Troyes

Between my travel schedule this month (Morocco, UK & 3 trips to the Loire valley) and C's travel schedule (Lyon, Limoges x 2 & 10 days spent at CDG), we decided we needed a weekend getaway to spend at least a bit of time together. I really wanted to be out on the water, so we took a look at a map of France to see if there were any big lakes within a reasonable drive of Paris. 

We found one near Troyes, and since it was only about a 2hr drive away, we booked a hotel and off we went on a mini-road trip.

We spent the first day cruising around the lake on a little electric boat.  It wasn't exactly the same as a being on speedboat, but it was super relaxing and one of the first sunny days in a LONG time, so who could complain?

The following day, we did a quick walkaround of the Troyes centreville. It was small, but lovely with all kinds of colorful timbered buildings:

As well as lots of tiny, hidden streets:

Mixed in with a bit of "standard" French architecture:

And the lovely Seine rolling through the city:

There were also plenty of cute places to eat - though next time I would think twice about eating all of those onions when on a romantic escapade. :)

We didn't have time for much else, but there are also a boatload of vineyards around, so there is definitely plenty to do for those looking to get out of the city for a weekend getaway.

The yoke's on me

The other day, C & I had just finished watching The Office, and he asked how many episodes were left.  I replied "Only one" and he said "Oh no! It's the last but one!  I'm going to be so sad when it's over."   I burst out laughing, and said "What did you say?" and he repeated "It's the last but one episode?"

Still laughing, I said "You can't say it like that - you say it's the second to last episode".  He thought about it for a minute and then insisted that it was an actual phrase, so we turned to our good friend Google.  And what do you know - it is indeed acceptable to say "last but one".  Looks like English Weekend backfired on me this time!

So that brings me to the question - does anyone out there actually use this? Maybe it's specific to British English?  It just sounds so awkward to me, like someone translated a foreign phrase word-for-word into English.

Le bar à tartines

Here's another fun one for ya, especially for those expats who remember the pre-Philly cream cheese in France days and what a pain in the butt it was to make a cheesecake back then.

Philadelphia is will be opening a pop-up cream cheese bar in Paris from June 5-9, at 14 rue Jean Jacques Rousseau - 75001 PARIS from 10am to 6pm daily.  They'll have all kinds of sweet and savory goodies to taste, and there will be cooking workshops held each day (advance reservations required). 

As a non-creative person, other people's creativity never ceases to amaze me.  I just saw a tweet for a "Beret & Baguette" bike event happening this weekend in Paris.  The goal is twofold - to promote the "retro culture" and biking, so folks are encouraged to dress up in their finest retro gear and ride on a vintage bicycle.  The dress code is "habits de la France d'entre deux guerres", or clothing from the time period between WWI and WWII.

The event will take place over two days, with a ride happening both Saturday and Sunday, and there's also a vintage ball being held Saturday night in the 3rd at Workshop Paris.

If you don't have a bike, Holland Bikes is offering a 10% discount on their rentals, making the cost 13.50€ for one day or 27€ for the weekend. 

We're going to be out of town this weekend, but if not, I actually might have gone to check out the bike ride - it must be pretty cool to see a bunch of people riding around looking like they stepped out of a time capsule, especially with Paris as their background. 

Just how excited are you?

C's English has been getting progressively better, so it's been a while since I've had a funny story to share from English Weekend.  And maybe it's the mood I was in, but I was busting a gut the other day after hearing him sigh and say from the other room "It really used to be a lot easier to get into my pants!"

Ha!

But that reminds me of something else - when I moved to France, I was told to avoid using the verb "exciter" because it had sexual connotations.  However ten years later, I'm hearing it used on a pretty regular basis in the American sense, ie as I am excited to do XX or to see YY.  I've heard it used this way on the radio, on TV and at work, which makes me wonder if its usage is changing. Has anyone else noticed this?  I know languages continually evolve, and maybe this is just one more example of that?

What comes to your mind when you hear Romania?

When I learned that I would be going to Romania for five days in May, I figured that it would be very similar to Bulgaria.  After all, they are neighbors and are the number 1 & 2 poorest countries in the EU.  Those of you who remember my Bulgaria posts know what an effect the country has on me, often leaving me deeply sad for several days after returning to France, so I didn't have super high hopes for this trip. And I don't know about you guys, but the only thing I had ever heard about the country was the whole Dracula/Transylvania thing in the US and all of the "thieving gypsies come from Romania" line in France.

So given all of that, I was expecting to see a lot of this:

And this:

But I actually saw a lot more of this:

And this:

The Romanian girl in my masters program told me before the trip that Bucharest was known as "le petit Paris" and I thought "Yeah, right".  But actually, there were remnants of Paris-style buildings and Hausmannian architecture everywhere.  Some of it was a bit run down, like this building:

But mostly, the city was beautiful and lively, with lovely cafés and tons of restaurants.  We also ventured out into the countryside, and came across towns that could have been straight out of the South of France or Italy:

Combine that with the 29°C/85°F weather, and you've got one happy camper.  There were also some pretty neat castles - we visited Dracula's castle, as well as this one below - which was probably one of the "busiest" castles I have ever seen.  The inside had so much going on that you didn't know where to look and I almost had a headache upon leaving:

There was also the Romanian Parliament building, which is the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon.  It was pretty crazy - it is 3.7 million square feet and on top of what we see above ground, there are also 8 floors underground, with only four that are in use.  Randomly, we also happened to run into the woman who designed the building during our tour, so we were able to chat with her for about ten minutes about her inspiration for it and how much upkeep it takes to maintain it.

I was surprised that a woman was chosen to build the building that was meant to represent the power of Romania, but one thing we heard over and over again during our trip was that Romanian women were extremely hard workers and they were very strong and independent.  The general message was that men were lazy and drank a lot, and that if you wanted something done right, ask a woman to do it.  So that was pretty cool to see so many empowered women.

We also met with French Embassy and the Chamber of Commerce, and learned all kinds of interesting statistics about the country.  Apparently there are roughly 20 million Romanians in the country and 4-5 million abroad. (The French ambassador joked that they were all in France).  Corruption is still very common, especially when it comes to taxes.  350€ is the average official salary, but mostly people get paid a lot more under the table, and the unofficial salary is suspected to be around 1000€ per month.  Which explains a bit more how people are able to pay what seemed like French prices in most grocery stores and shops.

This building seemed to be the perfect representation of the country - a mix of old and new all in one:

The food however left much to be desired...

The last thing I wanted to mention was the language - C wants to learn Romanian for a potential future project, so I paid particular attention to what it sounded like.  I couldn't really understand any of the spoken language, but the written stuff was often fairly easy to understand:

There was also a big Latin/Italian influence that you could really hear when certain people spoke. One of the most impressive things though was how well many of the aged 50 and up folks spoke French. Maybe with a slight accent - but still - I'm talking perfect, scholarly French, like you would expect from a French government official.  There were many-a-time where I was left with my mouth hanging open after listening to how well they spoke. 

So yeah - Romania: not at all what I was expecting!  I'd definitely recommend Bucharest for a weekend trip. The flights aren't that expensive, there are some reasonably-priced hotels, they have a good metro system & the drinks are cheap.  Just make sure you go in the summer when the weather is nice!

I write a lot about Paris, but here's something for those out in the countryside.  I was reading the Metro newspaper on my way to Nantes this AM, and came across an article looking for 1000 volunteers to participate in a health study.  They are looking for people willing to wear a FitBit for six months to track their activity and weight (the goal is to see if bracelets like the FitBit actually help people lose weight, or if there's just a placebo effect early on.

Participants are needed in Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille & Montpellier, but unfortunately not Paris.  It's too bad, because I've always wanted to try out the FitBit!

If you are interested, you can sign up at www.mysantemobile.fr.  Happy exercising!