Yesterday was another national holiday here in France - Victory Day, which marks the anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe. Now, I know what you are thinking. Why the eff is VE day celebrated in France with a nice day off of work for everyone, and not in the United States, whose fine soldiers bailed these guys out in the first place, right? All I can say is I agree. Days off should be passed around out for everyone. For me, a long weekend could not come soon enough. I'm sure it seems like all I do is sit in cafés and stroll around gardens, but I can assure you that there is a good amount of work crammed in there as well. In fact, these past few weeks have been incredibly exhausting at work, leading up to the OECD Ministerial Conference this week. For those of you not in public service or part of the DC crowd, this event is exactly what it sounds like. Ministers and business folk from across 40+ countries descend on the OECD for a few days and confer about the global economy and such. I got to see Japan's Prime Minister Abe speak, shook hands with a few important people, but otherwise, these kinds of things are really just a LOT of work for those of us who push the papers and put out fires. So after the Ministerial ended on Wednesday, I was absolutely ready to celebrate MY victory day over the chaos of the previous few weeks, and my first real test under pressure on the new job. I didn't fail - victory! Michael and I also finished our second Whole30 yesterday, which basically cuts out processed foods, dairy, sugar, gluten, alcohol, and legumes for 30 days. Not an easy task living above a boulangerie and in a country that considers cheese and wine basic food groups. It was just as hard this time around, but for different reasons - I wanted a glass of wine so bad at the end of some of those stressful work days, and lemon water just doesn't substitute. And at the end of the 30 days, we now start to reintroduce food groups to see how our bodies react - for us, it was life-changing the first time around, and has been good to reset over the past few weeks. And although I reeeaaaaalllly wanted to shove a baguette and cheese in my face on more than one occasion, washing it down with a crisp, cool glass of rosé... I didn't - victory! And today, I conquered my arch nemesis: the dreaded blood test. As part of the process to identify what I'm actually allergic to, my doctor prescribed a RAST blood test. After one bad experience with needles a few years ago, I now have mild anxiety attacks while giving blood. Did I lose partial vision and almost pass out on the kind French phlebotomist? Why, yes I did. But what I will choose to focus on is that I didn't pass out. And after a glass of water and a few minutes lying down, I even stood up on my own accord - victory! As a final nod to this year's Victory day (which I shall now celebrate as victory weekend), Michael and I took a trip to visit a Frenchman actually deserving of the holiday - Napoleon. Here are a few shots from our visit:
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AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
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