Nice in Nice, France

Feb 17, 2019

We began day two meeting our friends from LA for brunch in Garibaldi Square which was beautiful. We met them at a restaurant/furniture store. All the furniture in the restaurant was for sale. We had an amazing breakfast and the best hot chocolate ever.

I met my dear friend Brandi many years ago through a Mom-only Facebook group we belong to and I reached out to her to ask about life at the French school Liv attended in LA. Her son is a few years older than Liv and I knew she was very involved in the school. So we met for coffee to chat about her experience as a non-French speaking person of color in the private school. I felt like such an outsider before Liv started at the school because we didn’t know anyone or have any connection to the LA French community and Brandi welcomed me with warm arms. She bridged the gap for us at the school and introduced me to another incredible friend of mine. I have since extended the same courtesy to other parents who were interested in the school to pay it forward. I adore this woman so much. PS, she is kinda of a big deal!

Her rad family is living abroad and traveling like us, we were joking about pooling our money to buy a mansion with sea views together. Liv had a ball playing babysitter to her sweet little ones.

Brandi had to go to work for the day so we spent the rest of the morning checking out the Port of Nice. It was a gorgeous day so we took a quick boat ride across the bay.

Posing with my yacht, no big deal. There is a cute ferry that will take you across port for free.

This was Napoleon’s modest 1794 crib in Nice. Now it’s a lawyer’s office.

These two look like sisters!

After taking an Uber back to our rental, we hit the beach and I was surprised to find rocks instead of sand. It’s strange at first but the rocks are smooth and warm so it feels nice on your back, like wearing Crocs. We borrowed a beach umbrella from our rental and bought Liv a unicorn float. The water was the most gorgeous shades of blue. I am so used to filthy, polluted ocean water in LA, it was so nice to actually be able to see through the water. I was so happy not to have to deal with sand in our hair!

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I baked in the sun while Antz and Liv played in the water. I also observed the many topless women and old dudes in Speedos. We actually ended up befriending a nice Mom and her daughter who were laying next to us. It was very hard to carry-on a friendly conversation with them both being topless however, they spoke English and were very sweet. We saw them everyday during our trip.

Antz rarely wears his hair down but when he does I swoon. South of France Antz is so handsome!

We packed up and stopped at a little snack bar near our apartment for an ice cream cone and spent the rest of the night enjoying the air conditioning and watching TV in Italian and French.

Summer in Paris: BFF Visit

Dec 18, 2018

My bestie Aimee came to visit us for ten days in July! The last time we were together in Paris was March 2015.

Since it was the middle of summer and unbearably hot in Paris, we took a road trip to the seaside towns of Deauville, Trouville and Honfleur. Lucky for us, the weather was much cooler. We stayed at a beautiful, historic bed and breakfast in Deauville. I finally struck gold with my car rental skills. Not only did I get the actual car I reserved, a sweet ass brand new Volvo, but it was white which they never have (so sick of driving silver and beige cars!) If we ever buy a car in Paris, I am seriously considering a Volvo. I mean, if I can’t find a vintage Fiat Pop 500 with an automatic transmission or my dream car this light blue beauty. I guess Liv would have to sit on the hood.

It was a quick two hour drive west so we stopped in the village of Buorneville which is in the Normandy region. We needed to stretch our legs and I had to take a pic in front of this adorable Mairie. Little did we know that we stopped right in the middle of an insect horde and we were covered with hundreds of tiny black bugs. It was awful. Liv noticed them first and next thing we knew they were all over us. I have many things I cannot tolerate and bugs is high on the list. They were in my braids, all over the rental car, in our clothes. I was miserable during the rest of the drive. I planned to take photos of the picturesque village of Pont-Audemer but we just drove through without stopping. We felt like there should be warning signs saying watch out for tiny almost microscopic bugs that don’t bite but crawl all over you! Has that ever happened to anyone else? I still itch just thinking about it.

When we arrived in Deauville at our hotel Villa L’Augeval thirty minutes later we immediately jumped into the shower and changed.

Our room was quaint. Aimee, Liv and Lulu had their own tiny room to share.

The view from our window was more impressive than the room. This lovely church bells chimed every hour. Liv was stoked because our hotel had a pool.

We headed to a restaurant in Trouville-Sur-Mer for dinner which was highly recommended by our French friends.

Trouville-sur-mer is a 15 minute drive from Deauville and it’s so cute. Most of the houses have a Art-Deco Victorian style. We drove around picking which mansion would be our future beachside vacation house.

I am no fan of onions, as many of you may already know, however I have always been enticed by the smell of French onion soup in the past. I saw it on the menu and decided that I would be brave and give it a try. Aimee was excited to order seafood and oysters. Antz got a steak and Liv ordered something simple from the kids menu. Lulu just ate bread.

Well my dears, the onion soup was a big disappointment! I was excited to see the raclette of cheese covering the top and it smelled yummy but beneath the bland cheese was a bowl of warm water and big, almost raw onions. I was hoping for the creamy broth of soft onions I have seen at restaurants in LA but this was Normandy style which seems to translate to no seasoning. The plate of shrimp I ordered were served cold to my dismay and Aimee didn’t enjoy her food either. Yet another expensive meal we wish we just went to McDonalds. I swear I am trying my best to open my palette to French cuisine but no luck so far!

Liv got an ice cream cone for dessert. Antz took these lovely photos by the Trouville harbor, I love my new Modcloth dress which was giving me 1950s vibes and it has POCKETS!!

We dropped Aimee off at the hotel so she could take a nap and sleep off her horrible dinner and we drove to the beach to catch the sunset.

The Deauville American Film Festival has taken place since 1975. The Promenade des Planches was built in 1923 and now has the names of popular American actors and directors. I was surprised by some of the names we saw but happy to find my imaginary lover Jeffrey Goldblum. Olivia only knew Jessica Tandy from her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

The next day happened to be July 14th which is Bastille day in France! We began the day with a refreshing swim at our hotel.

She still loves to bellyflop!

We checked out of our room and headed to the beach for breakfast. But first, Liv challenged us to a game of table tennis. I beat them both!

I found the OG actors on the planches further down the boardwalk. Liz Taylor, Bette Davis and my girl Grace Kelly.

After promising Liv we would return so she could spend a day playing in the sand. We headed to Honfleur to spend the rest of the day before driving back into Paris.

Somehow there is an unspoken rule that when we see a Ferris Wheel, Liv must ride it, no questions.

It appears carousels follow this same rule as well.

Being weird with my best friend 21 years later.

The Honfleur harbor is giving me Copenhagen vibes.

Aimee was super stoked to finally get a delicious bowl of mussels! I don’t know how she eats them.

We listened to a French band play while we dined. There was a World Cup game playing so the entire town was distracted. I drove through Versailles to see if we could watch the Bastille day fireworks on our way back to the city but it was so crowded we couldn’t find parking and we were tired, so we zapped a few Invaders (how cool is this beheaded Louis the XVI?) and like the old, lame folks we are, we went home to bed.

Bonjournee!

Day trip to Reims, France

Oct 19, 2018

I sometimes freak myself out at how much I OVER-plan things for us to do. We were pretty tired from our trip to Cherbourg but I couldn’t resist getting tickets for the magnificent Marie Antoinette fireworks show. Since I still had the rental car for one more day, I decided it would be worth going since we could drive there from Paris. It was on a Friday evening so we surprised Liv after picking her up from school. The event was held in the beautiful Jardin Orangerie at Versailles. Of course, Liv wore her Marie Antoinette dress.

Although it was entirely in French, we were able to follow the story of Marie Antoinette’s life in Versailles. It was a whimsical show mixed with classical music and the most insane fireworks ever. Even the character’s costumes had fireworks. As tired as we were, the show was definitely worth it. We all agreed that it was the most spectacular fireworks show we have ever seen!

However, it was painful to get up at 5am the next morning to catch our 6am train to Reims. The good news was the trip was only 90 minutes long which felt like an instant on the high speed train. We were able to take a quick nap on the train.

Traveling from Gare l’est is the best. It’s only a ten minute bus ride away and it’s one of my favorite stations as far as cleanliness, food kiosks and because I use the SNCF app, I just scan a QR code on my phone to board the train.

Reims is in the Champagne region of eastern France and as much as you may want to pronounce it was Rey-ims…for some weird reason it’s pronounced Rance, like rhymes with France.

We hopped on the tram as soon as we arrived. Hooray for easy, accessible public transportation! This was a rare occasion that I didn’t have an itinerary scheduled for a trip. I always check out the Atlas Obscura website when we visit a new place. I usually visit the local church first, then see a landmark the area is known for and find somewhere off the beaten path. Liv and I also use our MAPS book as a guide to learn about the location we are seeing. It’s super informative and we adore the illustrations. I knew we wanted to go to the local champagne tasting rooms but since Liv was with us, I didn’t make a reservation. I wanted to check out the school named after President Roosevelt where the Germans signed the unconditional surrender of WWII. Liv got May 7th off from school in Paris for Victory Day. I never heard much about WWII when I was in school in America other than Pearl Harbor and Memorial day (which is pretty much celebrated with douchey spring break partying rather than reflection on the horror of war). My Mom always tells me that the reason why Europe is so forward thinking, and provides universal healthcare for their citizens is because they survived a war, so they know how to come together as a nation. Americans are a mess, PLEASE VOTE IN NOVEMBER!

Proud history nerd! Next we went to see Our Lady of Reims cathedral. It was built in 1211 and it is where all the kings of France were crowned. The church has been destroyed by fire but rebuilt many times. In 2011, the city of Reims celebrated her 800th anniversary! The French really know how to build a church.

Of course Liv lit a candle and we bought a souvenir coin to add to her collection.

Our next stop was to find a place for lunch. We walked around town but most places were closed since it was too early. We stopped in Flying Tiger because Liv loves that store.

I wish I bought this cute hand-crank fan because it was the hottest day ever! We couldn’t resist to pick up a bag of chocolates to snack on while we searched for a place to eat.

It was during World Cup fever so we got soccer themed white chocolate. We stopped by Maison Fossier, Liv loves their rose biscuits but we didn’t want to carry around the huge box all day and they sell them at Monoprix.

We encountered this awesome farmers market and sampled the fruit but they didn’t have any restaurants so we continued our search. We always seem to be too early or too late for lunch!

We noticed brasseries began to put out champagne bottles while we were walking by but we couldn’t start drinking before eating something. Liv and I got a ice cream cone to cool us down since it was like 100 degrees.

As tempting as those lovely avocado tarts looked, we continued walking around town to find a place to sit down and eat. We kept getting unlucky because I wanted to visit the town hall but of course it was closed for repairs.

We finally found an interesting place that was opening for lunch in a few minutes wait.

We were so happy to order fish n’ chips!

We enjoyed being able to lounge and get out of the sun. Of course as soon as we started eating the crowds arrived and everyone started smoking, cough!

So I knew it was time for a glass of champagne. We walked to this cool looking place.

When we inquired about a tasting they informed us they were closing early so no walk-ins. Merde! I called to see if we could make a reservation for the Perching bar which was outside of Reims.

I saw it on Pinterest and it looked very cool however they didn’t allow anyone under 18 inside so if we went, Liv would have to stay outside of the bar area. There was also a 40 minute drive to get there and Reims didn’t have Uber. The owner gave me a phone number of a car service but the driver wanted €45 each way in cash. We decided to decline because it would have taken too long to drive out there, plus the fare seemed excessive. We ended up walking back to the place we went to for lunch because I couldn’t leave without having some champagne.

To be honest, the champagne was just meh. Antz likes it more than I do. I think it’s too expensive (a bottle started at €75!) We noticed the Veuve Clicquot tasting room was closed while we were walking to the train station.

If you want to go champagne tasting in Reims, make an advance reservation!

We walked past a medieval church and a plaque dedicated to Joan d’Arc. It was too hot to really enjoy a walk around town so we headed for the train station a few hours early and waited in their air conditioned lobby.

Au revior Reims! Antz and I will have to return without the kid to share a bottle of bubbly.

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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Joyeux Anniversaire Olivia!

Jul 2, 2018

Every year I am aghast by how fast our kid is growing up. This is her eighth year and she is lovely, polite, smart, kind, funny, clever, creative, sometimes annoying but overall rad.

I can’t believe she is so big now. Liv wears size 10/12 in clothes and size 4 in shoes. I bought her a pair of New Balance sneakers in size 3.5 when we first arrived in Paris and she already outgrew them! She definitely takes after me and is part giant. She’s the tallest kid in her class and one of three kids who speak English. She is stoked that during English class she is the teacher’s assistant and she helps her classmates with their pronunciation. Liv has made quite a few friends here in Paris so I asked her what did she want to do for her birthday. She wanted her closest friend (our former neighbor) Alix to come for a sleepover at our apartment. Antz and I secretly ordered a rad unicorn cake from our neighbor who is an amazing wedding cake artist/baker. I didn’t find out until after we demolished the cake, it was completely sugar-free!! I honestly couldn’t tell.

We also collaborated on designing a custom Merrilee Liddard doll for her birthday gift. I was super worried it wouldn’t arrive on time from Utah but luckily we were home when le Poste rang our door buzzer. We have had terrible luck with mail coming from the US through the post office. Her Godparents sent her a birthday package and we tried to hunt it down everyday for two weeks but it’s lost. We were heartbroken we couldn’t track it down.

This is Lulu (named after my Grandma Louise which is my middle name). She only speaks French and she is an avid traveler. She will join us on our travels and can be followed on Instagram using the hashtag #voyagesdepoupéeLulu

When we left LA, I couldn’t fit Liv’s dress-up clothes in our luggage so I promised I’d find her a Marie Antoinette style dress. She asked me when I would get her a gown almost everyday since we landed. Luckily, the Versailles gift shop had the perfect one in her size.

I invited her other good friend (she is also named Alix) from school to come over for cake and we went for tea and snacks at the Cat Cafe. We began her birthday weekend celebration by taking Friday off school since Antz is getting every other Friday off work for summer Fridays (his job is awesome beyond words!) so we spent the day at the Science Center. Liv is obsessed with VR games and back in LA she was too young to try the VR demos but here she could play them. She watched a VR film about the South Pole and space exploration and she played VR games. It was an €18 fee for about an hour of playing. She had a weekend full of awesome!

This globe would connect to different voices around the world speaking in their native language.

How creepy/hilarious are these mirror illusions?

The kid wants to be a scientist when she grows up…or a spy.

Liv and the two Alixes! This kid wants to live in a cat cafe.

Sadly, I couldn’t fit her large Totoro plush in our luggage but I did squeeze in our mini Totoro so she could take her yearly birthday photo. I’m sad because after taking her photo with Totoro in her brown chair, we decided we needed the space for a desk so I dropped off the chair to my Mom’s house. So this year she took her annual photo in her bedroom in Paris.

Here are her previous photos.

Joyeux Anniversaire ma fille!

La Cité des Sciences et de L’industrie
30 Avenue Corentin Cariou
75019 Paris France

Open 10:00 am – 6 pm Closed Mondays

Le Cafe des Chats
9 Rue Sedaine
75011 Paris, France

Open 12:00 pm – 10:30 pm Closed Mondays

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Day trip to Nantes, France

Jun 19, 2018

Before arriving in France I had a long list of places to travel and things to see. Antz, Liv and I all agreed that one of them was seeing the Les Machines de l’île in Nantes. I purchased annual SNCF passes because they were on mega sale (they are usually €75 each but I got them for €29!) These passes give us discounts on train fares for trips on the weekends and a special child fare. We plan to take so many train trips, I think it’s a wise investment. So I’m sure you have never heard of Les Machines de l’île or le Grand Élephant so pop over to their website to see what I’m talking about.

We have watched several videos about these magical creatures so I booked a day trip to Nantes to surprise the kid a week before her birthday!

The train ride to Nantes was our longest to date. Just over 4 hours but we sat in a Club Four which is a set of four chairs facing each other with a table. This configuration is rare to book so we really enjoyed it. We departed from Gare Austerlitz.

We did everything you could during the four hour ride. We played video games on our phones, ate snacks, napped, read books, colored in Liv’s coloring book and played an intense game of Uno. I taught Liv how to play the card game Speed (my favorite game when I was in high school). We arrived after noon and it took awhile to figure out how to navigate the part of town where the machines were. I would think it is such a popular attraction, the tram would take us directly there. However, we took a tram for about 20 minutes and then had to walk over a long bridge before we found the site.

We were shocked to be sitting next to this cutie on the tram! Our cat Lola would never sit so obediently let alone let us put a harness on her.

We walked past the Château des ducs de Bretagne but it was closed and there was a protest happening nearby.

During the long walk across the bridge I was wondering if we would end up having to climb that ladder to get to the Le Carrousel Mondes des Marins. It’s hidden in plain sight!

We had no idea what this gentleman was selling when we first saw him riding past. I was hoping for some cotton candy but it turned out to be marshmallow squares in very unique flavors.

It’s hard to describe the Marine Worlds Carousel. It’s part steampunk, part nautical. There are three levels. The lower (Ocean floor) levels don’t have a floor, so you board via a moveable gangplank which Liv and I felt too apprehensive to ride. So we climbed to the top. I was so captivated by the sea creatures I kept forgetting to take pictures. It’s so huge I couldn’t get a shot of everything to fit!

As you can see it’s a very surreal experience. I was explaining to Liv how the characters reminded me of the films of Terry Gilliam. The only one she has seen is Doctor Parnassus but she got the idea.

When we reached the top, we were happy to find a floor and the raddest set of creatures. Each one has a moving element that you control like a marionette. Some by steering and some by pedals or pumps. It was very cool but also odd. I couldn’t capture the entire carousel in photos due to the sheer size of it. I loved the music they were playing too. It reminded me of one of my favorite singers Tom Waits.

Next we walked over to the mechanical elephant. I was surprised to see a sign saying that the elephant ride was sold out. It was close to 1pm, and they weren’t due to close until 7pm that evening. When I found someone who spoke English she said they had to close early due to thunderstorms. What a bummer! So we took some photos and marveled at the giant wooden elephant. The gracefulness in it’s movement and agility was remarkable. I wish we could have experienced riding it but seeing it up close was rad.

I’m so glad I brought my wide lens for my camera because our iPhones couldn’t fit it in one frame in photos. Antz took this amazing video with his iPhone X.

Liv and Antz went inside the Gallery and Liv was chosen to steer the giant Ant!

She loved it! We had lunch at the restaurant on the site. It was just about to close so the menu was limited. I got the last Caesar salad they had and Antz and Liv had a chicken sandwich.

The last thing we did was check out the smaller carousel. This one was similar to the large one and the creatures were interactive too. Absolutely enchanting.

The elephant returned from his walk and Liv got a surprise!

She dried off with an ice cream cone and we browsed the gift shop. I bought Liv a Nantes souviner gold coin for her collection and I bought a coffee table book about the Royal Deluxe Company. It was heavy in my backpack but I knew they didn’t have it on Amazon and it’s such a beautiful photography book, I couldn’t pass it up. I hope to one day see them perform in person since I have watched every single youtube video of their amazing giant puppets. The work they do is incredible but they don’t announce their shows until a few days in advance so it’s hard to catch them.

After spending the entire afternoon at Les Machines de l’île, we decided to take the tram back to the train station a little early because Antz had a headache and Liv was tired. To our surprise when we arrived at the tram, it was closed by the local police for some unknown reason. I tried to order an Uber but the app wasn’t working (no wifi) so we had to walk over an hour back to the train station.

Lucky for us we left early or we would have arrived there late. We sat patiently waiting for our train arrival. Poor Antz headache got so bad we had to go to the pharmacy and buy him some medication. Just when our train was 15 minutes from boarding we saw this on the train schedule display.

I asked Liv what en retard meant in French and she said LATE! It took forever to find an English speaking staff person and they told me that due to lightening striking the train tracks, all trains going to Paris were delayed for an indeterminate amount of time. So we ended up stranded at the train station for FOUR HOURS! The staff brought out little snack boxes and bottled water for everyone but it felt like the apocalypse. People were grabbing the boxes like a riot and Antz headache was worsening. Liv didn’t feel great either and it was too hot to wait inside the station so we sat outside at the tracks which meant we couldn’t hear any updates. The announcements were all in French anyway. We started to panic and worry that we would have to book a hotel for overnight. Then finally around the time we were scheduled to arrive back in Paris, we saw everyone getting up and heading towards the tracks downstairs. We pushed through like cartoon super heros and jumped on the train and sat at the first club four seats we saw. Since all the trains to Paris were late, the staff didn’t check our tickets and we didn’t bother to find our original seats. An English speaking couple sat down across from us and told us we were in their seats but I guess I gave the guy a look like Reagan from the Exorcist and he nicely said, No worries, we’ll sit here. The train ride was supposed to be 4 hours but they put the pedal to the metal and got us into Paris by 1 am. I have never seen more exhausted and frustrated people from all over the world collectively sleep like we did. We were all happy to be out of Nantes.

I scheduled an Uber before the train stopped in Paris before all the other passengers but I still got hit with double the fare surcharge. Merde! I told our French friends about enduring this trip and they laughed and said Welcome to France!

So despite being disappointed about the elephant ride and the long train delay, we had a good time. I didn’t think the town of Nantes was particularly awesome. As Antz put it, if you seen one town in France you’ve seen them all.

Tant pis!

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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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Road Trips: Chantilly & Rouen

Mar 23, 2018

Bonjour,

What a dream it is to wake up in Paris. We spent the first week here severely jet lagged, which meant instead of sticking to my schedule, we stayed up all night and slept in until noon. We didn’t get out of the apartment until after 3 pm! Whoopsie, I always forget how tired we are the first few days in a new place. So originally I was planning to drive to Deauville but the weather was too cold and rainy to head towards the ocean so we drove an hour north towards the little village of Chantilly. I really love driving in Paris. At first it was scary and confusing but by the second day, it was just like driving in LA except a million more motorcyclists to watch out for. Everyone told us that the weather was freezing in Paris but we didn’t mind at all. It rains here much more often than we are used to but other than Olivia and my hair turning into a huge pouf, we were fine.

It lightly drizzled most of the day. The best part of the apartment we are staying at is, it’s on a private street so I get all the free parking I want.

My gangsta ride.

I kinda love how the toll roads work in France however, we got hit hard with one that was 18 euros and I was like, can we get a heads up before we get hit with that high toll?!

How cute are these maisons? The road was so narrow, Antz was nervous about my driving in the rain. I love setting all our navigation and Siri devices to British accents.

After about 50 roundabouts and having to back up on a narrow one lane street because I missed a turn, we made it! Chateau de Chantilly is so moody and beautiful.

The water was frozen, that’s how cold it was. Chateau de Chantilly was closed because it was Sunday but we took advantage of the picturesque scene and popped out a quick photo shoot with Liv’s Animalesque rabbit headress.

This kid is always asking for baguettes, she is a bread addict! We headed back into the city and went grocery shopping. Guess what? Nearly everything is closed on Sundays, so we had to go to Bic C’ Bon. It is tiny and doesn’t have half of what Monoprix carries but we were able to get some necessities.

Our first home cooked meal was breakfast for dinner! It was yummy but I was dying for our favorite rotisserie chicken.

The next day we managed to get up and out of the house by 10 am. I searched Pinterest the night before for French road trips that were under 3 hours from Paris and Rouen kept coming up. I could tell by the photos it would be worth the drive. The funny thing about driving on the freeway here is how the toll road just suddenly appear and they don’t give you any indication of how much it will be.

First we stocked up on croissants from our neighborhood boulanger.

I can’t even describe how pretty the drive was through Normandie. We made a quick stop along the way to check out this Mairie (Town Hall) when Olivia found the friendliest cat I’ve ever met. She wanted to take her with us (after naming her Marie) but I convinced her that she belonged to someone in the town.

Rouen was much bigger than I expected. There were so many churches but you couldn’t miss the Rouen Cathedral. It was so massive we couldn’t capture it in one photo. Antz took this amazing shot using panorama.

I prayed and lit a candle for my family (living and dead), Liv was fascinated! I explained to her the significance of prayer and she should take time to talk to her Grandma Maria. She loves to light candles now, we can’t pass a church without her asking to light a candle.

Antz found a Saint that beared his likeness. Saint Antho-key?

We walked around the town in awe of the medieval architecture.

I can’t wait until our next road trip. I would like to drive to the beautiful town of Giverny, Claude Monet’s home town for Easter weekend.

Bisous.

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This is no Dream… This is Really Happening: We moved to Paris!

Mar 9, 2018

Nous sommes arrivés à Paris! I can’t believe we have been here three whole days. Of course time is flying by in this beautiful city. Our flight was seamless which is shocking considering how much grief our fourteen pieces of luggage plus our huge iMac computer was giving Antz and me.

Thank goodness my Mom has a monster truck called “Beast” to help us carry all fourteen of our heavy bags! I even had to ship two suitcases because they were too heavy for the plane. I hope you got the Rosemary’s Baby (Mia Farrow with the cutest Pixie haircut ever) reference, film nerds! I got this rad shirt just for the flight because I love Rosemary’s Baby and I still am in denial that we have actually moved to freaking PARIS!!

This angel here hooked us up in such an awesome way!! I feel like the entire airport was cheering us on as we were leaving. Flying premium class has it’s perks, like we were able to hang out in the VIP lounge at LAX and I had so many yummy cocktails. They were serving a drink called Red Carpet because the Oscars were happening that weekend. I accidentally left my beloved navy Yokoo scarf in the lounge and only discovered it was missing as we were about to board our plane.

I wish I’d known we would end up having a two hour delay (we just ended up sitting on the plane) I would have tried to run and grab it. Boo!

Yet, we didn’t lose anything else and my neurotic thoughts of our iMac computer getting damaged were all for naught. Norwegian Airlines was a dream to fly and we slept most of the flight. Look at all that glorious legroom in premium class!

We arrived a Charles de Gaulle airport much later than I planned so we didn’t have time to go to dinner. I was so happy to go through customs easy, peasy. It took me so many long, stressful months to get those French visas and I wanted to kiss the agent who stamped them!

We were exhausted and terribly hot (check out my hair!!) by the time we found the rental car place. Luckily, I got a cool English-speaking dude who hooked us up with a minivan that fit all our ridiculous luggage. I have to say Thank You to my Mommy for giving us bungee cords! We wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere with all this luggage without them and they really came in handy when we were packing the van.

I was surprised that I liked the rental car we got this time. Even though minivans aren’t cool at all, I was grateful it was an automatic transmission, with heated seats. I could plug my phone to play my music and I set up the driving navigation. I was also happy for the rear camera because parking here is no joke. It’s like a crazy game of Tetris fitting all our luggage in the van. Driving in Paris is no different than LA other than the dreaded roundabouts. Those were definitely tricky because it becomes a Mad Max battle and it took me almost killing us several times before I understood how to navigate them. Antz needed a Xanax to calm him down from the crazy motorcycles drivers in the city.

I can’t believe I drove down the famous Champs Elysees! Of course, we had to promise to take Liv to Ladurée for some macaroons but she politely declined to go on the ferris wheel.

The apartment we are exchanging for two months is lovely. I am putting together a post about it soon. It’s a small studio with a toilette I fit in by a mere inch but it’s warm and cozy and the bed is heaven! I love that she lives on a private street so I could park anywhere for free! We have already done so much in a short amount of time here, I can’t wait to share all the photos we have taken.