The Bold Soul™

America: Land of the LEGOs, Home of the Brave

Being on vacation in the U.S. with an almost-10-year-old boy means doing a lot of LEGO®-related activities. At least with this particular boy, who loves his Legos. Of course LEGOs exist here in France, but in my part of NJ and in NYC we had access to some extra things that made his trip even more interesting for him. It started when my sister gave him an early birthday gift of a set of Harry Potter-themed LEGOs, and considering she hadn't even checked with me first about what he might like, she couldn't have chosen better. (He recently got the Hogwart's Express set from his aunt here in France and he finished reading the 6th and 7th HP books during our trip, so Harry is a big deal around our house at the moment.)

The next day, we had to go to my goddaughter's graduation lunch, and on the way we went to a local mall that happens to have an entire LEGO store... and we decided to spring for another Harry Potter set for him for his one "big" birthday gift (he chose the Diagon Alley set which is totally cool -- even comes with characters, wands and owls!) He took that one with us down to the Jersey Shore, and it kept him nicely occupied during rest times in the hotel.

Once we arrived in New York, the LEGO fun continued! First up, Rockefeller Center -- which has a really great LEGO store complete with a Big Apple, a giant dragon and a famous Statue all done in LEGO. They also had a replica of Rockefeller Center complete with ice rink and all the national flags!

There are also some really fabulous LEGO creations over at FAO Schwartz and at the big Toys R Us store in Times Square:

This Statue of Liberty was at FAO Schwartz. I was pretty impressed... until I saw THIS one at Toys R Us later that same day!

We also saw these two landmark buildings at Toys R Us:

Gotta love the King Kong waving the LEGO flag on the top of that last one, huh? Notice the LEGO helicopter flying towards him on the right?

But it didn't end there... turns out the Bronx Zoo has had a LEGO thing going on! They had six animals made out of LEGOs, stationed at points around the zoo, and your child would get a special "passport" which he could stamp each time he found one. They were really quite amazing to look at. My favorite was the five pink flamingos standing in WATER just adjacent to the actual live flamingos!

Seeing the world through a kid's eyes is kind of fun sometimes, you know?

Did the Crusades pass by here?

Colorful doorway in the old part of Saint Raphael, which dates back to the Crusades. The neighboring town of Fréjus, however, goes back to the Romans (there is an entire amphitheatre, still in use), so as Georges says, Saint Raphael is "not that old, only about a 1,000 years old or so".

Heh. ONLY a thousand years. I'm from New Jersey, and I used to be impressed that George Washington and his troops camped 5 minutes from where I used to live... a mere 235 years ago.

Perspective is what you get when you travel abroad.

Sweet!

When we were in London a few weeks ago, we were walking toward Covent Garden and happened upon this incredible sweet shoppe that has apparently been put on Harry Potter walking tours (it wasn't used in any of the movies so I'm not sure why it was chosen other than perhaps its old-fashioned interior and displays). In addition to "normal" sweets, they sell things like licorice "wands" and chocolate frogs. And of course, I bought a few for a certain Little Guy who is reading the Harry Potter books this year.

Friend-lag

It's been two days since my best friend and her daughter left to go back to the States. We had 9 days (and a morning) to hang out together, and we haven't had that kind of quality time in about 4 1/2 years. Every time I go back home for visits, my time is, by necessity, divided up between family, sight-seeing (since we've brought the kids along a few times) and shopping, and whatever's left is what I get to spend with my friends. And there never seems to be enough time to spend with everyone. Never.

It makes me feel like a bad friend, that I am not able to give my friends more time, and I mean ALL my friends back in New Jersey. Because I really do miss them.

I also have really good friends here in Paris now, and I'm very lucky to be able to say that. But the fact that my life is here now does not make my "back home" friendships any less important to me. In fact, in some ways I think it makes me value those friends even more. (You all know who you are.)

So on these rare but wonderful occasions where one or more of my friends happens to make it across the pond to Paris, even if it's only for a day or so, I relish the time I get to spend with those people. And this past couple of weeks, getting extended 24-hour contact with my soul sister and my god-daughter? It doesn't get any better than that.

Just three petites Américaines out on the town, checking out the Champs Elysees.

A mother and daughter, and one damn fine gothic masterpiece.

At the Louv-er, going in to see that tiny woman with the mysterious smile. My friends look pretty mysterious themselves, hiding behind those shades.

That group on the right is Georges, my two friends from home, plus the adorable Miss Kyliemac who joined us at Polidor for dinner one night. I like when my two worlds can merge a bit. BTW this restaurant was in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris and Georges has been going there since he was a kid.

Here we are, floating high above London on the Eye. And no one freaked out or had any panic attacks, so that was good.

Me and my bestie with the Tower Bridge in the background. We were a bit in the shade but we're getting older, so it's probably better that we can't see our own faces in this shot. The bridge is looking pretty fine, though, all spruced up for the Olympics next year.

That blue sky in the photo above of my friend and her daughter? A 5 minute passing fancy of nature. The weather has been total crap here in Paris for days and days. At least we were practically the first in line to get in. (I know, I keep bragging about that. Sorry.) I decided to leave out the photo of me and my friend in front of the Grand Trianon palace at Versailles because it was cold and raining and we both looked like hell all huddled up in our sweatshirts and raincoats. And because I want her to come back next year, when we are thinking about touring Provence and maybe Italy.

So there you have it: probably the most photos I will ever post of myself doing tourist things. But we sure had a marvelous time and I wish they were still here.

Me and The Eye

Just arrived back in Paris, but here's where I was yesterday -- high above London! The London Eye was totally cool and not scary at all. We paid extra for flexible fast-track tickets that allowed us to show up any time we wanted on the date of the ticket, and got us into a priority line that meant much less waiting. And... when we were at the very top, the Eye stopped for a good 5 minutes (probably because of boarding problems down below) and it normally doesn't stop. So, we got a few extra minutes up there.

Double Decker

One of the old model double-decker buses in London. This one seemed to just be parked (stalled? en panne?) on Kensington High Street, but just minutes earlier, I did see one rolling along down the same street, so maybe a few of them are still in service. Classic!

In which Venice steals a little bit of my heart (again)... Part 2

Friday morning in Venice. We set an alarm to wake up just in time to make it to the included breakfast, which unfortunately they only served until 10am even on weekends (that might be my only "complaint" about the hotel). Even though the hotel is in an area with a lot of activity down on the street and in the lagoon, the room was actually pretty quiet and no one was above us, so we slept well (ask for room 206 if you're planning to stay there). Breakfast was typical: Italian croissants or buns, some sliced cold ham and cheese, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, cereals, fruit, juice, coffee.

We decided to spend the day out on the islands, because the weather was hot and sunny again, and last time I'd gone to the islands the weather had turned sour part-way through the day, and it had rained the entire time I'd been in Burano. This time, I wanted to see Venice's most colorful island in full sunshine.

The #5 vaporetto goes directly to Murano from the San Zaccharia stop, just outside our hotel's front door. (In Venice, you will no doubt spend so much time on a boat that you'll feel like you're still floating even when you're on dry land; I had that sensation often, especially at night!) Although there are three stops in Murano, and you could really take any of them to start your exploration of the island, we chose to get off at Colonna because there's a very good glass workshop there, a short walk along the quayside (just walk to the left when you get off the boat and keep going until you see a low deep-pink building with a line of people out front). The glass-blowing demonstration is free and takes only 10-15 minutes, so don't worry about the line because it will move. Afterward they have their main shop, and also a section with the more artistic glass pieces and the really GOOD jewelry, but you need to ask for one of their attendants to accompany you (I did that in 2007 and bought the most gorgeous set of green glass jewelry for myself). This time we limited our shopping to a gift for the Little Guy: a lovely glass dolphin for his collection (ever since our dolphin swim in Turkey last summer, this has become a recurring them in our family).

 

Afterward, we wandered down a deserted side street instead of following the other tourists; Murano's not a very big island so you can't really get "lost". We passed some interesting art glass pieces along the way, and finally ended up one one of the main canals where there are dozens of shops selling all the local glass. I looked in a few shops, trying to find some gifts for friends or family back home (early Christmas shopping) but nothing really jumped out at me, not even something for myself. After a while, Georges suggested we leave Murano early, go to Burano to have lunch, and then we could always come back and walk around Murano more on the way back. So we went to the Faro stop to wait for the boat (the "LN") to Burano.

We had a bit of a wait, so I ducked into a quay-side shop that was part of one of the workshops (they're really the best ones to go to because they're selling direct rather than reselling). Not having much time, I was sort of on a "power shopping" mission: I wanted to find a Venetian glass mirror, a small one for our bedroom, something I could hang above the dresser to see what I'm doing when I'm putting on my jewelry. The prices of the larger mirrors were much more than I wanted to spend, but I DID quickly find some table-top mirrors and chose one that I liked very much. So they rushed to wrap it for me and I ran to catch the boat, just in time (nearly giving Georges a heart attack because the boat actually came a few minutes earlier than expected!)

Burano was lovely and more colorful than I had remembered. It's a very small, sleepy little island, filled with shops selling the lace items for which Burano is so famous. My advice: skip ALL the shops you pass as you walk into town, and head for the open square near the church . On that square is the lace museum (if they're open, it's kind of interesting to see how they make the lace and they have a display of some very old pieces) and two shops. You want to go to the "Olga" shop -- THAT'S the shop people like Elton John go to for gifts (they have some framed photos of Elton by the cash register, so he must be a regular; I was also told Hugh Grant has shopped there). They have three floors of everything from lace tableclothes to handkerchiefs to clothing items for babies, children, and women. When I was there in 2007, there was a very old woman there, doing the lace work (she was also in one of the photos with Elton); I didn't see her there this time, so I inquired (they speak English, BTW) about her and was told that yes, she's still living, but now she's nearly blind and can't work anymore. I'm sure that must have been hard for her. Now they have younger women doing the lace-making demonstrations instead.

We walked around some more and finally chose a little restaurant a bit off the main canal, and had a nice lunch. Afterward, I went inside to use the WC and on the way out, spotted a wall of framed photos of what I imagine were all sorts of celebrities, probably European, posing with the owner or employees of the restaurant, but I didn't recognize any of the faces except for one unmistakably stunning woman: ELIZABETH TAYLOR, taken maybe 15 or 20 years ago. Wow. I have a knack for picking out the celebrity hot spots in Burano, I guess!

After lunch, we meandered around the village, taking photos of all the colorful houses. You will see no two houses the same color standing near each other, and all the window shutters are painted a dark green with white trim around the window frame; I am certain there is some sort of code of standards for how you can paint your house if you live there.

When we were ready to head back, we were a bit early for the boat, so along the quay we got some gelato and just relaxed in the shade. I decided I really didn't need to walk around Murano; I'd seen it before and Georges wasn't that interested in going to the glass museum there (which is actually quite interesting). Instead, we chose to take the vaporetto all the way back to Venice and change boats so we could go along the Grand Canal, which we hadn't done yet.

So, at Fondamenta Nove we took another boat that got us to the train station stop, Ferrovia. There we were able to board either the #1 or #2 (I forget which) and scored a spot standing up where we could both take photos and video as we headed toward San Marco, and "home".

Enjoy some of our little video souvenirs of our Day 2 in Venezia!

Venezia, Day 1 | To be continued...

 
   
   

 

 

In which Venice steals a little bit of my heart (again)... Part 1

I am still in the process of, well, processing our wonderful time in Venice last weekend, and also going through the hundreds of photos and videos Georges and I collected. My plan is to pick the best ones and put them in a Flickr group so I can share them, but I need a bit more time to work on that.

In the meantime, let me tell a few anecdotes. (And I'll break this post up since we did spend 4 1/2 days there; that's a lot of anecdotes.)

When I first went to Venice during my Grand Tour in 2007, I didn't expect to totally fall in love with this city that doesn't even feel like a city, but feels like a trip back in time. I chalk that up to there being no cars there, and all the little alleyways with the crumbling old buildings that are actually quite beautiful in their decaying state. And fall in love with Venice I did. Who could blame me?

This time around, I was especially eager to share my new special romantic place with the most special person in my life, because while I used to consider Paris the most romantic place on earth, living here sometimes takes just a little bit of the romance out of it... or maybe it's just because it's so familiar to me now, after 4+ years. But Venice? Is just incredibly romantic... even when you are struggling "upstream" against raging hoards of cruise ship tour groups all trying to get a photo of the Bridge of Sighs (which by the way, is nearly completely shrouded in tarps covered with tacky advertising).

Which just makes me sigh. And not in a good way.

Georges was just as excited as I was about this trip. He'd been there once before as well, but many years ago and with friends instead of with a special someone. We rarely get to go somewhere all alone together, somewhere special and fun that we can explore and discover and make our very own. Not only was this a "let me forget it's a major birthday" trip for me, but we decided to make it the honeymoon we never really got to take. We couldn't have chosen a better place.

We arrived very early, having (insanely) decided to take the 7:20am flight out of Paris, which meant we got up at 4:15am to arrive in Venice at 9am. In the airport, we bought our vaporetto passes for three days-worth of trips (you wave them in front of these little machines before getting on each boat; this is a new system that didn't exist in 2007 when you could sneak onto the boats without a valid ticket and no one ever checked), and we bought round-trip tickets to/from the airport on the Alilaguna line, which costs a fraction of what they charge for a private taxi-boat from the airport -- 100 euros for that! The Alilaguna is really slow and makes several stops before it gets to San Zaccharia, and I think it took about an hour and 20 minutes before we got to our hotel.

We stayed at the Hotel Paganelli, which is a very small hotel, but quite updated and nice (and very clean!) that is just down the way from the Piazza San Marco and the famous Hotel Danieli. I would definitely stay there again; we got what I think was the best room on the 2nd (European) floor (and there's an elevator) with two windows facing directly out over the lagoon and San Giorgio Maggiore. Plus, a nice little breakfast in the mornings, all inclusive. Oh, yeah, and free WiFi that actually WORKED! The front desk attendants speak English and French. You can stash your luggage before check-in and after check-out. And not only is it near the Piazza, the San Zaccharia vaporetto stop is just in front, so you've got the convenience of the airport boat stop there PLUS you can get the 1, 2, 41, 42, 52 and the 5 that goes directly to Murano (plus there are dozens of gondolas), just outside the hotel door. Throw in a nearby store selling bottled water, soda and snacks, and a few little restaurants with outdoor terraces, and it's a pretty nice setup. (The only downside is that flocks of tourists pass by here with their tour guides waving umbrellas, and there are a lot of vendors trying to unload cheap souvenirs and fake Gucci bags; we got around this by using some of the narrow side streets to go back and forth from the piazza, which was more pleasant and interesting.)

It was too early to check in, although we were told if we came back in just an hour, the room would be ready (check-in is normally much later, so that was very accomodating of them), so we took a little sack out of our luggage, filled it with a few necessities (a folding fan for me, a bottle of water, our Venice book and a map) and went to the Piazza to have something to drink. Georges suggested we go to the tea room at Florian, which is on the left side of the big piazza (which right now is about 50% covered with tarps, so I'm glad I got to see it four years ago without all the works being done). Florian is one of those places everyone comes to gawk at; the walls and ceilings are covered with paintings, and it's very old-world elegant. In fact, we're not entirely sure we didn't end up as part of some professional photographer's project, even though the manager was kind of shooing the guy off and he never asked our permission to photograph us... so we just kissed a lot and hoped he wouldn't want to use those photos. ;)

After we finally checked in and checked out our room, Georges suggested we try and make a reservation for the Terrace restaurant at the Hotel Danieli for that night, to celebrate my birthday. I hadn't even thought of going somewhere like that, but when we dropped by the hotel it was no problem getting a table that night; I told them it was for a birthday, hoping they'd give us an extra good table (because I'm not above admitting it's my birthday if special perks are involved from fancy restaurants!) We spent the rest of the afternoon having lunch and wandering around the streets, deliberately getting "lost". It was as wonderful as I'd remembered. It was also very sunny and very hot, and since neither of us brought hats or sunscreen, we bought a couple of straw hats from a street vendor (the next day I also bought a lace parasol to give my shoulders a little shade, because I got a little sunburn that first afternoon).

And we had a simply wonderful dinner that night, starting with a glass of champagne and opting for their special menu which had all sorts of different seafood dishes. Everything was delicious and perfect (and I even ate something with clams in it, and I didn't think I liked clams at all). There was a couple at the table next to us (he looked old enough to be her father but frankly, I don't think that was their relationship) and suddenly the waiters brought over a very special little cake with a candle, and sang Happy Birthday to her! I looked at Georges and said "I really hope that guy asked for that cake because I don't want them doing that to ME".

And... wouldn't you know it, about 15 minutes later: there was a cake with a candle in front of ME and three Italian waiters were singing Happy Birthday again. Oy. We were so stuffed from the three courses we'd already eaten that we didn't eat all the cake, luckily. But it was delicious -- a mille-feuille with pretty little fruits on top!

The other funny thing that happened during dinner was when the hotel and every other building on either side of us for about a "block" or so -- including the Doge's Palace -- had an electrical black out! On the restaurant terrace, we had candles on all the tables so it was fine there, but I looked over the terrace railing and everything was dark below. We started to wonder if we ought to take the stairs rather than the elevator when we were ready to leave. When the lights finally came back on and STAYED on (after a few false starts), all the gondola guys down below started to cheer! The head waiter just looked at us with a smile and said "Atmosphere!"

Atmosphere, indeed. I don't think I ever had a better birthday. Between Georges being Georges, us being so in love, and Venice giving us the perfect romantic backdrop, it was just amazing and I was truly HAPPY. Even if I did have to turn that "f" word... f-f-f-FIFTY.

To be continued... Venezia, Day 2

 

Mille Grazie, Venezia!

For giving us the perfect "stage" for us to create the best birthday and honeymoon ever.

Just a little something for the garden

... but shipping it home might be a small problem. Still, we liked these whimsical takes on gazing balls. Makes me wish we had a garden! (Murano, Italy)

Found

Found my 2007 "Grand Tour" travel journal today while spring cleaning. Such sweet memories! Perfect timing as I am near to writing that part of my book, plus we're going back to Venice next month.

Also found: map of Venice with stuff I marked on it; easy Italian reference guide; and a lot of stuff I really didn't need to keep at all.

Color me excited!

We have a lovely sunny day here in Paris today (although I hear rain is on the way, again) and there are thousands of tiny green leaves springing forth on the trees in the Place de la Sorbonne as I write this. It's just a great day for a little café-writing.

Even on a rainy day, sleepy little Burano seems filled with sunshine

Still... the one thing Paris doesn't have is COLORS like this. I can't wait to go back to Venice!

Feeling the siren call of the gondolier

While Georges is down in sub-Saharan Africa (and can I just send a big shout-out and thanks to the folks over at Apple for freaking inventing the iPhone and Facetime, because my husband was able to video-chat with me from his hotel in Yaoundé), I have decided to take care of some long-overdue spring cleaning projects around the house. I want to purge a lot of clothing from my closet and that is packed away in storage, à la "What Not to Wear". And I have documents to sort through because the piles are getting too out of control, and this is the year when I will be applying for my 10-year Carte de Séjour so it will pay to be organized early.

I also decided to get serious about planning my 50th birthday trip to... VENICE. Starting with going through some of the photos I took back in 2007 when I was there on my own. Last night I watched "Summertime" with Katherine Hepburn, about a woman of a certain age who goes on the trip of a lifetime, to Venice, and of course falls in love with Rossano Brazzi (can we blame her) even though he's married. Seeing all these images of Venice makes me positive I've chosen the right place in which to turn 50.

My first gondola ride. "Oh, just you?" "Yes, just me." It was still magical.

Colonna di San Marco

Colorful Burano, home of Venetian lace-making

The Rialto

Gondolas, lined up and ready for business

I mean, how could you have a care in the world in such an amazing place? I can't wait to go back, but this time to rediscover it with the person I love most in all the world.

If you've been to Venice and want to share your favorite things to do and see, your special restaurants or a romantic little hotel along a quiet canal somewhere, leave a note in the comments!

New York Memories

I had promised you some photos of our visits to New York over the Christmas holidays. While I still have photos (mostly taken by Georges' kids) on my Nikon that I haven't downloaded, I had quite a lot on my iPhone that I finally got around to viewing. So here are some of my favorites.

Our first trip in was with Georges' two kids, which was really fun as it was his son's first time there and he's the architecture student. So we knew he'd be completely in his element there.

What's a (very cold) day in New York without a real American breakfast in a New York coffee shop? It was delicious!

Of course, in December there's the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and the skating rink.

I've always liked the interior of St. Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue. Of course, after seeing so many ancient cathedrals around Europe (and I've only seen a small fraction of them), perhaps it isn't the oldest or most interesting, but I do think it's one of the more elegant churches. They were celebrating a mass when we stopped by.

Were we in New York, USA or Strasbourg, France? I've been on 5th Avenue dozens of times in my life, and never before noticed this little building tucked in between two taller structures.

The New York Public Library, featured in many films including Sex and the City and The Day After Tomorrow. See one of the famous lions? And the "rickshaw taxi"? I don't even know the name of that tall pointy building in the background, it's one of the newer buildings in the city in the past 5-10 years I think.

The last "must-see" of the day on our young architect's agenda was the Flatiron Building. I'd never seen it in person either. It's at 5th Avenue and Broadway where they intersect with 23rd Street.

So, an end to a really lovely, albeit chilly day (with very tired feet on my part) in New York City.

Taking a few bites out of the Grande Pomme

Since Christmas, the NJ/NYC area has been dealing with a whole lot of snow. (Figures. When we were here for Christmas two years ago, all we did was shovel out my mother's driveway.) But we didn't let that stop us from going into New York several times on this trip. I'll post more photos from around town after we get back to Paris, but had to share this one; at the Top of the Rock observation deck at Rockefeller Center, I found THIS children's book in the gift shop.

OK, so the Lisa in the book is a DOG. That's not really the point. Did you notice that we both had on a red scarf? And were on a boat tour of Manhattan?