my commute

By Dan

My business program is moving next week – from a charming historical old building in the heart of the touristy Latin Quarter, to a newer building in a grittier, livelier, less touristy neighborhood.

The minus:  I’ll no longer be walking every day by the Louvre, along the Seine, past the hotel where we went for our honeymoon, and through the trendy 6th arrondisement.

The plus:  instead of a 35 minute commute, usually changing metro lines, I’ll be able to walk.  The new location is only about a mile away from where we live, maybe a 20 or 25 minute walk.  I’ll save a few dollars each day by not taking metro, get more exercise, get there quicker, and when I don’t bring my own lunch the options will be much cheaper.  Also, the new place should make it fairly convenient for me to drop off Joseph at preschool in the morning.

Today was pretty overcast but I wanted to take a few pictures of my current commute before it ended – visually appealing but a bit of a hike.

The building that we are leaving was one of the original buildings of my school, École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, which was founded in 1747 and was among the first of the French ”Grandes Écoles.”  I didn’t know much about the grandes écoles before getting here.  They are considered very prestigious; usually they are small and fairly specialized.  It isn’t clear to me how a school becomes a grande école, apparently there isn’t an official list of them or anything like that.

My school was the first civil engineering school in the world.  Years ago it moved to the suburbs of Paris, and when the business program was started 20 years ago they put that program back in the heart of Paris in one of their original buildings.  Now under the privatization and fundraising efforts of the Sarkozy administration the building is being sold off by the government, hence our current move.

The business program was only the second in France to be taught in English, though there are now dozens.  It focuses exclusively on International Business, and caters mostly to students with a decent amount of management and work experience.  I knew very little of this before getting here, and learned quite a bit more last night at a party that was thrown to say goodbye to the old building.  It was nice to hear stories of alumni coming from all over the world for gatherings.

The program is not well ranked internationally.  I chose it because it was in Paris and sounded interesting, and from what I could tell had a decent reputation within France.  But it doesn’t even appear in a lot of rankings of business programs.  So I’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover that, at least in France, the name of the school is definitely recognized and has quite a history.  Anyway that is the backstory for my program and what I am doing with myself these days.

blindsided

By Dan

I haven’t written too much about my business program here, mainly because who wants to hear about me sitting around in classes all day?  It is actually very interesting, with people from all over the world and a wide range of experiences and backgrounds.  I really like everyone in the program, and the teachers are excellent.  I have a new class each week, and for the most the part it has been pretty manageable.  Last week was the exception – after cruising for the first month or so, we were blindsided by what we were told is the hardest class of the year.  I didn’t get to bed until 3 or 4am every night for a week, and was back up at 7am.  It also created a backlog in my other work that I am still climbing out of.  But within a week I’ll be back on track.

I don’t mind working hard for a change, but it wasn’t fun not seeing Danielle and the kids for a week (well, I sawthem but they were sleeping.)  On Friday night I was giving Joseph dinner and he said “merci beaucoup” - I didn’t even know he knew that one.  Then he turned around and pointed to the magnet letters on the refridge and pointed out R for Rachel, J for Joseph, D for Daddy, M for Mommy, and about ten others.  He didn’t know his letters last week, and he he knows most of them.  You can really miss a lot at this age if you’re gone for a week – one of the reasons I quit my job last year.

This evening I was talking to my sister and learned that Rachel had rolled all the way over today for the first time.  How did someone in Bel Air Maryland know this before me?

So my busy pace explains the lack of blogging, but I can’t complain – Danielle has had both kids all day for a week and that is probably even harder. 

Food note for the day:  Danielle found dairy-free peach/lychee flavored soy yogurt at the local grocery store.  It is pretty good.

Out on the Town

by Danielle

On Saturday night we booked a babysitter and went to party with Dan’s classmates in the Latin Quater, where many of them live. It had been a horrible week and they were ready to blow off some steam. It was your typical house party with international cuisine, champagne, belly dancing… all the normal stuff   I enjoyed talking with Dan’s classmates after hearing about them for so long, what a nice bunch of people. They are a very diverse group of mainly 30-somethings representing places like Serbia, Morocco, Togo, Canada, Nigeria, Khazakhstan, Qattar and New Jersey.  

We headed back home around midnight and I was simply floored by the amount of people enjoying the city. The sidewalks and streets were just f-u-l-l of people. It was like Times Square on New Years Eve! Okay not that crowded but still, I was surprised at the volume. It was a reminder that we have to get out a lot more than we currently do.

Artsy-fartsy

by Danielle

It has been a tough week with Dan in a very challenging class that has kept him at school until 11pm most nights, and then up late studying until 3am. Rachel has been waking up a lot at night, possibly because of the cold she caught from Joseph, so I’m a bit sleep deprived too.

Today I had a few hours to myself (well, with Rachel in tow) and struggled with what to do, there are too many options. I am eager to visit Musee d’Orsay again but I didn’t have enough time to get there and back without being rushed, and you can’t rush art! 

I wandered over to the Louvre which is a little closer to me (no metro change, easier with the stroller   When I don’t have time to see a museum visit I like to look through their bookstore or giftshop, and the Louvre’s was a big disappointment.  Judging from the merchandise you would think the Mona Lisa was the only painting in their collection.  I just wanted a few postcards and the selection was tiny. I did find some fun things in the children’s gift shop though.

I had better luck next door at the Les Arts Decoratifs, which is not just a museum of French decorative arts (and part of the Louvre) but includes toys, fashion, advertising, textiles and jewelry. It had a pricey admission fee and I only had a short time left, so I checked out the gift shop and it did not disappoint. Heaps of art, jewelry and design/craft books on a range of topics- and heaven for a designer like me.  I could have spent a lot of time and money there but I had to leave enough time to buy a crepe for lunch and relieve the babysitter.

Nirvana

by Danielle

Sunday was a great day, I had over two hours of French conversation group which I enjoy very much. If there is one thing I’m increasingly convinced of, it’s that my French is painfully limited and grammatically atrocious. I’m dying to practice more so I’ve been trolling kijiji.fr (sort of a French craigslist) for a language exchange partner. One session a week simply is not enough, and my day-to-day activities do not put me in situations where I have very complex conversations.

Afterwards I had a great afternoon with Joseph and Rachel while Dan went to Parc Buttes Chaumont (a 10 minute walk) to study. It is a beautiful park with a lake, waterfalls, green spaces and many amusements for kids like sandboxes, playgrounds, puppet shows, pony rides and a carousel. What is especially nice is that all parks here have wifi (pronounced wee-fee) for wireless internet access, so you can not only play there but work too.

While Dan slaved away, I took the kids to a playground adjacent to the Saint Martin Canal a few blocks away. The streets are closed on Sundays so everyone was out strolling, biking, rollerblading, enjoying the gorgeous (unusually) warm weather. There was not one but two mariachi bands playing, promoting an upcoming Latino Festival.  Joseph enjoyed watching the skateboarders in the adjacent skate park, and seeing a barge make its way down a lock of the canal. 

To top it off, I found a little pocket of awesome shops, galleries and restaurants (including “Chez Prune”). It was just one block beyond where I’ve walked many times, so I was tickled to make a new discovery. And believe it or not (I can’t), there is a graphic design bookstore right next to the canal. Nirvana! I have been looking everywhere for graphic design books and magazines and had no luck. I stood at the window for 5 minutes, drooling, for alas I could not fit through the door with the double stroller.

two of my favorite things: climbing, and food

By Dan

I’ve been climbing every week for the last 8 years or so, and in the last two months nada.  I mean rien.  I tracked down a climbing gym just outside of Paris and finally went last week, thinking there might be some English-speakers there from an online group I had joined.  I struck out but the gym was amazing, so much bigger and cleaner, higher walls, and with better climbs than ones I’d been to in the States. 

I didn’t climb that time, but yesterday I finally got a friend from here to go back with me – he speaks both French and English and was able to navigate the system better than I could.  It was a weekday afternoon and there were lots of people there – climbing appears to be very popular in France.  We climbed for a couple hours and it felt great.  We’re already talking about when to go back, and one of these times I’ll bring my camera.

I wanted to write a post about all the awesome food we are discovering at the markets here, which if I ever start feeling homesick is all I’ll need to think about to snap out of it.  The fish vendor has several different kinds of fish that I had never heard of before that we really like – mostly white fish and we get a couple fillets and saute them.  One of them is called Pangas – it is really cheap (a few dollars for two pieces) and tastes a lot like catfish.  So much so that I thought maybe it was catfish, so I googled it and discovered this horrible information about “why you shouldn’t eat pangas” that is really disturbing.  It is almost funny how disturbing it is, worth a glance.  Now I realize why it was the one really cheap option at the market, and we won’t be eating that anymore.  But we’re eating Perch and several others that I don’t know what they are, but they’re really good.

A few other highlights from the markets:  the artichokes, which are really big and much meatier than we get in the States – we eat them all the time; the cantaloupes, which are quite a bit smaller but much more flavorful – I mean they don’t even compare to the ones we are used to; and figs and dates are very popular here and I’m really enjoying them.  There’s a lot more to explore – things we haven’t seen before and wouldn’t know how to cook, or how to ask for it, and how much it costs (everything is grams/euro – very hard to calculate what you’re going to be charged.)  But we’re working our way through it.

Progress

Joseph is doing much better at garderie and it is quite a relief. He goes willingly and even with some enthusiasm. He does not cry when I leave and hugs the caretakers when it’s time to go. I’m thrilled.  Now he can start his normal schedule, which is three mornings a week. I think the next benchmark phase we will enter will be potty training. I’ll spare you the details, I promise.

Potty training and poop naturally makes me think of the French conversation group I have joined (stay with me on this).  On Sunday mornings I visit with a small group of people who are trying to improve their French.  Terence, a Frenchman, formed the group through craigslist to help his Australian girlfriend’s language skills (they met in Istanbul, go figure). He is a good coach and very patient, and we take many notes in class. He has even been giving us homework and coming up with all kinds of things to talk about (using magazine articles, movie clips, songs etc). It’s a multimedia extravaganza in fact.

Last week we debated: ”Which city is filthier, Paris or New York?” I have not been to New York in a years or so, but I felt pretty confident that Paris was filthier. It was pointed out that some quarters of Paris (touristy/posh ones) are much better kept than others. True, but I argued that the sheer volume of sidewalk dog-poop alone qualifies Paris as filthier. This prompted Terence to nod knowningly and write on the dry erase board: “les crottes=poo.”  I could not stop giggling.