Dans les Rues de Paris - Sun and Celebration

Nouvel An Chinois! 

(Chinese New Year)

Bonne Année! 

(Happy New Year)

Parade through the Marais neighborhood...

 It would have been a crime not to be outside today, taking advantage of the lovely soleil - so Copain and I joined the other Parisians...

And grabbed a Velib for a little ride

along the Seine...

...to the Eif 

and this beautiful view.

By 6pm, it was freezing, but a gauffre (waffle) with Nutella at the Trocodero warmed us up. 

Delicious stuff.

Sometimes, you just gotta be a temporary tourist, you know?

Les Casques - They're All the Rage

Confession:  When I first tried to use the Velib bike system in Paris, I was scared out of my mind.

Copain, Monsieur No Fear, zipped all over town, sans casque (without a helmet!!) and encouraged me to do the same (scary!!). He had gotten himself a yearly Navigo pass for trois fois rien (practically nothing), and all he had to do was swipe it on the bike stand, grab the bike and voilà.  I was stuck at the machine typing in five thousand numbers from my carte bleue to check out a bike for 30 minutes and then riding in constant fear of death on the streets of Paris. Bah.

Then, for my birthday this year, Copain got me my own yearly Navigo pass and took me on Le (infamous) Tour de France.  We bought a casque mid-ride at Décathalon, and Clément and I haven't left each others' sides since!

This month, I decided that instead of taking the metro to work, I would try to Velib everyday. I didn't pay for my monthly unlimited metro pass, and instead bought a carnet of 10 tickets just in case. My reasoning was threefold:
1. The monthly metro pass costs 64 Euros! (boooo)
2. You have to take the metro over twice a-day including weekends to amortize the cost. (which I'm pretty sure is not my case - I love walking home after work.)
3. The metro in the cold months is hot, sticky and cramped with a scarf, gloves and peacoat! (double booo).

Hence - VELO!

So far, so good mes amis! I've been a Velib-riding fool these past few weeks, and I've only used about 6 metro tickets for weekend outings at night. I love taking the Velib to work - it's so refreshing to ride a bike in the morning (with Clément the Casque bien sur!) I go from chez moi to the bureau in about 15 minutes depending on traffic (because, yes, I am a rule follower on the crazy streets of Paris). Now, when I have to take the metro, I get annoyed.  What? No Velibs? Noooooooooo! (yeah, it happens sometimes).  I've even started waking up earlier to insure that there are bikes for me to get to work. Insanity, I tell you. That's how much the Velib rocks my world.

I was reading Oh Happy Day awhile back and found this great post on the Velibs in Paris. The photos are gorgeous and the tips are spot on (merci Jordan!).  Jordan explains that not many Velib-riders wear casques (which sadly, was the case!), however,  but the times they are a-changin' in Paris - mais oui! I am happy to report that I am not the only casque-wearing dork dans les rues! On my way to work yesterday, I spotted four casques - five, including Clément. Copain still hasn't gotten on the band wagon, but it looks like the other Frenchies are.  I feel like less of a huge nerd with my red and white head-protector and I might even take it one step further and wear a yellow reflective vest - that's what I call haute-couture. 

Casques - they're all the rage.

Autolib' à Paris: Roll in a Bluecar!

I was walking around avenue Philippe Auguste today, when I saw this:

Autolib' coming soon to Paris! It's like a Velib - but with cars! 

I'd heard this was coming to Paris, but I had no idea it would be so soon. After Googling "autolib' in Paris" I learned that 66 electric "Bluecars" and 33 stations will be available for use starting SUNDAY - with more on the way if the test run proves successful. C'est fou non?

I'm very interested in the logistique of this thing - I think it's a great concept, but I'm a little skeptical as to how it will actually work out. I'll keep you posted as I watch the construction (and usage) move forward.  Didn't they already try it out in Germany?  I guess if it worked for the Germans, it should work for us, right?

à voir...

ps - can we please talk about how they are calling them "Bluecars"... en anglais??? I'll bet the Académie Française is having a shit fit.

Femme de Fer à la Piscine

My Parisian Pool Adventures are going well - I've already been four times and stopped by Go Sport for a super-authentic one-piece Speedo bathing suit! (I was feeling a little nulle with my sports bra and bikini bottoms). I can't help but feel like I'm in training for Ironman, what will all the power walking, swimming and Velib biking I've been doing around town...

On Wednesday I swam for 35 minutes and then biked all the way home ... in the rain.  By the time I got to the four flights of stairs in my building my legs were on FIRE. I'm not sure if this means that I worked hard or that I am incredibly out of shape. Let's be honest, probably the latter.

Friday I went to la piscine again and then walked around town until things started to look blurry and I thought I was going to fall over. I stopped into Wanna Juice and got some Cocolocomango-arama smoothie thingy to get my blood sugar back up, then some water to hydrate. Then, because I was obviously losing my mind, I decided to bike home again.

When I got to our front door, Copain took one look at me and said - oh la la! Qu'est-ce qui t'arrive?!


I'm pretty sure I'm going to get in great shape this way (especially with the current Parisian heat and humidity levels) - I'll just sweat until the cows come home (not without intense swamp ass bien sur). I'm also going to start calling myself Femme de Fer.  Woman of Iron. carrement.

Birthday Bashing

As I said earlier, this week was my birthday week.  Ever since my first birthday my Mom has made a point of making our birthdays (me, my brother and sister) very special - a present next to our beds in the morning, a wake up birthday song serenade, a special birthday breakfast, lunch out with a friend when we were in elementary school, and also a fun party that she went to great pains to plan.  Just a few of our random parties:

• An exercise party (this wasn't actually for a birthday but my Mom totally went with her weird daughter's request - a trampoline and jazzercise were on the agenda).
• A sleepover - homemade personalized PJs for all of the girls, makeup, beauty masks, nail painting, sundaes that we got to decorate on our own. When we woke up the next morning my Dad had brought each of us a jumbo pack of peanut butter M&Ms - heaven on earth.
• A games party -  I think I was about four of five. My Mom set up the lollipop ring toss, the fishing game, the tube crawl and I think we may have decorated our own cupcakes.
• A kidnapping party - we told only my friends' parents that we would be kidnapping their kids and on my birthday at 9am we drove around the neighborhood waking up my friends. Then we kidnapped them in their PJs and took them out to an American pancake breakfast at Ihop (International House of Pancakes).
• A skating rink party - I can't remember if this was for me or for my brother/sister but in any case lots of roller skating, pizza and cake.
• A party on the farm - this was definitely for my sister and brother. My mom invited all of their friends to a farm and had a miniature ho-down for the young'uns. I remember my sister in a little checked red shirt and jeans with her bowl cut - crabby in the heat of the afternoon.
• A dance party - my sister was  probably turning six and my mom recruited me and my friend J to lead my sister and all of her friends in a dance class in the back yard.  All the little girls came in tights and leotards and my friend and I were the jazz teachers. Definitely cupcake decoration involved.

Looking back I'm super impressed with my Mom and appreciative of her hard work- how many kids can say that they've had all that?  (Plus she was a working mom and all of our birthdays fell within a three week period!) Talk about wanting to shoot yourself in the head!  And just as an aside, my family was not rich, but we always had enough.  I know that these parties were a hardship for our family, but my Mom wouldn't not have done it for us.

As an adult I have found that I don't handle my birthday well (funnily enough, neither does my Mom!) and after a few years of analyzing, I think I know why: no one can live up to my Mom. Poor Copain, he sure does try, but look what I've been trained to expect from a birthday!

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This year I woke up and Copain gave me a card from my brother and sister in law. Then I opened a gift that had come in the mail about a week ago - a beautiful necklace that I had been eyeing on Etsy - from my mom.  Once out of bed, he handed me a hand-decorated envelope (very cute) with a plan for the day:

Coffee with french pastries for breakfast

A bike ride along the Coulée Verte in Paris (a long stretch of green spaces and parks) - on a Velib' - I was now the proud owner of a Velib' year pass that Copain signed me up for as a surprise!

A picnic lunch while we were on the ride

Dinner out in Paris

(Also, a gift certificate for a new pair of sunglasses when I find the ones I like)

Sounds good right?

The good part of my birthday: coffee and a chocolatine

Well, yes, that would have been the case had Copain followed La Coulée Verte path and had we not instead found ourselves in Meudon going up and down hills on the world's heaviest bikes ever. By hill number five I lost my temper, got off the bike, legs burning, brow sweating and pushed the Velib de Merde up the hill.  Copain, feeling upset that I was being bratty about his birthday gift, told me that next year we would eat hamburgers at McDonalds and watch TV like Americans. 

Then we ate a cookie in the Meudon forest. 

Then we followed the directions given by an idiot to get out the forest and ended up on another never-ending hill.  

Then we yelled again.

Then Copain told me to follow him (which I stupidly did) and we ended up in a construction zone in Chatillon where they are building a new tramway.  At this point there was lots of biking on the sidewalks and ringing our bells at pedestrians.

Finally we made it down to the Cité Universitaire area where I promptly requested that we stop for a beer to at least make up for the past five hours of Velib torture in what will now be referred to as my own personal Tour de France - or at least the world's worst case of Swamp Ass.

When we finally got home I took a shower, put on my bath robe, sat on the couch and fell promptly asleep.  Moving off of the couch was out of the question, so dinner included pizza and a salad - on the couch.  Copain threw in some Magnum ice creams upon my request so that it felt a little more birthday-esque. 

Then I went to bed. Annoyed.  Happy Birthday to me and my tired, bruised, swamp ass.