Settling In

Afternoon pilgrims,

Other than a few boxes left over and some clothes that will need to be given away (I'm working on that among other things) it's beginning to look like a place we'd be living in albeit significantly smaller.  After living here a while there are sounds that we've all gotten used to or at least partially.  In Lynchburg the trash collectors came once a week and here they come every day which is a bad thing for our older cat Nelliebelle as she's always associated the sound of big trucks with something negative (I have no idea why that is) so when the trash guys came every week in Lynchburg you would always find Nellibelle "slinking" across the floor headed for the underside of one of our beds until the noise was gone.  You can imagine then her consternation when the cacophony of trucks begins every morning here at around 6 AM and just in the last few days she's stopped panicking when she hears it.  The first few weeks however she lived in a constant state of abject terror and often her tale could be seen sticking out from under our bed.  I really felt for her.  I had mentioned in an earlier post that the preponderance of horn honking here completely obliterated what I used to consider lots of horn honking in the states.

We heard today that all of the owners of the apartments in our building have decided to install a large net over the space between our building and the adjacent building to essentially build all of the frantically fornicating pigeons out which will be another noise abatement miracle for us all considering what is being paid for the various apartments here.

College starts again for the twins next Monday and they're preparing for it even as I write this post. 

To bypass some of the lack of customer service here I've taken to ordering things online using the Google translate program to understand how all of the ordering mechanisms work here which was tedious but in the end rewarding.

Last Friday evening Cassie took me to a small "genuine" Parisian restaurant called "Chez Geraud" that was TO DIE FOR.  The service, ambiance, food, presentation, and everything else was at least 4 steps above anything I've ever experienced in Lynchburg and for that matter just about anywhere else in the US.  Anthony Bourdain is correct and naming France as the ground zero wellspring of the culinary arts and last Friday night was a tutorial on how a meal should be done period.  Needless to say we'll back to Chez Geraud in the very near future and YES I can definitely get used to this.  Virginia?  Where is that?  Never heard of it.

Lastly, the simplicity (minus the French proclivity for generating a lot of paperwork) of our lives here is also quite refreshing and we've all gotten used to that and it's agreeing with everyone although the cats might still be on the fence about it.  Cassie had heard from other ex-patriots that simplifying their lives was a good thing and they were definitely right.

We're currently in a stretch of very cloudy and cool days but I'm sure that will give way to Spring sooner than later but what the heck.......it's Paris after and all days here are good ones for this old ex-pat.

Wish you were here with us........

Love to all everywhere....

Sid 

The Portrait Is Up

We're working eliminating the final piles of stuff laying around the apartment after our personal shipment arriving last Monday and when we moved Kian and Niall's portrait that was painted by our dear friend and amazing artist Jon Roark we decided to hang it after pulling one of the other paintings already in the apartment was taken off the wall.

So..........with this painting up it really IS beginning to feel like home around here.  We still tear up looking at it.  Thanks again Jon Roark for capturing our sons while they were still young.

Longer posts follow this one later this weekend.

Love to all everywhere.....

Sid

My Second Blog - But with Pictures this Time

It has been over another week since being in Paris and things have still been interesting. The rest of our stuff finally arrived a couple days ago and things in both our apartment and how we operate things in it have improved since then. One time during the week we actually went to the local McDonald's and I was shocked to see that most of the customers there were around I and Niall's age, and this made us believe that it was a popular spot for college students to hang out, eat, and converse with each other. Nowadays we still shop at then Inno (I think I spelled it right - it's the large mall that I couldn't remember the name of before) where we get most of our groceries, though we sometimes go to Casino to shop in the early hours of the weekdays. Now our friend Meagan Jones back in Virginia has been calling us through Skype instead of us trying to call her first (and we still communicate through email). We also had our first ride in the subway, and during the ride we saw the Eiffel Tower and crossed the Seine river. We even went to the American bookstore there which has a vast collection of books, and we're even thinking of working there if we ever find an opportunity. Once again, things in Paris are going well and I hope they continue to in the future.

By Kian Hagan

Here we are again.

Saturday (3/20/10), my brother and I took our first ride on the RER Metro rail system. And I must say, I liked it better than the typical metro. It was more comfortable and there was even a second floor in the rail cars.

While on the RER Metro, we all got to see more of the city once the train emerged from the tunnels into the town areas above it. We even got to cross the Seine River and get a nice view of the Eiffel Tower. It was quite a sight from where we were in my opinion.

Our destination was the American Library. It was one of the places I was most eager to check out. It is a library that has a whole score of American prints of books and even films from the U.S. Quite frankly, I liked the place the moment we set foot inside. It was nice and quiet, and the building itself was also quite a thing to see, both inside and out. Mom got us all membership at the library, while Kian and raided the shelves for something to read. The library's assortment of books (both fiction and non-fiction) was very expansive. I found there were 2 floors filled with them, and I am told that there is even a basement. There was also a video and DVD rack right next to the receptionist tables.

In our search, we were able to find 4 books to bring home, I believe. Before leaving the library's area however, our parents took a few pictures of Kian and me near the Eiffel Tower, which was very near to where the American Library is situated. I'll say it was an even nicer view of the said landmark than the one on the metro.

All in all, I'll tell you that I found very much enjoyment in the venture to the library. And another thing; we do intend to return in the near future, since there is more fun to be had from this, I believe...



On Tuesday (3/22/10) morning, our other materials from Lynchburg finally arrived at our apartment. We had to go through a lot of boxes to sort out all of our things; to see what belonged to whom and where to put it. It took some hours, but we got most of it sorted out. I can now say that our apartment looks and feels more like home.

That night, Kian and I went to our first cafe restaurant with our Mom and Dad. I will admit, we had an enjoyable time. The workers there are very nice people and the food was good as well. The place itself was nice and quiet, it was not even that busy, really. I liked the design of the place as well, it was kind of swanky in some details. I do expect return visits there (the name escapes me right now) as it is a nice spot for a relaxing dinner outing.

By Niall Hagan

Hail Hail And The New DVD Player

Mornin Pilgrims,

There was a hail storm here yesterday afternoon.  Interesting to watch it from 4 floors up after being on the ground floor for so many years.

Before we left the US I ordered an "all regions" DVD player from a company in Chicago that was owned by someone who sounded like they were from either India or the Middle East who assured me that I would love it and be glad that I purchased it.  Well, HE WAS RIGHT!  For the uninitiated ALL DVD players and televisions in the EU work using a PAL signal path whereas the DVD players and TVs in the US work using the NTSC signal path not to mention that EU electronics are all 220 volts as opposed to 110 for the US.  I'd never even unpacked the DVD player until our personal shipment arrived last Monday and Wednesday night I hooked it up to the 36 inch Sony LCD TV in our apartment and it worked flawlessly with the DVDs we had shipped from home.  Cassie and I watched "Raising Arizona" and were very pleased to be able to watch one of our favorite movies ever without having to replace all of them in a new format or wait for it to turn up on French TV overdubbed.

Ahh, the little things that make one feel right huh?  Still getting the twins ready for college to start.  I have to print some forms and have them sign them and then scan them and email them to Strayer University which is the online college they'll attend while here.  Hopefully it'll go better than our experience in Lynchburg at Central Virginia Community College which is a hostile environment for folks who exist within the Autism Spectrum.  So far everyone at Strayer has been very accommodating and for what they charge they should be.

It's another day heading to the store after lunch and perhaps me and my bride will have a date tonight somewhere in Paris.

For the time being, no more Saudi dance numbers on the TV.  Life is good indeed.......*

Love to all everywhere.....

Sid

Sunday Shopping And No Space Bar

Hi folks,

Just short note today. The space bar on my laptop went south last Saturday and naturally the Dell service center here in Paris wasn't open but I did place a call to their international service number and got someone from probably India named "Jeff" who took a work order for me and sent it along. "Claude" showed up today and switched my entire keypad out for no charge (I have a 3 year international service contract with Dell) and I'm back!

Sunday Cassie and I went shopping at a "covered" open air market near Passy (about a 10 minute walk from here) and it was REALLY GREAT! We took pictures which I'll endeavor to attach after I finish writing this. They had just about everything in there and we got some amazing produce and bread. Then went across the street and found a grocery store that was open on Sunday too and we're able to stock up on what we needed for the rest of the weekend.

While out this last weekend we saw a Maserati parked right in front of our aparment building and when going across the street from the covered outdoor market Sunday there was a Rolls Royce parked in front of the grocery store we went to. Add those to the Lamborghini Cassie saw on the sidewalk a couple of weeks ago and the partially cracked up Aston Martin I see regularly down the street I really do have a sense of living in a bourgeoisie neighborhood.

Our personal shipment arrived yesterday and that'll be the gist of my or Cassie's next blog entry.

Will leave you with pictures of the shopping expedition last Sunday that lastly included a mime in the street.

Love to all!

sid

Cable TV In Paris

OK, Cassie got cable TV for us here a little over a month ago with a company called "Numericable" and I must say it's been entertaining watching or at least pausing on some of the channels from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Algeria, China, Germany, Poland, Al Jazeera, BBC, ZDF, France, and the list goes on and on.

Last night however on ALL of the Arabic channels was what looked like what could have been a Buzby Berkley song and dance extravaganza on a huge stage backed by a gigantic eagle with wings spread with over 100 or more Saudi or Arab men dressed in the ankle length robes they wear there with the head dresses and waving swords while lip syncing badly to whatever it was they were trying perform. I thought I'd seen it all on the tube until I saw this and for the life of me I have no idea what they were trying to get across to the audience. There were even flames coming up from the stage at varying intervals but that didn't seem synced to the music.

Right now on the concert channel there's a bald guy with strange tattoos singing somewhat classical songs in a soprano voice with a classical guitar accompanist. The concert channel is actually really cool and I've seen some really different acts there too like a British band called "Bat For Lashes" which was another musical downshift for me. I liked the band but for the life of me can't recall any of their music now even though it was quite arresting.

I gotta tell ya though, this bald guy singing classical songs with a huge vibrato is something else. I guess it's a good thing I don't take mind altering drugs any more.

Here's wishing all of you "regular" music listening for the future. I'll be here with the bald guy and the Saudis gettin down with their swords.

Love to all everywhere.....

sid