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When we got there the line was extraordinarily long. We were at the Salon Du Chocolat, which in English means the festival of chocolate. Everyone got there at the same time, after lunch. After waiting for about a half an hour, we got inside and what we found was a chocolate trade-show. It was a […]

Here are brief descriptions and photos from other activities in Paris this October: – Playing in the Tuileries.  Paris has turned to autumn colors, and the leaves are down in the nearby Tuileries park.  One day the factors all aligned and the whole family had a few free hours at mid-day with no tours and no […]

A few days ago we went to La Tour d’Argent, or the “Tower of Silver.” We entered the tower and were greeted by a woman in a black dress and a man in a suit. The woman took our coats and the man ushered us in to a fancily decorated waiting room. We sat on […]

Intent upon maximizing our culinary explorations in Paris, despite the great risk to our waistlines, we have now had the good fortune to have dined at three of the city’s most famous restaurants:  Taillevent, Le Grand Vefour, and La Tour d’Argent.   An amateur’s review and report seems to be in order.  This time, however, I […]

So far we have been to three different cooking classes, Macaroons, Cookies and lemon cake, and Chouquettes. Macaroons: We went with our friends Colin, Matthew, and their mom Karen, to an English cooking class. Dad had class but he assured us he would be there for the eating part. There were four other people and […]

Cooking in Paris has been hard because there are so many fabulous restaurants to tempt us that we often eat out.  However, we sometimes visit the weekly outdoor markets and become inspired. As Russ’s photos will attest, the stalls there are laden with every tasty thing you can imagine:  pyramids of colorful vegetables which seem […]

One day when Linda and Hugh were visiting we chanced upon Madame Grevin’s Wax Museum. Grevin was the original master who taught Madame Tussaud – a relative who some say stole the technique and escaped with it to London.  Inside there are numerous sculptures, eerily lifelike.  Each of us took a photo with someone famous. Stumbling […]

My sister and I have French lessons 3-4 times a week, with our awesome teacher Blandine. Our lessons are each 1 ½ hours long, and great fun! Back in your childhood, or maybe more recently, you may have heard that the French Teachers were strict, proper, had the ability to hit students with a ruler, […]

Naomi had taken us to the L’Orangerie museum a few weeks ago. Today we were going to use the knowledge she imbued upon us and transfer that knowledge to my mother. We arrived at the L’Orangerie and decided to go for the most famous exhibits first:  Monet’s “Water Lillies” collection. Monet had painted the set […]

We went to The Rodin museum a couple days ago with our friends Colin and Matthew. We didn’t go in the museum, but the gardens. When we got there we saw The Thinker, deep in thought as always, The Gates to Hell, and many other famous sculptures. But that wasn’t the highlight. When we finished […]

Last night, we had one of our most memorable meals yet. As a birthday surprise, Russ made dinner reservations and arranged for Naomi to come and stay with the kids. We were off to Taillevent, a Michelin-starred restaurant which has been called a “veritable temple to haute cuisine” and a venerable Parisian institution of fine […]

We have now completed six weeks in Paris. Any notion of sitting quietly at cafés has been dispelled by the sheer magnitude and opportunity of arriving at the city, hosting visitors, setting up an apartment and enrolling family members in various activities.  This is the absolute best place on our year-long itinerary for friends and […]

Using a US cellphone in foreign countries is prohibitively expensive.  For this reason we brought an unlocked GSM cellphone.  We planned to buy prepaid SIM cards in each country where we would stay for a long time.  We also brought a SIM card from GymSIM that offers discounted international calling around the world, so we could use that for the shorter […]

While Linda and Hugh were visiting us we had a chance to take the tour of the Paris Opera house.  This was far more interesting than we had expected.  This is the opera house that was the inspiration for Phantom of the Opera.  There really is an underground lake, which is a water reservoir in […]

Last night Paris celebrated Nuit Blanche. This is a single night when everyone is encouraged to pull an all-nighter to show support for the arts community. You have deep conversations with friends, visit art installations, party, drink loads of espresso, and generally celebrate the fact that you are young, alive and in Paris. (We decided […]