Simply De Vine

Image from topsir.com

I don't want to jinx it, but I'm shouting it out so the universe can hear. I've been strongly hinting at H to go grape picking before we leave since we'll still be here until September. He nods his head sideways like he's willing to be convinced. There's not a lot of money in it but, I don't mind being paid in food and wine.

Postscript!

Today's the last day of the Tour de France, culminating in a 40km (or so) spell going back and forth from Rivoli to Champs Elysees. The helicopters following the cyclists were hovering near the apartment so we decided to run out and see the tour as it passes by our neighborhood. I was busy washing my unmentionables but I dropped everything and rushed outside. It's not every day you get to see this!

Suddenly, everyone's a journalist.

After weeks of awful weather (it SNOWED last week, and it's supposed to be summer!), the clouds were finally in the mood to cooperate and gave us some sun. A crowd had already formed around the barricade and some people were standing over construction blocks for a better view, but we came just in time. After ten minutes, it was over.

When we got back home the helicopter was beaming lovely aerial shots of Paris. Gawd, this town is beautiful.

Post-postscript!

We had dinner at the house of some friends with a nice view of the street. While parking the scooter, we noticed an old couple leaving stuff on the sidewalk. We decided to investigate and realized they were old video games. We swept up some of them - the Star Wars X-Wing/Tie Fighter game, Tomb Raider and a couple of others. Then our friend O went downstairs to rescue some of the other games.

Minutes later, a woman left some Friends and Ally McBeal VHS tapes, an English tutorial kit in cassette, and some comic books. I lay claim to an English copy of Heavy Metal from 1998. We also learned that these were her ex's old junk. An hour later she threw out (among other things) a big leather overnight bag. A teenage boy beat us to it, and whatever was inside the bag. Another hour passed and an old man took all the VHS tapes. We don't usually trash dive (in fact I feel like we missed out one time because I saw some nice antique chairs in the street; too bad we're moving out soon) but you never know what these things would be worth on E-bay one day.

Still, it would have been extra nice if we got to Hotel de Ville in time for the FNAC concert, because Selah Sue was playing :-\ Dommage!

I'M A L'HIVER LOVER - to borrow from binoe p.

ow

Early December, in pictures.

Earrings. A birthday gift from http://rockandrule.weebly.com/ 

H had a meeting at the Champs Elysees, so I tagged along to take pictures...

And window shop. I can wait until the sale season starts in January :D

This is for my mom, whose Omega I *kind of* killed when I was a kid.

A message from above. I HEAR YA SAMSUNG BUILDING!

We always had a christmas tree in Manila, and for the sake of tradition, we got one as soon as December struck. We are still a little Pinoy in this house :) It's my first real tree!

We went up and down the street to shop for the perfect tree and got one from just beside the building.

A simple candle-lit pesto dinner.

Some decors are from his old stash, some I got from Habitat, some from Ikea,
and some from Hapao, Ifugao! 

An unexpected snowstorm takes Paris by surprise and leaves the city deep in 4 inches of snow.

Morning after. Kids leave fresh tracks on the snow.

I left this bottle outside to chill it naturally. But the sun was in the mood to play contrary.

Golden, but colder than when there were clouds.

The snow left unexpected flooding, and many cars were left on the street from the night before.

There's a sight you don't see every day.

But the snowstorm also brought with it a stranded friend on her way to Poland:
Michie, in the green coat with Jj in the yellow scarf.
The man in the middle, I don't know. He squeezed himself in.

And then we took Paris by... well, I can't say by storm,
we were more of a light drizzle.

We had tarts at the Marais.

The interiors of Le Loir are so hip.
There's an impression of bipolarity, like they maybe tried and gave up.

The reason behind the teashop's whimsical name is illustrated in the mural. 

This reminds me of an artist friend in Manila who made a painting of a misunderstood elephant in Japan.
And my brother who knows the answer to "What's up?"

There was a photoshoot in the Loir when we came in, but I couldn't take a clear picture of the girl they were taking pictures of... so I took a picture of Michie instead.

They had quiches and I had a gateau.

But we all had a pact to show the lemon pie no mercy the next time we are in Paris all at the same time.

We walked to Les Halles because we needed to put Michie in the train straight to CDG Airport.
H called to make sure we were on our way because he rechecked the flight schedule while us girls were touring. 

And then I went straight to school. Was absurdly early.
The benches in the courtyard were covered in snow so I hung out at the coffee lounge instead.

S'now The End Is Near

It was snowing all day, but it was great because H and I could watch the news, the pointless posturing at Assembleé Nationale and the underwear show (also pointless), have breakfast, lunch and afternoon coffee, and work on our laptops - all without leaving the house; comfy and warm in our socks and jammies. 

It's a day that's going in the vault as one of the best times of our early married life, just because it's so simple. 

The French have two words for happy: "content" and "heureux". 

They favor "heureux" because it is the  state of happiness, but I prefer "content" because it means you have everything you want to make you happy. It means, after seeing everything the world has to offer, you are satisfied. 

Everybody's trying to chase after what makes them happy. Consumerism has made it hard to find contentment. But, thank you, I'm good. Je suis content.

Thank you, snow day :)

So now, the end of the day is near, I have one more article to finish then I could do my assignment, maybe watch some True Blood, and then sleep because I have to get something from Habitat for someone before class tomorrow... I wouldn't want to walk all the way to the store in the dark after school. Hngggh. 

Mmmm... you had me at "chocolate vodka"

Is it Friday yet? I need to get my drink on.

I'm going to try this as soon as track down the ingredients:

Reindeer Tracks from The Nest

Ingredients
2 oz. Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka
1 oz. hazelnut liqueur
1/2 oz. crème de cacao
Splash of cream
2 chocolate cookie wafers, crushed

PreparationRim a martini glass with chocolate cookie crumbs and set aside. Shake Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka, hazelnut liqueur, crème de cacao and cream over ice and pour into the glass. Dust top with more chocolate cookie crumbs.

SLUSH, Keep It Down Now, Voices Carry

It's been a really cold couple of weeks and now we average between 5-6 people a day in French class. 
There are times when I go blank in there because my brain wants to hibernate. 
Today Paris couldn't decide between rain or snow so we had both.
Thus, slush.  It reminded me that I had yet to finish my doomsday prophesying.

This morning at Alliance Française de Paris en Rue de Fleurus.

This post is a continuation of Apocalypse Daw.

Permanent Summer / Permanent Winter

Not just because of global warming (which has become such a fashionable cause, it's beginning to look trivial) but sun spots, axial tilts, shifts in gravitational pulls, the earth's natural glacial cycle and other  eccentricities-only-nerds-would-know could give us yearlong summer or winter and eventually kill us all and there's nothing we can do. We can't blame whalers, illegal loggers, zoo-keepers... but at least it's a chic apocalypse. Our descendants could either die in minks or bikinis; if they survive the raping and the pillaging and the indiscriminate violence.

Coincidentally, today's lesson in class was about seasons and how tropical countries like mine only have two, and incidentally, how magical snow could be for those who are seeing it for the first time. I was a little embarrassed to admit I was jumping up and down this morning when I saw it was snowing :)

Anyway, in honor of the little flakes, here's "Coffee and Snow" from the hip hop duo Blue Scholars (with a little shout out to the hotter than hot Philippine streets).




We out.