Tea and Crumpets for the Easter Bunny

For the very first time in my French adult life, I had plans for Easter. It all worked out par hasard, as they say, but it just so happened that Copain had plans to go to London, and it just so happened that all of my English friends were free to come to Paris. 

Voila! Girls weekend chez moi was born.

Two of my friends took the TGV up from Cannes and another took the train down from Normandy, and we all squished into my peanut apartment - two on the sofa bed and two in the normal bed. It was, shall we say, cozy.

We went to l'Asian Wok for dinner, celebrated a 30th birthday at Mama Shelter, went to see 10 Ans de Mariage at the Le Palace, brunched at L'Echappée, and watched Runaway Bride whilst noshing on bread and cheese in our pjs on the couch that just stayed a bed all weekend long.

I introduced my friends to the greatness of Hema, toenails were painted, eyebrows were plucked and we vacillated between coffee and tea, trying to keep warm in arctic Paris (in an apartment that hasn't been properly heated since we moved in circa 2010). 

Despite my best efforts to heat the place as soon as Copain left the house (shhhhh, he'll never know...), my poor friends from the South had to request long-sleeved tops to keep warm at night! La honte...

What we lacked in heat, I hopefully made up for in English goodies and Easter baskets...

Crumpets for breakfast 

(I was given the "how to butter a crumpet" lesson - 

right out of the toaster, in case you were wondering)

Easter goodies for Sunday morning

And for the first time, in 8 years, Easter weekend was fun and spent with my peeps - who are really my France family when it comes down to it. Because when you live abroad and your family is on the other side of the world, your friends become your people. 

At brunch on Sunday morning, Dancer friend met us at l'Echappée. When I told her that somehow I so needed to have these holiday plans, and that as long as I've been here, Easter has been a disappointment, she told me that she knew exactly what I meant. 

And all this time I thought I was a bit of a crazy lady for wanting some good old fashioned Easter egg hunting and kids on sugar highs running around! 

We decided right then and there, that we would count on each other for the holiday plans we've been missing abroad, and that we would never have another bummer Easter weekend in France again.

'Ze Kinder Surprise

It's almost Pacques (Easter!) in France. Every year I find myself with no plans and somehow totally bummed out that I don't have little kids to organize Easter egg hunts for. I'm not religious, but it was a big part of my childhood, and for some reason, I feel a strange need to celebrate this holiday every year. Since I can never seem to get it together, I just end up completely and utterly disappointed.

As a kid, we went to my aunt's house for Easter weekend. We would wake up to Easter baskets put together by the best Easter bunny ever - AKA, my mom - we'd put on our hats and dresses, go to church, and then, while we "took naps" or "went on a walk", the Easter Bunny would come back and leave a gazillion eggs in the backyard. We each had one egg full of money from our uncles who would join in on the holiday fun.

I remember one year when we were traveling, the Easter bunny left flour footprints down the hotel hallway and a trail of coins and candies to our baskets. No matter what the circumstances, our Easter bunny always made it special.

Since I don't have my own kiddos just yet, I decided that this year Easter would be FUN! No bummer holiday for me. 

I started it off by getting a tube of Copain's (and every Frenchie's for that matter) favorite childhood candy - Behold the Kinder Surprise!

I left it on his side of the taupe couch so that he would see it when he came home from work. As I reheated our weekend quiche and threw together a salad, I forgot about my little surprise. Copain came home, got himself a hunk of cheese,  I yelled at him for not taking off his shoes and then, out of nowhere, I heard, "Is this for Copain??!!!!!" 

Dude was ex-CITED. 

After dinner, I asked him to give me a Kinder tutorial:

First you try to open the chocolate egg, perfectly in half...

Then you immediately take out the toy and try to figure out what the heck it is...

When you finally figure it out, you try to see what your friend got and compare -

Once you realize that your toy is waaaay better (umm, I got hologram car stickers), you shove your face with chocolate!!! 

(then Copain showed me how when he was a kid, he used to 

dangerously pop the plastic toy holder in other kids faces. Nice.)

Easter is already off on the right foot I'd say... Let's go Easter 2013  (or something super positive and uplifting like that).

Bunny Cupcakes, and my Big (not going to happen) Hopes for Easter

Remember my candy troubles on Easter last year?

Well this year, I was determined to make it a better holiday - a holiday full of parks and joy and sunshine. Copain and I planned to go to Deauville (the Cannes of the North), and enjoy being on a beach, eating on terraces and taking photos of the adorable houses at the station balnéaire.

Then we saw this:

A weekend away to a cold and rainy destination - ummm, I'm good.  And so stuck in Paris we are...

After stressing over alternative destinations that all seemed to require a car (crap!), I thought, come on Cannes Cannes, chin up, think lovely thoughts just like Peter Pan said and make Easter fun anyways! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I came up with Bunny Cupcakes:

Just humor me and tell me that they look like bunnies.

Yeah, we ate them on the couch while watching Kohlanta last night (the Frenchie version of Survivor), so it wasn't exactly the parks and joy and sunshine that I had imagined, but it was all I could muster up. Easter just isn't the same when you are over the age of 8, and it's totally bumming me out.  I could definitely use some children for rent - just for the day- to re-live all of my childhood Easter memories. Waking up to Easter baskets, egg hunts, Easter hats and dresses, finding the special egg with money inside that my Uncles left, and then changing into bathings suits and swimming at my Aunt's house like all little Californian kids did....

Paris, you are letting me down!

I guess I never learn...

French Easter Candy is not Bon Bon

I have come to a sad, sad conclusion: Easter candy in France is a total bummer.  I don't know how I am just  now coming to this conclusion after almost 7 years in France, but for some reason, this year I saw the light.

If I had to make a guess, it is probably because I have been craving Robin Eggs (with malt crunchiness) for the past two weeks.  When my boss came back from her holiday in the states and gave us all these, my craving became stronger:

Thank you America for inventing Reeses Peanut Butter cups (in egg form for Easter!)

Every time I walk by a chocolate shop I check out the goods - but no dice! All of the chocolaterie have the normal chickens and eggs in chocolate form, but the weirdest by far has been their obsession with fish. Yes ladies and gents, fish.  You see, in France, when we say April fools, they say "poisson d'avril" - literally, April fish! It follows the same concept (to joke and fool someone on April 1st), but somehow this concept gets carried through all the way to Easter.  The French chocolate masters make piles and piles of "fried fish" or friture as they call it, filling bags with little chocolate fish. It's a seafood bonanza in the chocolate store, which to me is boring boring boring!  (not to mention, just plain weird).

The only fun Easter candy the French have is by Kinder- called a Kinder Suprise. It's a chocolate egg with a toy inside - and Copain still loves getting them - and, sadly, keeping the toy.  (Needless to say, I do not buy them for this very reason).

Yesterday, in an effort to save Easter (it was a blah day for me unfortunately), I tried to find a Robin Egg - American style.  This is what I found on rue de Rivoli:

They look like Robin Eggs, but do they taste like Robin Eggs????

The answer: No.  No, they do not.

While the eggs looked very nice and robin-y, they didn't taste like them one little bit.  They were filled with salty caramel and noisette (hazelnut filling).  So disappointing.

Momma from America has agreed to send me a bag of Robin Eggs so that I can enjoy the amazingness of American candy and holiday consumerism once again.  Thank god for moms.

Easter Weekend NOT in Chartres

Never on top of planning our long weekends, it was only last night that Copain and I decided that maybe we should take a Saturday day trip and get out of Paris for Easter.

We brainstormed a few choices - Fontainebleau (but I've already been there), Giverny - where we would bike from the train station in Vernon to Monet's house and beautiful garden, or Chartres - a supposedly charming little town with a very large cathedral. 

We decided on Giverny with the bike ride being the main attraction but when we called Monet's house and the dame started talking about large crowds and lignes d'attente, Copain called Belle Mère who advised us to avoid the crowds and go to Chartres.

It was 9am - the train was leaving at 10.33 from the Gare Montparnasse. We totally had enough time.  But then I had to use our new epilator on my legs so I could wear a dress. And by the time that was done, I still had to put on the dress and do my makeup.  By the time we left the house we were running to Metro line 1 with only 35 minutes to get from chez nous to la gare.  Oh la la - yeah. oops.

We were thinking positively - we even made a no-fighting pact for the day - things were looking up. Line 1, Line 4 (complete with THE SMELLIEST HOMELESS DUDE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD - I almost dry heaved). Then BAM - Gare Montparnasse!  We had already come to the conclusion that we wouldn't have time to buy tickets and that we would have to do so once on board. No biggie. We ran through the gare, up the escaliers, jumping over suitcases and herds of new tourists just arriving in gay Paris. Three minutes to go...

We spotted quai 20 and ran towards it just as the bell started to ring! Copain asked the cheery SNCF worker if we could purchase tickets on board to which he answered by shaking his head - Non. 

Super.

Never one to follow the sort of rules put in place by the SNCF (or the RATP for that matter), Copain ran down the quai, prepared to jump onboard anyways.  But then we stopped in our tracks - the train was PACKED. When I say packed, I mean, all seats were full and people were standing packed in like sardines in the common area between the cars.  Every. single. car. 

We gave up. We laughed - we had made it just in time- but we would not be going to Chartres. 

As we walked through the gare deciding what to do with our day, we realized that it was ridiculous to try and leave Paris without a pre-paid ticket on a holiday weekend. The rest of Paris had decided to do the same thing and it was everything but a holiday on that train.  We decided to do only things we had never done in Paris for the day and here is what we did...

We walked down rue de Maine and found a very cool bonsai store - one of them was selling for 1400 Euros. That is some serious zen.

Then we stopped in at the Montparnasse cemetery where the likes of Simone de Beauvoir and Samuel Becket are buried...

We walked all the way to Avenue de General Leclerc, past the metro Alesia (where I popped into a store to check out summer dresses - no luck).  We walked all the way down the Porte d'Orleans and then crossed in front of the impressive Cité Universitaire ...

This is one of the oldest houses on the campus (nothing like the craphole I lived in when I first arrived in Toulouse - scary Chapou!!)

Finally we went to Franprix and bought a picnic complete with baguette, ham, chèvre cheese, grated carrot salad and frozen fruit (my favorite!) for dessert.  We found a nice little bench at the Parc Montsouris (and it was such a beautiful day that I didn't even mind that much when I snagged by dress on a nail in the bench and ripped a hole right in the butt). 

This was our lovely park view - with Spring in full effect- as we enjoyed lunch...

ducklings!

fish!

calm

little girls in Easter hats, little boys in capri pants, parents on picnic blankets

We decided that (despite public opinion)  Paris is a great place to be for Easter - and that we will probably never try to leave Paris again on a holiday weekend. Better to let everyone else leave so that we can enjoy the city - all to ourselves.