Good company at the market

We had friends over for dinner last night and the girls helped us prepare.  Pierre and Sylvia went to the grocery store and Lillian and I went to the market.  There are tourists swarming the market with cameras.  The first local produce is beginning to appear and it is a feast for the eyes.  There were stacks of roses and peonies filing an entire table.  We bought some delicious cherries.

We managed to make a Parisian version of pulled pork with many substitutions, which actually tasted good.  Thank goodness for the crockpot and the transformer!

Lillian will be 8! in July.  She was great company walking to and from the market and we had a great time checking everything out while we were there.  She helped me pick out all of the produce and the flowers.  She skipped, jumped, giggled, and ran the entire way. 

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The market was crowded and it was hard to get any photos of the flowers because there were too many people in MY way.

Parc Andre Citroen

Meme is coming and we are excited.  Yesterday we purchased a futon, which we hope will be very comfortable.  When it is delivered, Pierre and I will need to get it to the eighth floor.  I am hoping that at least some of it can fit into our tiny elevator.  After we purchased the futon, we walked to Andre Citroen Park.  It opened in 1992 on the site of the old Citroen plant. 


It was a hot day and the many police who were supposed to watch the fountain turned a blind eye to the masses of bathers

Lil and Sylv joined in the fun and were soon soaking



We explored some of the gardens

Wet Girls

Most days you can take rides in this enormous hot air balloon

Monsieur LeBlanc
Today is La Fete des Meres and Monsieur LeBlanc and the girls are treating me well.

Haircuts and Friendship Bracelets

It is the first day of June!  The girls still have more than a month of school to go, but summer is definitely here.  We have all been needing haircuts for a long time. Pierre bought himself some fabulous French clippers to keep his look together.  Wednesday was the girls' turn.  Lillian and Sylvia were very patient.  The coiffeur and coiffeuse insisted on blowdrying their hair and neither girl much liked it.  As much as I insisted that they stop, they had to continue until their vision was realized. Lillian and Sylvia want to do their own hair and with the new haircuts this is almost possible. 

With their new dos, we went to the sewing store and picked up some embroidery floss.  In a bookcase, Lillian found a friendship bracelet craft book and has been insisting that we give it a try.  Thanks to Book Fair and Valerie's eagle eye, we have lots of good craft books.  Let's just say that we are still working on obtaining a finished product that looks like the ones in the book.

Lilian chose, red, orange and yellow

Sylvia's choices
Sylvia lost her first tooth yesterday.  She refuses to let me take a photo.

Aux Merveilleux de Fred

When we first arrived in Paris, the girls and  I were exploring a pedestrian shopping street, when we were stopped in our tracks by what was going on in one of the windows.  Someone was whipping an enormous bowl of delicious looking frothy white stuff.  They were very skillful with their whipping and we were very curious.  We peered into the shop and saw amazing looking meringues.  I'm not sure why I didn't buy any then, but I must have had a good reason.  This Friday I returned to Aux Merveilleux de Fred and purchased some decadent meringues.  Their own website gives a much better description.
David Lebovitz has a Paris food blog and he, too, likes this place.  Click on his name to read what he had to say about the meringues.

Best Friday pastry yet.  Mine was coffee flavored--mmm.

Happy Birthday, Pepe!

Pepe, have a fabulous day!  We are thinking about you!  Much love from Paris!

Happy

Birthday

Pepe

Lillian's card

Sylvia's card

Parc Monceau

Last weekend we took the metro to Parc Monceau.  The weather was beautiful and the park was hopping.  This park was once owned by the Duke of Chartres.  He wanted his garden to be a "pays d'illusions" so he built something to represent lots of different countries.  There are pagodas, pyramids, roman ruins, etc.  During the Revolution, the duke lost his land and after much back and forth, the city of Paris bought it in 1860.  Monet and other artists painted here.  It is a lovely park.

Not bad for an entrance

The girls enjoyed scooting.  Lillian and I battled a few weeks ago about wearing helmets.  Rarely do you see anyone wearing a helmet on a bike and never on a scooter.  I insisted and there were tears.  While at Parc Monceau, Sylvia was run over by a big girl learning to rollerblade and I was grateful I had put my foot down.  Sylvia was fine.  The girl and her mother were both horrified and very apologetic.

Lots of lovely gardens and lots of people running loops.  Most French runners seem to head to the big parks to run.  During our park outings there are always lots of people running laps round and round.

This was our favorite statue

You can even play on the grass here.  In many Parisian parks, you must stay off of the grass.  It was a treat for our girls to be able to run and play in the grass.

Tree climber

Racer

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Bananagrams and Pancakes

Sometimes bad days happen even if you are in Paris.  This week I have been a little under the weather and there have been more tantrums and tears than usual--both  for me and for the girls.  So, Friday night rolled around and it was time to let loose.  What says fun more than Bananagrams?



Sylvia does not like to play "winning and losing games."  She does not like to lose.  She does like to be a "helper" while games are played.



Here the girls are checking Pierre's words to make sure they are all correct.

Here are Pierre's winning words.  I would feel a little better about losing if his game didn't hinge around the word "hooter."  Pierre kept telling the girls that a hooter was "one who hoots" and then he would start cracking up. 
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hooter

Lillian did a great job.  She said she learned the word "cunning" from reading Harry Potter.

Saturday means pancakes.  We are still enjoying our stash of Canadian maple syrup. 

I happened upon an American store called "Thanksgiving" last week.  I went inside out of curiosity and was horrified.  The woman in front of me bought a 10 Euro bag of Reese's peanut butter cups.  The walls were stacked with strawberry marshmallow Fluff, mac and cheese, Pop Tarts...and you will pay through the nose for this junk.  I did buy some canned pumpkin to make pumpkin bread and some brown sugar.  I had purchased some Vergeoise, which is a good French substitute, but it was even more expensive than the brown sugar at the American store.

We just purchased our tickets to meet up with the Rock clan this summer to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  I am very excited to see everyone!

Onward and upward.  Happy Saturday!