I have a confession to make.
Every year I hold out, hard as it may be, to refrain from listening to Christmas music non-stop until after Thanksgiving. I don’t like to rush through Thanksgiving, and I try my best to savor each holiday as they come. (I once snapped at Michael and proclaimed he was “ruining Christmas” by playing holiday tunes in July. It’s serious.)
So while I can still say in good conscience that I haven’t blasted my Mariah Carey Merry Christmas album just yet, I do have to come clean. I saw the Christmas displays the week they went up (first week of November) at Galeries Lafayette and Printemps. It felt a little wrong and it wasn’t even very cold out, but I couldn’t contain my excitement. It all worked out though in the end - despite this little excursion, I didn’t ruin Thanksgiving :-)
I patiently refrained from sharing these pictures with you until after Thanksgiving was celebrated in the States, lest any of you felt adamant about focusing on the holiday at hand. So without further ado, let’s walk along Boulevard Haussmann together.
Read moreSigning your first apartment lease. Starting your first job. Moving out. Paying bills. There are many moments both big and small that seal a badge of becoming a “real adult.”
Moving to Paris has given me the opportunity to reach another “adulthood” milestone: hosting a holiday. Now for the third year, I can say that Thanksgiving is my holiday. Each year I get the honor of gathering my Parisian family in my home to celebrate this wonderful American holiday. Want to know how I do it?
Here’s how to plan an expat Thanksgiving:
Read moreParis had a lot of art to see. There’s a reason that the Musée du Louvre is just a synonymous as the Eiffel Tower in evoking images of the city of Paris. Art is important to French culture, and there’s plenty of it to go around.
One thing I appreciate about Paris is that while there are numerous art museums throughout the city that charge an entrance fee, there also is a spirit to make art accessible to everyone. This manifests itself in a variety of ways, but one is the cultural events the city sponsors.
Autumn brings about one of those events to town, called FIAC (Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain). This international art festival holds its main event in the Grand Palais (which took place this year from October 23-26). I’ve never been inside for the event because the hefty 35 euro entry fee is a bit steep for me. Luckily though, the festivities are accessible for those unable or unwilling to cough up the dough. The festival exhibits installations “hors les murs” (outside the walls) namely in the Jardin des Tuileries, Jardin des Plantes, and a few other locations throughout the city that are free for the public to see and enjoy.
Last year I absolutely loved exploring the Jardin des Tuileries and admiring all the artwork on display. This year, the festival raised a fuss when the unveiling of the installation in Place Vendome created quite the scandal. (Read more on the outrage over the green “Christmas tree” on France 24’s news article here, and why the artist got slapped in the face three times...)
Controversial art aside, this year I honestly wasn’t as impressed with the art I saw during my walks through the Jardin des Plantes and Jardin des Tuileries. But I still want to share with you some of my favorites. And even though I didn’t find the selection of art as interesting this year, I do have to credit the event for getting me out on a lovely afternoon just to enjoy Paris in autumn, and also gave me the motivation to see two beautiful sunsets.
Read moreAs you might have already guessed, Halloween isn’t really a big thing over here in France. You can find a few pumpkin decorations in stores (mainly in chocolate shops) and a few costume parties but it’s nothing to the extent in the US.
I've been told that Halloween did have a few years of popularity in France, but it was followed by a backlash that squelched the holiday. Some say it’s because it was deemed to be “too American.” And I’ve heard others say it’s because it interfered with the French holiday that occurs the very next day on November 1st: La Toussaint (All Saints’ Day).
The truth is probably a mix of both, but I can attest that it is possible to attend an epic Halloween party one night and still crawl out of bed to make it to the cemetery the next day. (And whoever says that French people don’t get into dressing up for Halloween have not seen the level of detail and intricacy of the costumes I saw - they all upstaged me! But that’s for another time…) Why the cemetery? Because La Toussaint is a day to visit the graves of relatives and pay respects.
Read moreHave you ever been known in your group for some sort of never-ending saga? This happened to me when I was moving into my first apartment in New Jersey and had months of issues with acquiring a couch. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say that we paid for the couch in full, and then every time we called to check on the status of the delivery, it was further from being made (going from being in transit to the distribution warehouse to unraveling before our eyes when our fabric of choice suddenly was out of stock). I became the girl at work with no couch, which provided lots to talk about at the copy machine as the story just kept getting more ridiculous.
Once again in Paris I can take part once again in a long, drawn-out tale, but thankfully this one is a bit less personal and inconvenient. For the past two and a half years, I've been following closely the progress (and drama) of the Picasso Museum’s renovation and long-awaited re-opening.
Read moreIn the "Park it in Paris" series, I write about the city's parks - some of the best spots to relax, people-watch, and mingle with the locals.
For today’s parc du jour, I want to give a little love to Parc de Bercy because it doesn’t seem to get much recognition. It’s located in the 12th arrondissement in an area that is not often visited by tourists, even though it runs alongside the Seine. Similarly to what I commented on about the 11th arrondissement, the 12th doesn’t have much in the line of “tourist attractions” to entice visitors over its way, so it remains more residential and decidedly local. In other words, you’re not trekking eastward with a checklist of things to do, other than stroll, eat, eat some more, and drink. (Clearly I need to later address all the deliciousness that lies in the 11th and 12th, but for now let’s focus on burning those calories with a walk around the park.)
Read moreOne thing that has always impressed me about Paris is the focus on cultural events. It seems that everyone is well-versed on the latest expositions going on in the city’s museums and other cultural events. People love to talk about what’s on, what they went to, and what’s on the list to visit. I got some insight in how this interest in the arts becomes ingrained when I started tutoring English. I took my elementary-aged student to Centre Pompidou and she started telling me about one of her favorite artists, Robert Delaunay. I was blown away by how she could remember his name and give some reasons why she liked his paintings. Part of the school curriculum incorporates the arts, and the appreciation for people who create and bring beauty into the world is certainly celebrated here.
Given this, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the events Paris puts on during the year is one to celebrate the arts...all night long. Nuit Blanche takes place the first Saturday in October. The 13th annual Nuit Blanche is set for October 4, 2014 so get ready for a night of art, dance, music, theater, and more!
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