Fête du Miel au jardin du Luxembourg

It's worth waiting for!

I had to get out early this morning and get in this line. Last year I lost out because I came too late in the day.

We were all waiting to buy honey today. It's special honey that you can only buy once a year and only if you get in line early. I was about 100 back and I arrived 30 minutes before it opened. By the time I left with my five 500g containers of honey, the line was about 200 long behind me. It's the honey made by the bees of the Luxembourg gardens.

I haven't tried it yet, it looks like ordinary honey to me, but I'm sure it is a mixture of all the marvelous plants that I pass by every day.

The Strike

We're always prepared for the worst.

A few years ago, the strikes went on for 10 days or so and it became a little bit old. Normally, the strike lasts for one day and it's over.

Yesterday was the second strike in September. Workers and unions are very unhappy about a number of things, but mostly that the French government is trying to add two years to the retirement age -- from 60 to 62. The system will go broke if everyone continues to live longer and longer but still retire at 60, so something has to be done.

The workers don't think so -- let someone else (maybe their children) pay.

The strike was scheduled to be a big one. The unions always try to make it sound worse than it is (more people demonstrating, etc), the government always tries to downplay it.

Life goes on. The French don't complain very much, even if it their day is disturbed. It's part of life here.

We have learned that sometimes a strike will mess up our day's plans. One time during a strike, we got to the tennis club, played tennis but on the way home (one hour on the metro if there are no problems) the entire metro line was stopped and we had to figure out an alternative to get home, unfortunately carrying all our tennis stuff.

Yesterday we played tennis again. We looked on the RATP website to see which metro lines might be the best to use. We plotted the best route. We left early since tennis courts in Paris are not readily available, if we miss our reservation time, we lose our court.

We got to the first metro, line 12. It arrived in one minute and it was empty. We got to the second stop, ditto. The third line, the same. We arrived 30 minutes early.

The way home was just as easy. We wondered where everyone was. Finally above ground after an easy metro ride, we Rounded the corner and there it was -- a HUGE demonstration. We walked right by it, locked our door and watched it on the news.

A Green Lemon

There are millions of ways to get tripped up in the French language. The most obvious is that all nouns are either masculine or feminine and there are no rules to help out with figuring it out. You must memorize them. What goes along with this is that adjectives must (in most cases, don't ask...) agree with the noun in gender and number. The number is easy, one or more than one.

But, there are many words that we English mother tongue French speakers must watch for and worry about.

Today I sent my sister a postcard with citrus fruit pictures on it and the names of each item. The tricky one in the group is "citron vert" which is a lime. But, the word for it means "green lemon". Purely from the standpoint of taste I know that a lime is not a green lemon. Another crazy one is raisin. In french, that means grapes. Prune means plum. Luckily when I grocery shop I can usually look at the item and figure it out. The only time I have a problem is when I need to ask someone where something is.

Other words that are similar or difficult in the grocery store: poire (pear), poireau(x), leek (note the plural, another difficulty), poivre (pepper), poivron (pepper as in green or red), potiron (pumpkin). I didn't have to search very far in the dictionary to make a great soup (potage).

Les Journeés du Patrimoine

This year's "Heritage Days" in Paris was a big bust for me.

I am the kind of person, I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but it's true, that if I go to a restaurant and find a particular dish that I like, I will order it every time I go back to that restaurant. I often think of the restaurant in terms of that meal. I know it's a little bit limiting but there's nothing worse than taking a risk on a new dish and being disappointed, especially when I could have had the meal I knew would be good.

I guess it's the same thing with activities. In the past, I've gone to the greenhouses at the Luxembourg Gardens first thing on Saturday morning, Day 1 of the Journées du Patrimoine. I don't have to stand in line, I get to look at everything thoroughly and I enjoy this activity.

Terry wanted to break with tradition. We have never seen l'Assemblée Nationale. It is nearby, why not? So, I broke with my Plan A and went with him. I was prepared for the line out front.



Yes, it was cold. Yes, there were a lot of gendarmes, which worried me, because the terror threat is high in France right now. The line moved pretty quickly, no one crowded, pushed or tried to cut in front of us. So far, so good.

We entered the grounds and it was beautiful. The first few rooms we saw were opulent, each one with a theme. Chandeliers were everywhere.

The rooms weren't crowded. We thought we'd gotten lucky. But, it was not meant to be.

About half way through, we were herded into a line, and herded into a garden, single-file. The line didn't move. We were standing on cold cement. We couldn't leave if we wanted to, we were between metal barriers. Maybe it will end soon, we thought. We figured that the line was for the Hemicycle, the debating room.

We plodded along. Smart people brought sandwiches and were munching while in line. We were out of luck. No snacks of any kind. We went on this way for close to an hour, finally got to the debating room. The big hang up was the photo-taking. Every person lingered taking dozens of photos of the interior. And, it is small! We pushed past everyone, raced through the last few rooms which were pedestrian anyway and grabbed the metro back home.

Even though I was tired, I thought I'd make it over to the greenhouses before they closed at 5:30PM. I raced across the Luxembourg Gardens, it was a gorgeous afternoon, with the sun shining through the leaves of the trees. When I got within sight of the greenhouses, I knew I'd made a mistake. The line to enter was huge.

I did not have the patience, tenacity and physical resilience to stand in another long line, I left.

Next year, you will not find me at any monument with a long line, I'll be at the greenhouses when they open to enjoy myself in the way I choose.

A New Market

Our Paris neighborhood is wonderful in many ways. The best part is our proximity to the Luxembourg Gardens, which is less than one block away. When we first moved here, I craved green space and being in nature. Now, I take it for granted, watching the seasons change, the gardeners working and the other joggers every day.

One thing we are lacking is grocery stores. There is a small, dirty Franprix that is about a 5-10 minute walk. The other direction there is a larger one, but it is still fairly small. The best store around is Monoprix, but that is a 15 minute walk to the store and a 20 minute walk (heavy cart) home. So, with the shopping included, I have to allow two hours to go to Monoprix.

After we arrived I needed some things at the store so I decided to go to the larger Franprix on Saturday afternoon. The stores in our area are closed on Sunday, so my motivation was high. Terry went with me to make sure that I bought all the things that he wants that I don't ordinarily buy unless he is there -- juice, cookies, crackers.

Things change in both locations whenever we're gone, even if we're only gone for a few weeks. New neighbors move in, the old ones leave without a trace. Stores go out of business, restaurants are remodeled. The mailman is new.

I'm used to being surprised by new things. As we were walking toward the store, I noticed a sign that I'd never seen before -- G20. That's a grocery store! The front of the store looked small, so I told Terry that we'd go in briefly and if it wasn't any good, we'd just continue on. We have plenty of little stores and "alimentation" places already. But, this is really a grocery store. It's not as big as Monoprix, but it is clean and serviceable and it is one block from our apartment. The employees are nice, helpful, unlike some of the other stores. It is clean and tidy. It has fundamentally everything I need for daily living.

I've already been there twice.

Labor Day Comes Twice A Year

For me, that is...

Labor Day in the US is the same holiday as May Day in France (and most other countries I might add).

This is Labor Day weekend in the US. I'd almost forgotten about it until I tried to drive somewhere around noon yesterday and the street (Sepulveda Blvd) was a parking lot. At first I worried that there was an accident but then it occurred to me that everyone was leaving work early. And at the same time. It's Labor Day weekend in the US.

Typically I am in the US for the summer months.

I try to avoid the major holidays in both the US and France. They all seem to involve crowds, traffic, noisy nights and a general disruption of my life. I am usually successful in missing most of the summer holidays by being strategic when I select my travel dates.

In the US, I miss Memorial Day (traditional start of the Summer) and the Fourth of July (Independence Day). In France I miss le 14 Juillet (la fête nationale) and l'Assomption (August 15).

The only holiday I can't seem to avoid is Labor Day. I'm not ready to miss the last few glorious days of summer in Manhattan Beach to go back to Paris in early September.

I will be staying home this weekend, hoping that it's not too noisy at 2 AM when the bars close.

The irony of this is that Labor Day in France is May 1. I am always in Paris in May.

Nearly all businesses celebrate May Day. Depending on what day of the week it lands, the holiday disruption could go on for days. If it falls on nearly any day but Wednesday, everyone will try to take off the days surrounding the holiday. If May Day is on a Friday, people will take Thursday through Sunday. If it falls on a Tuesday, forget getting anything done from Saturday until Wednesday morning. At least Labor Day in the US is always Monday so that everyone can plan the long weekend consistently.

So, I am unlucky enough to have to endure May Day/Labor Day twice a year. I guess it makes up for all the other holidays I've managed to avoid.