Routine-development report

Moving from Paris to New York is an adventure. I have to say goodbye to the daily routines that I have just established in Paris such as when to do what and where. Adieu my freshly baked baguettes, adieu my metro Abbesses, adieu aroma of café and boulangerie-patisserie... Saying goodbye is a painful process and the best way to get over it is to quickly develop a new routine in a new place. With the experience in Paris, I find it not hard to develop a new living pattern in NYC. Here's my first week report:

Since WholeFoods is 2mins' walk from my home, it almost becomes my dining hall. The salad bar has a variety of salads as well as hot food (rice, noodle, meat...) and soup. I usually get a box of mix-and-match food and bring it up to the dining area on the second floor. Eating while looking at the busy Union Square is the first pleasant moment I find in the city. This is something that you cannot find in Paris because eating on the terrace only gives you a street view, whereas sitting upstairs gives you a vantage point for watching the city at dusk. 

Union Square farmers market

On friday, I took advantage of the nice weather and went to the Washington Square Park. Walking along 4th street, I saw NYU flags waving, city-tour buses passing by and students coming out of the Stern School building. I've always imagined a college life without campus - taking metro to and from the class, studying at a café with real people (non-students) sitting next to you. I can't decide which college life is better because I do enjoy both.

I sat on a park bench in front of the fountain, green tea latté in my hand. (This is very important!! My obsession with green tea latté finally got cured!!) A nice half an hour spent, and I thought I was in Paris for a second. 

Fountain, arc, pigeons... 

After leaving the park, I went to explore the Meatpacking district. If the Haut-Marais is the boboland in Paris, Meatpacking district is definitely the counterpart in NYC. Less touristic than SOHO, this area is full of hidden gems: boutiques, european style cafés, specialty restaurants... Agréable!

During the weekend, I spent two mornings having brunch and reading at Pret-a-Manger. The city doesn't wake up until 10 a.m and I feel like there's only jogging couples, shopkeepers and me in the city. How wonderful is that! 

My latest discovery is that it's better to go uptown or out of town in the weekend because I have a low tolerance for noise.

So this is what I've found in the first week. Developing a routine is really what makes a difference between visiting and living in a city and I enjoy it :)

Rue des Martyrs, yummy!

Thanks to my "culture theme" class, I finally pursuaded myself to walk along the long long Rue des Martyrs to discover this "boboland". The Rue des Martyrs starts at the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Church and ends near the Rue Yvonne Le Tac. Like most of the streets at Montmartre, Rue des Martyrs is steep. I started from its upper part since it's close to my home, and walked down until the end. The upper part seems more bohemian, loud and crowded, probably because it's close to Sacré Coeur. (ah! les touristes!) The lower you go, the more hungry you will be. Lower Martyrs is full of pastisserie, boulangerie, boucherie, etc. (attention! almost all of the boulangerie here has won some big prize, such as the best baguette in Paris in 2007, the best chocolate éclair, the best chocolate, the best english puff... bref, everything here used to be and still is one of the best in its own field)

I spent two hours in the café inside the Hôtel Amour (8 Rue de Navarin) and had a great time watching people come and by and observing their outfits.

After I came back, I sorted the photos into several groups.

1. People

Parisian chic or bobo style?

2. Stores

Love the reflection in the window

proud shop owner.

 The famous Arnaud DELMONTEL!! one of the best boulangeries in Paris

 I really don't get the point of putting three Eiffel Towers here as decoration. 

I do like this sort of deco better.

3. FOOD

 Actually it's the eyes who are eating the pastries..

Do you know you can present fruits like this?

4. Hôtel Amour

café bourgeois, for sure.

Fête des mères

Yesterday was Mother's Day in France. My four host sisters spent a whole morning preparing this Mother's Day Gala. I was impressed by these girls because those food are not only good-looking but also super delicious! Why would any mother prefer to celebrate her festival in a Michelin restaurant when she has such wonderful daughters?

The menu is as followed (from left to right):
salmon roll with cow cheese
strawberry smoothie
fresh orange juice
homemade pancake
"Maman" shape pancake
green lemon stuffed with some mysterious white sauce (made from at least four different things) (it was soooo good that I did not hear a word when my host mom told me what was in it.. pardon me!)
roast bacon with egg salad (on the right)
and...
rose shape pastry (full of love! )

Oh we also had some champagne :)

C'était un déjeuner INCROYABLE!

Bonne fête à toutes les mamans :)

Paris en mai, Paris en hiver

Paris is going through Minnesota craziness - cold, rainy, comme fou! I pulled out my winter cape from my wadrobe and couldn't remember how many times I've said to myself: ok, this is the last time you wear this coat, and forced to put it on again a week later.

After staying at home for two days I finally find two excuses to go out - A. it's my turn to buy the baguette for my host family. B. I just charged the battery of my camera which I have not used since I came to Paris. Pfff.. another human-being spoiled by iphone. I decided to visit Shakespeare and Co. and le Marais before la boulangerie.

I love Shakespeare and Co. because this is the only place in Paris where I would not feel guilty not speaking French. The default language here is English, more precisely British English. I love this place also because spending half a day reading sounds like a more meaningful way to kill time (as I mentioned in my previous post).

 An old lady sitting outside Shakespeare and Co., on her iphone

Ladies walking in the rain

Hey, it's the end of may right? Where is the summer?

Weekend discovery

This weekend, Paris is rainy, cold and somewhat depressing. I went out yesterday for La Nuit du Musée and end up going back early because all I could see was people, people and more people. Well, people do love free things.
I did not regret joining the museum crowd because otherwise I would not have shot this photo.

Discovery 1: Paris in rain

Before checking the museums, I went to Cos store for the first time and surprisingly found that it was completely MY wardrobe! I love the clean cut of the tops, the simple but edgy designs and the stunningly beautiful accessories! I couldn't help hopping around the store and brought as many clothes as possible to the fitting room. It's hard to find a brand with such a good price-quality ratio - jewelries around €10-30, tops €40-60, dresses €60-90, heels €150. After spending un hour in the store, I got some accessories since they are at the top of my desire list.

 Discovery 2: Cos store

Now is my biggest weekend discovery -the creative, inspiring, hard-woking and adorable couple Garance Doré and Scott Shuman! I spent the whole afternoon yesterday reading The Sartorialist, and then the whole day today checking Garance Doré's blog as well as her videos. I enjoyed the book a lot not only because of the nicely shot photos, but also the stories and philosophical thoughts, such as...

Taking the time to find a fashion role model based more on body type than number of Oscar nominations will put you on right track. 
and
It's always funny that we buy pre-washed, pre-ripped and pre-faded clothes. Yet we can achieve that look ourselves... If you want your clothes to age with that kind of grace then wear the clothes you have and stop always buying new ones.

These seemingly straightforward facts really take time for us to realize. And I hope to keep them in mind!

Discovery 3: Garance Doré and the Sartorialist

Aix-en-Provence

The journey starts at CDG. After arriving in Paris, I took the TGV from Gare du Lyon to Gare Aix-en-Provence. Since it takes only three hours, why would anyone prefer to take a plane to Aix? The cattles, the sky, the grass.. This is the whole point of taking a train!

 Je suis tellement contente avec cette jolie chambre dans une maison à la compaigne! This is a typical countryside house with a large garden and a swimming pool. Sitting in a lawn chair and reading, I feel like I'm in the movie Lolita where the little girl often reads by the swimming pool or on the grass.

 The room is quite different to what I expected, in a good way though. It is well decorated, modern and chic, contrasting with the exterior of the house. It looks extremely lovely in the morning light, so does the breakfast :)

The city of Aix is 10mins away by bus. As you may have heard, Aix-en-Provence is the city of fountains. You can find fountains everywhere in the city - in the street corner, in the carrefour, enven in between two buildings. The most famous one is Fountaine de la Rontonde that situates at Place de Gaulle. The three statues on top of the fountain facing towards different directions represent respectively the Justice, the Agriculture and the Fine Arts. The one representing the Justice leads you to the famous Cours Mirabeau.

 Le Cours Mirabeau is the main street in Aix. It brings fountains, cafés and restaurants together.

 The fame of the city owns credit partly to Monsieur Paul Cézanne. You can find him everywhere in the city just like the fountains. I know it sounds a bit scary but this is the truth. The metal sign on the ground leads you to Cézanne related places such as atelier de Cézanne and sculpture of Cézanne.

A tip: when you are traveling in Aix-en-Provence, be aware that Monsieur Cézanne is keeping an eye on you!

 

This is the market at the Place de Verdun. You can find different kinds of jewelries, soaps, olive oil and even sweets. Walking here makes you happy because not only the goods are beautiful, the market itself smells good thanks to the lavender vendors and soap vendors.

Although Aix is a small city, it has some museums with great collections. I first went to the Musée Granet. It has a great collection of artworks from 14th to 20th century, including those of Rembrandt, Ingres and Cézanne. Walking in the museum, I thought that if these paintings were in the Louvre, they would have been surrounded by hundreds of visitors at a time. There's no description on most of the paintings so it's a challenge to visit without the help of video guide. But the good thing is you can have your own interpretation of the painting. On the second floor, there was one red wall full of paintings. It was so full that there was no space left for wall labels, which reminds me of Le Salon at the Louvre in 17th century. 

Then I went to the Muséum d'histoire naturelle. It has been ten years since last time I saw the skeleton of dinasours! 

Late in the afternoon, I came to the Pavillon de Vendôme. It was built in 1655 and then turned to a park. The pavillon itself is a storybook.

 The last day I went to the Fondation Vasarely, an art center in suburban Aix. Constructed in 1973, the building consists of 16 hexagonal volumes that inspired by honeycomb cells. Inside the building are 42 large works by Victor Vasarely, who uses geometry, shapes and colors to give the impression of space, volume and movement.

Op Art

 Montagne Saint Victoire

So this is my three-day trip to Aix-en-Provence. You might ask how about lavender? Well first of all, it's not the lavender season yet; secondly, Provence offers you way more than LAVENDER! What matters to me is the experience of la vie à la compagne.