I make chocolate chip cookies) http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/11/french-sugars/

Daddy has some excellent print on the boxes talking about how great "Daddy" is and how much he adds to any occasion.  So true.

chocolate cupcakes!

Two of Sylvia's school friends are coming over to celebrate tomorrow.  I am sure they will be astounded by our sickly sweet chocolate cupcakes with purple frosting and sprinkles.

Don't worry , we didn't forget to get our Friday pastries.  Sylvia chose a concord and Lillian went with the eclair vanille.

Happy Friday!



Place des Vosges, Musee Carnavalet, and Falafel

Today the girls and I explored the Marais.  The Marais is the historically Jewish area of Paris (it was once outside the city walls).  It now has a large gay population and is filled with trendy restaurants and shops.   There are still many synagogues in the area and the Musee d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme is here.  I have visited it in the past and highly recommend it http://www.mahj.org/fr/index.php

It feels more like November than April here.  It has been raining on and off for the past week and there is no end in sight.  We began at the Place des Vosges, hoping that the weather would let up enough for a play on the playground there.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_des_Vosges  As wikipedia reports, "Originally known as the Place Royale, the Place des Vosges was built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612. A true square (140 m x 140 m), it embodied the first European program of royal city planning."   Today they were filming some sort of old fashioned drama, and we were nicely told to stay out of the way.  We found some tall trees to protect us from the rain and huddled up to enjoy our snack.

Can you see the play structure and slide in the corner?  The pouring rain kept us from enjoying it today.

Cold Snackers

Musee Carnavalet provided shelter from the rain and we learned a lot, too.  It is the museum of Paris history.  It is housed in two of the oldest mansions in Paris and it is free.  http://carnavalet.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/l-hotel-carnavalet  It is an enormous museum and we did not take the time to do it justice.  There were lots of artifacts from the Revolution, including Henry the XVI chess set.  We liked the art nouveau jewelry store and the sign room with shopkeeper's signs from the turn of the century.  We will return and learn more.

Sign Room at Musee Carnavalet

 

One of the many reasons I like this area of Paris is the falafel.  The girls and I had lunch at L'As du Falafel, which is named in most guide books.  Yum!  The girls enjoyed chicken shwarma and I devoured a falafel.  The girls followed up with some delicious treats from a nearby Jewish bakery.

moving and settling in

 Our temporary apartment and our more permanent abode were close enough that we were able to move everything in several trips over a few days.  The fact that they were close was a complete fluke because we rented the temporary place before leaving Ottawa.  Because the temporary apartment was within walking distance to the girls' schools they were able to start right away. 

 The movers were fast.  They were in (through the 8th floor window) and out in about 3 hours.  It took me a lot longer to unpack and there are still empty boxes in our living room.

 At one point, I was sure that the box with most of Sylvia's stuffies had gone missing.  I had mixed emotions because there is nothing I would like more than to lose most of her stuffed animals.  However, she loves each one of them a little more than she loves me and I knew she would be heartbroken.  The animals were found and seem to be making themselves comfortable.  Here are (some of) the bunnies dressed and ready for bed.

                                                               Pierre and Pierrette reading.

The girls are sharing a room.  We have been seeing much less of Sylvia in the middle of the night, which is fabulous.  They are becoming better friends and fighting more.  I think this is due to their ages and due to the fact that we have uprooted them from their community of friends and brought them here.  They spend a lot of time devising strange games and hilarious pranks. 

Think twice before entering their room...and don't forget to read a label.

Centre Pompidou

Today was the girls' first day of April vacation.  We have two weeks to explore Paris and we began at the Centre Pompidou, the largest modern art museum in Europe.

The museum was built in the seventies and was considered groundbreaking because it was turned inside out.  The workings of the building--electricity, water, etc. are on the outside of the building and they are color coded.  The escalator runs up the side of the building and offers a spectacular view.

We began our visit by eating some crepes and looking at the crazy fountain outside of the museum.  The wind was fierce and it was freezing. 

The line to get inside was long and the wind made it a cold wait.  Luckily, there was a large Calder sculpture outside that moved with the wind.  Sylvia recently went to the Musee du Tokyo and learned all about Calder on a school field trip.

 View from the escalator.  There's Sacre Coeur!

The fountain from above

 We had a great time.  We saw some cool stuff and didn't try to do too much.  We watched a great video about Alexander Calder and his circus, which were basically kinetic toys that he made.  It was narrated by Calder in French with a very heavy American accent.  He was from Philadelphia, but spent a lot of time in France.

Chasse aux oeufs at Butte Chaumont

Easter came right as we were trying to settle into our new apartment.  The Easter Bunny did bring baskets, but (s)he decided to outsource the Easter egg hunt.  Pierre found an Easter egg hunt that was also a fund raiser for Haiti at Butte Chaumont, a large park on the outskirts of Paris. 

The park was built on the site of a former quarry and now has a lake, crazy hills, bridges and a belvedere.  The chasse aux oeufs was nuts.  There were hundreds of children.  We lined up when we got there and waited for a very lo time.  We then realized that we then needed to walk to the actual site of the hunt.  The hunt was at the top of one of the enormous hills that fill the park.  When we reached the top there was an even larger line there and much confusion.  After waiting in line for way too long, we finally gave up.  We did manage to cash in our tickets for some bags full of candy.  We will return and explore this park when there is less holiday chaos.

LeBlanc

Poisson d'Avril

We like any excuse to eat chocolate, so we were very happy to learn that in France April 1st involves chocolate.  Children are given chocolate fish and instead of saying, "April Fool!" after pulling off a trick you say, "Poisson d'Avril!"

Part of the fun is to tape paper fish on people's backs without them knowing.  Lillian took this to a whole new level one night while I was making dinner.  She made no secret of what she was up to...and she had to ask for tape.

Look!  My Daddy bought me a chocolate fish bigger than my head!