Up Close and Personal in Iceland

Bon lundi!

I've said it and I am going to say it again...and then a few more times. Iceland is an incredible country to visit! And I have LOTS more to share from my stopover trip earlier this month, so I hope you are just as excited as I am to explore the country together.

I really did not know much about Iceland before my first visit last May. Until then, the memory that popped into my mind at the thought of “Iceland” was nervously watching the news in 2010 to track the volcano eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull. Solely for selfish reasons - my European vacation was at stake with all of the airline disruptions. Who knows what would have happened if my flight was canceled? It was my first trip to Paris, which kind of started something…

But aside from becoming acutely aware of a bit of the geothermal activity going on in Iceland, I still did not know much more than that. Icelandair helped fill me in on some of the gaps with the fun facts they feature while flying. You know, things like 80% of Icelanders believe in elves and everyone is on a first-name basis, even the president. 

And here is one of my own fun facts from experience in Iceland: You can pretty much walk up to just about any waterfall in Iceland. No fences or barriers restrict access - no, you can go right up to the falls, as close as you dare. This was about as close as I wanted to get to Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe! 

What comes to mind when you think of Iceland?

Pre-Opening at the Musée Picasso

Have 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. 

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Autumn Colors in Jardin du Luxembourg

Bon lundi!

Hope you're enjoying a festive fall like the one we are experiencing in Paris these days! The past few months of cool, wet weather have been replaced at last with a final hurrah before winter sets in: a warm, sunny Indian summer. Like this incredibly beautiful Saturday afternoon in Jardin du Luxembourg complete with summer sunshine and fall mums.

Makes me want to start mixing the pumpkin pancake batter I lugged back from the US (Trader Joe's, of course), along with using copious amounts of cinnamon on everything to celebrate the season! What autumn things are you up to these days?

Cruisin' through Iceland

1 Toyota Land Cruiser
4 Tanks of gas
2 Volcanic craters
8 Waterfalls
5 Days

And 1,800 km of Icelandic roads covered. (Or 1,100 miles and change. Or for those like me who numbers don’t register much, the equivalent of over a third of the way from coast to coast of the United States.) 

Any way you choose to look at it, it’s certainly a considerable distance for two people to cover. Especially two people who rarely drive these days being city dwellers and all.

Even though neither Michael nor I particularly enjoy driving, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat to explore Iceland by car. There is so much to discover in this country with such a diverse landscape and a car grants great freedom to do so. Here’s a look at what we saw along the way from the confines of our four-wheel drive monster of a vehicle, most photos being taken as we cruised along at 90 kmh (56 mph), the speed limit on paved roads.

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Stopover in Iceland

Bon lundi!

Sometimes promotions work. It's what got me to Iceland for the first time last year and started my love affair with the island.

You see, Icelandair has a promotion that when you fly with them between Europe and the US/Canada, you can build in a stopover in Iceland for up to seven nights at no extra charge. (Maybe I should interject here that this post is not sponsored by Icelandair, but merely my honest opinion.) Michael proposed trying it out last year for a trip back to the US, and we spent three nights in Iceland on the way to NJ.  (A word of warning I must share: even though the stopover is free, don't expect the trip to be cheap! Just renting a car, filling it with gas, sleeping and eating will easily run $250 per night for 2 people)

Before then, Iceland was never on my radar. It just never really crossed my mind as a travel destination. And then when Michael put it on my radar, I was a bit overwhelmed by how to plan a trip there. (I'm used to navigating cities but the great outdoors, not as much.) But our trip last year to the south part of the island turned out so well that we were more than up for another stopover to discover the northern coast.

There is so much to share and I promise more in the coming week(s) as I gush on and on about just how beautiful the country is. For now, I'll leave you with one picture to illustrate some autumn colors on a cold October afternoon just a few days ago.

Autumn colors by Lake Mývatn (northern Iceland)

Park it in Paris: Parc de Bercy

In 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.)

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Discovering the 11th arrondissement

Bon lundi!

I've been enjoying walking around the residential neighborhoods of the 11th arrondissement over on the east side of Paris. There aren't any big tourist attractions to see, so it feels distinctly local and relatively untrodden by the millions of visitors that come to France's capital each year. Here are two pictures from a September walk one Wednesday after a stop at Marché Charonne in the 11th. It may not be well traveled but still has some beautiful architecture and little gems to discover! 

Église Saint-Ambroise in the 11th arrondissement of Paris 

This building for Maison Boutet is from 1926

Coming This Weekend to Paris: Nuit Blanche 2014

One 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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A White Night?

Bon lundi!

“Nuit blanche” in French literally translates to “white night” but it figuratively means to pull an all-nighter. And “Nuit Blanche” is also the name of an annual event in Paris that occurs on the first Saturday of October. Maybe you can guess why it’s given that name. It’s an event that takes place all night, from 7pm to 7am the next morning.

Mark your calendar for this Saturday, October 4th, if you’re in town - I’ll fill you in on more about what the event entails this week. For now, I’ll leave you with this picture for a taste of what you might find during Nuit Blanche. I didn't stay awake all night for a proper Nuit Blanche last year, but I did manage to pass the 3am mark, when this photo was taken!

Any guesses to where this is? Hint: It's in one of Paris' churches...(yes, at 3am!)

Sunrise at the Eiffel Tower

I love to make lists. I have one of all the healthy foods and habits I keep trying to adopt but just can’t push myself to enjoy willingly:

  1. Oatmeal

  2. Yogurt (and I’ve tried every kind, so don’t suggest that Greek yogurt could be a game-changer)

  3. Grapefruit

  4. Running

  5. Being a morning person

I've come to peace with most of these items, hoping other good habits will keep me healthy. But there’s something I just can’t let go about trying to be a morning person. I’m what my husband calls a bad roommate - a perpetual idealist setting my alarm far too early and hitting the snooze button far too many times. Somehow I always tell myself “this time will be different,” yet I know deep down that I’m a night owl at heart.

Yet despite my aversion to morning hours, I still put one early morning item on my Paris bucket list. I got it in my head that I needed to see the Eiffel Tower at sunrise, if only just once. To convince myself to make this wish become reality, I looked back at this absolutely stunning picture Edna took (see first photo) and was reminded that certainly this was worth crawling out of bed for in the dark hours of morning.

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Falling in love, or failing to love, Paris

Bon lundi!

I was going to write a typical, short Monday post with a picture to show you just how beautiful Paris is as autumn is settling in. But then a string of incidents hit, and I decided instead to get some things off my chest. If you don’t want to read my embarrassing tale, I included three photos, instead of the standard one, just for you. 

For those who want a laugh, or a Paris-reality check, let’s have a glass of wine and laugh this off together.

The trees of the  Jardin du Palais Royal hanging onto their leaves for just a little longer

I love Paris. But I don’t want to skew reality and portray only la vie en rose. Paris is sunsets at the Seine and picnics in the park, but it’s also crowded metro rides and dog droppings on the sidewalks. If you've been following me on Instagram, did you notice halfway through the summer that I stopped showing picnic pictures on the Île Saint-Louis and relocated to Canal St. Martin? Let’s just say Remy and friends moved in on my spot. But unlike the movie Ratatouille, he isn’t doing the cooking - these rats are waiting for me to bring an extra treat.

Anyway, onto this past week. You need to know the backstory of how I somehow broke a power converter and nearly electrocuted myself on a massive spark. I tripped the circuit breaker and Michael had to leave work early to fix the mess and replace the broken fuse.

Imagine what his coworkers thought the very next day when they heard Michael’s end of another phone conversation: “No, if the carbon monoxide alarm is going off, you MUST leave the apartment. Right now.”

Yup, the carbon monoxide alarm that we hooked up in our apartment went off. And it was loud. Extremely.

Now for a confession. I have a bad habit of drinking coffee and doing work on the couch until I fully wake up, afterwards showering and getting ready for the day. So although it was mid-morning, I was still in my pajamas and about to take a shower. And I certainly didn't have time to deal with a disruption due to the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning.

I opened the windows, threw on clothes, and left. I then had to stumble my way through an apology to the artisan who has a work space in my building directly under my windows. (I’m telling you, this alarm was BLARING.) Once Michael came home, yet again, to deal with another mess, we determined we had to call the pompiers (firemen) because we had no way of knowing if there really was a problem or not. 

Luckily I support the firemen by buying champagne each year at their ball over Bastille Day weekend. But since this is the second time they've had to come chez moi, I think I owe them a drink next year.

I called, failed at communicating the problem in French, and then tried again in English. Then they showed up….to the wrong address….because apparently I did not make that clear enough. Try #2 they arrived to our house - and where most girls would be thrilled to have three pompiers in her bedroom, I was less enthralled in that moment. It probably had something to do with my bed-head and unbrushed teeth. 

Anyway, despite being a bit confused why we owned a carbon monoxide detector (especially when we only have electric) they gave us the clear. We were not in danger after all of poisoning. So I was good to proceed with getting dressed for the day.

If you ever need an occasion to check yourself and be humbled, just move to a country where you don’t speak the language.  It’s been a rough week (coupled with French bureaucratic paperwork we’ve had to deal with) and it’s been one of those low points of living abroad. But I can be grateful that Paris has been exceptionally beautiful this week (and that I was not harmed by carbon monoxide inhalation), reminding me of why I persevere to live here. And just like that, I’m under Paris’ spell again.

A September day in the Jardin des Tuileries

So...who’s laughing with me? At me? 

Behind the Doors of the French National Assembly

Journées du Patrimoine (European Heritage Days) is a wonderful event that takes place over a weekend in September. During the weekend, many buildings and monuments are open to the public and often for free. While many standard tourist destinations are open for free or reduced entry (such as the museums), what makes this weekend extra special is that many sites only allow entry to the general public over these two days of the year.

I recommend taking advantage of these exclusive openings, or at least going to places that are difficult to see during the year. Start planning right now - Les Journées du Patrimoine is this weekend, September 20-21!

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