Musee d’Orsay

Jan 20, 2019

As many times as my BFF Aimee and I have visited Paris before, we have never made a trip to visit the Musée d’Orsay. Built in a former train station in 1986, Musée d’Orsay is the little sister to the overcrowded Louvre. I bought our tickets online on their French only website and we took the hot, hour long bus there. Guess what? We went on the wrong day! It wasn’t so bad, we ended up walking through the beautiful Jardin de Tuileries and hit up the summer Fêtes des Tuileries. The only thing was I didn’t have euros on me so we couldn’t go on any rides. Liv was placated by the world’s biggest cotton candy. So pro tip, if you want to hit the carnival in Paris, always have euros on you, they don’t take credit cards.

Don’t let those smiles fool you, we were dripping with sweat and so hot we were considering jumping into the Seine!

Beautiful Beau-Arts design.

Okay, let’s try this again. The next day was much cooler and we took the Metro this time so the ride over was much shorter.

I relate to her on so many levels!

I was super excited to see the Edgar Degas Little Dancer of Fourteen Years sculpture. It was much smaller than I imagined it would be.

Oh my goodness, I was so frustrated by my photos in this light. I tried every possible setting and angles. This was my heavily edited result but there is something about the low lights in museums that work against me. Any tips or solutions?

Liv was highly amused by this guy. Fortunately for us, Aimee was there for some serious art appreciation so we checked out the Van Gogh exhibit and she was excited to see the Gauguin art. Her Mom is an Art Historian so she has a sophisticated level of art snobbery.

Liv and I chuckled at the long-legged cat.

We were blown away by Van Gogh’s pieces. I wish I could have captured the vivid blue paint better than my iPhone did however it’s best to see them with your own eyes. It was an inspiring experience. I have to return to see the Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec artwork.

We climbed upstairs to see the famous clock but had to wait forever for the selfie seeking mobs for a shot. I guess we are the same, taking the shot for the ‘gram but I don’t get how anyone gets a clear shot that isn’t a dark silhouette against the clock. Thank you Lightroom app!

Musée d’Orsay
Rue de Lille
75343 Paris

Open Tues – Sunday from 9:30 am – 6 pm and until 9:45 pm on Thursdays
Closed on Mondays

Jusqu’ à plus tard amis!

Places in Paris: rue Crémieux

Dec 12, 2018

The city of Paris is a blogger’s dream. Every street is the perfect backdrop full of adorable cafes and vivid blue doors begging to be photographed, so of course I am like a kid in a candy store living here. One of the locations I’ve had on my photoshoot list is rue Cremieux. It’s a residential, short street that has the most colorful, pastel painted houses on both sides. With a majority of Paris covered in six story Haussmann buildings, they definitely stand out. It’s obviously a popular place for tourists to take selfies so the residents of these vibrant houses seem displeased with the constant barrage of people posing on their stoops. We hopped on the metro a few stops towards Bastille and I accidentally caught my skirt in the subway door. Luckily, it didn’t stain or tear. It was a short walk to the street located near Gare Lyon train station in the 12th arrondissement.

I was excited for the shoot but didn’t factor in the weather cooperating. Of course the sky was gray instead of it’s usual bright blue. I tried to use it to our advantage since too much sun can make shadows in my photos. We arrived to find the small, colorful street full of people! There were also a few signs located in front of the candy-painted houses saying no photography. I mean, come on! I’ve seen hundreds of photos of this street on Pinterest and Instagram and there never seems to be a crowd of tourist. I always wonder if the people who post perfect shots wake up at 5 am or are they just photoshop experts? I seem to always get tons of bystanders, trucks and even trash cans when I take photos.

As you can see, there is no right time of day to visit this location. There were unofficial lines of people waiting to take a photo in front of the brightest houses. There was an entourage standing around a woman who was filming a music video. We watched the singer perform her song for so long that she offered us the spot in front of the bright pink house after getting a photo with Liv. I wish I remembered her name!

The street had more of a Caribbean vibe than a traditional Parisian style. We got tired of waiting for people to move so we had to get creative, we utilized the houses that weren’t as busy. Liv and I look like we are about to drop our Christian power ballad album. We were just waiting for people to move when Antz took these candids.

Liv loved this house with a cat painted on it.

Such an awesome door!

I swear I didn’t see the no photos sign until we took this. Oops!

Right before we left Antz lined me up to block all the people behind me to create the magic that I had the street all to myself. just ignore the guy sitting on the right!

We decided to grab a goûter at Au Petit Versailles du Marais. I wish I took more photos inside because the pastries looked straight out of the Marie Antoinette film.

Best tarte aux fraise in Paris!

A bientôt mes amis.

Moving Abroad: Six Months

Oct 11, 2018

Salut!

Well, in the blink of an eye, we have lived in Paris for six months. We are at the halfway mark of our year abroad and those 183 days went by in a flash. 183 days is a significant number for our family because that happens to be the number of days Antz company has allowed him to work remotely. We discovered this just two weeks before our departure date last February. This added to our stress and anxiety but since we put in so much hard work to get approved for our visas, set up a home exchange, took Olivia out of her French school in LA, and we set everything up to be in Paris for an entire year, we just left not knowing what would happen with Antz job.

Let me explain what the 183 day rule is. There is a treaty with France and the US so that either country can collect income tax from residents living there past 183 days. So in our case, if Antz were to continue working past six months, he would have to start paying into France’s tax system (paying for social services, income tax, etc.) while also still paying income taxes in the US because he is employed by an American company. This article explains it better than I can. To me it sounds like double taxation but there is an exclusion up to the first $100,000 of income in the US. Which for us means he would pay 45% of his income in taxes in France but only 28% past $100,000 in the US. So basically 63% of his income would have gone to taxes for our 2019 tax return. This was not the best case scenario for us financially. Also, his company was not able to set him up as an international transfer employee on a work visa due to the high expenses to add him to European payroll. We even requested to have him work freelance as an independent consultant but that didn’t work either. So his company gave him two choices, return to the US in 183 days or separate from the company. He did both. It was the hardest choice to make, Antz has worked for this incredible company for over 18 years. He was at the top of his career as a Senior Art Director. His company had premium benefits, generous salary and bonus, 401k, profit sharing, traveling to industry events and parties, summer Fridays meant he had every other Friday off, and he worked with some amazing people. I can’t tell you how difficult the decision was. I mean, France is rad but it’s not perfect. We are renting here which feels unstable, but in LA we owned our house and we put so much work into making our house lovely. Every month I worry about the currency conversion which varies so much that sometimes we pay $150 – $200 more depending on the day I pay our rent. We are in the process of getting a French bank account but it is honestly a nightmare. There is also a language barrier that makes simple tasks challenging. Liv is a wonderful translator but even she can’t help with adult things like setting up our cell phone service or making an appointment to have the heat turned on in our apartment. There is crime here like any large city, and if I walk through certain parts of town alone, I feel vulnerable. I had a car in LA so I never had a guy follow me making lewd comments like here. Once I had to call Antz to meet me on our street because a guy wouldn’t leave me alone. There is terrorism here so when we walk in crowded spaces, I can’t help but feel tense or worry about large trucks driving by. There are more grumpy, rude people in customer service than I ever dealt with in LA. I recently tried to make an appointment over the phone but six out of ten people hung up on me when I asked if they spoke English. That is on me, I need to step my French up. I hate the constant smoking, I get I am in a foreign country but blowing smoke directly in my face is infuriating. I also have to deal with renewing our visas every six months which is a headache. However the benefits still outweigh the cons for us. Liv attends a wonderful French school that is only a ten minute walk away for FREE! This is our number one reason for being here. She is attending such a great school here, her French is impeccable and I love that she gets a hot lunch everyday in a cafeteria and after school activities are included in her daily curriculum. She gets a half day on Wednesdays so she can go to ballet, which frees up our weekends for travel. That is our other major reason to stay. Traveling here is so easy and affordable I can’t see going back to LA only to wait all year for Antz to get a few weeks off of work so we have to cram a vacation in a short time and spend half of our travel budget on a long flight from LA. We have traveled more in the last six months than we have in six years. My main goal is to visit 20 countries and they are all just a train ride or a short flight away. I also am looking forward to having actual weather!

Living in sunny Los Angeles for 40 years was nice, but we rarely had thunderstorms or more than a few days of cold enough weather to bundle up. I have never been in Europe during the fall so I am excited to wear coats and scarves. I am also excited for the lovely Christmas markets coming soon! Well, it’s not like I need to sell living in Paris, my point is moving here comes with huge sacrifice. The first was leaving his job but finding a new job here in Paris won’t be so easy. Everyone I know keeps telling us that French jobs do not pay well. So we had to have a back up plan to keep us going financially. We used most of our savings to move here in March and even though we are saving a lot by not paying tuition or a car payment, it’s still expensive living in Paris. In the end, we realized we weren’t happy in LA and that is most important to us. The bottom line is he made great money in LA but he was working long, stressful days and we only had weekends to spend time together. Most of his salary went towards our bills and tuition so even if he made less here in France, our expenses are less. We also spent all our time in our cars which caused our lifestyle to be toxic and unhealthy. Since moving here, we spend so much more quality time as a family (I am sure it’s mostly because we don’t have a TV!) and walking everywhere is pretty awesome. So, we agreed we would stay in Paris as long as possible!

So a month ago we decided to sell our house. It was heartbreaking to do but really I couldn’t think of any other options. Our tenant was only renting during the summer and she was paying $1,000 less than we listed it for because she was able to pay cash in advance. We couldn’t live here and not have a stable long-term renter in our house. There are also so many expenses of being a landlord which would have been difficult to handle from abroad. Since our house has increased in value recently, I met with our real estate agent who happened to be in Paris on vacation with her family to discuss the idea of selling. She was so positive about it we put together a plan just to see how things would work out. Antz was going to fly back to LA at the end of August due to the 183 days deadline being Sept 1st so we decided that if the house sold in a month, we would stay. If the house didn’t sell (my worst case scenario), I would pack up our apartment in Paris and return to LA with Liv. Thirty days is an insane timeline but our agent was confident we could do it. This meant that Antz had to begin the process of getting our cat Lola legally documented to travel to Europe. He had to take her to an USDA accredited vet for an exam and she needed an official microchip implanted. Then she needed a rabies shot and there was a 21 day mandatory waiting period. We had to keep the house furnished so it would be staged for the open houses. We had four dates scheduled and a deadline of Sept 17th to accept offers. I was super nervous because after two open houses we only received one offer for an insultingly low amount. In order for my crazy plan to work we had to get a magic number and I was sweating when the final day arrived. The offers slowly began to come in that afternoon. All of the offers were over our asking price but nothing was close to our magic number. The good news was since there were multiple offers we could counter everyone and ask for over our magic number. We only got one person to agree to our counter offer but we got a little over our magic number!! I had to go to the US Embassy to sign the escrow paperwork with an American notary. The visit was intense, many French guards were quite mean at the entrance. I had to go through several security check points and they took my phone and held it during my visit. I managed these shots before they confiscated my phone.

My poor husband had the daunting task of selling all the things we no longer needed, (we felt like we gave away most of our furniture for next to nothing but this was our cleansing period) cleaning out the house (he must have donated and thrown away one hundred bags) and garage of twelve years of overwhelming stuff in two freaking weeks! Then he had to pack up the house, move our stuff into storage at my Mom’s house and ship our remaining items to France in a storage cube.

Our entire lives worth of stuff had to fit in this 7 foot storage box. It will be shipped to France via boat and won’t arrive until January! I will lose my mind if my breakable stuff gets damaged.

I can’t tell you how stressful this was for Antz, all while he was still going to work everyday and dealing with Lola’s stuff. The sad part was we were apart for a month which seems short, but he missed Liv’s first day of school.

To add to our agony we discovered that Antz cell phone wouldn’t make calls in LA so we could only communicate by FaceTime calling on wifi and texts for thirty days. This guy wins at life. We both had our moments of doubt, frustration and sheer panic but he rose to the occasion physically and mentally in a way I never could. He was running on two hours of sleep by the end of the month. He also had to contend with flying back to Paris with our not so friendly cat Lola. I took two wise precautions for her flight. The first was ordering her these claw nibs (her pink fake nails) so she wouldn’t be able to scratch Antz or the carrier. The second was booking Antz in a premium economy seat on his flight with Air France. It was double their normal fare, but he had more room for Lola and fewer people around to disturb.

Anyone interested in flying a pet from the US to France? This is a long, tedious process and we didn’t have a day to spare to get everything done. The first step is taking your pet to an accredited USDA veterinarian. Our regular vet wasn’t accredited but there was one nearby that they recommended.

Los Feliz Small Animal Hospital
3166 Los Feliz Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039
(323) 664-3309

I made our appointment online before Antz flew back to LA. The first day he returned he picked up Lola from my best friend Aimee (who was happy to say bye to our cranky feline) and he got her an official microchip inserted. Even if your pet has a microchip in case they get lost, this is a special chip that is registered with the US to track pets abroad. Then she had to wait a mandatory 21 days before getting a rabies shot. It’s important to know that even if your pet has been vaccinated for rabies (like Lola has) they must get another rabies shot 21 days after the microchip has been implanted. We were happy to find out Lola lost weight since her last appointment so she was just under the 8kg restriction. So this put our timeline right on schedule. I made an appointment with APHIS which has an office in Los Angeles to get Lola’s health certificate endorsed. You must make an appointment, no walk-ins.

Los Angeles Animal Import Center
222 Kansas Street
El Segundo, CA 90245

No pet can travel abroad on a commercial airline without this document (this doesn’t apply to service animals). If you have a dog, it is also mandatory to show a test for tapeworms and flea medication. There is the choice of flying with your pet in the cabin or the cargo. Air France said they only allowed pets up to 8 kg on board. Well 8 kg means 17.6 lbs and our chunky Lola was 18 lbs at her last vet visit! I am a member of a Expats in France group and I read many horror stories about pets in the cargo of airplanes so I was very worried about Lola’s flight. I was confused when it came to finding an airline approved carrier. If she was going in the cargo of the plane, she had to be in a hardshell crate with very specific measurements. However if she was flying in the cabin, she could travel in a soft-carrier but the measurements varied by airline. I ended up ordering this backpack carrier from Amazon. I knew with all the luggage Antz was bringing and having to carry Lola’s paperwork and his passport, it would be easier for him to be hands-free. I was so worried she wouldn’t fit comfortably in it but a week before his flight, the carrier arrived and he sent me this.

She fit snug as a bug and I also ordered these pet pads in case she had an accident. Antz was smarty pants to use a large safety pin to keep the pad in place when the carrier was upright.

I ordered a harness in case Lola tried to escape at anytime. Antz had to take her out of her carrier when going through security and he held her while they did a thorough check. Luckily, our vet gave him calming medicine to give her on the day of the flight. Antz had a couple of hiccups the week before his flight. He had an appointment with the APHIS to endorse Lola’s health certificate at 8:30 am. Because it was near LAX, he had to leave the house before 6 am to be on time. He was the first person there and when he went to pay the $38 dollar fee, they told him that the vet filled out the wrong form! Antz was livid. I never seen him so angry. Turns out the vet gave Antz the form for pets traveling in the cargo hold but Lola was going to be inside the cabin. At least they were sympathetic and allowed him to return the next day with the correct paperwork, or else we would have needed to make another appointment a month later. So this meant that Antz had to drive to the vet’s office, pick up the correct health certificate and drive out to El Segundo the next morning. This all took place during his last week he was working in his office so you can imagine his level of stress. Once he had the endorsed health certificate you have exactly ten days to leave the country. This is important that you already have your flight set up prior to getting all the forms completed. I booked his return flight only two weeks before his departure since we were waiting to make sure our house sold and he would be able to sign all the escrow paperwork before returning to France. Luckily, there were a few premium economy seats still available. I had to call the airline and let them know we were bringing a pet on-board and they charged us $150 fee at check-in at the airport. Most airlines only allow a few pets on-board so it’s a good idea to let them know in advance. The day of Antz flight home was crazy, remember, his phone didn’t work unless he was connected to wifi, so I was only able to hear from him if he was on Starbucks wifi. Terribly frustrating! Lola decided it would be fun to run outside on the morning of Antz flight. He had to ask our neighbors to come help look for her all morning while he was still packing and needed to take a shower before his ride to the airport showed up. We were down to a few hours before he found her under our neighbors house. He had to crawl under there to get her, merde!

My Mom flew to Paris a few days before Antz so I was hosting her all while he was going through the worst of the drama. It was wonderful to have her here as a distraction from all the stress. She has been amazingly supportive of our decision to stay abroad even though that means she will see us less.

Antz somehow managed to pack up and clean the house with the help of his sister and nephew (Merci Clinnie & Justin!). We sold as many pieces of furniture that didn’t fit in our shipping cube. We gifted special items (our plants, and items I couldn’t bear to sell) to our friends and family.

It’s a hard choice to leave the comforts of our home and move to a different country for such an uncertain future but we can always return. We left Antz Honda Element at my Mom’s house and we are renewing our visas in January. I hope this helps anyone thinking of making the move abroad. The past six months was a great test to see if we could make a life in France viable. It’s challenging, frustrating (more so because we don’t speak French yet) but rewarding beyond all expectations.

I am happy to answer any questions in the comments below.

Bisous.

Moving Abroad: Month Four

Jul 31, 2018

Well, as you can see I just skipped right over June into July for our monthly update. I can’t tell you how much we love living here, but nowhere is perfect so I will also let you know what isn’t working for me. We are finally settled into our apartment here in the lovely Marais. We live in the upper part of the 3rd arrondissement and feel like we are in a prime location. We have this beautiful view and it’s still unbelievable that we live here.

Now that summer is here we have been enjoying longer days. It’s weird to us Americans that the sun doesn’t begin to set until after 10 pm at night! Liv usually goes to bed at 9:30 pm and it’s still bright and lively outside. Liv’s last day of school was Friday and these three extra weeks of school have been killing me. I have so many trips planned and guests coming to visit that I couldn’t wait for her to be done with school. She started second grade in Los Angeles during the last week of August 2017 and she finished the first week of July 2018! I would say that’s too long but she missed almost three weeks in March so I’m happy for was able to make up the missed time.

I’m super bummed because her school director is retiring this year and we have already established a rapport with him. I am skeptical to meet his replacement. No one will replace my sweet Harry Potter looking Monsieur W. I have met several parents of Liv’s classmates and even volunteered for a school fête. Even though I didn’t understand anyone I was very popular because I was serving the rosé.

What you don’t see in this photo is when I ran out of “blue” juice for the kids and I already pre-poured Rosé for the parents, someone brought out “pink” juice for the kids and it was identical in color so I had to keep track of which cup had juice for kids and which had wine for adults. I mean, it is France so no one seemed to care if a kid had a sip of rosé. Much less uptight people.

Liv invited us to the most adorable recital. Her Grandmother would be so proud of her xylophone timing. How adorable is her music teacher?!

Liv has a close friend in her class who speaks English but she is moving to Canada. Her parents invited us to their Farewell picnic at Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

We have met such fascinating people (many are journalists and writers) and most of them are expats! Our new friends have lived in Paris for more than ten years so they gave us invaluable advice for living abroad. We were welcomed into their group and we are looking forward to getting together with them soon for happy hour!

We are fortunate to live on a lively street and we’ve become accustomed to the late night noise (reminds me of late-night parties in Highland Park minus the ranchero music) however the cigarette smoke from the bar seems to rise up to our third floor and destroy my eyes. I know I am hyper sensitive but I can smell a cigarette a mile away and it’s sometimes hard to sleep! We don’t have a TV in our apartment so we watch Netflix and Hulu (Handmaids Tale is getting too close to reality!) on our iMac computer but we have been keeping up with this silly little thing called the World Cup by the cheering from the two restaurants on our street! ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!

We know absolutely nothing about soccer (or any sports) but I love supporting France.

So this is the longest I’ve gone without having an actual television with cable in my forty-one years and I must admit, I like not being a slave to the boob tube. It’s nice to not get caught up in the 24 hour CNN drama or spending idle hours watching reality/trash. The only reason we don’t have telly here is our apartment manager promised to hook up new cords for the tv but never sent a guy. We have learned to pick our battles with this apartment management. When we first moved in, I was livid that we didn’t have wifi for almost two weeks. Like, I was ready to sue these people and I raised the loudest, most obnoxious stink about it. I demanded compensation for the days without wifi and they laughed at me and were like “Who’s gonna check me, Boo?” Then finally, they sent a dude over and he set up the router in Liv’s room right on the lovely fireplace mantle.

He told me there was nowhere else he could hook it up in the apartment. The French have a way about making you feel grateful for when they do the bare minimum. I mean by the time the kid installed the wifi, I didn’t care if the modem it was in the middle of the bathroom. I just was desperate to get back onto Instagram and check my emails. Then there was a list of repairs we needed in the apartment. We were told the handyman would come on the first day we moved in, and he did…but instead of the list of things I wanted fixed, he was only there to fix a broken lock on a window. That he didn’t even fix! So days passed and we went out and bought a new shower head and lamp for Liv’s room but Antz could only halfway install them without his tools. He rigged the showered to work with a hair scrunchie but it took days to get the repair guy back to install it correctly. He halfassed installed the lamp (notice how crooked it is in the photo) and sort of ignored the rest of my list so c’est ce que c’est. After a month of waiting for the TV cord, we decided to let it go. There so many great elements of living here to complain.

The good news is the rude, noisy pigeon I told you about either moved or is dead and I couldn’t be happier! I’ve grown accustomed to the loud, rowdy bar downstairs (they seriously sing Queen songs all night long) however it’s the morning after that bugs me. On our walk to school in the morning Liv and I play a game called don’t step on the broken glass bottles or dog shit. It’s not a fun game. I suppose I didn’t spend close to the same time walking the streets of LA, so I wasn’t aware if there was a people not cleaning up after their dog problem but here, it’s ridiculous. Like mountains of poop and evidence of many unfortunate people slipping in it. Now that there was been less rain (to wash the shit away) and scorching hot weather, along with the daily garbage on the street, you could just imagine the smell. On the brighter side, the boulangeries tend to overpower the stench with the smell of fresh baked bread and I hear the streets are filthier in New York.

I was lucky to get to celebrate two Mother’s day (American and French) so I was treated by my loves to brunch at my favorite place, named after my favorite flowers Peonies. It’s a tiny, cute cafe that also has flower workshops downstairs. We have been a few times and it’s our favorite place to get carrot cake.

I have been forced into eating healthier against my will because the food here has less chemicals and preservatives and I find the fast food is pretty gross. I still miss In & Out and fried chicken desperately. However I have been fine with eating rotisserie chicken and buttery croissants. When we were in Nantes waiting forever for the delayed train, I bought a bag of cheetos from a vending machine. The bag looked identical to the ones in LA but I’ll never forget the taste of stale cardboard and dust. Nothing remotely like good ole’ American cheesy cheetos. That awful taste will follow me to my end of days. I even craved a salad for the first time in years a few days ago. We found a salad bar place near our apartment that makes custom salads.

Father’s Day was the same date in France as the Us so we took Antz for Fête des Pères to a space I heard about on the ‘Gram. I didn’t know what to expect when we trekked out to the boonies (13th arrondissement) across the river. Station F is an old train station turned into a massive co-work space and restaurant called La Felicità which reminds me of Downtown LA’s Grand Central Market.

You can see it’s pretty rad. Most of the restaurants are Italian. Italy happened to be playing in the World Cup semi-finals during our dinner so the staff was singing songs in Italian.

The food was really good! I had truffle pasta and Antz had smoked salmon. Of course Liv had pizza. We definitely will go back again.

This month there has been lots of people selling antiques on the street of our neighborhood. I have been browsing all the magnificent wicker baskets but I haven’t committed to buying anything just yet. I would have taken more photos but I was yelled at by a guy when I took a photo of his dinosaurs. I don’t understand the no photos stance here at all.

I wanted to buy a bouquet for our apartment so I mustered the courage to visit the lovely flower shop by our apartment and I made the transaction without speaking any English! The owner, Julie, barely spoke English as well so we used a lot of sign language. We put together this pretty bouquet and I made a new friend.

The end of May and early June we saw a surge of art take over the city. Aimee told me to get my ass over to the Palais du Tokyo to see the dollhouse exhibit that looked exactly like Olivia’s Calico Critter dollhouse. Liv damn near lost her mind when she saw the exact same rabbit family she has living on the top floor.

This cute little place emerged from Gare Nord.

A new rad mural popped up around the corner from our place.

So just as I was sad about missing the Los Angeles Invasion by one of my favorite street artists, Space Invader, I was shook to see that my hero BANKSY hit up Paris with new art! I happened to be driving a rental car when I found out he put up a piece in the Porte la Chappelle area. We found it very quickly based on his Instagram posts and just my luck…we found this.

Just a few hours in daylight and someone already destroyed it. I understand why Banksy installed it in this neighborhood. It’s a migrant area in a rough part of the 18th arrondissement. I guess they didn’t like the attention the art piece was creating when they are suffering there. I hate to say it, but the migrants here in Paris are still treated better than in America. PATHETIC!

On the drive home, we found this Banksy a few blocks from our apartment next to the Georges Pompidou Center in le Marais.

Early morning the next day, I stopped at Bataclan before returning the rental car and found this shrouded angel Banksy. Have you seen the Netflix documentary about the November 13th attack? I have watched it several times and it’s heartbreaking to hear the events of that night directly from the survivors.

Antz and I spent an early morning Banksy hunting while Liv was still in school and we found a few. The Napoleon one is also in the 18th near the Stalingrad Metro. The poor doggy is located in the 5th near La Sorbonne.

There are a couple more I didn’t see in person but I haven’t been anywhere near the Eiffel Tower (tourist trap) or Montmartre (I don’t go there because it’s all hills). Also, I heard someone carved out the mouse on the champagne cork. I didn’t hear about his last piece which is about the student uprising that took place at the Sorbonne in May 1968 until a few weeks later. I also found a recent Invader in the area that also commemorates the May 1968 student protests.

These are from his website.

On Liv’s last week of school we had an after school snack (known as the goûter) at the Hello Kitty Pop Up Matcha Cafe. The matcha donuts were yummy but we didn’t like the matcha iced lattes.

So all is well so far. We have found the cutest laundromat near our place however, it’s pricey to me (I usually do three loads for €40!) but I rather have nice fluffy dry towels which makes doing laundry there bearable. Liv has been a wonderful laundry helper.

I’m sorry I’ve taken forever to post lately but I gave my blog theme a makeover and it took my old lady brain ages to figure it out and I’ve been super busy with all the many trips we’ve taken in the last few months. I promise to post about them soon.

Bonne journée mes amis!

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Le Dîner en Blanc Paris 2018

Jul 6, 2018

Our fifth Dîner en Blanc was extra special because it was the 30th anniversary and Olivia joined us this year!

I was fortunate to have Antz craft these gorgeous crepe paper peonies for my headpiece. We found his Venetian mask for less than €7 at an art supply store near our apartment. I bought a huge, beautiful bouquet of white peonies for our table the day before but sadly they opened too soon so the day of the event, they were starting to whilt. I bought a bunch of babies breath (Les gypsophiles) and stuck them in Liv’s hair. We took an Uber to the Air France Museum. We arrived almost an hour early but I didn’t want to risk being late.

After checking in my group and waiting forever for the departure time, we walked a few blocks to Esplanade des Invalides. I was certain it would be further at the Jardin de Tuileries but this location was large enough to accommodate 13,000+ guests from all over the world!

We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather. This year was the 30th anniversary of the DEB and as fickle as French weather can be, not once has it been canceled due to rain. We didn’t bring our roll-up table this year but we bought a patio table from Monoprix and borrowed two chairs from our friends in Nation. We used a grocery cart to wheel them around and put the tableware and food in my wicker cart. I bought our white plates, a white serving tray and our gold flatware from Ikea. You may remember from our last Dîner en Blanc Paris, our lovely desserts were smashed in my bag during the transport, so I made extra special care to have them wrapped and put in a smash-proof box. Wouldn’t you know it, the warm weather melted the white meringue! I am cursed when it comes to our desserts, only one barely survived.

I love how Liv is eyeing the only dessert that survived.

After I passed out sparklers to my table of guests and the official napkin twirl, Antz popped our champagne and we took a few sips before heading off to find our friends.

The coolest thing happened when we were wandering around admiring all the creative outfits and table settings. A woman ran up to me and excitedly told me she follows my blog! I was stunned by her kindness and enthusiasm. I totally love meeting new people at this event and finding out that someone is genuinely entertained by my blog made my night. Enchanté LaToya, you were a delight to meet!

We had to say Bonsoir to the founder of Dîner en Blanc, François Pasquier and his lovely wife. The genie guy was a bonus I suppose, I was sad that I forgot to take a photo with Antz in the picture, LAME! I did have a moment to exclaim my love for the dinner and babble about our move to Paris to his wife as I was a bit tipsy from the champagne.

Technically, the event is for ages 18 and over but everyone welcomed Liv with hugs and were impressed by her level of French fluency. Everyone wanted to take a photo with her and were blown away by her maturity. I had to convince them that she just turned eight!

We finally found my friend Aymeric and he introduced us to his stunning girlfriend!

The Eiffel Tower was sparkling in the background.

We were exhausted and Liv had school the next day so around midnight, we packed up and called an Uber.

I am so happy we brought Olivia to experience her first Dîner en Blanc. Paris is always a magical place but this dinner has an extra special place in my heart for the past five years. This photo was taken by the press and it shows the 13,000 attendees.

If you may be interested in attending, you must be invited through a member. Let me know, I get a few invites per year around April/May. I just may be retiring from the event with exception to attending the DEB in Iceland!

Here’s previous Dîner en Blanc 2013, 2014, 2015

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Apartment Hunting in Paris: An Expat Guide

Jun 12, 2018

Bonjour Amis,

Let me confess, the first two months were exhilarating and equally stressful for me. I was absolutely enjoying our time living in Nation (12th arrondissement) and exploring beautiful Paris but also I was staying up all night looking for potential apartments. Every time I got close to scoring a fabulous place, someone else would snap it up. I was starting to believe it was because I wasn’t French but we had our French friends call on our behalf and they got the same response. I was so close to renting my dream apartment on the sweetest street ever when the agent said the landlord just approved someone before us. I mean, I called every day, left voicemails, sent emails all during the whole enrolling Liv into school drama. I commend my own strength because I thought I would have a mental breakdown with stress and disappointment. It was house hunting all over again but with a two month deadline. I was also working with our real estate agent in Los Angeles trying to get our house rented. My stress was at an all time high during the first few months here.

Every apartment I saw I would compare to the beautiful, perfect place that we didn’t get.

I grieved over this place. It was €2400, a block from Liv’s ballet school, a 15 minute walk to her school, on a private street. I would have lived with the tiny fridge and non existent storage for those floors and that price. I asked the agent to be put on a backup list in case the renter fell through. This put me in a worst state because nothing came close to this place in terms of layout, gorgeous Parisian charm and price. I found a larger, cute place but it was in a sketchy area of the 10th near Gare Nord which would mean a 10 minute bus ride to school and then a 20 minute walk. I was running out of time and feeling like we would end up homeless in Paris.

The second I saw our apartment on the French real estate website I recognized it from three years earlier when I first began looking for apartments just for fun. I couldn’t believe it was available the day after we were scheduled to move out of our house exchange and it was slightly under my budget. I immediately emailed the agent to schedule a viewing to make sure it wasn’t too good to be true. I’ve had such bad luck getting in touch with an agent (mostly due to not having a French phone number) and then discovering hours later that the apartment had already been rented. I made sure to let them know I was ready to sign the lease that day. I made two lists of criteria for our apartment search.

Must Have – Dealbreakers
Close to our max budget €2450/$2950
Two Bedrooms (willing to negotiate at this point)
Bright with some kind of view
Shower
High ceilings
Hardwood floors
Washer/Dryer
Oven/modern kitchen amenities
Walking distance to Liv’s school
Close to Metro/public transportation
Smoke-free apartment

Like to Have – Bonus
Haussmann building
Elevator
Balcony
Office Space for Antz
Herringbone hardwood floors
Large Refrigerator (typical Americans can’t live with a minibar fridge)
Dishwasher
Storage (for our 14 suitcases!)
Nice view
Close to le Marais
Parisian Charm/Crown Molding
Fireplace
Good Layout
Nice furniture

I know I sound picky but every single place we found had something missing from my Must-Have list. Mostly two bedroom apartments were over budget or too far from school. I began getting more flexible by the second month and started considering one bedrooms, longer commutes to school and really horrible layouts. We visited an apartment that was way under-budget but on the 6th floor with no elevator and the world’s narrowest bathroom. It was as wide as the bathtub and you practically had to step over the toilet to get into the tub. There was no shower and even though it had herringbone floors in the living room, the place was dark and how no traditional Parisian design. It also wasn’t in my ideal neighborhood but the price tag was the only thing that made it enticing. The only reason we didn’t end up getting it was the owner wanted someone who would rent it for at least two years. So I guess that was a blessing in disguise. When it comes down to house hunting, location and price were my main dealbreakers. Everything else was negotiable. It took days of going back and forth to get the agent to schedule a viewing. The problem was the renter didn’t want to show it until the place was available so I was cutting it close to our move-out date. I finally got a call to see it once I dropped Liv off at school. Because it was so close to her school I decided to walk around the neighborhood and wait for our appointment. I was almost two hours early and the agent was late (because she was French, of course!). We buzzed the door of the building and waited. The appointment started fifteen minutes late so she tried to call the renter to let us in. We saw the window was open to the apartment but she didn’t answer. She called the agency and they confirmed the right place and right time. After a half an hour of impatiently waiting, she said let’s reschedule for next week. UNLUCKY LIZZIE! I was practically in tears and starting to feel like this was hopeless. I already began to fall in love with the neighborhood. Everything was a close walk and my favorite shop (Monoprix) was just a block away! I was already familiar with the neighborhood and getting excited that I could actually live in my favorite part of Paris.

All the while I was getting no leads for renting our house in LA. Our agent had a few open houses but hardly anyone showed serious interest. My agent was sure it was due to our cat Lola coming with the house and it being rented fully furnished. I was so nervous we lowered the price and asked my angel best friend Aimee to foster Lola for us so we could rent our place to someone with pets. Then we found a family with a dog that was excited to rent our place. After a FaceTime meeting, I signed the lease and waited for them to send the deposit and then they flaked. This made Antz and I very nervous because we couldn’t rent a place in Paris without renting our house in LA. Like, a scale of 1 – 10 in the stress department, I was about 110. After some negotiations and hard work on our agent’s side, we found a lovely single woman with a cute small dog. She signed the lease quickly and with zero drams, sent the full rental amount for three months and we are very relieved to have a responsible adult living in our house, at least during the summer. Whew!

After the most intense week of my life the apartment manager finally got the tenant to show us the apartment. The chick didn’t even offer an apology for not showing up for our first appointment and she laid in bed in her pajamas while we toured the apartment, so lame! The place didn’t look exactly like the online pictures but I knew they were three years old. The current renters were disgusting and they had a dog which I’m sure they didn’t clean up after. The courtyard was my least favorite. It’s dark and has cobblestone so Liv couldn’t really ride her scooter in the back area. The furniture was rearranged in an odd way and older than I guessed but when I saw the floors, the light pouring in from the floor to ceiling windows and the beautiful fireplaces in the two bedrooms, I said, straight out of a movie “We’ll take it!”

Then came the rental process. It’s a little different than in the US, the French don’t really have a credit score rating. We also didn’t have a previous French rental or a French tax return to submit so everything came down to Anthony’s pay stubs and being the first person to see it. I spent several days running back and forth to the print shop making copies of everything imaginable to send to the rental agency. They needed to see our last five years of bank statements, we had to buy French annual renter’s insurance and they requested a letter from his job stating he would be employed for the year we were renting. I was worried about getting the letter from his employer in time because like I said before, apartments go fast and we were not going to lose this one. Thank goodness Antz job sent the letter right away. I saw the place right before we took our trip to London for spring break and we electronically signed the lease while we were in London! I couldn’t believe we finally did it. I have heard so many horror stories about Americans getting scammed online by having to wire huge cash deposits and losing the money. Or the landlord requesting up to a year of rent for a security deposit. We only had to put down two month’s rent deposit and pay an agency fee. Even though all the expenses and fees came close to $10k, I was ecstatic! I could finally breathe after so long. I found a place of our own in le Marais, a seven minute walk to the kid’s school with practically everything on my must-have list! The first week we didn’t have wifi so I almost died but lucky for us, we extended our house exchange with our friends so Antz would go to the other apartment to work. I don’t even mind that our building has world’s smallest elevator or the wonky, old furniture. I got my gorgeous herringbone flooooooooooooors!! (Hope you heard that in Oprah’s voice)

Bienvenue dans Notre Appartement Parisien

I could breakdance on these floors!

I packed my beloved Anthropologie tablecloth, a few family photos and as many crafting supplies as I could fit in my suitcase. I would have brought my Things Will Work Out print but Antz made a good point that it could have gotten damaged in my suitcase due to the size. The living room is a cozy size, I like the open-ness, other apartments in our building has a wall where the counter space is so opening it like they did brings in more light. The couch is not comfy at all. I really wish I could ship my new couch from LA, but I doubt it would fit in that space. The telly wasn’t plugged in, and we discovered it doesn’t work so we have been waiting for the rental company to order a new cord for weeks now. We get by without it because we use our iMac computer to stream shows. Our new plant is lovely and her name is Josephine. She is un-killable.

My Mom shipped this Origin magazine from LA because our house is featured in it!!

I adore the glass French doors and the open flow from Liv’s room to the living room. The layout works perfect for us because Antz works California hours (3pm – midnight with an hour break for dinner) so he can close the doors during his conference calls and Liv is usually sleeping while he’s working. Antz was fortunate enough to inherit a comfy office chair from the previous tenants. When we were staying in Nation (12th arrondissement), he was sitting in an antique chair that was cool looking but uncomfortable. It may be ugly but it’s super comfy! I think he has a better office set up than back in LA. His favorite part is sitting by the window and watching the rain while he works.

I bought the world map from a cute shop in le Marais called Fleux for under €30. I’ve always wanted to get her a world map but we never had the wall space in LA. I may add some framed photos and artwork on her walls. Antz doesn’t want to add any holes, so we’ll see. I love the white palette of the apartment but we wanted to add some color so I bought a pom pom kit and some vibrant yarn from La Droguerie. We added the pom poms to her Ikea lamp shade.

Now you can see why I brought so much luggage! I packed Liv’s Miffy bedding and a suitcase full of her books and as many toys as I could fit. Our sweet neighbors friend in Nation gifted Liv some books in French for her library. It’s nice to finally have a minimalist space but I miss my cool stuff from our house in LA. I was lucky to nab the last Chateau Maison Rouge footstool at Monoprix. We rented a car for move-in day and drove 45 minutes outside of Paris to stock up at Ikea. We bought basic bedding (comforters/sheets/pillows), that lamp shade and a sheepskin rug. I also had to buy some new kitchen supplies, a flatware set, wine glasses, a new bath mat, storage bins and throw blankets. The apartment came with plates, pots, pans and utensils. Lucky for us, Ikea is universal so everything was identical to Ikea in Los Angeles. I even used our Ikea Family rewards card for a little discount!

I also brought a sewing kit, art supplies, a few books, a giant (and heavy) accordion folder with our important documents/paperwork and our huge iMac computer (which serves as our TV) with us. I was so concerned it would get damaged during the flight to France but as long as you pack it in the original shipping box from Apple, it’s fine. I packed an entire suitcase with our bedding from home which I discovered doesn’t fit French mattress sizing. We used vacuum-sealed ziplock bags to pack most of our bedding. It worked pretty well, I was able to fit a king size comforter, pillow cases and sheets but it made the bag heavier in weight. I also bought the bedside lamp, Ikea, I love you!

There’s a long story behind that rad Shepard Fairey poster. Antz and I were at a hardware store called Castarama in Nation. I was looking for curtains for Olivia’s room when I saw the framed Shepard Fairey print. I asked one of the guys working there if they sold the print and he said no, just the frame. He then told me where to go buy the print at a poster store near the Pompidou Center. I could have hugged this kid! I thought I was going to have to order it from eBay for hundreds of dollars. We rushed to the store and found a smaller version. When I asked the woman if they carried it in a larger size, she said they were sold out but she could print one for us in ten minutes. Say what?! I couldn’t believe we got this rad French Shepard Fairey print for less than €60. I mean, President Macron has this same artwork in his office. I love the French motto: Liberte – Egalite – Fraternite which means Freedom – Equality – Fraternity. The French really live by this motto and I adore it. That kid really did me a solid. I am slightly annoyed by the placement on the wall but we had to use the existing hooks because Antz didn’t want to add any new holes. I wish it was a schmidge more centered over the bed.

I brought our rainbow maker from home. I need to make a video of the rainbows bouncing around our room. I can’t get over the details of this fireplace. I am still looking for the perfect mirror to go on the mantel. I also love the small pop of color from our new Maison Chateau Rouge throw blanket. Our bedroom in this apartment is larger than our bedroom back home. There are a few trade-offs we made like I didn’t get as much crown molding or a chandelier as I hoped for and we don’t have a dryer (that actually works) so we have to put our clothes on a drying rack or go to a nearby laundromat but the stellar view always cheers me up.

The bathroom is pretty standard and small. We purchased a new shower head and spent a fortune on new towels. OMG! I am obsessed with our towel warmer. I need one for LA, it’s a lifesaver during the cold months. I added the hooks for our poufs but they are the sticky, removable kind.

Antz and I are now sharing one closet along with all of our empty luggage and winter coats. I am extremely happy I brought a shoe hanger with us from Target. This is about half the shoes I brought. I keep the rest in a suitcase under our bed. It’s a tight fit but fortunately there is space for everything.

And lastly, here is our mini balcony.

It’s just wide enough to step out on and see the entire street. I plan to plant some peonies in our flower boxes soon. We are extremely lucky to live on a trendy, lively (sometimes noisy) street. This area is exactly like Highland Park without the dumb, fighting neighbors across the street. So far our neighbors are friendly and helpful. There are cafes, brasseries, cute shops, art galleries and a tiny square dedicated to one of my favorite jazz musicians, John Coltrane.

We have met our nice neighbors in our building, a dad and his young son but they don’t speak great English. We absolutely love living here. It’s a simple apartment but has everything I could ask for in a pied-à-terre. We are just under budget (we still pay rent in US dollars that we convert into Euros) and all the utilities (water, electric, gas and internet) are included in our rent. I cannot believe this is our new life.

Bisous!

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Moving Abroad: Finalizing our visas at the OFII in France

Jun 10, 2018

Hi There,

So are you ready for this rad guide to finalizing our long stay visitor visa?! Here we go… Once you arrive in Paris at the airport you must go through customs and you get your passport/visa stamped with a date. We arrived in Paris on March 2, 2018. Wow, feels like years ago.

This dated stamp is very important because it is your ticking time bomb to finalizing your visa. You get 90 days from the date of that stamp to send your OFII (French Office for Immigration and Integration) application and a copy of your stamped visa. Then you wait patiently for your convocation letters. Convocation is a fancy word for a letter summoning you to complete your visa process. You usually will get two letters for two separate appointments.

Once you get the letter in the mail you will get an appointment for a medical exam. This appointment is outside of Paris but our Metro passes worked fine. We were lucky to get our appointment scheduled for 10:30 am. I was dreading a 8:00 am appointment which would mean we would have to bring Olivia with us so she was in school. It took about 45 minutes to get there and we arrived an hour early. We stood in line outside and after waiting about 40 minutes Antz realized we were waiting in the refugees seeking asylum line. Whoopsie. If you have an appointment you just go to the door and show the security guard your letter.

This appointment is to get a chest x-ray to prove you don’t have tuberculosis (how is that still a thing?) we also had our blood drawn, had a quick medical questionnaire with a doctor and did I mention I had to be topless TWICE?!

I knew I would have to take my shirt off for the chest x-ray but I thought I could leave my bra on. We had to navigate the whole appointment with our terrible French and there seemed to be only a few doctors who spoke English. I reluctantly disrobed and went into a room with no female doctor as I anticipated, but a tiny male doctor who was intent on having a conversation with me about the Royal Wedding while I held my boobs awkwardly.

He tells me to stand in front of the x-ray machine and press my boobs into the screen. I’m like, okay anything to stay in Paris, I guess? He then tells me to put my arms down and put my necklace in my mouth so it won’t show up in the x-ray. Then he asks me if I attended the royal wedding? Do I personally know Meghan Markle because she is from Los Angeles? Then he tried to make me answer these annoying questions with my Olivia necklace in my mouth while I tried to keep my boobs on a metal x-ray machine. This really happened. This doctor was as tall as Olivia and he was one of the only English speaking doctors. I heard him say the exact same thing to the woman who went in next. She sounded more amused than I was.

So after I survived that trauma, I went into another room. There was a doctor who doesn’t speak English. He weighed me (I’ve lost 10 pounds!!) measured my height, gave me an eye test and drew my blood (ouchie). He was amazing with sign language so I understood everything. Then sent me to go wait again.

The last room is another take off your top area and then you walk into a small office. This time I kept my bra on because I was feeling like an unpaid prostitute. I casually sat down and spoke to a handsome doctor who had to use Google to translate our conversation. He explained that I was healthy, asked me some questions and stamped a certificate stating I was all good. He checked my heartbeat which is why I needed my shirt off. So ladies, wear a nice bra because you want to impress!

Then it was over. Hooray!

The front desk gives you the signed and stamped medical certificates and then you take the long, hot bus back into Paris. The funny thing is, the city we were in had this modern tram so we wanted to try to take it back into Paris. We hopped on and noticed we were heading further away from Paris so we took it back to the original station.

The Health Exam office is:

221 Avenue Pierre Brossolette
Montrouge, France

Our next appointment was a week later, also scheduled for 10:00 am. This OFII office was located in the 11th so it was close by. This time we knew to walk right in. We waited in a room for about a half an hour and listened to the three clerks interact with the people. Most of the people waiting spoke French but the few that spoke English ended up with the guy clerk. There was a mean lady and a nice-sounding lady. After hearing the mean lady, we crossed our fingers we would be called by the nice one. Luckily, she called my name! She asked for my paperwork and only spoke French. Since we hired a visa consultant, I knew everything she would ask for so it was easy to understand. She accepted all my paperwork and didn’t have any issues. She asked me if my husband was here and I called Antz over. He handed over his papers and she told me to relax and breathe as she stamped our visas.

I have never said Merci more in my life. I was so happy! Guess what? Five months before March (October) we get to start the process all over again for our renewal!

We decided to celebrate by going to lunch at one of the most touristy places in Paris.

I was feeling officially French but then we got a waiter who didn’t have time for me ordering in French. I literally was saying “Je voudrais oeufs avec frommage et un croissant beurre.” He then impatiently said “What do you want?” Le Sigh.

I am destined to never speak French.

This is what we brought to our visa appointment:

Proof of residence (lease agreement or housing attestation)
The clerk asked if we had a utility bill in our name but our utilities are included in our rent so she said okay.

Medical certificate (this is why you need to go to the first appointment)
I’ve also heard some people may need to bring a vaccination chart, they just asked me if I was vaccinated for tetanus and I said yes when I was pregnant with Olivia.

Passport with your stamped visa (I still hate the picture the LA French consulate took)

Another passport size photo (remember when I bought $96 worth of visa photos?)

A receipt showing you paid your tariffs. Our timbres were €250 each. Children do not have to attend this appointment or pay a tariff.

Here is a straightforward list of what you need to apply for a long stay visa.

The address to send your OFII application and stamped visa is:

48 rue de la Roquette
75011 Paris, France

Here is a recap of our Los Angeles visa experience, please ask me anything in the comments.

Moving abroad guides: part one & part two, and my financial guide for applying for a visa.

We are legit French immigrants until March 2019!!

Bisous

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The Hoxton Hotel Paris

Jun 9, 2018

Bonjour from the most comfy, freaking awesome hotel I’ve ever stayed at. The Hoxton hotels are popping up in all major cities and they are my new favorite place to stay. Last month we stayed at the Hoxton in Shoreditch. I liked the hipster vibes in the lobby spaces (they had a photo booth and DJ) and the location was perfect but the room wasn’t blowing me away. It was tiny, borderline cramped and there wasn’t a view of anything special. Other than an enormous wall-to-wall bed, and great shower water pressure, I was quite underwhelmed. Or maybe I was bitter from banging my knee in that stupid drawer that wouldn’t close!

We were scheduled to move out of the apartment we were exchanging on May 1st so I booked one night at the Hoxton hotel, Paris. We found out that May 1st is Labor day in France so that meant we couldn’t move into our new apartment until May 2nd due to the holiday. Then we extended the dates of our exchange with our swappers so we had access to their apartment until May 15th. This gave us a staycation overnight in the 2nd arrondissement. It’s an area close to our new apartment but not a part of Paris I have hung out in much. We packed light and took the Metro in the rain of course! I didn’t have anything planned to do other than order room service and sleep. Poor Antz had to work so we just hung out in the hotel which felt like a mansion. It’s located in a beautifully restored 18th century building. The hotel is stunning. I would do a poor job at trying to describe how beautifully they combined old with new. I took all the photos I could. There were so many people in the common areas I had to wake up at 6 am to have the place all to myself. It was the most fun hotel I’ve stayed at for less than 24 hours!

Look at this insane lobby!

You guys! This lobby blew me away. I can’t get over that staircase, the furniture, the atrium windows, the bar. The reception was in a different part of the lobby through a sitting area with a living wall. The Hoxton Paris is not here to be mediocre!

At first glance I was sure the plants were fake but upon closer inspection, they are indeed real, growing plants.

I booked a roomy size room so I requested the least boring room that was available. The guy said “I’ve never had that request before.” I’m not sure if mentioning this helped us score a better room but it never hurts to ask. I have gotten many free upgrades just by asking.

So this ensuite is RAD! Antz and I want to build a bathroom addition to our house and this is what we want! The industrial metal and glass windows, the tile, the copper fixtures, those sconces… I WANT IT ALL!

Liv finds landline telephones so fascinating. They are like ancient relics to her, she enjoys ordering room service for us in French.

Of course the kid wants a mirror like this in her room so she can practice ballet.

After lunch we explored the rest of the hotel. We found this beautiful library.

Hands up if this hotel blows your mind?!

Liv and I went downstairs to hang out and drink spa water while Antz worked.

Every space has gorgeous floors! I am obsessed with herringbone hardwood floors. I can’t wait to get a quote on installing them in our living room in our house in LA.

The staff told me to check out the Jacques Bar which is a speakeasy hidden away in the hotel.

The lovely bartender made me a special grapefruit concoction. This guy was a serious mixologist and watching him work was like watching an artist. He hand carved the ice from that giant block. He added edible flowers and his frothing technique was impressive. The drink was perfection. I am a lightweight so any drink that isn’t overpowering with alcohol is for me. I had two of these!!

I called Antz to come down for a break and he ordered a whiskey drink. Such an adult.

Imbibed by the spirits!

The next morning appeared in about 15 minutes. This place had the fastest speed wifi we had since arriving in France. It was very hard to leave.

After uploading all these photos, I finally got out of bed and showered in that lovely spacious bathroom with time for breakfast downstairs.

OMG! Just when I fallen into a daily croissant rut, they made the yummiest avocado toast and poached eggs. The Hoxton Paris is so legit, I was living my best life!

Still can’t get over this staircase and the light!

Au revoir, I hope to return again soon.

The Hoxton Paris
30-32 Rue du Sentier
75002 Paris, France

The hotel gave me a discount code if anyone is interested in booking a room, let me know! I highly recommend booking a night if you come to Paris, it’s a five star joint with impeccable service.

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Le Marche aux Puces de Saint-Ouen

May 28, 2018

Bonsoir amis,

There is a huge antique (les puces) flea market in Northern Paris. You have to walk through a few blocks of fake flea markets before you find the real one. I’m talking really tacky jeans, shady looking jewelry and cheap knock-off designer sunglasses. There are guys also selling “Chanel” perfume and unboxed cell phones aggressively. Once you make it through that, you will find a lovely antique flea market. We spent a few hours looking for items for our new apartment. I wanted a vintage Parisian street sign, a Camroon Juju hat, a Moroccan Fez, an embroidered tablecloth, and a steamer trunk. I left empty-handed because everything was super expensive. I am not into haggling over prices and most of the vendors were cranky. We encountered a few very friendly people however more vendors seemed annoyed by our presence than pleased.

I did stop at the tacky flea market for a second to try on this lovely African necklace. Not for me. I need a longer neck to pull this off.

The tacky flea market vs Les Puces

I didn’t even dare ask the price of these vintage Louis Vuitton steam trunks, but aren’t they dreamy?

Just a tad too small.

Olivia was looking for a ring with her birthstone, which a pearl but I told her most of the jewelry looked cursed. Kidding! There was so much cool antique stuff but so expensive.

Tell me I’m wrong…

Should I just casually purchase a crystal ball? Or do I need these guys in our new apartment?

So, if you thought the sweet doll from Annabelle was “scary” then meet her older brother known as Mister Nightmare!

Liv kept saying, I want a doll. They aren’t scary, Mom, they are just authentic!

Hmmm, her birthday is coming soon, tempting.

This silverware was beautiful. I have the worst feeling those nightgowns were worn by actual ghosts!

This signage and lamp stall was my favorite but sadly everything was well over my budget. I would love to buy a French street sign but even the small ones were €250. I will keep searching.

I love looking at taxidermy but would never dare own it. Cool cuckoo clock at the top. I really wanted a chandelier but I have no idea what size to buy, if they work or how to have it installed in our apartment.

Another item I really wanted to splurge on was this incredible rabbit painting. I liked the size and the frame but I couldn’t justify spending €250 on a painting that wasn’t an original. Not when I’m married to an amazingly talented artist who works for cheap wine and kisses.

I also was going to ask about this rad Moroccan fez hat but some old, mean guy who worked in another stall yelled at us to not take pictures did not seem to want to chit chat with Americans.

After getting yelled at a few times for taking pictures (Okay, jeez didn’t know I was in a museum!) and running into one too many creepy dolls, we left just in time to get rained on. I’m glad we checked it out but I am an online shopper at heart. I’m still looking for those items on eBay and Etsy.

The flea market address is:

142 Rue des Rosiers, 93400 Saint-Ouen, France

Make sure you walk north of the freeway overpass, stay to the right and look for rue Jean Henri Fabre, there are entrances all along this street.

My ignorant, American ass was snapping photos most of the time but some of the vendors don’t want their merchandise photographed, so be sure to ask first. And please, say Bonjour and Merci to every person you encounter!

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Life in Paris: Month Deux

May 17, 2018

Bonjour mes amis,

It has already been two months since our arrival in Paris! I cannot tell you how fast this time has flown by. We exchanged our house in LA with a sweet French couple in Nation (12th arrondissement) for the first two months so we could have time to apartment hunt. I am so happy we were able to live in Nation mostly because we were able to experience a new part of the city we have never seen before.

I feel like I have finally mastered taking Liv to school on the Metro. I used to be confused about which direction the train would go and call myself out as an obvious tourist during the ride by watching for every stop. Now, we know all the train lines and have the cool, I can’t be bothered look while on the train. I do still get secretly excited when an accordion player is on the train. Although once on a crowded train I got my skirt caught in the door.

Side Note: My hair is huge here. I spend hours flat ironing it and yet the second I go outside it turns into an instant pouf. Must be the humidity, there is so much moisture in the air.

Liv and I usually discuss our plans for the week and how we are adjusting to life in France during the ride. I ask her about the differences between LA and Paris. She makes statements like France is so much more cultural and historic than California. She told me, “In Paris everyone takes public transportation but hardly anyone in LA does. Most people at the grocery store are grumpy but here they care about helping you.” She also said the food here is much better than LA. She’s doing well in school. I have met some of the parents of her classmates (although very few speak English). Her curriculum is very similar to her French school in LA but they go off the campus for PE (which is called sports) and I feel terrible because I can’t help her with most of her homework (only math and English).

After I drop her off, I usually take the bus home because the Metro is very crowded and grab my luggy to pick up the day’s groceries. I still can’t get over how frequently I have to shop here. We go through groceries like crazy!

So far we absolutely love living in Paris. I still cannot believe we are here after dreaming of this for so many years. However, there are some downsides to life in France. Please don’t think I’m some entitled brat complaining about my great life, I just want to keep it real and show both sides of our life.

It is very expensive! So far we have plunked down quite a bit of euros for household items (new towels, shopping at Ikea for our new apartment, basic toiletries). It’s harder to stick to a budget because we had to stock up on basic items. Our first week here I bought Liv a scooter, new clothes and had to replace a pair of shoes she outgrew. This month Antz and I needed some new clothes because we (happily) lost weight! I spend €225 every month on our Metro/bus passes but sometimes in a pinch, we need to use Uber and depending on how far we are from home, it can be expensive. We needed to rush home from Versailles to make it to a birthday party on time and it ended up costing €65 for a 30 minute ride.

Liv really enjoyed her €9 smoothie.

Then Monoprix had to come out with this rad limited-time collab with Maison Chateau Rouge. Just take all my money!

The romper was for Liv but if they had my size I would totally rock it. I pretty much cleared out their home decor display.

However, groceries seem less expensive here than in LA. Like cheese, meat and beverages are super cheap. But let me tell you about the most magical, delicious item in all of France… la beurre!

Back home I buy insignificant salted butter for like $3.99 on sale. Here, I only buy Sel de Mer de Noirmoutier and it is so delicious. I use it on everything, you could tell me it has crystal meth in it and I would still be like “Pass the butter.” I must say, America is missing out on this fucking amazing butter. It costs €2.35!

However dining out is still costing a fortune. We stopped ordering cocktails and are sticking to drinking water but we can’t seem to keep our bill under €75. Recently, while out on a stroll around the neighborhood we found the famous rue Montorgueil. The heavens parted and angels sang as we discovered the most intoxicating smells of baked bread, meats and fresh fruit. The oldest bakery in Paris is located here. It’s now my favorite place to buy fruit and we fell in love with all the restaurants.

We brought home the best BBQ ribs and a half a kilo of cherries for lunch. Liv gobbled the whole tray in five minutes! Oh, and I am now a basket lady. I have bought three baskets since I got here. This is who I am now. Note: The fluffy hair.

We found this incredible living wall called L’oasis d’Aboukir. It rains almost once a week so I guess that is why this garden is so insanely green.

There are a few other annoyances here that I can’t seem to figure out. Like getting mail delivered. It seemed to be easier to get our mail when we were staying in Nation but that could be due to our sweet neighbors helping us out by accepting our packages. In our new apartment, we have a mailbox that we put our names on but nothing has been delivered so far. It took many attempts to find which of the local post offices our address belonged to. My French is not as great as I thought it was. I was able to pick up one package (I ordered five weeks ago!) yet three more are in mail limbo because we were told if our building has a locked gate, they can’t deliver packages. Uh, like every single building in Paris has a passcode door so why wouldn’t they at least email me or leave a note so I know where to pick up my stuff? Today I am going to Fed Ex for the third time to pick up a package that was delivered nine days ago! My Mom sent me a huge care package and it took me two weeks to figure out how to track it down.

Another thing I will never get used to is the military presence here. I mean, they all seem like nice soldiers but it’s jarring to walk down the street and then boom, there’s five or six fully uniformed army folks casually carrying guns that look like they belong in a video game. I don’t dare take photos of them but they do say bonjour without a smile as I walk by. Oh, and they wear berets. I suppose I am lucky to live in a relatively safe neighborhood because there have been random knife attacks since we have arrived and sadly, I am always cautious when we are in large crowds.

I also seemed to have a hyper-sensitive aversion to noise. I was equally annoyed by the nonsense noise caused by our hillbilly neighbors (they had the world’s lamest garage band) in LA. Here, the sounds are subtle but torturous. For example, we noticed the first night while in bed, the upstairs neighbor’s toilet must be directly above our heads. Imagine the sounds we heard. They also had some type of saloon door that swings shut. This door produced a boom, bump, bump, bump sound all day long, just about every 30 seconds. I was very close to paying them a friendly visit to offer some felt pads but we moved into a new apartment. Just as we arrived at our new home we were welcomed by the constant cooing of les pigeons. They nest outside of our kitchen window and their incessant cooing sounds make me want to murder. Liv and Antz swear they can’t hear them so I’m the only one going crazy over the sound.

My final (first-World) problem is our new apartment doesn’t have a separate dryer. They consider this country sophisticated? I was warned about the hard, scratchy towels of Paris so I’ve always traveled with my own towel. The night before we left LA, I took a shower and used my soft, brand new bath towel that I packed in my carry-on. Then as we were re-packing our stuff I realized I only had enough room for either my winter coat or my towel. I was already wearing my camel year-round coat on the plane so I had to make a Sophie’s Choice. I decided it won’t be so terrible to buy new towels in Paris once we arrived. Guess what? Soft, plush towels do not exist here! I was stuck using my face towel for the first week. Monoprix does sell towels but they have a scratchy texture and cost $32.99 each. So, lesson learned, travel with your own pillowcases and towels. I did bring my allergy-free pillowcase covers with me. So, I’m living in 1925 y’all!

I adore freshly dried linen sheets or hand-washed pajamas but putting on stiff as cardboard undies sucks! Now I understand why everyone has to iron clothes here.

In other fun news, it’s peony season! My favorite flower is in bloom and you can buy four stems for 20 euros. Well, that’s how much they were at the marche however Antz found a sweet bouquet for me for Mother’s day for just ten euros.

This is how they look three days later, swoon.

May 1st is May Day. According to Wikipedia, on 1 May 1561, King Charles IX of France received a lily of the valley as a lucky charm. He decided to offer a lily of the valley each year to the ladies of the court. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became custom to give a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime, on 1 May. Nowadays, people may present loved ones either with bunches of lily of the valley.

Liv has been a crafting machine since most of her toys couldn’t fit in her suitcase. I took her to La Droguerie to buy a pom pom making kit. This colorful place is located on

9-11 Rue du Jour, 75001 Paris, France

She was able to customize her own glitter! This kid and I were in rainbow craft supplies heaven.

We try to go to visit a new arrondissement every weekend. The parks here are absolutely gorgeous. Just don’t ever step on the grass. When the sky turns blue here, you grab a picnic basket and run outside!