Chateau Champs-sur-Marne

Last week we headed right outside of the city to another beautiful chateau.  We took the RER and met our friends Katherine and Andrew Current.  When we got to the little town we just missed the bus and it would have been about 45 minutes until the next one so we just walked, which was quite easy.  Right off the road, this was our first view of the Chateau

We bought our tickets to see the inside (which we only do every now and then) and found this little vending machine with drinks.  I though it was funny because in America is would be huge but here it was just this little tiny thing.  

The inside of the chateau was quite nice and had some lovely rooms:

Everyone needs a cougar carpet....

This is where the family kept their china, and had their own Mr. Carson.

This was the dining room where the children ate..right off the servants hallway.

Here is the board where the staff could see which room was calling for them...like at Downton.

A lovely guest room

Like all good chateaus, there are also good gardens:

Under this canopy of trees was the only respite from the hot, humid day.  We brought a lovely picnic but we weren't allowed to eat on the grounds so we had to leave while we ate.

Back of the house and our friends

While it was a lovely day, this is about a 6/10 chateau in my book because you couldn't go to the entire third floor and only got to see some of the rooms.  If I pay to see a chateau I want to see all or close to all of the rooms.  Also, the grounds were lovely but they still seem to be doing some renovations. Plus, you can't picnic and that just isn't right.

Bastille Day

The 14th of July was Bastille Day here in France.  It is the celebration of the beginning of the French Revolution. The people stormed the Bastille prison to tell the French Monarchy that they were tired of their abuse.  I think it would be a cool celebration to have everyone storm something every year but instead there is a parade and fireworks at the Eiffel Tower.  We were excited to go to the parade this year because it goes down the Champs-Elysees and Jeremy's office is right on the Champs-Elysees = prime viewing!  This is especially important to me since I am short.  However, since it was Sunday we had church instead and were lucky enough to hear the military jets soar over us during the meeting.  I guess we can see it next year.  Our friends Katherine and Andrew invited us to join them at the Eiffel Tower for fireworks.  Jeremy and I went back and forth and then decided to go at the last minute since it really is a once in a lifetime event.  So we (along with 60,000 other peeps) went to the Champs de Mars.  It was a challenge just getting to the park and finding our friends.  They had been there since 3:00 and we felt a little guilty getting there at 9:00.  They had a large blanket but it was taken over by some BYU students.  We could have been annoyed but then you realize that people in their teens are still very unaware of the world around them so it really is pointless.  There was a classical music concert that began around 9:30 and the fireworks started around 11:15.  They were really spectacular and worth our legs being asleep for three straight hours.  I wish I had a nice camera but I just used my iphone to take pics so you will have to imagine what they looked like in person.

Katherine and Andrew Current

The glowing lights are where the concert was and luckily they set up big screens so we could see.

The craziest part of the fireworks show was all of the American music they played...more than any French music by far.  They played music by Michael Jackson, Pearl Jam, Mamas and the Papas and much, much more.  At one point they played speech clips from JFK and Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream."  I mean, is that weird to anyone else on French National Day??  The ultimate where I began to totally crack up was when they played the song "Living in America"...What?  We are in the middle of Paris....

I took this pic from www.theatlantic.com by Charles Platiau and Gonzalo Fuentes so you could get a better idea of what it really looked like for the audience.

The craziest part of the evening was getting home.  The crowds just poured out into all of the streets.  It was funny to try to watch a car or Vespa get through tens of thousands of people.  We walked most of the way home (which is pretty far) and eventually caught a metro two stops from our house.  It was a great thing to do...once!

July 4th...not in America

This July 4th we were in France, which was a little odd but made much better by some new friends, the Hageman family.  Jen and Doug and their three boys are here for a few years, also as expats.  Jeremy and I headed over in the afternoon, since Jeremy had to work half a day...do you know that the French don't take off the Fourth of July? :)  Jen made great American food.  They have access to the Commissary which meant we had real hot dogs, beans, Doritos, Jello, Root Beer, etc.  Her sons are in the Boy Scouts and were invited to participate in the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe for the fourth.  You can tell that Thomas (their middle son) was excited to get ready to go...their kids are a riot!

We got to the Arc early so we could watch the boys process from the Champs-Elysees.  The French army was there and the army band.  They even played The Star-Spangled Banner in honor of the day, and a few marches. 

Veterans, important statesmen and boy scouts all walked down part of the Champs-Elysees and came up to the flame under the Arc.  There was a ceremony, but it was a little hard to hear.

This was my favorite picture of the evening.  It was surreal to have the French and American military together in France with the Eiffel Tower overlooking the whole thing.

Matt (the oldest son) was the cute one on the end.  What a great experience for them.

       Jeremy gave Timmy a better view of what was going on!

                                 Happy Independence Day!

Randomness

  This post is really just a mishmash of random things of daily life in France.  Sometimes these are my favorite posts and help me remember why 1)living in Paris is so cool   2) America is the greatest country on earth!  I know those two things don't really compliment each other but that is usually how I see my daily life here in Paris.

I go for a long walk/jog most days to a little island in the Seine close to my house called Ile de Puteaux.  It is mostly a sports complex with many, many, many tennis courts, a track, a few soccer fields and a little park.  Below is the park part where they had a recent children's fair the day before (hence all of the bunting.)

        This is how the French translate "The Smurfs"...funny, huh?

A few weeks ago we had a man come to clean all of our windows, particularly those that make up the little sun room.  I was so nervous he was going to fall right through.  I snuck his picture from the upstairs while he was leaning on the glass.  I wonder if they have worker's comp here in Paris?

One interesting thing is the amount of Pirates hats that I see around Paris.  Shocking isn't it? A lot of them are actual French people...well, let me take that back.  A lot of them live in France but are probably immigrants.  I took this on the metro last week.

There is a store here called Monoprix...it is basically the Target of France and I love it.  Their packaging is so much cuter than in the States.  Look at these cute baskets full of cherries, nectarines and peaches.

Last week Jeremy and I bought a grill.  When we asked the man at the store where to buy the propane and tank he said we could get it at any gas station.  Now there aren't gas stations here like there are in America...they are scarce.  We luckily have one about 1 mile away across the bridge in Puteaux. So...we got our trusty black cart and walked to the gas station to find out they didn't have it there and had no suggestions where we could find a propane tank.  Fun!  So we walked back home in the heat with our cart and no tank...essentially, he had been "French-fried" yet again.  We gave in and had to call and have one delivered to us, something we are beginning to do more often.  However, on our walk home that day we came across a school and they had these cute little kid "watch for kids" statues.  Sadly, they were as tall as I was, which isn't saying much I guess!

As some of you may know we have a very nice Filipino man that helps us with our garden.  His name is Rolly and his texts crack me up.  In one conversation he says "Madame" at least 4 times and it is no different in text messages...

I couldn't help but take a few pics of the cutest clothes ever at the Monoprix last week.  Even their low cost store has just adorable baby things!

A few weeks ago I got a message from a good friend Peter Steenblik.  He informed me that he was going to be here with the Utah Ambassadors of Music and some of my former students.  They did a concert in the Latin Quarter and I of course went to see everyone...it was nice to have a little bit of home for a few minutes.  Here are two of my former students, Elizabeth Mathis and Cami Nielsen.  I also got to see Lindy Green and some former colleagues Claudia Bigler and Lois Johnson.

Bercy Village

At the beginning of the month I had a friend recommend another blog with Paris sights from an American.  Her sight is Pardon My French... and it has given me some great places to explore.  One place that has been on my list for quite a while has been Bercy Village.  So one random Tuesday I decided to go explore.  I was pleasantly surprised when I walked up those metro stairs to find this adorable little shopping and eating village.  Here was my first view:

According to Rico, anything that is small, doesn't have parking, has dangling twinkle lights, you can sit outside (and I will add - made of old bricks) equals CUTE...and this place was CUTE!

They only had about 20 stores, and only a few that were actually chains.  My favorite places were a few cooking stores and an actual craft store.  Here is the new spice rack that I would like to slowly acquire...soooooo cute!

Next to Bercy Village is a great park called Bercy Park.  It is truly a neighborhood park.  The day I was there I saw a fashion photo shoot going on and tons of people picnicking, playing soccer, sipping coffee by the carousel, exercising and relaxing.  Bercy Park is made up of 3 different parks: 1) a water park where you walk along wooden bridges and look at the ducks 2) a flower garden with arbors and roses and 3) an open space area with playgrounds and large trees.  The parks spread out over a large road and there is a very steep stepped bridge that goes over the road.

Grape vines, of course

The rose garden

I believe this is a community garden, probably for some of the people that live in these apartment buildings overlooking the park.

The far end of the park has a very large sports stadium.  The second time I went here I brought my friend Claire and her three cute girls.  We were lucky enough to watch a man mowing the grass walls by standing at the top and lowering down a grass cutter by a rope and then pulling it back up to the top.

c

Colette, Kathryn and Camille