Snowing in Paris. Again.

Ummm, wasn't it March last time I checked?

So why is it freaking snowing in Paris?!!!!!! Like big snow, crazy wind, sticking to the ground, making life slippery and cold and brrrrrrrrrr. 

Snow.

It started this morning and by lunchtime was in full force. Paris just about shut down, because while Paris is a lot of things, what it is not is efficient in inclement weather (or really just anytime for that matter). Romantic walk along the Seine with a glass of wine? Paris delivers. Terraces full of café-goers on a sunny Saturday? Paris takes the cake. A lovely garden with fountains, statues and guards yelling at you to get off the grass? You got it. Trains that are working during a snowstorm? Paris is not your gal.

I got a call at 7:30am while I was lying in the Cloud Bed checking up on the lives of my fascinating friends on Facebook. It was my colleague/friend who lives out in the boondocks AKA: Melun. He had left his house at 6:50 to be in Paris by 9am...ummmmm one more point for living in Paris! He was worried that he wouldn't get to work on time and asked me if I could be sure to be there to open. As I reassured him that it was no problem, I wondered if I could even Vélib in this crazytown weather.

I reluctantly left the Cloud Bed and put my morning prep on full speed - listening all the while to the radio go on and on about Parisians stuck on the highways, stuck in the trains, probably freezing to death because of the snow. Snow, snow, snow!  The French love to talk about the weather, so today was a radio weather field day. 

Sure enough, the Velibs were frozen! It was metro for Cannes Cannes this morning, and I crossed my fingers, praying that I wouldn't get stuck in a frozen metro car on my way to work. 

As announcements about problematic lines echoed through the metro and people piled up through the tunnels, I searched frantically for the exit signs, just in case. Just in case what? Just in case there is a fire at this very moment, or a bomb or a fight or a panic, or...oh god. This is why I Vélib, people. 

I watched the snow fall all day in my little office, even braving the RER B in the early afternoon for a meeting. Somehow though, by the end of the day, I had momentary memory loss and decided to WALK HOME.

(not visible: cah-razy snow fall...)

(not visible: small icicles forming on the letter slots)

As I fought the wind and blinked back the ice particles repeatedly hitting my eyeballs, I kept thinking how great the metro would have been at a time like this. Funny what sub-zero temperatures will do to people. I arrived at the front door covered with snow from head to foot, and while scolding me for not using an umbrella and showing up looking like I'd gotten in a snowball fight,  Copain made me half undress on the landing as he took each article of clothing from me and carefully hung it up to dry.

It is now 11pm and guess what? It's still snowing. 

All I have to say is that Paris had better deliver this spring. I'm thinking tulip-lined gardens, perhaps a walk along the Seine, and a glass of wine en terrasse.

PS - Vie de Parisien nailed it.

Mille et Une Orchidées

Mamie and Papi alert! 

Copain and I went to the Mille et Une Orchidées expo at the Jardin des Plantes on Saturday. We paid 6 Euros each to look at orchids. I can only justify this by the fact that Copain is a huge orchid fan. You read that right. Big, big fan.

We currently have three orchids in our miniature apartment: Jeannette, Bernadette (a birthday gift to Copain, named after our lunch with Jacques Chirac), and last but not least, Chloé, the teeniest orchid. Copain takes care of the girls on a daily basis and regularly calls me over to our kitchen counter (where they live), to show me a new bud or bloom.  He's ummm, super into it.

I can't even keep the Ikea house plants alive.

So when I saw on the My Little Paris website that there would be an orchid expo in Paris, I figured I could take one for the team given Copain's love affair with exotic plants.

Despite my skepticism, paying 6 Euros to look at some greenery in a warm greenhouse on a super freezing snowy Saturday, may have actually been exactly what the doctor ordered. At least it got us out of the house, which becomes somewhat of a feat in the middle of nuclear winter. (Why go outside in the cold when you can sit in PJs with a blanket and watch movies?!)

I was convinced that we would be the only people there under 60, but apparently the Parisians love orchids, because the expo was poppin'. Like, scooch along the tiny greenhouse bridge while everyone oohs and ahhs and takes photos with their Iphones, poppin'. (Maybe we're not such old fogies after all...) 

Here are a few of my faves: (yes, I'm guilty of holding up the greenhouse bridge too)

Firebird orchid

Technicolor orchid

Alice in Wonderland orchid

Amazing roots (doesn't this also look like something out of a Disney movie??)

Ethereal orchid

Buttery orchid

And since we were right next door, we finished off the afternoon with a piping hot, thé à la menthe at the Grande Mosquée de Paris. 

Pas mal for a snowy Saturday n'est pas?

**super original orchid names invented by yours truly

Dans La Roue de Paris

A happy birthday ride with Copain on La Grande Roue...

Dans les Rues de Paris - Que de La Pluie

Dans les Rues de Paris

When Paris Stops to Smell the Roses

I looked out the window this morning, only to see this:

More snow!

Perfect excuse for a brunch and a day out in beautiful, snow-covered Paris n'est pas?

Hibernation

I promise I haven't gone into hibernation - but the idea is not far off. Le Grand Froid (The Big Cold!!) has hit France and it is FREEEEEEEZING.

All I want to do is throw fifteen blankets on top of myself and lie in bed all day.

Copain and I have had to s'équiper (equipe ourselves!) for an honest to goodness winter. Un vrai hiver...

Clément the Casque now goes over a tight-weave beanie for my ice cube ears, and I have to literally wrap a scarf around my face and tuck it under my glasses to make the Velib ride to work everyday - lest I risk losing my nose.  I move my face around like a clown warming up for a performance as I ride up boulevard Beaumarchais - just trying to keep some blood flow to my face.

It's that cold, people. Like really, really cold.

The worst part of the Velib ride through the Parisian Arctic is trying to keep feeling in my fingers.  Yesterday, I tried wearing two pairs of gloves, but it just made the situation worse and stopped feeling even faster than roughing it with one pair. I had to pull over and quickly remove the second pair in the hopes that a tiny bit of feeling would come back for the rest of the ride. As I stare longingly at the français in their heated voitures, I shake my arms and hands like a crazy lady at stop lights, in an attempt to keep from freezing. 

Knowing that her son has a thing against heater-usage, Belle-Mère intervened and bought us an economical space heater, right before Le Grand Froid hit. Behold, my savoir:

Vitamin D does Paris

Holy Moly Sunshine! Today Paris was SUNNY! I think I may have actually gotten the recommended daily dosage of vitamin D for the first time in uhhh...four months??!

People - I had to wear SUNGLASSES - real, block out the rays, ouch I'm squinting sunglasses! It was still only 7°C but hey - I felt rays of sunlight and that is a biiiiiig deal in Paris.   I didn't realize what a big deal it was until I tried to get a coffee on rue des Francs Bourgeois and found the ENTIRE Parisian population sitting on some terrace or another getting their daily dose of vitamin D.

I'm telling you - c'était fou! Sidewalks were so crowded that it was hard to walk and carry on a conversation with a friend and terraces were jam-packed making inside seating really the only option.  (The fact that it was only 7° made this not such a bad thing...).

I didn't realize how much I missed the sun...it glistened off the Seine today - that is how sunny it was.  Perhaps this is what I need for the current bataille against the catastrophe that is my face....

Can I order more of this stuff? Like on the internet or something?

La Bataille!

I've never been one of those women who freaked about wrinkles or gray hair or ....whatever. But now I know why:  I didn't have any to worry about.

This my friends is no longer the case! 

Is it age? ( I'm not even 30 yet!)

It is stress? (possible...)

Though age and stress may be factors in the catastrophe that is now my face, I am convinced the real culprit is PARIS. More specifically WINTER in PARIS. 

When I look in the mirror in the morning (the horror, the horror!), this is what I see:

- dark circles under my (squinty, tired) eyes

- blotchy skin (red, pink, yellow, beige..whaaaa???)

- chapped lips

- one smile line on the left side of my face (I'll let this slide, it must mean I'm a happy person)

- AND the beginning of wrinkles under my eyes!!!

DUDE!

This was not the case in Cannes! This was not the case in Toulouse - even in the winter! But Paris - Paris is just doing a number on my visage.

I splash cold water on my face in the morning, hoping some color will come into my cheeks. I put in moisturizing eye drops so that my eyes are less squinty and I can put in my contacts. Sephora has become my new best friend as I have had to invest in additional concealer and face makeup just so that I resemble someone who is alive. It's not a pretty picture, I'm telling you.

My friend C has taken to faux tanning but I just can't bring myself to do it (I wear mineral spf 30 everyday - wouldn't that be counter productive??)

What's a fille to do?  Paris is slowly but surely winning this battle...and I need a counter attack!

help. please?