I know I'm in Paris when I see........

Today we decided to start the day by going down to the Eiffel Tower and perhaps taking a ride to the top.  The kids have been wanting to do this since we got here.  So we took the Metro, because there is absolutely NO parking down there, and were greeted by throngs of people already in line at 10:00 a.m.  I mean this line was crazy long!  Worse than any line I have seen at Disney or major concert!  I mean this thing wound around like a snake for about a mile.  So the kids said "we'll pass and come back, maybe on a weekday".  Whew!

See the people on the second tier?
It's a 45 minute wait for the elevator from this point to go to the top!

As we walked under and away from the Eiffel, we heard a dog barking very excitedly.  We came up on an area where there were about 6 or 7 dogs having a "play date".  The barker was a golden retriever closely following his owner who was occasionally throwing a tennis ball for him.  He would bring it back to her and start the process all over again.  This dog was excited about something so we kept an eye on him and his owner and since were walking in the same direction, saw what this puppy was so excited about.

Following his tennis ball!

Dogs swimming in a fountain in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower

There were about 4 or 5 dogs just wading around like little kids!  The edges were a little steep so owners would occasionally have to help their dogs out, but they all just kept jumping back in!

We walked on in search of some lunch.  On our walk we passed a lot of markets.  These are common sites and one of the things I will never get tired of seeing.  It's amazing that they set these up and break them down daily.  

Seafood sounds so much better in French
fruits de mer
(literally "fruits of the sea"

Then there are the flowers.......

Then there is stuff......

Need some shoes?

On our walk to lunch we saw carriages getting ready for the afternoon.  There was one carriage that stood out......

Going to the ball?

We found a nice place to eat on a corner.  Great people watching!  Since the weather has changed and Spring has arrived, every restaurant that has sidewalk space has outdoor seating, which we took advantage of.  The kids were thrilled because they had burgers and fries.  It was a little pricey, but everything within walking distance of the Eiffel tends to be.  Also in France, there is no such thing as free refills and Coke is an imported product!  So we have had to tell the kids "only on drink per meal and then it's water" because......

My wine 4,15 Euros
Samantha's Coke 5,00 Euros 

Patrick's 1/2 liter beer - 8,50 Euros
Max's 10 oz Sprite - 5,00 Euros

After lunch we walked around a little more, then jumped the Metro back home.  Tomorrow is Easter and we are supposed to attend an Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by a group I joined of English speakers.  Has been cloudy and a little rainy this afternoon, but hoping that it clears up by tomorrow afternoon.

I paid $4.19 for a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese

.....and $7.15 for a jar of dill pickle chips!  But I didn't break down and buy the Pop Tarts for $8.50!!  No, I was not on a game show.......just shopping for what qualified as "imports" here in Paris.

Patrick took today off for a long Easter weekend and we decided to make the rounds of the stores in the area that specialize in carrying the imported American products.  It was so nice to just see the shelves filled with familiar names and products.  I never thought I would "ooh and aah" over a can of baked beans.....or a tub of Betty Crocker frosting for at whopping $12.87.  Needless to say, I passed on the frosting!  Thank goodness my Mom taught me how to make frosting!

We treated the kids at the first store with a Nerds Rope for Max and an A&W root beer for Samantha.  I got myself a box of brown sugar ~ and was damn happy!  I ran into the other store by myself 'cause parking was nonexistent around the store.  Again, the shelves looked like home.  I just had to pick up a little something for everyone waiting in the car.  I got Samantha the Mac and Cheese, Max got the pickles and I picked up a jar of jalapenos for Patrick ($10.00!).  On impulse, I grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper and a can of Mountain Dew from the cooler!  Fantastic!

Worth $4.19 to me!

Mmm, mmmm, good

Of course with a French touch!
On a baguette!

Max's favorite sandwich
B.L.P. (bacon, lettuce, pickles)

Since it is a long weekend, I'll keep this short as I am sure we will have more to report later.  Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to their holiday weekend.

I got a little behind on my posting.

This weekend we did some fun stuff.....got a car......took the dogs to the Parc de Saint Cloud......went to Ikea (again!!) 'cause we had to return something.....

But last weekend, we had some fun too!  We live right down the road from a beautiful pedestrian bridge that leads into the a huge green space know as Bois de Boulogne.  But I had been told that if you take a sharp turn off the bridge, you can walk along the Seine on a trail that goes along by the houseboats and few people know about it and therefore it is less populated.  We found the path without problem and walked for awhile.  We came upon a area that was open field and turned the girls loose!

Happy, Happy!

Nice dog....looking pretty!

Einstein doing her fox impression

Flower Girl

As we crossed the bridge, we could see houseboats along the banks of the Seine.  They came in many shape and sizes.  Some done up nicely; others you kinda had to wonder how they were still afloat.  But one really stood out.  

Is that a gator!

Concrete alligator chained to the roof of a houseboat.
Gotta love someone with a sense of humor!

As I walk around the neighborhood, I am seeing lots of flowers and plants.  I think I may have discovered a patch of blackberries (no fruit yet) by the Tram station.  

I am seeing these flowers in decorative beds all over.  Anyone know what they are?  They are about two feet tall and the blooms hang upside down!  The bloom colors I have seen have been yellow and orange/red.

This is what they look like looking up into the bloom

Love how the blooms hang down.

 I think these are lilacs....  They grow wild here (kinda like honeysuckle in N.C.) and you see them all over.

This is a beautiful blooming tree in the park where I take the dogs for their walks.  There are pink ones and white ones.  Now that the blooms are falling off, it looks like colorful snow around the trees and on the walkways.

Pink snow

That's all for now....sorry it's a short post!  Kids are out for another week on Spring Break and Patrick is taking Friday off to make a four day weekend over Easter, so I am sure I will have more tales to tell and pictures to share.

....we saw the signs.

No, not of the spiritual/religious nature, just everyday signs around town that are supposed to inform you of things.  Well maybe if you spoke the language.  Since we don't, we have improvised the meaning of a few of them.

The first, and one of my personal favorites because it makes me smile every time I see it, is any sign for:

Hotel de Ville

These signs are everywhere.  This is just the one closest to the kid's bus stop.  Every time I see these signs, images of a hotel decorated in dalmatian spots by Cruella Deville jumps into my mind.

You know Cruella, right?!?

I have found some images of what I think the Hotel de Ville should look like:

The outside
Obviously, Disney agrees on the hotel.

Lovely room

What this sign really means:  In France the sign for Hotel de Ville is a directional sign pointing you to the town hall.  So of course you see these every where which is good for me because then I smile in every town I'm in at least once! 

The second sign we have seen in a couple of locations.  This picture is by one of the bus stops we use.

This is a large sign close to an intersection.

We have made up a couple of things that we think this sign could be.  (1) Careful! Your car might spontaneously combust once you turn here (2) If you are not a large truck, you will burst into flames or (3) Danger!  Angry, hot headed drivers ahead.

What this sign really means:  This is a road sign letting you know that vehicles carrying combustable materials and trucks over 3.5 tons are not allowed on these roads.  Boring!  We like ours better.....

The next sign I have only spotted in a few places.  I think it is an old sign/sticker that is not used much any more (and for good reason!).  Most often I have seen these stuck to windows in a place of business.

What the.......????

As you can well imagine, our thoughts for what this sign could mean where all over the place......  Mammograms.......?  Breast exams?  Watch out for your female children......?  Run away!?!?

What this sign really means via translation is "driving accompanied by a qualified driver".  Okay, that's better....kind of.  So this is a sticker for driver's eduction cars.......Driver's eduction taught by adults to minors......still kinda creepy........

I had to do some more research on this one.  I googled the saying and found a picture of the sticker.

Better.  The ones I have seen
have obviously faded!  Whew.....

 So what does this sticker mean? The steering wheel clue would probably have given it away if it didn't fade. The text, if you speak French, would also give it away. It actually means that the person driving is learning how to drive, and it’s known in France as conduite accompagnée or ‘accompanied driver’ in English. In other words, the driver is being yelled at in French by someone who already has a license to drive. However, there’s every chance that the person driving has a license already because it’s not obligatory to remove the sign when the learner driver stops learning.  Maybe they should find a different logo or perhaps one that doesn't fade.

Scarlet letter???
Better than the other sticker, but come on folks!

Also seen on cars, this one means apprenti which pretty much translates to ‘apprentice’ in English. When someone has finally jumped through the hoops required to get a license (no small feat from what we have been told!), this sticker must be displayed on the car for 2 years.  It requires drivers to drive more slowly than the speed limit allows. However I have heard drivers rarely see any car with this sticker going less than 10km over the speed limit, let alone that much under.

I am sure that we will find more signs to "translate", but for now these are some of our favorites.

......the girls of the house take a beating!

I will start this by saying we are all okay now.......

If you have been following my post, you will know that I am having to walk the dogs about 4 times a day. We have a little schedule worked out and it seems that the other dog owners who "share" the park with me have their schedule too so this helps us avoid each others dogs.  I take Morgan and Einstein for their walks around 5:30 a.m. (don't groan, I'm a morning person!), 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and their last walk about 8:00 p.m.  They are able to "hold it" longer if we aren't here to take them, but if I am home, this is our schedule.

The other morning I had some errands I wanted to run.  I wanted to start early, so I decided to take them for a walk at 9:00 a.m. rather than 10:00 a.m.  In seems that the people 2 floors below us with the large, black un-neutered male lab take him out for his walk around this time.  Something I did not know!  So as we rounded the corner to head down the hill to the park, we came face to face with him and his owner. Needless to say, everyone was surprised!

Morgan, being the ever-friendly dumb lab, leaps forward to greet them.  Einstein, with her irrational belief that she is a bad-ass, charges the dog.  Now, this is all happening in a split second but for some reason my cat-like reflexes (ha ha) don't work as fast.  The lab's owner pulls his dog across the street but not before my dogs have run me into the metal fence that lines the sidewalk.  Since they had already turned the corner, but I had not, my left arm took the brunt of the force.

I regroup and pull them back towards the apartment.  All the while, the neighbor and his dog are standing calmly on the other side of the street, watching.  Oh, the horror!  Then to make a bad situation worse, bad-ass Einstein, hopped up on doggie adrenaline, decides to take on Morgan.  Now my dogs are scuffling in the doorway, the neighbor is watching and all I want to do is hide.  I finally get them inside and back up the apartment, check for injuries and shoot nasty stink-eyes and lots of "bad dogs" at them.

The dogs were fine apart from one small bite on Einstein's leg (serves you right, bad-ass - NOT).  Then I checked my arm.  Apart from being scraped up, the bones seemed okay.  Put ice on it and shot more stink eyes at the dogs.

All this happened about a week ago.  So this is the end result.

Nice bruise, huh!?!

I have noted on this blog about my concerns about being car-less and the kids in school across town.   So we have leased a car, however we aren't going to be able to pick it up until our temporary residence cards arrive (new wrinkle in the plan).  Hopefully we will get the cards by Monday and still be able to pick up the car on Tuesday, 4/12/11 as originally planned.  But right now, I remain carless and at the mercy of public transportation.

So yesterday I got the call.  The school nurse was calling to inform me that Samantha had collided with another student playing soccer in P.E. and landed on her elbow.  The school, thankfully, does have a registered nurse so she had placed ice on it but was concerned because of the amount of pain she was still having after 20 minutes.  So my options are running through my head the whole time she is talking:  (1) take the tram/Metro/bus, (2)  take a taxi, (3) call Patrick.

Since I was going to call Patrick first anyway to tell him about Samantha, I thought that maybe someone at his work could drive him to the kid's school or loan him a car.  Thankfully, his co-worker, Lorraine, was at work and came to our rescue again!  (Lorraine was the one who drove Patrick to my rescue with my first grocery store debacle!)  She drove him to the school to get Samantha and then took them to the train station.  There is a a Metro stop in Saint Cloud across the street from the hospital and the hospital is within walking distance to our apartment (all lucky coincidences).  

Patrick and Sam reach the hospital about 3:00 and I meet them there at 3:30.  Samantha is waiting to be x-rayed.  She was being a trooper and only had a few tears.  She got her x-rays and was going back up to see the doctor with Patrick.  Now, it's time to meet the bus with Max.  Another stroke of luck, the bus stop is right in front of the hospital!  I retrieve Max and he wants to see his sister (sweet of him!).  I text Patrick and he says they are done and coming out, so we wait and meet them and all walk home.

They told Patrick that there was no "obvious fracture", but they would have the radiologist look at it.  Okay, I have been in the ortho field a long time and all her symptoms were classic for an elbow fracture, but I don't claim to have x-ray vision, so I let it go.......They had also given us a prescription for pain medicine that we needed to fill.  I was getting ready to leave and go to the pharmacy when the phone rang.  We had been home about 10 minutes.  It was the hospital saying that the radiologist had looked at the x-ray and determined that "yes, there was a fracture" in her elbow.   (Told you so, na na na na boo boo!)  So Patrick walks her back to the hospital.  Now she is in a half-cast and has a return appointment in two weeks.

Sam - the brave trooper

I miss my job and my friends at Cary Orthopaedics even more today than I usually do!  

Last night was a little difficult getting her comfortable in bed and the "pain" medication they gave me is nothing more than 500mg of acetaminophen.  She finally found a good position on the couch about 11:00 p.m.  As you can see from the picture, it is her left arm and of course she is left-handed!  But Spring Break starts Monday and they are out of school until 4/26/11, so I guess the timing was good if it had to happen!  She did go to school today, but hey, what kid wouldn't love to show off their "war wound"!  

As I stated in the beginning, we are fine now.  A little sore, but we are some tough chicks!

......I forgot a picture last time!

I had this great picture to accompany my last post when I was writing about the dogs and the barking, but I forgot to include it!  I still think it makes a great comedic addition to the blog, so I am going to post it now.  (Please take time to review my last entry if you missed it to know why I think this is funny! and shame on you if you didn't read my last post!)  When I take the dogs out for their walks, we pass the bank of mailboxes which have the residents names on them and I noticed this one........

Maybe this is the neighbor
who complained!!

So onto more current topics......we have another week of Paris living under our belts (which Patrick is having to tighten as he is down a pants size with all the walking!) and are still amazed daily with things we see and learn.  

Before we moved, we heard horror stories about worker strikes.  The trains would stop running on transit strikes or trash would pile up if sanitation workers decided they needed better coffee on their breaks.........  We have been lucky though since we have been here as everyone seems to be happy with their jobs right now!  No strikes!  **fingers crossed**

Something interesting about Paris is that trash is picked up daily (except Sunday) and about twice a month you see these guys.

Outside my kitchen window

See the guy in yellow?

Two guys on each side of the street come down welding huge hoses like firemen slowly followed by a truck with a tank of water.  They move down the streets spraying the trash, leaves, and anything else is in way (dog poop), into the center of the road.  Then after they are done, another truck comes by and "vacuums" up all the stuff.  You see this all over the city in residential areas as well as commercial.  This is in addition to my guy in yellow who wanders the street daily picking up trash.  This is nice, however they seem to have an aversion to actually bending over and picking things up.  I watched one guy spray a car battery that has been sitting against this wall since we moved in for about 3 minutes and when it refused to move down with the stream of water, he walked on......leaving the battery.  So far the battery has survived all subsequent attacks and is still sitting there looking smug!

When we moved here we thought that we would see if we could get buy without a car.  Well, due to some unforeseen circumstances, i.e. kids going to school across town not down the road and dogs not being allowed to run in the fenced area, we made the decision to lease a car.  I had thoughts of getting a call that one of the kids was sick and needed to come home from school and I would have to take a taxi to get to school and to get them home.  I really didn't relish the thought of putting a vomiting kid in a taxi. Also, I wanted to be able to take the dogs to the many parks around here and let them run and get good and tired so they will sleep more and maybe bark less!  Patrick will still be taking public transport to work except for days he may need to get somewhere, so the car will be with me most of the time.  Since parking is a problem in the city, I think that we will still take public transport much of the time, but for exploring areas outside of Paris and for emergencies, it will be nice to have a car.

It seemed apropos that we decided to do this yesterday, our 13th anniversary.  When we got married in Colorado Springs, instead of taking a honeymoon, we bought a Dodge Durango.  So yesterday we went to the Honda showroom and leased a Honda Jazz for the next 3 years.

ours will be black

It has room for all four of us as well as room in way back for Morgan.  Einstein usually rides in between the kids.  We wanted to do our part and get the Hybrid model, but would have had to wait until August to get the car.  As it is, buying/leasing a car here is VERY different than in the U.S.  First of all there is the whole language thing......  After establishing some form of "Frenglish"(I walked out of the VW showroom when I was told, rather rudely, that "No" no one there spoke English) the lady we leased from spoke minimal English, but with our minimal French, we got it done (and at times quite comically with hand gestures). Then there are no car lots in Paris.  You go to a showroom and they might have 6 cars parked inside to look at.  No sales person comes up to you and immediately befriends you.  You have to go looking for them. Then they want to know if you have all forms of I.D. and your first born child (thankfully we had Max with us! **wink**) ready to turn over to them. It seems that first the paperwork portion must be submitted and approved, then you can talk car.  There is also no test drive.  You just look and I guess, imagine, driving.  Thankfully, because it is a Honda, we felt comfortable committing to this car without driving it.  You also don't leave with a car when your done....  We should expect delivery in about 10 days and then we will have to travel about 25 minutes to a different place to get it.  But all in all, very happy about our decision.

In my adventures to look at different car showrooms, I saw some more of Paris and only got lost once or twice.  I'm getting better at rectifying these times thanks to the fact that I am starting to recognize places and my handy I-Phone app, Google Maps!!

Storm coming over steeple in downtown
Saint Cloud

Yep, that's the Statue of Liberty with the Eiffel Tower

We also received news from family in Seattle that our extended family has increased by one!  My cousin, Sheryl, and her husband, Jeremy, had a little girl!  

Welcome to Maya Lynn Grater!
You have some cool parents!

....daylight savings arrives here

Yep, that's right.  A full 2 weeks after the U.S.A.  Don't know why really, I should probably do some research on that in case the kids ask.  So now it is officially Spring to me.  Once I loose that hour in the morning but the evenings stay light, we have officially turned the corner on the seasons.  Another thing about DLS is that here, much like my beloved Seattle, it will eventually stay light until about 9:30 p.m.

The other thing that gives it away is the Easter candy displays!  Yeah!  And this year I am treated to a different kind of adventure.  Not so many bags of jellybeans and malted milk balls here.  But man, they love their chocolate.  They also have the Easter Chicken.  The chocolate chicken is almost more abundant than the rabbit.  Here they use the chicken more as a symbol for Easter because (so I have read) the egg symbolizes (re)birth.   Don't fret, Peter Cottontail, they love you too!

Looks like a whole army of chocolate rabbits!

And,  My Oh My, so many new choices of candy to try this Easter........most of it chocolate based.  Now don't get me wrong, I like chocolate but really don't crave it.  Samantha is a choco-holtic however and I think if she could she would "sample" every new variety of Easter yummy available.  I am kind of sad that it doesn't seem I will be able to get my hands on good ole jellybeans.  And for me it's not just any jellybeans, but the ones they label "spice" jellybeans.

I think my addiction started with these because my Dad always liked spiced gum drops.  I also think I recall somewhere in the foggy depths of my brain, friends of my parents (The Davis family in Arizona) having a dish of these out and getting to choose which color to sample.  This was a big deal because I was probably about 4 or 5 and usually only got the colors of jellybeans my older sisters didn't like!

We are also being treated to a Spring display of blooming bulbs.  They are all putting on their Easter Best right now.  Not only does it look wonderful but you'll be walking along and smell the Hyacinths before you even see them.

Poppies, pretty poppies....

Every afternoon when I walk to meet the kids at the bus stop, there seems to be something new blooming and so far (**fingers crossed**) Max's allergies seem to be okay.  Maybe a little increase in sniffles but seems to be overall unaffected.

The kids are slowly embracing the "Frenchie" way.  They have French lessons everyday and I am sure will be plotting together in French to take over since Mom and Dad have to clue still.  Patrick and I are supposed to be getting French lessons and I guess by the s-l-o-w-n-e-s-s of the arranging of these, we are learning a "French lesson".  No one seems to have a sense of urgency here....unless they are driving!!  (I will cover some "driving lessons" in a later post...but Oh La La what a mess!!).

One of the things we are all enjoying is the fresh bread.  Occasionally I will stop and pick up a baguette (or two) on the way to get the kids.  Thursday I was planning on feeding the Fam lasagna and thought some bread would go nicely.  I stopped at our local Paul's bakery and in "Frenglish" asked for one baguette (these things are about 2 feet long, so one would do).  The guy says "okay, deux" and before my brain could convert a way to respond, I am paying for two!  Not a problem, this wonderful bread is roughly .80 a piece.  Turns out it was a good thing that he knew this crazy American needed more than one baguette.  The kids get off the bus hungry every day and since we aren't eating dinner until around 7:00 p.m., I let them snack at 5:00 p.m. when we get back to the apartment.  Max spotted the bread sticking out of my backpack and asked if they could have some.  Sure, why not....  So Max takes one baguette, extends one end to his sister and they split it and start munching away!

One baguette down......

Some of you may have heard that our Square D assigned "relocation expert" (again, not going to get into it right now, but our "expert" has become tarnished in our eyes as we are learning about things for ourselves!) called us about 2 weekends ago to let us know that there had been complaints about the dogs barking.  From the conversation, she made it sound like our downstairs neighbor was complaining about excess barking.  

Now I will admit Morgan's voice can carry and when one dog starts barking the other seems it is their duty to "help".  But we had been in the apartment for only 3 weeks and still lacked some furniture and rugs so the sound carried.  We went and purchased a spray collar for Morgan so that when she barked, the collar's attachment puffs out a mist under her chin and around her face.  It was affective not only for Morgan, but if Einstein was standing near Morgan, the sound of the puff of mist made Einstein stop!    

We are now almost finished with outfitting the apartment and our stuff has arrived from N.C. so the noise is less resounding now.  The dogs are much more comfortable with their surroundings and I think they know now that we are here for a while 'cause all nice cozy furniture we bought for them is here.

Einny and Morgan on their couch

But as we go about day to day, we are beginning to suspect the source of the "complaint".  We really don't think it was the neighbor because they have a dog too and probably know from their own experience all the trails entailed with settling in.  We are beginning to suspect the guardian (building landlord) as the source of the complaint. 

Here in France, each building has it's own guardian and then there is a head guardian for the whole complex (makes me think of dorm mothers!).  Our guardian is an older woman (mid-60's my guess) and seems to be afraid of dogs.....and even less fond of large, black, overly happy dogs.  Morgan is all Lab when it comes to sense.  That is to say, she has NONE!  She tries to walk up to everyone (and to our dismay, moving cars) she sees not realizing that she weighs 70+ pounds and can look intimidating. And strangely enough, we are not as worried with this realization that it was she, and not the neighbors, who complained.

We have learned (and read) from many sources that in France (a) it is damn near impossible to get fired from your job (hmmm...may be why customer service sucks....) and (b) it is unheard of to ousted from your rental.  Patrick was told by someone he works with that there are stories of people not paying their rent for months on end and not being evicted and I met some other English speaking moms who have been in Paris for longer at a "mixer" 2 weeks ago who said "Bhaa, just do what you want!  The French are blowhards".  So we are not as worried and make an effort to keep the dogs far from her if she is out when we are.  That is the only concession we are going to make......that and the bark collar.

We made another pilgrimage to Ikea yesterday for some lamps and odds and ends.  Who knew the sold plants!!  Awesome!!  So I started my own tribute to Spring on the apartment ledge.  Still a long way to go, but it's a start.

Balcony ledge

Happy Gerber daisies and ivy

Look Margrid, I found a French Hydrangea!

Samantha has a playdate with a friend from school today at 2:00 p.m.  We rented a car this weekend for our Ikea pilgrimage, so we are going to take her there and Max, Patrick and I can run some more errands while she plays.  The little girl's mother is VERY British and has invited us all in for "tea" when we arrive, but hoping we can get some more errands done while we have a car and I really want to take the dogs for a run in the park.  Here's hoping........