I am a week behind!  Not too much happening the first week but Christmas week was fun- with one exception!  Going back- Chris's dad and wife Laura arrived. Kids were thrilled to see them.   I think they are appreciating family much more now.  Hugs seem to last much longer!  Alex and Olivia had their winter school musical performance.  Kids sang songs in French and played different instruments.  Chris's dad was a hit at the school.  As he speaks 7 languages fluently and is knowledgeable of several others-  he was excited to speak English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese within the first 10 minutes of our arrival.  The kids from Korea and Japan were equally excited as he spoke with them as well.  Thursday was the kids last day of school as they celebrated their school party.

Bonpapa reading french books

Luciana waiting for the show

Friday,  I went to Champs Elysees with Olivia to meet up with her friend and her mom.  We went out for lunch and took the girls ice skating.  There are several ice skating rinks set up for the season throughout Paris.  Christmas is really a nice time to visit Paris.  Not too many tourists and lots of marches (outdoor markets) and holiday festivities.   The weather also has been pleasant.  It has averaged 50 degrees this month- I can not say I miss the freezing Midwestern temps and snow!  I have been told that  in January and February we may see some snow here and colder temps.  Saturday, we had our date night.  We started off with a bit of shopping for me.  Chris was my stylist and selected some nice pieces.  Of course- most everything was black!  Please note to anyone visiting Paris- bring black clothing. Anything else looks out of place!  For dinner we were joined by Chris's co-worker and husband who were visiting.

This past Monday, Alex was invited to Disneyland Paris.  When someone offers to bring your child to Disneyland- you don't pass it up!  He had a great time with a school friend.  We also had a nice visit from Chris's cousin Laure, her husband and son.  Tuesday- was Christmas Eve.  I spent most of the day preparing my french menu as we have one small oven!  For starters- Coquilles Saint-Jacques , Gougeres (cheese puffs)  and Foie Gras with apricots.  For the main course- beef bourgandy, mustered herb roasted potatoes,  and browned garlic brussels sprouts.  I had to add the foie gras as it is the most popular french delicacy.  It is quite expensive.  Unlike pate, it  is a made from the liver of a specially fattened duck.  These ducks are force fed so that they have large amount of fat in the liver and  produces a buttery consistency.  It really is quite sad as these ducks or geese are fed to the point where they can't even walk!  I don't care for the taste either and the kids wouldn't even try it (I should not have said what it was).  Bonpapa and Laura took the 3 older kids to church while Chris and I prepared the appetizers.

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Christmas Day! What a wonderful time of year! Alex woke up at 1:30, 3, 4 and 5:45am. He kept coming into our room asking if it was time to open gifts. Finally at 6- the three older kids came in as excited as can be. They then went to wake up Luciana . They were thrilled to see the tree with lots of gifts for all. The topper was we had one last gift tucked hidden away. Kids read the note - it said the kids deserved something extra special for getting excellent marks in school but the parents could take it away at anytime....an iPhone for Olivia and iPod touches for Alex and Olivia. There was disbelief from Olivia, smiles from Alex, and screaming and jumping from Emilia. Luciana was just as happy with her pink Minnie mouse purse. We had a nice brunch as I prepared gingerbread crepes and a Quiche Lorraine. I do enjoy cooking- but could use a day off! Luciana has been coughing for weeks and has had an on and off fever for the last 6 days. She was fine until lunch and then she fell asleep and woke up with a 104.5 fever. I have never had any child with such a high temp- we took her to the ER and sadly there were many children spending their Xmas there After a couple hours of waiting and xrays, she was diagnosed with a chest infection. Poor goopy is now on antibiotics for the next 8 days. There was absolutely no charge for the visit! We just had to pay $9 for 2 boxes of antibiotics and fever reducer medicine.

Kids woke up goopy at 6:30

Opening stockings

the new keyboard from santa

sick goopy

I pretty much spent the remainder of the week indoors with Luciana while their grandfather took one kid per day to different excursions- included a trip to Chateau de Vincennes.

Bonpapa and Olivia

Saturday evening we went to a Moroccan restaurant for dinner to give the kids a taste of what is to come! Tomorrow we are headed to Morocco!! We have quite the tour set up that includes two nights in a luxury tent in the Sahara......I will post lots of pics upon our return!

Alex and Laura

Goopy feeling better!!!

The last Petrini-Poli boys!

This week marks 5 months since we arrived in France.  I can't believe how time is going by so quickly! This week I also finally resumed my French lessons.  I don't think a group class is helping me.  We have 8 students all from different countries.  I have a very difficult time understanding my peers with their native accents and I don't get too many opportunities to speak in class.  So I have decided to take a more intensive course with a private tutor starting in January.  I plan on taking 2 classes a week for 2 hours each.  She will be taking me around Paris while teaching me french!  I cant think of a better way than having someone go with me to the post office, boulangerie, etc to practice.

Wednesday, we had a guest speaker at the American School of Paris.   Melissa Bradford wrote "A Global Mom" detailing her life as an expatriate.  Within 20 years, she has had 16 addresses,  lived in 8 countries and 5 different languages.  Her children also attend ASP.  Although we are not expatriates by choice ( which is a very small number) her messages were very familiar.  She interviewed several people for her book and focused on one woman who had lived in 7 countries in 15 years.  Countries ranging from Brazil, Switzerland to Thailand.  I found it amusing, yet not surprising that she said the most difficult host country for her was France.  She found it the most difficult to be accepted and was quite uncomfortable for sometime.  It wasn't until she learned French that she gradually became more appreciative of what this country has  to offer.   Bradford's message was to learn to love and embrace the diversity of the world.  I really enjoyed the lecture and look forward to reading the book.

Thursday, Chris and I headed into Paris to the Musee Rodin.  I didn't know much about Rodin, other than he was a french sculpture who made the "The Thinker" and "The Kiss".  So just like all my museum visits, it was a very educational experience.  It is a beautiful museum and with the audio guide can be seen within 2 hours.   I would recommend a visit during the spring or summer as the gardens have a magnificent display of enlarged sculptures.   I learned that Rodin was rejected three times from the art school of Paris.  This did not deter him, but only made him take different angles to learning his craft. Most everything he did was criticized but he never stopped.  He eventually received attention for his work "The Age of Bronze" but was accused of molding the sculpture.  From that point, he would not scale his work to actual size. Finally in 1880 he won a commission to create a portal for a planned museum.  It was then that he spent the next 40 years creating the "Gates of Hell". The monument depicted scenes from Dante's Inferno.   Many of the monuments 186 figures became sculptures of their own....The Thinker and The Kiss included.

First piece he submitted:  The Man with the Broken Nose

The Age of Bronze was so realistic that people thought he sculpted the body with a mold

The Thinker .  The original size is 70cm

The Kiss

Ugolino

The original idea for the Gates of Hell

A bust made of Victor Hugo

The Three Shades enlarged sculptures in the Gardens of the Museum

The Gates of Hell. You can see the Three Shades at the top, and The Thinker just below it.  

The Thinker in the gardens

We then headed to La Grande Epicerie de Paris. It is a beautiful grocery store that sells over 30,000 gourmet products from all over the world.  We stocked up on a few items and had a lovely lunch of Spanish gourmet food.

Luciana has been having nightly coughs for weeks and it progressed to no sleeping and crying. At one point on Thursday evening, she looked at me and said, "Don't let me die".  It broke my heart as I took her to the doctor on Friday to find out she has bronchiolitis. She is being treated for asthma with an inhaler through the weekend.   I'll take her back on Monday for a follow-up.

Older kids got received their report cards as well.  I am so proud of them!  They both did outstanding and every teacher had positive comments.  Emilia is doing very well too!  Here is a picture of her schoolwork.  I love that she only knows how to write in cursive!

Emilia has been going to Alex's Saturday hockey practices because afterward they have a free skate hour.  This time, she came back all smiles.  She says she likes Alex's teammate Nicolas.  I said, "It's your first French crush".  She replied, "Its not a crush mom- he is my boyfriend because he likes me too". Apparently, Nicolas asked Chris about her and gave Emilia some candy.  Emilia said "I like him because I likes the way he skates so fast by crossing his legs in front of each other- and I have never seen him fall.  I hope he wears a leather jacket and rides a motorcycle when he is big.  I am going to write him a letter in cursive because cursive is the language of love."  Oh My Emilia!!

We had our first Galette des Rois here. Chris's mom has made something similar for the kids in the states.  It is a buttery puff pastry with almond filling.  Baked inside there is a a little surprise along with a paper crown,  After you slice the cake, you choose your piece and the one with the surprise is declared "king for the day"  Olivia choose the piece with a little parrot inside and is our queen for the moment.

Our queen of the day

We then went to see La Reine des Neiges (Disney movie -Frozen).  Our first experience in the cinema.  Same as we have- popcorn and candy but much more comfortable seating.  Lots of leg room and separated between rows so you wont have anyone blocking your view!  The girls enjoyed the movie and Emilia really understand most of it!  On Sunday- Chris headed back to the US.  He will have been traveling 20 out of the last 40 days!  Looking forward to the holidays when he can stay put for a while.

Last Friday we picked up an new car.  We decided we needed a 2nd car as we found ourselves getting stuck with kids activities.  Chris leased a Citroen - a nice small car that we can easily park in Paris.  We then headed to Galeries Lafayette.  We did a bit of shopping and headed back to dinner in Saint Cloud at our favorite family restaurant- Le Girafon.  Saturday evening we left the kids with a sitter.  First we went to a photography exhibit at Maison Europeenne de la Photographie.  It was recommended by a friend of my sister.  The exhibit was by Sebastiao Salgado, a Brazilian photojournalist displaying 8 years of work from some of the most remote places in the world.  It was quite crowded and we had to wait 25 minutes in line - but well worth it.  It was a beautiful display of photos- I have never seen anything quite like it.  We then went to a restaurant called Les Bouquinistes in the 6th. What a lovely place and the food was excellent. It was also by far the best service we have had to date.  When it came to dessert, Chris asked our server to choose 3 items.  He came back with a chocolate masterpiece for me, a fruit dish for Chris and an egg the size of an ostrich egg for my sister.  It was quite a display as he cracked it open with a tap of a spoon and ice cream with candied figs and nuts slid out.  It was quite remarkable.  Sunday- Chris headed back to the US again....while Sandra and I took the kids to Jardin du Luxembourg.  The kids were also very excited as their elf on the shelf made it to France.  Luciana has been especially cute trying to find him every morning.

our new Citroen

Enjoying cafes at the Galeries Lafayette

Dinner at Le Girafon

Sandra's cracked egg

Hotel DeVille

Jardin du Luxembourg

feeding the pigeons at the park

My sister left on Monday and our routines returned.  The kids have the option to play an instrument at school.   I asked Olivia if she wanted to play something- rather than a simple "no thanks", her response was quite funny!  She said she could not play an instrument because she would have to stop all other activities to dedicate herself to be the best that she could be.  Then- if she tried her best and didn't make the band, she would have no back up talent and be forced to play her instrument alone at the metro stops for the rest of her life.  It all came out so easily, I couldn't help but laugh.

I have been going to the gym more now that I have some free time.  The women in my exercise class wear full make-up, hair done and dangling earrings.  Today topped it off as a woman came with all the mentioned along with a scarf and a cashmere sweater.  As we did jumping jacks, she was constantly swinging her scarf around her neck...it all looked quite foolish from my perspective but maybe this is normal???  Then as I headed to the locker room after class there was a man fixing a sink in the shower rooms.  No one seemed to care!  Am I a prude as I cautiously moved to a place as far from him as I could?! We also bought our Christmas tree. Alex and I went together and he asked for the biggest tree. Turns out the biggest tree is not as big as it would be in the states.  Trees here are short, wide and bare.  After seeing everything in Paris trim and elegant- its refreshing to see a frumpy tree!  We had a fun time decorating and Olivia got to place the star on the top.  After 7 years, she reluctantly said she is now going to pass this honor on to Alex next year.  Emilia quickly noted that if is the case, she wouldn't be able to put the star on until she was 14- so we are going to take turns for the next few years.

Thursday I hit a parked car in front of the little kids school. Alex was screaming in the car because Emilia was singing too loudly and I just wanted to park as quickly as possible. I scraped my side against its bumper. I waited to see if it was anyone from school but no one returned so I put a note using google translate with my number. Now this car was in pretty bad shape as is- so I took a photo of my damage and of course I had a few witnesses to prove I didn't do the rest! I mentioned this to a french friend and she said no one in France leaves their number- its almost expected to get bumped while parking. Well- I have not received a call yet! In the states, I would be dealing with insurance within hours.  I had another tour with my group from school. We went to the Louvre-specifically the French sculpture section. We spent two hours in a small section to which I have never even seen. It was really quite informative. It is truly amazing how much was recovered after the revolution destroyed so much- even if they are only fragments of history. I learned a lot but only am sharing a few stories in the photo captions.

Queens were sculpted with a dog at their feet to represent fidelity, while kings had a lion at their feet to represent strength and courage

Tomb of Phillipe Pot

Henry II- heart is buried in the top of the monument

Diana with a Stag.  Made to represent Henry II's mistress Diane as Diana, the Roman goddess

Statue of Louis XIII, his son Louis XIV and wife Anne on top of an arch filled with slaves.  This symbolic piece was  over the bridge where everyone walked - always reminding people not to revolt as their will be a future king and punishment for those who protest.  This remarkable piece happened to be in restoration during the revolution so it survived intact!

One of the 4 horseman once posted at the Parc du Marly (where Louis XIV once lived)

This is Captifs. It was given to Louis XIV as a gift representing the 4 defeated nations- they are displayed as these enormous slaves that were captured during the victorious Dutch war.  Originally this statues had an even larger figure of Louis XIV in the center but during the revolution the statue of the king was melted along with the chains of the slaves that were connecting each other. It is amazing how they used art to protest the times.

Napolean

“L'immortalite”. (1859) Our tour guide loved to point out that the Statue of Liberty is not even our original idea

Saturday was a busy day! Olivia had gymnastics- she has been moved up to practices with the older girls. She enjoys the challenge. They love helping her choreograph her routines. She will still compete with her age group but will practice the tougher skills. She is now working on her back handspring on the balance beam! The school had a holiday boutique as well. Along with a few purchases, they were holding a raffle with some pretty great prizes. Alex wanted the Samsung phone, Olivia wanted the phone, an ipad and other gadgets, and Emilia wanted the Monster High set. There were 2 dolls and a dress from a Disney movie called Frozen. We have not seen the film but Luciana was entranced with this display. Everyday after school for the entire week- she would stare at this item and I would give her a couple raffle tickets per day to enter. Well, on Saturday- it was quite sad yet adorable that she refused to move from the display rack. Holding her little hands over the entry box hoping no one else would try. Our 10 tickets were not enough and I had to pull her quickly before they gave the box to the winner. There were tears....I think Santa has to do some more shopping. Thank goodness Alex and Emilia were not with us as they went to hockey practice and open skate with a friend of Alex. Chris took the boys to the Paris St. Gemain soccer game- another victory! I took the older girls shopping and we all met up for dinner at a restaurant called L'Entrecote. It is in the 17th eme. They take no reservations so there is always a line before opening. You really need to get there before 6:45 if you want to ensure a seat at the first sitting. They only serve steak and frites- but are famous for their special sauce. The menu is for desserts only! The girls and I arrived in time and were seated- as we waited until 7:05 the owner came to our table and said we had to leave because our table was not full and people were waiting. I tried to explain that he was arriving any minute. I said he was parking the car. I called Chris because I knew she was not happy. Chris said 3 more minutes....well 5 minutes later, the woman was yelling at me and pulling my table out so we could leave! It was embarrassing as I couldn't communicate with her. As we gathered our jackets and were almost out the door, Chris came in and she let us back in. At that point I was not sure if I wanted to stay- how humiliating- but we did have a very delicious meal. Kids ate everything and the desserts were good as well. There was still a line outside as we left at 8:45. Sunday, Alex had another victorious hockey game and if his team continues to play well they will get to play during half time at a "minor league" game. Chris is finally here for a week and we have lots to get done before our next visitors Bonpapa and Laura arrive!