Wine in Baby Bottles and Fondue

This post is about exactly what it sounds like. A fondue restaurant where the wine is served in baby bottles.

But first a wonderful day at Versailles. We awoke at my house and I had to sing, yell and jump on my friend Cassandra to get her off the couch and so she would come with us. My friend Bailey was staying with me too, and we made our way to the train station where the amazing Professor Christina Von Koehler was waiting with a head full of knowledge about the place and with free train tickets from NYU Paris!

I didn't think I could learn so much about Versailles by not even going in the house, but I should have known anything is possible with Christina. We simply toured the gardens. I learned why certain fountain are in certain places, the mythology behind them and whether or not they were supposed to make for a fertile night in the rooms of the palace that overlooked them (for example). We visited Marie Antionette's little fairytale village, and of course everyone was more amused by the piggies, sheepies and little-guy goats than by the rest of the compound (This is why homeless people with pets always get us too).

I had a cup of hot chocolate that was just chocolate that was hot. If I didn't drink it fast enough the top would solidify and I would have to eat the skin. Yum. Later I saw dragon-man statue with the biggest and pointiest nipples at all of Versailles, but then I thought back to drinking that hot chocolate and came to rival him.

Anyway it was an beautiful day full of education for fun (always an easier way to learn) and about 6:30 we made our way back on the train, with plans of going to the fondue and baby bottle restaurant.

The place was about 10 feet across and not very deep, the ladies had to sit on the inside because the only way to get to the seats against the wall was to climb over the table (and I guess guys are too heavy?). Our waiter hates the stupid young people who frequent the place and he let's you know. He and the other waiter repeatedly made fun of my bow-tie and I just happen to sit in the seat where he put down everything on the table. He would smack me in the head with the bread basket, with the bowl of potatoes, and with his elbows. I loved every minute of it. That guy stuck to his character, and I could tell underneath he was smiling.

The food was not great, I mean it was basic meat and cheese fondue. Fondue is always about the experience anyway, and the baby bottles made the night what it was. I could not think of better way to drink red wine. I am trying to stop chewing my nails, so I needed something to satiate my oral fixation. Though they cut bigger holes in the nipple (!?) and it did make it go down fast, not to mention baby bottles are not tiny. By the time we left we were all in a jovial mood and went off to dance and continue the festivities...

If Ever I Would Leave You...

...It wouldn't be in Autumn.

Here I am sitting in our little mansion that is the NYU in Paris campus on a Saturday. This coming week is midterm week and so our basement library is open today. At this point it is just me and the salty French librarian with her pursed lips and red rectangle frames. As I walked in and saw only empty computers I said "Ah bon!" and she made a grunting noise back. Life without a computer (still haven't quite diagnosed mine) is hard, but kind of good because it forces me to read in my spare time or come here to actually get work done (well now, I am blogging).

The last few weeks here have had their ups and downs, I had guests for about two and a half weeks straight and therefore didn't get as much as I needed to done, got a little stressed out at times but also had a lot of fun. This city is always a cure when I get worked-up though, I can just take a walk and I feel great. I have a feeling when I get back to New York it is really going to hit me hard. Though I have just as much work here, it doesn't feel like it. New York always has some larger pressing matter, some way of forcing me into submission and beating me down into a robot who relies on his Blackberry to tell him where he needs to be with whom and what he needs to talk about with that person.

Okay I get it, that is called obligation, and I don't have much of it here. But that's not how life works, unless I'm able to always just escape time after time. I've done a pretty good job of it up until now but I think I'm getting a little old for that. Evan's got some decisions to make when he gets back.

But for now: French limestone, brick streets, pasteries, autumn air, new friends, and the bluest sky I have ever seen.

I hope my friend Sasha doesn't mind that I keep using her photos, but this one seems to fit.

My computer is BROKEN

It froze, I restarted it. When I did a circle with a diagnol line came up on that grey start-up screen. That was there for a while, so I restarted it. Next time a folder with a question mark came up, and continues to come up any time I try. This does not seem like a good thing to me.

If you know anything about this kind of thing, let me know. I don't want to go talk to an apple guy about my computer in French.

I will try to update as much as I can, but most of the time I am in the library I am trying to work (like right now...) and though we can change the keyboards here to English if we like, they are very different.

I'll type this sentence two times, once with the English keys and once with the French keyboard!
=
Iùll type this sentence tzo ti,es; once zith the English keys qnd once zith the French keyboqrd1

WISH ME LUCK!

Free Refreshments

Now I am going to tell you something I love. It's those little moments of re-realization in life. Those things that are wonderful but that happen just often enough to forget about them in between experiencing them (and with my memory this happens quite frequently). But these are my latest re-realizations:

I Love Fall

And this is amazing because every year I forget. In the summer, especially those last days, I never want it to end. What could be worse than putting on a jacket and the leaves dying? But then, that first day of cold hits and I re-love it. It smells so good! The air tastes different! I get to sport more clothing and scarfs! So many possibilities! And these dying leaves are so beautiful!

Crisp air, crisp leaves, crisp apples.

That River!

The metro closes early here in Paris, 1am on weekdays and 2am on weekends. So needless to say sometimes I don't make it onboard. So then I end up standing with every other Parisian youth who has had a drink or a few, trying to catch a cab at the taxi stand. I tend to give up and start to trudge home. That is, until I get to the Seine.

Most of the time I have to traverse a bridge to get from the Marais or Bastille to my home, and every time I am reminded that this river is what makes the city. That's not just my opinion, this river and its islands are why Paris was founded and how it has survived.

And it's ridiculously beautiful. Amsterdam also reminded me how calming water can be. I grew up on the water, my wonderful mother made sure it has always been a part of my life. It is on my list of top 5 favorite things. Water, Babies, Old People, Fun and Culinary Delights.

Because I Have No Camera...

So the last few days have been quite nice, low-key but full of learning and camaraderie. Our friend Grayson happened to be staying with us before she heads off to India for a few months. My friend Sasha who is also studying here is a good friend of Grayson's (as well as an amazing photographer). She said I could post some of her pictures, and I think they perfectly capture the simple beauty of the last few days.

Grayson made us a beautiful meal of tomato, mozzarella and basil salad, toasted baguette with goat cheese, honey and raisins and then goat cheese and spinach wrapped with fried eggplant. Amazing.

View of my room from the living room.

The next day started at 11am at my apartment, where I made omelettes for everyone. I've learned how to make the perfect french style omelette and I am very proud of it, I've always found eggs hard to get just right. Sasha and I had our Paris Monuments and Political Power class at 1pm, but Thursdays we visit monuments, and this time it was the Pantheon. The buiding is right around the corner from my house, maybe 5 minutes walk. It's been a church, then secular temple devoted to the great men of France, then a church again, then secular, too many times to count (look up pictures of the building, I'm not going to taint this post with anything other than Sasha's amazing photos). We headed there at about 1pm.

That hand is that of amazing Christina Von Koehler, the smartest professor in all of Paris. And though I can't be sure, she looks as though she has the softest skin in the city as well.

View of our apartment from the courtyard

That night was more of the same, wine and talk and general easy good time. Then Benj, Molly and Grayson headed off to Amsterdam! What fun. And since I know you now want to see more of Sasha's photos of Paris, her blog is 'Hour of Departure' linked there on the right.

Eiffel with an E

Mondays and Tuesdays I have class starting at 9am, then two strange breaks between my three classes of the day. I end up not leaving our beautiful little campus until 7:45pm, after my last class on those evenings.

But I don't mind walking through the Passy neighborhood at night. Each week I've noticed it getting darker and colder, and it's coming out of those classes at that time of day and weather that reminds me that winter is coming. I like winter.

BUT HERE IS MY FAVORITE PART. The bridge that I either ride my bike or take the metro over crosses the Seine very close to la Tour Eiffel. And at 8pm when I am crossing, they light her up, and it is a spectacular show. It is flashy (literally blinking) and tacky and JUST RIGHT. It also happens to be my favorite part of that tower.

You know who it reminds me of?

Which is why I love it.

Sister, Sister, He's Just a Play-Thing, We Wanna Make Him Stay Up All Night

Above are lyrics from one of my favorite Talking Heads songs, and here's I love it and it is relevant:

First of all, because it is about babies. I love 'em and I want one. And let me tell you, they do babies well here in Paris. Actually, kids in general. They dress them well and if they need glasses when they are four or five, they don't mess around. Little round red frames. Imagine the American Girl Doll Molly's glasses, but in red. So cute!

Secondly, I miss my family so it is a shout out to my sis, Annie.

Thirdly, because I like to stay up late. Which brings me to last Saturday evening, Nuit Blanche in Paris. It translates literally to "white night," but in French that is the term for an all-nighter, for a sleepless night. Don't know why. *PAUSE* Just did some research and I think it might be in reference to 'white nights' in places of high latitude where the sun is out all night. But anyway, the french Nuit Blanche:

It is a huge arts festival meant for community building here in Paris. Museums stay open until 7am, they have exhibitions all around the city and the young and old of Paris take to the streets for the fête, for the soirée, for the festival, for the party. Right in my neighborhood there was a bunch of stuff, I live right around the corner from a fine arts college. Plus in the park by house they had a 25 foot disco ball (what?!) hanging from a crane above the fountain.

After a little pre-party in my courtyard, my friends and I decided to go to a few bars and make our way to another neighborhood that had stuff going on. We did make it to the bar, then to another, then beautiful Erin and I decided to split off and go with her two french friends while the other 3 went another way. Our time at the next place (a club) lasted about 2 minutes, Erin and I split.

What to do? FRENCH ONION SOUP of course. Erin and I sat down and watched the crowds. This would seem like the end, as everyone was wearing out. Our other friends ended up having Metro troubles and ended up going home, as did Erin. But on my way walking home, I figured, why not just keep going?

My first impromptu stop was the beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg with the HUGE disco ball. It was absolutely dazzling and lit up the entire surrounding neighborhood. By the time I got there, about 4am, there was no line to get into the park, but it was still full enough to enjoy the atmosphere and the many people hanging out.

There was also a huge dream carousel, like those things one might put next to a child's bed. I sat in those wonderful moveable chairs in the garden for a while and watched that. But then I went home.

And as I was walking up the stairs, I said to myself WHY NOW? I poured myself some more wine, then went around the corner where I proceeded to watch a woman strategically command 6 record players playing bird calls, changing the timing and record to make the sound into music in the courtyard of the school. She had a rack of clothes on the back of the platform which I thought was a little curious, but for some reason completed her scenic design.

I sat there on the edge of a fountain listening to and watching her for about 45 minutes. Every once in a while she would look at me or another person nearby after making sure a record was playing right at the moment she wanted. Her face said 'that is the right spot, no argument.' She was a stern and focused woman of 50, and had her character for the performance down.

After that 45 minutes she grabbed a dress of the rack, having never acknowledged them until that point. Absolutely thrilling. She reset two more records and left the stage. There was no way I could leave now. Would she come back having changed from her cream colored Chanel-esque suit into the long black silk dress with the large flower on her breast?

I could only wait, which I did. For twenty minutes. I gave her five more minutes to return. After that five, I granted her five more. Then I did it again. After 35 minutes she returned to her work, no differently than before, except for the black dress. I loved it.

I had an amazing Saturday night both with my friends, then roaming alone until 7am. But of course that lead to a very short Sunday for Evan.

My Dream Job is Gone

Condé Nast has decided to cease to publish Gourmet Magazine, the favorite of all my bathroom reading material and the publication that was going to start my very secret career plan. The last issue will be November.

This post is dedicated to Alexis Touchet (touché!). I do not know her personally, but she is the wife of an amazing teacher I had freshman year and was Senior Food Editor for the magazine. Every month when I picked up my copy, I would first turn to the contributors page to view that amazing name of hers and then I would proceed to read the recipes and travel the gastronomical world with them. I promise to follow Alexis and Ruth Reichl wherever they go.

I joined the group on Twitter to save the magazine (you could too, for me), but I am coming to terms with it.

This cover from June 2009 has been the background to my American cell phone since I recieved it in the mail. It makes me so hungry whenever I call anyone!

At least we got the recipe for the peach and champagne popsicles before it all ended, Mom.