Scattershooting on my way to the American Church in Paris

It's a challenge going to church each week around here.  I know most of you get in your car, drive a few miles, and there you are.  To get to our new church, we first ride a bus, next get on the metro, then walk about a mile (maybe less? It's usually cold, so it feels like a mile) to attend church each Sunday.   I attached a map so you can see where we go.  The church is located near the Musee d'Orsay, in the center of Paris.  We live near La Defense & the Bois de Boulogne.

But, when we get there, we're all glad we came!  We went to the traditional service yesterday for the first time--we usually attend the contemporary, which begins at 13:30 (great to be able to sleep late!).  We always love attending traditional worship during the Advent season with all the Christmas carols, decorations, and special music--today was no exception.  The choir sang, the chime choir played and it was a great service.

*Aside: It was really nice to hear a big organ again--I've really missed that sound! I took organ lessons back in the day at First UMC Big Spring with the incredible Charles Parham--my homies will smile when they read his name.  He was absolutely fabulous and fabulously talented.  During his offertories, you might hear anything from "The Flintstones" to the Big Spring High School fight song.  I had to learn 100 hymns from the Baptist Hymnal before my teacher would let me take organ lessons, it was a huge deal to me.*

Great article from The Washington Post about The American Church in Paris

The American Church in Paris was founded in 1814, the first American church founded outside the United States.  And, of all places in the world, the pastor is from Fort Collins, Colorado.  Yes, Pastor Scott Herr is from my husband's hometown.  He's a very gifted speaker, a Presbyterian minister, so we Nornes Methodists feel right at home there.  We really enjoy the services and the diverse congregation.  I am hoping to get more involved in a Bible study or small group there as we continue to feel more comfortable living here.  Recently, the Nobel Laureate Laymah Gbowee visited and spoke here. (we were so bummed to miss it!!)  The church also held a screening of the documentary about Ms. Gbowee and the other women who brought peace during the Liberian civil war called "Pray the Devil Back to Hell".  Such an inspiring story of courage and faith!! Here's more about Ms. Gbowee:
The Spire/American Church of Paris

Sunday is a good day for us to eat out and stroll around Paris.  Yesterday, we were so excited to eat at Chipotle, a favorite of ours from Houston.  We recently met Damon Biggins, the guy bringing Chipotle to Paris.  (His son, Sevin, is in Laura's class at ASP.)  His fun wife, Michele, grew up in Midland.  So we are very excited to know Damon is in the process of opening another Chipotle at La Defense, near our home & Paul's work!!  Yes!!  Mexican food!!  Blog-worthy!!

I threw caution to the wind and had a Corona & lime!  Only cost about $7....

We always walk by several embassies as we go to church--the German, the Finnish and the South African.  Yesterday, the South African was a shrine to Nelson Mandela, who passed away last week.  These moments provide my girls (and me!) with a sense of how we really are ALL connected.  As my hero, Glennon Doyle Melton says, "We all belong to each other".

Okay, this post is sounding like the stories on the CBS Sunday Morning show--interesting, but not really going anywhere...LOL  So, I must be scattershooting again...but here's the take-away:  We can do hard things if we get Mexican food, spend time with family, and go to church.  And, we belong to each other.  Say that to each other every day--that's what Nelson Mandela would want for us all.

The Dallas Omni

I Only Cook in English

Bonjour Ya'll!
We celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday with a gathering of Texans in Marnes-LaCoquette.  Our friends, the Gilberts, hosted an awesome feast for a group of Houstonians complete with turkey and all the fixins'.
I wanted to show my cooking prowess--you know after all these cooking classes I've been taking, thinking I could really whip up some impressive "something"...I found sweet potatoes at my market, so I was pretty excited to make a down home, Southern dish.  Finding pecans was a little difficult--went to 3 different stores before I found some--you get about 1/4 cup for about $6.00.  But who cares??  Sweet potatoes must have brown sugar, butter, and pecans on top to be any good at all, right?  The other thing I wanted to bring was the Tarte Tatin I learned in cooking class (Cuisine de Dominque!)
So, yesterday morning, I got up early to start cooking.  I should begin by letting you know I call my oven an "Easy Bake" because it's about the same quality of the one my girls had when they played with dolls.  And, it just has these weird symbols that mean what??  What kind of setting is an ice cube??

BTW, the temperature is in celsius (celsius, dang it!!!)

When I preheated the oven, I used the "fan" setting to heat it up all evenly.  ("Learned that in cooking class" I said smugly.)  Apparently, there was some "food substance" on the roasting pan, which caught on fire and smoked up the kitchen.  Not really a great start to my cooking adventures, but I am UNBROKEN!!!!  Katherine has figured the oven out better than the rest of us, so I usually set the dial on whatever she tells me, and that has been working pretty good--until today when I wanted to make something to take to a dinner...  Not sure how it happened (well, we actually found out she has been using the "grill" feature), but next thing I knew, the oven was smoking and I had burned the pecans off the top of the sweet potatoes.

So much for 3 stores and $12 worth of pecans.   Paul found an online manual for the oven after that, so now we knew which setting to use for the tarte. (HOPEFULLY!!)
While I had been making the sweet potatoes, Paul was busy peeling the apples for the tarte.  His next step was to make the carmel for it and that's where we had a little problem.  You heat sugar with a little water on the stove, then after it turns into carmel, you add butter.  You pour the carmel on the bottom of the pie pan, put the apples on top, then bake it.  After it comes out, you flip it upside down, Voila!
But, back to the problem with the carmel.  It just wasn't working, so he started over. (first time).

Carmel #2: singed

  There could have been a 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th time, but I left to get in the shower.  Still no carmel after my shower, so I took a turn. (Paul had begun making carmel while I was busy burning the top off the sweet potatoes).
The first time I tried to make the carmel, I got it.  (I take classes, you know!)  I also got to use my vanilla bourbon sugar, which was very exciting!  So, I put the tarte all together and put it in the oven to bake.  All was well until after I took the tarte out of the oven and the carmel was still stuck to the pan after we flipped it over--somewhat uncooked, I might add.  So back to the stove with the vanilla bourbon sugar carmel to cook some more.

okay, it DID look pretty!!

After all this, it was time to go to the Gilbert's, so we were like WHATEVER!!! and poured the questionably-cooked carmel on the apples and shoved it in a box to take with us along with our charred sweet potatoes.  Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!  and by the way, no matter how many cooking classes I have taken, I am still bringing an uncooked apple tarte with some blackened sweet potatoes to this shindig.

Stained Glass in the City

  I don't have enough superlatives to describe iconic Paris department stores Printemps and Galeries Lafayette.  Decked out for Christmas, each with amazing stained-glass domes, outstanding Christmas window displays, and out of this world decor--but, which dome is better?

First, Printemps:  All gussied up for Christmas, even the jaded Parisians were huddled around the windows taking pictures of the Christmas displays.  Tricked out by Prada, the windows feature bears wearing big diamond jewelry swinging and dancing around the windows holding Prada purses.  My pictures weren't fabulous, so I found these:
http://www.my-lifestyle-news.com/2013/11/prada-x-printemps-paris-joyful.html

Yes, Gwyneth Paltrow was here unveiling the windows the day BEFORE I visited--bummer!!! (but much less crowded, right?  Optimist!)

 The giant Prada Christmas trees inside are stunning!  I heard the view from the top of Printemps was one of the best in Paris, but I got so side-tracked by the restaurant, I didn't make it to the top...today.  Will make it next time!!  Food was terrific, plus they offer a fixed-price menu, that by Paris standards, is practically a bargain!  I did get a great picture of our beautiful view of Sacre Coeur from our seat.  Plus, the dome, the DOME!!  the stained glass!!  Oh my, it is so gorgeous!  (Okay, that was way too many exclamation marks in that paragraph, but you get the idea).

Printemps is arranged by designer, not by categories such as shoes, clothes, etc.  Each designer has their own "store" and Chanel even has a bouncer with a velvet rope, LOL.  It's all quite impressive.  My friend Diana and I found one store we especially liked that was a Spanish boutique called Bimba & Lola--Carolina Herrera's nieces--super hip & fun without the giant price tag.  It's fun discovering new designers! (more exclamation marks!!)

One of my favs:  Kenzo art deco look

So next to Galeries Lafayette...the store first opened here in 1895 and the impressive structure it is today was completed in 1915.  

Stunning doesn't come close to describing it.  To see this all decorated for Christmas, is just amazing!  The Printemps windows were better, but the huge tree inside Galeries Lafayette wins my award for retail heaven on earth.  Did I mention it also has a champagne bar??

I'm just going to post pictures and you see what you think. Why try writing?  I'm going back as fast as I can!!!

Galeries Lafayette's Christmas sponsor is Swatch. (Did you notice that?)

Oh yeah, Galeries Lafayette has an incredible DOME, too.

We did go to the top here!  It turned out to be a clear sunny day--great view of the Opera House!

Cheers, Ya'll!! 

Top 10 Things you might not know about me

Bonjour, Ya'll!

Taking my cue from my dear friend Carmalyn McCracken and playing the little game going around on Facebook--Here are some things about me you may not know.  I was given the number 10 by Joy Adams Luke, so here goes:

1. I'm a trivia buff with a photographic memory--at least before moving to Paris.  Between the constant translating, public transportation "adventures", and the blur of the metric system in my mind, I barely know my own address.  So correction:  I used to be a trivia buff with a photographic memory, but that's okay, because it's PARIS, right?

2.  I auditioned for "Jeopardy" in Dallas a few months after Laura was born.  My brain was still on zero sleep at that point, so I didn't make the cut.  Which leads me to number 3...

3.  I'm an eternal optimist.  In my room of hundreds of "Jeopardy" wanna-bes, I was sure I would be the next name called.  I brought a new outfit with me for my on-camera audition, which you only are invited into after passing the written/video exam.  Maybe I should create my own reality series, "Jeopardy Bootcamp".  Alex Trebek and I could co-host.  We would become BFFs.

4.  I love to do anything competitively from sports to board games.  I love anything involving strategy, which totally blows watching the NBA anymore.  They just give the ball to one guy, who dribbles down and shoots the ball from half-court.  Yawn!  You probably already know I LOVE tennis!

My tennis team, "Sets on the Beach" won Little State in 2012 at the 4.0 level, yay!!!

5.  My all-time favorite TV shows are "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Seinfeld" & "Saturday Night Live".  All the important parts of life have been covered on these 3 shows.

6.  My life will be complete when I get to see the Rolling Stones in concert.  So Keith & Mick, take your Centrum Silver and come on over!

7.  I was a 5-time state qualifier in high school.  I competed in high jump my freshman and senior year and baton twirling my sophomore, junior & senior year.

8.  I rode my bike from Houston to Austin in the MS-150 bike ride.  I don't think I ever need to do that again, but I did win an award for my fundraising efforts for the MS Society.

9.  I'm a drama junkie.  My dream job would be reviewing, discussing & writing about movies/plays/musicals/TV shows.  Latest favorite shows: Kinky Boots (Broadway) & Breaking Bad (TV).

10.  I love being with people who have special needs.  Joni and Friends Family Retreat at Camp Allen & Special Olympics are 2 of my very favorite places.

Love to hear YOUR Top 10!!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

Bonjour!
It's Fall, Ya'll!
For those of you from Houston, I'll explain.  Fall is the season you may have heard about or seen in movies where the weather feels a little chilly, the leaves turn beautiful colors and blow off all the trees. The air feels crisp and you get excited to get your sweaters and boots on.  Here in Paris, we are sporting our favorite Fashion Trifecta:  the jacket, the bag and the scarf.  You must wear a jacket, because it's cold.  You must carry your bag because you will need to shop and French grocery stores expect you to not only bag your own groceries, but provide the bag as well.  You must wear a scarf to show your fashion panache and ultra-chic-ness, if chic-ness is actually a word.
For my West Texas peeps, there is no blowing dirt here, only leaves.  And, when you are outside walking, you don't need feel the need to immediately clean the dirt out of your ears or braided hair, like we always did back in my days as a high school twirler and trackster.  Paris has no "brown-outs" like West Texas, where the dust fills the air around you and makes it so dark, the street lights come on in the middle of the day.  Oh no, my friends, the fall of Paris, is the fall of which movies are made.

But I hear it's followed by winter.
And winter here is wet, cold, and gray and lasts until July.  So I am a little worried since I've lived in sunny, tropical Houston for the past 13 years.  Fall in Houston is like winter, spring and sometimes summer.  You step out the door and your hair wilts and all your make-up slides off your face.  It could be 90 degrees in November.  So, I'm kinda digging the cool weather here.  Check back with me in June to see if I'm still enjoying schlepping around everywhere in my rain coat and boots--I might be buying a sun lamp and rolling my eyes about the gray weather by then.
My friend Katie took me and my friend, Diana, to a discount purse store last week.  It was fabulous!!  (I'll take you, too, if you come to visit and want to buy a purse.) We met at Concorde, which is a great location in itself with the obelisk and Tour Eiffel in sight, along with the beautiful square where the crowds gathered to watch people get their heads chopped off.  Sigh...French history, right?  Amazing.
Our wonderful guide, Katie, took us all along a great route starting with one of Paris' greatest views of Concorde from the steps of L'Eglise de la Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, then to Laduree, the most famous macaroon maker in Paris;  Fauchon, the chocolate maker; countless other designers' stores, ending at the purse place, tucked away in a sort of alley you might walk right by.

L'Eglise de la Sainte-Marie-Madeleine is the church where Chopin's funeral was held on October 30, 1949.

The secret purse store is a 2-story back alley kind of place--sort of like when you go to Chinatown in New York City to buy the good fakes.  Except these are all real and you don't have to worry about getting arrested in a sting operation when you go behind the fake wall.  They have Lancel, Longchamp, Lupo (an Italian one I had never heard of, but it was beautiful leather!) and many more including luggage, computer cases, and backpacks.  It goes without saying Visa called later to alert me to "possible credit card fraud" after my appearance at the purse place.

My new purse--Gabs, an Italian leather brand.  It reminded me of A-Ha's "Take On Me" video. I'm such a MTV kid.

The girls had a track meet in Amersterdam, so Paul & I took the opportunity to visit Strasbourg, which is in the Alsace region.  This city is only a few miles from the German border and is know for La Route des Vin: the Wine Route.  There are over 100 wineries on this 170 kilometer stretch of highway.  It was gorgeous--being FALL and all, the leaves were turning and the vineyards were golden.  This region has its own language, which is a combo of French & German, "Alsacian"--seemed a lot like German to me, but I don't want to insult anyone (again!) by saying that.  We took a tour all day Saturday with our excellent tour guide, Benoit, who drove us to wineries and spectacular little gingerbread villages filled with yummy food and wine.  I learned that "Clement" is their own Alsacian sparkling wine (only champagne comes from the "Champagne" region, even though people call other sparkling wines "champagne"--you heard it here first, so now you can be a champagne snob.)  Clement reminded me of prosecco, which is Italian sparkling wine (and wonderful!)  I urge you to try prosecco and also clement if you see it in the store.  I'm a hick, so this was news to me.  I loved clement, so we bought several bottles.  I'm going to be on the lookout for it more often.  It has the dryness of champagne, but less bubbles and wayyyyy cheaper.  Yay!!

Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg is known as one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in Europe.

Benoit shows us the stone with markings detailing the size of the weapon you were allowed to bring to the market back in the day.  In Texas, it would probably be a picture of how big your gun could be.

Such a charming carousel with small children floating around to the tune of "Take This Job and Shove It!".  So much for the lovely atmosphere, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  I suspect this lady might have selected that song...

We visited a castle (Haut-Koenigsbourg) built high upon on a mountain.  Was pretty cool!

Could be my friend Pat Aucoin's dining room, right?

Paul looking out of the tower only to see....

THIS VIEW!!

Many cute dogs:  this one was so tiny--I thought it was fake.

So that was my week...love to hear what is going on with yours!

Happy Toussaint Week!

Bonjour, Ya'll!

Just taking a moment to catch my breath...it has been a busy couple of weeks here.  We ended the first quarter of school, so now the kids get a holiday!  Called "Toussaint", French for "All Saints",  it is the Fall Break, so yay for another holiday!  Because we are new, we didn't realize "everyone" leaves for far-flung destinations, which are not so far-flung from here:  Rome, London, Greece, Italy, Dubai, Japan, and Spain, just to name a few places our friends have gone.  Of course, you knew it wouldn't be long before Paul and I would be "runing our girls' lives" again, so of course, we are the ONLY ones that didn't go to _________ (fill in the blank with any of the above places, Israel, or the US).  But we are excited to welcome new visitors this week--Paul's parents, Dr. Howard & Sonia Nornes, from Fort Collins, Colorado, fresh off their stint in Ann Arbor staying with my favorite nephew, Fumiya, while his parents are in China (Mark, I think China, but don't quote me on that--it could be Japan) and Hideko (back to Colby College in Maine).  So the Grandparents are going to Minnesota, Michigan, one day in Colorado, then here for a few days and onto Israel.  The girls are right--EVERYONE is going to Israel!!

So what the heck have we been doing?  One thing I did was to take my first cooking class, which was awesome!!  We made beef bourguignon and an apple pie, called "tarte tatin".  My instructor is Dominique, who is fabulously French and wore high heels to class.  I'm taking my in-laws and Paul to cooking class on Saturday, so very excited to learn something new and try it out in my own Easy Bake oven over here.

I was using my crock pot after cooking class, but I have no counter to place it on, I put it on top of the stove.  Turned on the burner to start my own tarte, but turned on the wrong burner.  Burned off the bottom (and feet!) of the crock pot with a pretty large flame...Oh, the joy of cooking!!

Seeing the Sights!  One really cool thing I am doing is a tour of a neighborhood or area every other Thursday.  Lately I have been to Les Marais and also learned about the covered passages of Paris.  Les Marais is one of Paris' oldest areas and famous for being the Jewish and Gay (2 separarte communities, although you could be part of both) part of town.  Les Marais has some of the oldest buildings, best bakeries and restaurants.  Great shopping, too!!  We ended our tour at Bastille, former site of the prison and the place the French Revolution began.  The covered passages were interesting as they were the beginning of shopping malls--how could we live without our malls?  I really enjoy the tours and our guide is excellent.  I highly suggest using a professional guide if you come here--you learn more and waste no time wandering around.

Katherine has been busy with college prep.  Hard to believe my girl is getting ready to turn 17 and be off to college in another year or so!  She took an SAT prep class, then the PSAT test last weekend.  Luckily for us, all the colleges come to our school to recruit, so she has the opportunity to speak to just about any school from the US.  She is undecided as to where to go, but most probably in Texas or possibly Oklahoma.  She is excited about going to Bali over Spring Break with her Habitat for Humanity club, where they will build a house for a family.  She is still running cross country and will finish up with a meet in Amsterdam, and then host the final meet of the season here in Paris.

She wanted to eat Subway, so we did.  Don't judge us.

Laura is getting geared up for her 15th birthday this week--can't believe it!  Not sure what we're doing, but it will be nice to have her Grandparents here for it.  She is enjoying school and being in the Filmmaking club and running cross country.  We found out Harry Styles of One Direction bought an apartment in the 16th, but she hasn't met up with him yet.  Lenny Kravitz also lives nearby, and try as I might, haven't run into him either, but there's always tomorrow!!!

No, no kitty for us--we are going crazy with our 2 dogs....

...one got a haircut this week and the other went to the vet with an ear infection.  BOTH rode the bus--here's Max, relishing the ride!

Paul is getting used to starting his day later and working later.  He normally left our house in Houston (Dallas & Big Spring) around 5:00 am, so leaving about 7:00 seems really late.  He has a much shorter commute, which is really nice.  Plus, no house, pool, or yard to manage!!  Less time fixing things and more time to walk the dogs...uh, oh, not sure that is a good trade-off...


So many different things here to learn:  everything in metric system, 24 hour clock (15:30??  what time is that??), new language, new money, public transportation, school schedules, ATMs in French, translating in the grocery store...I mostly feel like this now:

I'm trying to keep things simple:  Cross your fingers that I am washing our clothes with detergent, not fabric softener and brusing with toothpaste, not hemorrhoid creme, because I tell you, those things look exactly the same here.