It took me nearly 8 years to find a good hair salon/stylist in DC. By contrast, it took Michael maybe 5 minutes after a well-worded google search to find the best ex-pat salon in Paris. Neither of us are usually the type to shun the local Parisian scene, but we didn't really want the hassle right out of the gate of trying to explain our haircut requirements in very poor French while pointing to a picture of us on a good hair day. So we headed out on a rainy Sunday afternoon to the 12th arrondissement to spend some time quality with Dean and Denis in an artist studio warehouse that has been partially converted into the Style Pixie Salon. If you're looking for a good place to get your hair cut in Paris with English-speaking stylists and clients, I would definitely recommend this place. We'll be going back.
Style Pixie Salon 2 rue Edouard Vasseur 94200 Ivry-sur-Seine +33 1 46 70 25 69 stylepixiesalon.com
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After two months in storage at a warehouse in Baltimore (6+ for some of Michael's things)... a transatlantic flight to London... several non-scheduled days hanging out in Heathrow... a short hop over the channel to France... through stacks of paperwork to clear customs in Paris... and a journey up five flights of stairs hauled by three Frenchmen... our stuff has finally arrived! This is the last major hurtle in our journey to relocating our lives (and things) to Paris. We'll post more photos of the apartment once we're all settled in, but what a relief to finally have everything here!
After two months of wedded bliss, we have finally posted our wedding photos online! Click here to see them all!
Our first concert in Paris was at the Bercy Palais, and I think half of Paris showed up to see Maroon5 (and Robin Thick, btw, who way out-performed my expectation of him).
I hadn't seen Maroon5 before, and it was actually a fantastic show. It was also nice to spend an evening unashamedly enjoying the complete freedom of listening to music in English. Good start to live music in Paris! I love this photo. First of all, we'd never get away with this kind of satire in the US.
But more importantly, Michael took a break from his salami and pickle baguette to pose for this picture. We couldn't have planned this if we had tried. Thanks, Hollande. Well, hello appliances! Is that gas under the skillet? It sure is! Goodbye electric coils of confusion.
And an oven that actually bakes things? Well, sort of. I think we've figured it out, but it's in celsius, so we're really hoping that 180 will actually do something other than kinda warm things up. And then there's the washer/dryer combo. The washer works great, although it still takes a good 2+ hours to wash a small load. And the dryer... well, it has presented a bit of a conundrum. It doesn't "dry" so much. It just spins like hell for hours until all of the water is removed by pure centrifugal force, or at least that's what I imagine it's doing. We did a good three loads of laundry today. By the time we made it to the third dryer cycle, the damn thing kept beeping at us until we finally figured out that "vidange reservoir" means "empty tank." Of course we had no idea what "tank" it was referring to. It turns out that that the process of spinning like hell to dry clothes pushes the water into a central reservoir, which we are supposed to empty after every load. This would never fly in the US... but for us, it's better than hanging crunchy clothes to dry all over the bathroom. Welcome back, appliances. I've missed you. Apartment #2: Spaciously Central Paris !!!! A block off of the famous Rue Cler open market, this spacious apartment boasts a full-sized American kitchen, one bedroom and two bathrooms and windows that open onto a typical Parisian courtyard. Here are a few agency pics of the apartment to entice you to come visit us :) When we showed up to sign the rental papers this afternoon, the formality and protocol of the whole thing made it feel like we were buying a house (with the contract and transaction all in French). We thank all of the collective deities for Cécilie, who was our eyes and ears throughout this whole crazy process. Who knew that the first words Michael would write in French would be on our lease papers?!? I'm sure he never anticipated this turn of events in his life... ;)
But we are now all signed and sealed -- and as of next Friday, we move into an apartment that defies our wildest dreams. Yesterday was the day we had been anticipating for months. We put on our best (comfortable) shoes, friendliest American smiles, best Parisian scarves (well I did, at least), and said bonjour to ten apartment owners and agents around Paris in an effort to find the place we will spend at least the next year of our lives. It was both exhausting and exhilarating. Yes, we should have called International House Hunters to document the effort, but alas we did not have time to even look into what the show requires. Not to mention, most of the people on there end up looking like pretentious jerks who demand MORE room to entertain, MORE crown molding, and an OPEN CONCEPT floor-plan that they have noooo way of affording, yet are almost always persuaded to choose because they just can't help it. Our day started out with a good helping of French carbs and hopping into the 24-year old Renault of our lovely agent, Cécilie. Neither of which we could have made it through the day without. Heading out at 9am, we made our first visit to a few apartments in the 15th, then cruised along to several winners and losers in the 7th, up to the 16th for a horror-filled apartment building and a few near-misses, and then back to the 15th for a fab-apartment-terrible-building finale. After eleven hours hitting the pavement, we submitted a housing dossier for one of the following. [Note: you must read the rest of this post with Susan Wong's voice narrating in your head] Apartment #1: Urban Chic Terrace Located within walking distance of work, this gem of an apartment has one bedroom, and has been renovated with a beautiful (if small) kitchen and terrace that overlooks a quiet garden. Apartment #2: Spaciously Central Paris A block off of the famous Rue Cler open market, this spacious apartment boasts a full-sized American kitchen, one bedroom and two bathrooms and windows that open onto a typical Parisian courtyard. Apartment #3: Eiffel Tower View The view from the balcony will take your breath away. The downside? The apartment itself looks like it escaped out of a Miami Vice episode, and is back in Paris to make all of your 80s dreams come true. We are beyond thrilled to sign the lease tomorrow on one of these amazing apartments in Paris... but which one will it be? Which one would you choose? :) Over the past several days, we had started to notice that ALL of the bakeries in Paris were starting to display these beauties in their front windows: Isn't it glorious? Meet... la Galette des Rois. They come in various sizes of marvelousness, and are only sold in early January around epiphany, complete with a paper fleur-de-lis crown. The tradition holds that the galette is meant to "lure the kings" to epiphany. Sure, why not, it would work for me - they're delicious.
In the US - especially if you are from New Orleans - you will know the Galette des Rois as a King Cake, which is eaten a few months later in celebration of Mardi Gras. The NO version is a lot more colorful and sugary than the one you see above. Apparently, the galette they make in the South of France look quite similar to its US cousin. Another similarity between the transatlantic King Cakes is that they both hide a little plastic figurine (la fève) inside. Here, if you find the figurine in your piece of cake, you are made king for the day and on goes the paper crown. Huzzah!! In the US, they bake a baby Jesus into the cake, and if you're Michael, you collect as many baby Jesi as possible and hide them surreptitiously in drinks throughout the evening. You have all been duly warned if you happen to visit us next January :) My laissez-faire approach to managing jet lag when traveling between the US and France clearly needs some re-evaluation. Today is technically our fourth day back in Paris, and I'm now at work after a grand total of 3 hours sleep last night (from approximately 9pm to midnight). The funny thing is that we both went to bed absolutely exhuasted with high hopes of a good night of sleep, and woke up just after midnight thinking it was at least 6am, and that the traffic outside was the start of the morning commute. To our shock and horror, the clock read 12:18am. FAIL! In my infinite wisdom (and frustrated exhaustion), I decided to say screw you to jet-lag and got up and dressed for work around 4:30am. There is absolutely no point in trying to will yourself back to sleep during the precious few hours that you have a chance to actually be productive. Here are a few helpful graphics I found this morning that succinctly illustrate my current dilemma. In summary:
After a great week spent in sunny Southern California with our families to celebrate the Christmas holiday season (more soon on that), we made it back to Paris just in time to ring in 2014. We decided to walk to a bridge about 10 minutes from our current apartment that has an awesome view of the Eiffel Tower to wait for midnight. It was an absolutely fantastic way to cap off 2013, and welcome the new year. But apparently we were not the only ones with this idea. The crowds on the bridge and in cars parked on the street and in boats cruising in the Seine all erupted in celebration at the stroke of midnight. Horns blared, champagne corks popped, the Tower twinkled, and everyone hugged and kissed their loved ones. How lucky am I to finally have Michael here in Paris, and in time to join for this incredible milestone?
I am feeling blessed and hopeful for all that is certain to come next year. Thank you, 2013 - you were fantastic. |
AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
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