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Copain and I just fit what most people do in five years, into one. Almost exactly one - seeing as how last time I left you was one day shy of one year ago today.

I'm happy to be on the other side of it, still in one piece and not rotting in a French jail for strangling my boyfriend or throwing baguettes at idiotic bankers. 

We have been through the wringer people.

This all sounds horribly bad - très mauvais - but basically, we used our driving force of 2013 - Avancer - and took it to a whole new level for 2014.

In 2014 we:

1. Put in an offer on the cutest apartment in the world. In our favorite Parisian neighborhood.

2. Realized the that the apartment was above a dry cleaners (dangerous perc!). Freaked out.

3. Urgently visited the environmental police office in Paris and combed through their files to research the dry cleaner's level of danger - finally decided it was okay to move forward and that we wouldn't die of perc-induced cancer.

4. Bankers! loans! Documents! Different banks! Different loans! More documents!

5.  Took a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia - almost got hit by lightening in the plane to Siem Reap. Hiked to a remote village, stayed with the villagers. Swam through the Dark Cave, tried not to die.

6. Decided to get married in November. French paperwork! More paperwork! But then this:

7. Said, OUI! then flew to Budapest -bouquet and all- for our wedding dinner... just the two of us.

At the airport: You are a few meters from a new beginning...

8. Moved out of our Teeny Parisian Apartment into our new humble (but adorable) abode in the 11th arrondissement - down five flights of stairs on one side, up five flights of stairs on the other side! 

9. Celebrated the holidays as mari & femme - in a heated apartment! With lovely stockings from Budapest, and our first Parisian Christmas tree.

10. Got rid of the taupe couch! 

Before:

After:

11. Bought our first dinner table, first new bed, a rug,  and finally hung photos on the walls. I even bought a Le Creuset casserole dish and made a boeuf bourguignon.

We are finally home.

So you understand why French Cannes Cannes went on hiatus for a year there. It was nutso up in this heezy. I was a crazy lady - une folle! 

But I'm happy to be back and to share 2015 with you.  We are done with Avancer, so now we can VIVRE.

The Only Way to do Paris

Anytime I'm having doubts about making Paris my forever-home, I should simply watch The Layover - Paris. A friend sent me the link via Facebook this morning and I had to make a café and watch the whole thing immediately.

Now I need to watch it again and write down all the places Anthony Bourdain eats. Pretty sure I'll be at Le Baratin tonight, eating squid cooked in its own ink.

Ah Paris, how I love you so...

Also - Don't you totally want to buy a duck press? Maybe when we live in more than 300 square feet...

Amsterdam with Copain

Copain and I just got back from his 30th birthday adventure in Amsterdam.  For those of you Parisians trying to think of a good weekend getaway, Amsterdam is it! The train took about 3 hours, we arrived right in the center of the city and we were welcomed with a yummy glass of bubbly and snacks at Hotel Fita. Bliss.

As I got on the train, I tried to forget the stress of Paris and get into vacation mode with magazines, a good book and a homemade muffin.  Then I promised myself to disconnect as much as possible from the following:

Facebook

Email

Blogs

Then I connected to the hotel wifi and my plans went down the proverbial toilette.  Thankfully, the fear of paying international roaming charges forced me to put my Iphone on airplane mode once outside the walls of Fita, allowing me to focus on more vacation-y things such as:

Eating all foods not Dutch (somehow we managed to eat Chinese, Indonesian, Argentinian and Italian..)

Testing out the array of Dutch and Belgian beers

Taking in the beauty of the gables, canals and graphic style of the city

Saving my bootay from kamikaze bikers (where is the sidewalk??!)

Gawking at the Red Light District errrr...inhabitants? 

Trying to fathom how Anne Frank survived in hiding for two years

Enjoying the diverse range of licorice candies in the grocery store

In comparison to dog poop Paris, Amsterdam was like Monsieur Propre's hometown. It was also home to Monsieur Accommodating, Monsieur Polite and Mme Smiley.  Copain and I were downright lost. You have to warn Parisians about that kind of behavior! We hardly knew what to do with ourselves. I mean, the bikers stopped at the stop lights people. They stopped. Fascinating...

We got sufficiently lost to explore the city and I decided that I could totally live in Amsterdam as long as I could learn A. learn Dutch and B. learn defensive biking. I'd hate to be the American who not only gets run over by bikers on a regular basis, but who also makes the Dutch speak to me in my native language on their turf, and not the other way around.

ps - kudos to the Dutch for their complete mastery of anglais.  How do they do it?

Here are a few highlights from our voyage ... Amsterdam, we heart you. 

Fita treats

Refried beans! Three points for Amsterdam:-)

Canals a-go-go...

We visited the butterfly house in the botanical gardens...

And the tropical rainforest house...which inspired Copain to make South America our next trip destination

As we pulled into the Gare du Nord on Sunday evening, my defenses for dog doo and the Parisian way went right back up as we boarded the cramped metro for the short ride home.  Oh Amsterdam...I will miss you.

Strasbourg - Capitale de Noël

I've got Christmas fever. All I want to do is watch Elf, make gingerbread and listen to Christmas tunes. It probably helps that it's raining outside and I hate walking in the rain. Plus, all the lights are up in Paris now and the place near our apartment is sporting a lovely decorated Christmas tree. Perfect combo for a holiday home extravaganza n'est pas?

It all started with our trip to Strasbourg - the self-declared "Capitale de Noël".  As you know, we almost cancelled our weekend getaway because Copain was hit with the dreaded gastro the Thursday before we were supposed to leave. He decided that he wanted to power through (I'd like to think it's because it was our 7 year anniversary gift and that's how much he loves me, but it was probably because it was too late to cancel the hotel and the thought of giving away 100 euros was slowly killing him - even more than the gastro). 

We got up bright and early on Saturday morning to catch our train at the Gare de l'Est. Copain was moving verrrrry slowly, so I planned an hour to get to the station despite the fact that we live 15 minutes away, with metro connections. This was good planning on my part because feeling nauseous and smelly metro travel do not mix. We got to the Gare with plenty of time to do some magazine perusing, and I indulged in a second cup of coffee for the road. 

Homemade muffin, coffee, discount card for the under 30! Merci SNCF!

Pregnant in Paris

My copine d'enfance will be visiting me this weekend with her mari.  I had visions of wine and cheese-filled evenings and galavanting all over Paris on Velibs - but - Madame is enceinte. Pregnant in Paris.

So, I've had to regroup.

Les pauvres are currently stuck in Miami because their flight in LA was delayed due to technical difficulties.  They got to check-in just as their Miami flight to Paris was leaving the gate. Thankfully they got a hotel because my clever copine pulled the Pregnancy Card - big time. Apparently American Airlines is sympathetic to those of us who are in the sixième mois de grossesse. (Or my copine is really good at yelling at customer service).

Once in the hotel, ma copine started to lose her mind (I blame the hormones). Somehow she ordered a salad from room service with shrimp - you know, one of the foods you're not supposed to eat while pregnant.


Then she got an email from the Vueling airline letting her know that their flight from Paris to Rome might fall on a day of strikes - genial.


Oh - and wouldn't you know that all of the flights to Paris from Miami were booked?! -including all of the other airlines because of the rentrée scolaire?! So, instead of just getting on a flight to Paris the following day at the same time, they have to take a flight to JFK and THEN a flight to Paris, arriving approximately 24 hours later than originally planned.

I honestly don't know how she is holding up - or how her mari is holding up with a six-month crazy pregnant lady.

So, mes amis, what shall I do with a pregnant copine in Paris - one who has had a rocky start to her vacances already?

Air Tahiti Nui - mais oui!

Two things you may not know about me:

A. I hate buying plane tickets.
B. I'm pretty sure I'm going to die everytime I fly.

So when I finally got up the motivation to find a flight home to visit ma famille this summer, I was pretty impressed with myself that:

A. It only took me about 30 minutes to make a decision.
B. I bought a ticket from an airline that I had never heard of and was therefore pretty sure I was going to die on the flight.

Imagine my surprise when I apprehensively boarded Air Tahiti Nui and was welcomed with tropical music, flight attendants in flowing pink/flowery dresses and orchids tucked behind their ears (for the ladies), blue/flowery button-ups (for the not-unattractive men), and the following little touches that now make me an Air Tahiti Nui believer:

Stickers to let the flight attendants know whether or not they should wake you up for meals or for the duty free...there were also socks, and eye mask, ear plugs and a handy wipe in the welcome pack.

A menu in English and in French to let you know what will be served on the flight - fancy n'est pas?

Tahiti theme all the way through - tropical chairs!

En plus, champagne was served -even in Economy- fun snacks and drinks were available in the galley inbetween meals AND right before landing they came by with little candies for everyone.  On top of that, they had air freshener in the bathroom and a basket of individual hand wipes - you know how I feel about a good bathroom. Two enthusiastic thumbs up right?

My only complaint - though everyone had an individual TV, you could only watch movies on one showing cycle. You had to wait for the movie to end to be able to watch a new one. Boo. I had to keep myself entertained with digital solitaire and Glamour  magazines.

Other than that - Air Tahiti Nui people - I'm all over it.

Oh AND it was a direct flight - schwing!