catching up

After Jill left last week, I resumed my slower-paced, more reluctant to leave the apartment life. We were back to the one activity a day, if that, routine. (Lucas and Eva were probably glad, while Max loves being on the go.)

On Monday, we stayed home and I did laundry and some cleaning and ordered groceries online.

Tuesday was a beautiful day, and Marc had scheduled a picnic at the Champ de Mars with his students.

While he was finishing up the shopping, the students hung out in our apartment. There are 28 of them, and we are definitely not equipped for that much company! They didn't seem to mind too much.

We had baguettes, pain de campagne, Poilâne bread, several different kinds of juice...

about 10 different cheeses, apples, clementines, grapes, and the most delicious ham I've ever had.

Marc ordered pastries for all from Lenôtre, and when we opened up the boxes, the pastries were swarmed with paparazzi. So funny.

I ended up with a lemon tart. It wasn't the best lemon tart I've ever had, but it was quite good nonetheless. Nothing like picnicking at the foot of the Eiffel Tower!

I promised Eva she could play at the playground after lunch. The boys weren't interested, so they walked home, taking the leftover food with them.

Eva and a new friend made sand castles together. It cracks me up that they don't seem to have a problem playing, even though they speak different languages.

We stayed for a couple of hours, and I was perfectly content to sit outside, enjoying Fall, and not being one bit hot.

Especially since I could read as well!

The next time we come to Paris, I think it should be in the Fall again. I love love love not being hot. (Look, boots!)

On Wednesday, we went to the American Library to return our books and pick out new ones. It just so happened that they were about to have a Halloween story hour. Eva was thrilled.

Someone had brought two bags of costumes to share, and Eva picked out the Queen of Hearts.

They had Halloween stories, a short film, and songs, and even got a treat afterwards. It was so much fun for Eva, and I was glad she got to do something festive, since we didn't celebrate Halloween at all! (The boys and I watched The Wizard of Oz on Halloween night and ate popcorn with m&ms and Maltesers.)

I went back to the library on Wednesday night for a special authors' night:

David Lebovitz, Alexander Lobrano, and Dorie Greenspan talked about French pastry. I was hoping to get some tips on new pâtisseries to check out. (I didn't really, except to have a firmer resolve to go to a couple that I had heard about recently.) But they were all thoroughly entertaining nonetheless.

Dorie talked about "the tart that changed her life" and the collaboration between fashion and pastry. I found out that Fauchon has a new flavor of éclair every month. Alexander said he felt like Jed Clampit being invited to Versailles, and related the history of his becoming a gourmet (it all began with a trip to Paris when he was 12 and faked being sick so he could go back to Ladurée on his own). David Lebovitz said he enjoys living in Paris because "French people actually eat things."

There was a discussion afterwards about how different the ingredients are here: chocolate, of course, but also butter, cream, and well, pretty much everything. The French demand quality in food, and it shows. (Max would tell you that everything here tastes better, which is probably true, but I do occasionally miss something from home.) Also, everything is sweeter in the U.S. Corn syrup is used in almost everything. Here, food is more pure. I found out that Coke in the U.S. is 1/3 sweeter than anywhere else in the world! Apparently our taste buds are very sweet-conditioned.

Someone asked why we still use measuring cups in the U.S., when everyone else uses Metric. David said that there is a visceral pleasure in filling and dumping measuring cups. Dorie looked dumbfounded and said that she relies on her scale for accuracy. It was fun to listen to these authors/bloggers speak -- I read their blogs, and so of course I already felt familiar with them. Fun also to be part of a large gathering of people who just love food.