The best thing we did in Paris

What a title!  But it's true.  Ian, this is for you!

In preparing for our trip, I researched things to do with kids in Paris.  One interesting thing that popped up was to meet a photographer and have great pictures made.  Now, we haven't had pictures made of our family in about five and a half years.  My children are sadly undocumented.  We have of course had the church directory pictures made, but somehow those cameras have the Lutheran lens on them, giving us the too-much-coffee-and-Jello-Salad pallor.  They don't count.

My rental agency provided the name of a photographer who turned out to be booked while we were in Paris, but she gladly suggested Ian Holmes, a British photographer living in Paris.  I contacted Ian and he was available on our first afternoon in Paris.  This was perfect, so we arranged to meet on Monday.

You have probably seen so many family portraits where the family has reasonably matching clothes, everyone's hair is trimmed and neat, the kids look like they actually like each other and Mom looks relaxed.  If you have one of those, my hat's off to you.  I can't.  I've tried, but I somehow grow three heads, start screaming at everyone, forget items of clothing, discover two children's clothes don't fit, lose a shoe, and then forget how to put on my own makeup.  Not pleasant.  But this time would be different. (Don't laugh, Ian.)  The magic of Paris would put a gloss on all of it and we'd have one set of perfect family photographs.

Well.  Monday morning we did the first thing on the kids' to-do list:  we climbed the Eiffel Tower to the second level, 669 steps.  (I'll post pictures of that next.)  It was windy and quite cool, really a typical November day in Paris.  We had fun, looking all around the Tower, and then walked back down for a yummy lunch in a neighborhood bistro.  Our waiter was fun and our food warm and tasty.  All of a sudden I realized we had 45 minutes to meet Ian at Palais Royal, about five metro stops and a train-change away.  Yikes, time to get moving.

I got moving, but getting the others going was like pushing string.  "Mom, do I have to wear this?"  "It itches!"  "I'm cold."  "Are you sure we have to do this?" "I don't want to brush my hair."  "This doesn't fit."  He was right, there.  The new shirts I'd bought didn't fit!  Zut alors.  But if the boys didn't wear their new shirts with dress pants, they'd be in jeans, and I didn't want jeans in the pictures.  Then my husband asked if we'd be inside for pictures.  Um, no.  "But then won't we be really cold?"  Zut encore.  The kids' coats still had the ski tags from last year, and D's pink coat was starting to show the Metro grime after just one day.  And I realized that no matter what I did with my hair, or the girls', the wind would just promptly undo it.  Surrender.  "Guys, just wear what you want, but WE HAVE TO GO NOW."

We got off the Palais Royal Metro stop at 2:50 or so, late for our 2:30 appointment with Ian.  He had very helpfully emailed me a photo of the place to meet him:

The problem was that when we got off the Metro stop we couldn't find it!  I decided that if we stood there long enough looking lost that somehow a cheerful looking Englishman carrying photography equipment would speak to us.  I was right!  After two or three minutes of looking clueless Ian tracked us down and we got to work.  I was so frazzled, and convinced right from the beginning that the pictures wouldn't work out.  After all, look at my motley crew.

Only kidding.  Ian took that picture.  Ian is amazing.  He put the kids at ease right away, taking us to an art installation very close to the Louvre and letting them run around.  Bill is always photogenic, but it took me a good bit longer to relax.  I'm not a natural in front of the camera anyway.  Here are some pictures around the Louvre:

As you can see, the pictures are truly wonderful.  Then we took a long walk through the Louvre courtyard, stopping for a moment:

before moving on to the Tuileries:

In between, he raced with the kids, caught M and Bill doing a runway-model walk, and let Bill and me have a nice calm (romantic!) stroll through the Tuileries gardens.

Then it was down to the quai by the Seine for some more photographs:

We walked across the Seine on a charming pedestrian bridge.  The locks you see on the bridge are left by lovers, who write their names on the lock and throw the key in the Seine.  How romantic!  One of the many little things Ian shared with us that afternoon.

We ended the afternoon in a St. Germain cafe, a wonderful 100-year-old place where we all warmed up with chocolat chaud.  Ian traded stories about his dog Sherlock with the kids while they asked him all about life as a photographer and snowboarder.  What a wonderful, warm memory, and we have the pictures to show for it, too.

Somehow at the end of the day it didn't matter that we didn't match, that we looked like we'd just gotten caught on film while we were out enjoying Paris as a family.  And in fact, that was kind of how the afternoon unfolded.  Natural, but in the very best light.  All of our pictures are just so much better than I would have ever hoped.  Thank you, Ian, for some amazing photos and even better memories.

What we saw, Part 2: Roman Holiday

Since my kids and husband love all things Rome, we decided to spend part of our vacation in the Provence region.  France has an amazing variety of Roman ruins and, since we didn't want to spend our whole vacation in Paris this was an easy choice.  The hard part was deciding how to limit ourselves.  On the map these little towns look close together and it is very tempting to say, "Oh, we'll go here, and then hop over here and then end the day in this little town."  Somehow it takes twice as long to get everywhere as you think!

Wisely, we centered our Provencal time around Nimes because of the huge amount of Roman "stuff" there.  It turns out that was good because Nimes was all we had time for!  I said in our last post that we got a late start leaving Lyon.  Poor M--he hadn't been feeling good but shortly after we left Lyon we had to stop.  He was sick!  M gets the trooper award for the whole trip because, in spite of a stomach bug that hit him hard this first day and then came and went for the rest of the week, he hung in there and still had a great time.

Our first *planned* stop was just a quick meal, where J had his first crocque monsieur:

Then off to Pont du Gard, which we hit in the late afternoon:

This was our first Roman ruin of the trip, an amazing aquaduct that still stands proudly over the river Gard.  (I had been here on previous trips but DH had never seen it.)  The PdG was an aquaduct built to provide water to a nearby town.  There are so many cool things about it: 

It's huge! 

No mortar!  Each block cut to fit.

Three hundred year old grafitti left by stonemason apprentices!

It is even hard to defend.  Engineering advances like this couldn't be made if your soldiers were always worried about sabotage and you had to constantly worry about enemies poisoning the water.  This is an indication of the relative peace and prosperity of the area during the time of Roman rule.  If people are so worried about the next attack, or even their next meal, useful buildings like this don't get built.

Then we sped off to Nimes, about 20 miles away.  Note to self:  Do not follow Mapquest directions in France. 

After some lucky driving and about 90 more minutes in the car (!) we made it to our hotel, the already-described-and-delightful Hotel des Tuileries.  We dropped our bags and M (poor baby, still sick but just wanting to sleep) and headed across the street to La Palette Gourmande and quite possibly our best meal of the trip.  I wish I had taken pictures...Veronique was delightful and we are STILL talking about the scalloped potatoes!  All five of us had the three-course Beaujolais Nouveau meal (no beaujolais for the kids!) and I was so happy that we all had real French food, like salade saucisson (mixed green salad with a sausage baked into bread), those scalloped potatoes and lots of sliced baguettes!

After a good night's sleep we were ready to explore Nimes, an ancient city that long ago outgrew the bounds of its original walls.  First was the Arena, the best-preserved Roman coliseum in the world and still in use today!  We took the audio tour which was excellent.  As you can see all the kids paid close attention:

The top of the Arena gives some lovely views of the city, which has a real Provencal vibe with its wide tree-lined boulevards.  It was a damp, cold, windy day, but you can see the clouds threatening here, too:

We strolled down this street, stopping occasionally to confirm our status as tourists:

And then we arrived at the Maison Caree, a very well-preserved Roman building.  The amazing thing here is that all four walls are intact.  Below you can see two of the walls.

I'll note that Nimes is small enough that we never even considered getting our car and driving anywhere.  We walked everywhere.

After lunch the threatening skies followed through, and opened up.  Our very smart hotel had umbrellas, though, and so we set off to see the Tour Magne, about a 15-minute walk.  This is another structure that had no purpose but just to be built and look cool, one more thing that only a peaceful and prosperous society builds.  (I'm pointing this out because it is such a contrast to the extreme squalor and poverty of the Middle Ages.)  It rained and rained and rained, but we walked and walked and walked, and the kids laughed it off for the most part. 

The Tour Magne is on a hill over the Fontaine Gardens.  Here are some of the stairs up to the Tower--can you see the waterfall?!

So we went up those steps and many, many more to the top of the hill to find, um, the Tower.  This is what we saw:

But we couldn't figure out how to get in.  So we looked around, said "great" and started back downhill.  That's when we saw much more than we'd bargained for.  The gardens were built in the 17th century, around a series of canals that held water to supply the booming silk fabric business that was Nimes at the time.  I was standing here, thinking, "Wow, for once they didn't do something symmetrical, what's up with that?" when I saw a plaque that describes the Atheneum this garden was built around.  The Atheneum is this curved section to the right.

It's not a Roman bath but something they used more ceremonially, and they are extremely rare.  So, cool!  It also meant that I stood there and looked around and saw the best ruin of the afternoon, the Temple of Diana.  This was a really tumble-down building, but wide open and we could walk all around it to the extent that we wanted to get wet.  DH and P got really wet.  Creeping around this old building in the pouring rain is something we talk about a lot.

Up early the next morning to do a crazy drive:  Nimes to Paris via Chambord.  DH and I had never seen the heart of France, and we both thought it would be fun to at least see it at 60 miles per hour.  Turns out it was good to give M a down day, as he continued to recover and eat very carefully. 

One thing that is very cool about driving across France is how quickly the landscape changes.  What we saw:  deserts, hills, snow-covered alps, deep evergreen forests, plains with rich black dirt waiting to be tilled, volcanoes (extinct, I hope!), sheep, cows, farms farms farms, rivers, leafless forests (it IS November!), little half-timbered villages, and finally, this:

Chambord, one of the great Loire valley chateaux.  Built by Francis I, this was his hunting lodge.  It also contains a famous double-helix staircase designed by Leonardo da Vinci.  It took six years to build!  The double-helix enables two people to ascend and descend without seeing each other.  The entire chateau is stone inside and out, and on a damp November day it was COLD.  The chateau was interesting, but there wasn't really much to the tour other than a bunch of empty rooms.  We would loved to have felt a more human touch, to understand how such a huge place would run, where they prepared meals, where they ate, even where the horses lived!  We made a quick stop here, only about 1 1/2 hours, and then headed north to Paris.

Driving into Paris on a Sunday evening is a slow affair, and another note to self:  Don't print out the Mapquest directions in miles when the car and road signs are in kilometres.  Also, apparently lots of Parisiens leave the city for the weekend, only to pile back in when the weekend is over.  The roads were very, very crowded.

Finally, our first glimpse of this most Parisian of sights:

More soon!  A bientot!

What we saw, Part 1

Oops, it's been a week since I posted.  Pretty soon this vacation will be stale and blogging about it will be lame.  But I think I have maybe one more week.  I will point out that it was one fantastically busy week, but I am also not a reliable blogger.  If you are reading this now, thanks for sticking with me!

Okay, I've written about where we laid our heads and how we got around.  But WHAT did we do?  Our trip started in Lyon, where DH was winding up a trade show.  (Incidentally, this was his first time at this particular trade show and we ARE GOING BACK NEXT YEAR.  Barcelona!)  We had just one night in Lyon, France's second-largest city.  I would say that if you can, put Lyon on your itinerary.   It is not touristy at all, but it is lovely and has a "real" feeling that you don't get in every city.  There are also plenty of sights to visit, from Roman ruins to modern art museums.  (It was the nearest big city to me when I worked in France, and I visited often.  I truly love this city.)

Lyon is slave to her geography, built right at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone rivers.  The heart of the city is on the skinny peninsula (the "Presqu'ile" which is literally "almost-island"), where you can find Place Bellecouer, a huge open plaza, and many pedestrian streets, perfect for shopping and eating!  But this isn't the oldest part of the city:  just off the Rhone there is a high bluff that overlooks the rest of the town.  This is where the ruins of a Roman settlement have been found, and now it is "Vieux Lyon," a rabbit's warren of cobblestones and covered streets.

After we dropped our suitcases and changed clothes (phew!), we headed out to this part of town.  It was dark already, but our kids got their first look at a real cathedral when we got off the Metro stop: Fourviere.   Here is a Wikipedia picture--it is so pretty but I didn't get a good photo.

This is a gorgeous-but-not-very-old church, lit up and standing vigil over the city below.  They were impressed.  We also bought our first "marrons" (roasted chestnuts) in this area:  Thumbs up from D, but only lukewarm responses from my other three.  We meandered a little in this area, just soaking up the atmosphere and getting accustomed to hearing only French.  So many cute shops and restaurants!

Then we headed down the hill, crossing the river Rhone and into the heart of the city:

More wandering, looking at windows and just enjoying being free of train stations and airports.  I wish now I'd taken more pictures that night!  I will point out that wandering is easy in Lyon, with wide pedestrian streets and beautiful squares.  We settled on a brasserie to eat dinner, our first proper meal in France.  Lyon is the gastronomic heart of France, so almost anywhere you eat is going to be tasty.  We ducked into the Brasserie Victor Hugo, where J enjoyed his first plate of escargots:

Verdict: Delicieux!  He enjoyed escargots a couple of times later on this trip.  I had an amazing salad called "Chevre Chaud,"  literally "Hot Goat" but really "Hot Goat Cheese."  It was just a mixed greens salad dressed with (fresh) viniagrette, but it also had baguette slices with goat cheese, toasted so that it was a creamy/melty/crunchy yumminess that was perfect with the greens.  This is French food:  simple ingredients that are just fresh and clean, combined in a way that makes everything taste better.  And of course we had Nouveau Beaujolais* with dinner.

Everyone else had delicious, if less remarkable, dinners as well, with no french fries or chicken nuggets in sight.  Then it was back to the hotel to collapse and get ready to begin our journey to Provence.  The hotel (in my previous post) had wonderful beds...we didn't even move until after 9:30 the next morning!

Provence is next, but we are decorating/grocery-shopping/lacrosse-watching/birthday-partying today so it will wait til next time.  A bientot!

*Nouveau Beaujolais is the young red wine that comes out every fall, on the third Thursday of November.  It is a big party in France, with signs all over that say "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!"  Yes, some of it is just marketing.  But it is fun and I like Beaujolais, so...

Bedrooms and Water Closets

Since we traveled over a pretty fair distance in France, we stayed at three different places on our vacation.  It was great to compare the places--they are very different, each one suited to a different kind of stay.

When we arrived in Lyon late in the afternoon, we were ready to drop our bags and walk around.  The whole area around the convention center was booked, so we met my husband out at the Park&Suites Hotel.  Not a central location, but close to a metro stop, close to the Lyon Part Dieu train station, and big enough for us.  Personality?  Meh.  It made me think of a Euro-Embassy Suites.  But for a single night it was quite spacious, with super-comfy beds and even a kitchenette.  It also had (like all our lodgings) separate water closet and sink/shower rooms.  The kids thought that was novel.  But it was such an exciting hotel that we neglected to take pictures!

We slept in the next morning, completely by accident.  By the time we had dragged ourselves out of bed it was 9:30, and the hotel's "petit-dejuener" (breakfast) was just about finished.  Luckily there was a little market around the corner and we were able to have the first of our numerous food-shopping adventures there.  Good Lord, I love to shop for food in France.  I'll digress if I don't stop here.

We headed south that morning, to the ancient Roman city of Nimes.  I had found Hotel des Tuileries on the internet, and it had been very highly rated on Tripadvisor.com.  We had emailed back and forth a little, and so we knew that we had the entire fourth floor to ourselves.  Perfect!

Our little hotel was exactly what we wanted:  a traditional French hotel with tiny elevator ("one bag/one person"); narrow street; lovely breakfast room; walking distance to the sights in town.  We loved it!  The gracious owners were a bonus; Andrew and Caryn are English and love their new town so much.  They were eager for us to love it, too, providing great recommendations for dinners and merry yellow and orange umbrellas that were desperately needed one afternoon!

This isn't to say it was luxurious, just comfortable.  Our top floor consisted of two guest rooms, one with a double bed and bathroom (yes, plus w.c.!), the second with a living room, bedroom and bath.  Both rooms had multiple balconies looking out on the neighboring rooftops.  We were pretty high up:  in Europe the ground floor is "0" or "rez de chaussee" (ground floor), so the fourth floor is what we think of as the fifth.  I'd call the decor funky; Bill says that sounds critical and it was comfortable.  But I think orange carpet = funky, so I'll stick with my description.  It was immaculately clean and warm.

J was kind enough to take multiple photos of the hotel:

The Salle de Bain

The adjoining W.C.

Roof of an adjacent building.  I mean "Toile."

Breakfast was perfect.  Yogurt and cereals in addition to the traditional croissants and bread, all accompanied by cafe au lait, tea, or hot chocolate.  The kids learned to order "chocolat chaud" pretty fast!

Dee-lish.  (That is not French.  That is 'murrican.)

The cute breakfast room.

After a lovely two nights in Nimes we left our new friends to drive north.  We had really shifted our vacation plans around to spend five nights in Paris, which allowed us to stay here:

We rented an apartment from Paris Perfect.  Let me just say the name says it all.  We've rented plenty of places (beaches, especially) over the years but I've never been as happy with an agency or a rental.  Romanee is pretty small, only 780 square feet, but perfectly laid out and wonderful.

We decided to look into apartment rentals after checking hotel prices in Paris.  OUCH!  We would need three rooms, with six people, and prices were pretty steep.  Even staying out from the city center was incredibly expensive.  We were able to rent this apartment, with kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and even a washer and dryer for less than the cost of the hotels.  (Not a lot less, just a little, but we got so much more!)  AND we got to look at this amazing view from our dinner table every evening:

One great thing about the apartment rental was that it allowed us to prepare some of our meals ourselves in our kitchen.  This meant that we could try out the markets and shops in the area and start to feel like a part of the neighborhood.   After a couple of days the lady in one of the bakeries knew us, and she never failed to greet the kids with "Bonjour mes enfants!"  That trumps a hotel stay.

Kitchens, or at least our kitchen, are masterpieces in efficiency.  We had every convenience, including dishwasher and full-size fridge, just packed into a space just small enough to be crowded with two people.

Here is a picture that P took of their bathroom.  She was impressed with the fact that you could put water in the tub four different ways.  Pretty cool!  Again, here we had w.c.s, with the disconcerting division between toilet and sink.  I'm still not sure what I think about that.

Cabinets lined every wall, even this one behind the cool decoupage:

One thing that we were very conscious of was the need to be quiet.  Our neighbors were totally silent!  Since our building was quite old, I always felt like we sounded like a herd of elephants.  We tried to creep around and be mindful of our shoes, but that might be the only downside to the apartment:  I was continually shooshing (is that a word?) the kids.  Our creaky wooden floors (1880?  I saw a date on the building that was around that.) seemed to magnify every sound.  But no one complained, so we either were quiet enough or I worried too much.  That was a tiny price to pay for feeling like a Parisian for a week.

So, we loved two of the three places we stayed and we'd gladly recommend them.  It was a great chance to feel French (in Nimes) and truly Parisian in Paris.  Next up will be what we saw with the kids...a bientot!

...Automobiles, Try again

The automobile portion of our journey.  Cars in Europe are in general much smaller than here.  Drive down some of their streets and you can understand why!  I think I saw one full-size Range Rover, one Chevy pick-up, and one Toyota Sienna the whole time we were there.

The first part of our trip took us from Lyon down to Provence, staying in Nimes.  It was our intention to see some Roman ruins and soak up a little French culture before being bombarded with P-A-R-I-S.  (Good plan, more later.)  Renting a car gave us the flexibility and freedom to take the trip.  So, with four kids and associated baggage we rented the largest car available:

In a shocking revelation, it was big enough!  Three across in the middle, one wedged in the back amongst the baggage.  In fact, in a moment of inspired-and-utterly-reckless parenting, we negotiated that the one wedged in the back didn't have to wear a seatbelt.  Really, it wouldn't have mattered.  Deal struck, and three of the kids took turns experiencing relative isolation.

Important things about driving in France:  In the cities, it is better to have a destination like a landmark that you aim for rather than an address.  All the signs point you toward things and street names change arbitrarily.  Come to think of it, that's sort of like driving in Atlanta!  Anyway, DH got waaaaay lost on the way from the Lyon airport to our hotel, turning a 30 minute drive into a two-hour cruise.

It takes a lot longer to get places than you think! Even on the autoroutes, which are similar to our interstates.  Generally in the U.S. we can pick up an hour on a six-hour drive as estimated by MapQuest.  We never even came close to that in France.  And all of the autoroutes have at least a portion that is toll.  I think we spent at least 100 Euros on tolls driving from Lyon to Nimes to Paris.

There are rest stops called "aires" along all the autoroutes.  These have restaurants, gas stations, even hotels, all to keep you on the autoroute and paying the toll!  Some are only bathroom stops, but we stopped at a couple of places and had decent meals with prices no more than at any other restaurant we ate at.  I mean, I wouldn't have looked for it had we not been on the autoroute, but it was fine.  This was J's Crocque Monsieur at one of them:

As you drive along the autoroutes, you'll see brown signs with a picture and a name.  Then maybe a minute later that site will pop up on the side of the road.  So you don't have to wonder, "Wow, I wonder what that is?"  Very thoughtful, those French.  This is, according to the signs, "Villa de Mornay,  11ieme siecle."

Round-abouts are awesome.  They give you a second chance to pick your turn...just drive around until you feel committed.   This option works much better in towns than in cities!  Which brings me to...

No lanes!  DH drove through Charles de Gaulle Etoile in Paris, the giant round-about with TWELVE streets, including the Champs-Elysees.  I did not take this picture, but here it is.  Bill drove through it at NIGHT.  He is the man.

He considered it the crowning achievement of his driving trip.  And we have both come to the conclusion that confusion is a very effective traffic-calming device.  Lanes seem to be very optional in much of French town driving.  Like this:

No one really knows what their lane is, and they certainly can't tell where the other guys think they are going, so you just have to be kind of careful and a little aggressive all at once.  And it works.

So that is a little about how we got around in France.  Except, of course, Paris Metro and taxis.  But they'll wait, because I have to start my day.  A bientot!  (And someday I will find the keystrokes that give me proper accents and circumflexes...)

France: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Our trip took us all over the country!  This was my kids' longest plane ride, first ever train ride, and (possibly) longest car ride ever.  Here's what we learned...

Airplanes:  For once I gave us plenty of time to get to the airport and the gate.  (The last time DH and I flew we were the last ones on the plane!)  Good move.  I was traveling alone with the kids and it was just good to be leisurely in checking in, getting dinner at the airport, and even being able to move our seat assignments around so we could be together.

All airplanes are not created equal.  Our flight over had individual screens on the back of each seat, so the kids could choose what they wanted to watch.  Coming home, we had only the screens at the front of each section, so they were stuck with what might or might not be a great choice to watch with kids.  I guess I should have known this but I didn't really think about it when we left.  It wasn't a big deal but the kids came home with no charge on their iPods, so it was a loooooong flight!  (Yes, we charged them throughout the week, but we had an unanticipated four-hour layover in Dusseldorf on the way home--there went the charge!)

Charles de Gaulle airport is HUGE when you arrive.  It takes a lot of walking to get through customs and baggage claim.  However, when you depart, it is teensy-tiny.  You can see the gate from the check-in counter outside security!

It also takes a tremendous amount of walking to get to the train station at CdG, too.  Which brings me to...

Trains:  I always loved taking trains in France.  They are easy and on-time.  However, train stations are no place to hang out.  Let me back up just a little:

I think this is pretty new because none of my guidebooks noted this station at CdG.  You no longer have to take a bus or RER (suburban commuter) train to get from CdG to the trains that will take you throughout the country; they have built an awesome train station right at the terminal.  This is great because you can take the TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse, literally "High-Speed Train") in almost any direction from one station.  In the city of Paris, there are about five main train stations, each one departing to a different direction.  So in the city you have to know where you are headed in order to pick the right train station.  Having the SNCF (French train system, Societe Nationale de Chemins de Fer, or "National Iron Horse Society") right at the airport means you can go in a multitude of directions from one spot.  Super convenient--Thanks, France!

So we walked miles (it seems) to get to the train station.  Unlike airports, people arrive at trains about five minutes before the train arrives, the train stops for about three minutes while everyone piles on and off, and then away you go.  Being cautious about our flights, though, we booked a TGV to Lyon that left about three hours after we landed.  When we realized how easy the connection was, I tried to change the reservation to an earlier departure but couldn't do it at the ticket kiosk (a problem I'll talk more about later).  The line at the service counter really long, so I thought it wouldn't be a big deal.  In hindsight, I should have waited in that line!

So we were stuck in the station with all that baggage for almost three hours.  Train stations are just about the outside temperature; in November, that means cold!  And super-boring:  remember, the smart people arrive just before the train arrives, hop on, and away they go.  Anyway, we finally got to ride on this:

This was the kids' first train ride.  I'm afraid that we have now spoiled them.  The TGV is sleek, quiet, and most of all fast.  They loved watching the countryside whisk by as they enjoyed some snacks I had bought in the station.  Chocolate and cookies in the warmth of the train cabin--that was a great way to get to Lyon.

This post is getting long, and so I'll continue with automobiles (and taxis!) in the next post.  A bientot!

Networked Blogs...

I'm stepping out a little, or rather "outing" myself a little, today.  My blog has been around for a while, just my little corner of the interwebs.  But I want to share our awesome vacation, so I'm going to link to my Facebook profile.

So, welcome to my blog.  Feel free to look around.  I'll be posting over the next few days about our vacation and also about whatever crosses my mind, as usual.  You can tell by how frequently I post that not much crosses my mind!

A new view, and back from vacation!

So the gratitude thing petered out because I had to get us ready to go on vacation...We are back and had an amazing time.  I'm going to spend the next few posts sharing some of that.  I learned a lot about my kids, vacation planning, and myself while we were gone, most of it good.  Some of it might help when you are planning a trip, and some of it is just fun to share.  All of the vacation posts will have "France" as a tag, in case you want to find them quickly.

But, I am grateful for:

Safe Travel

The Eiffel Tower

Family and friends who cared for our menagerie while we were away

Friendly waiters

French bread and pastries and the lovely ladies who bake them

Coffee

Children who learn to say "Bonjour" and "Merci"

Holding hands on foreign streets

A professional photographer to take photos worthy of our memories

Good "luck" that always led us to the right road

Taxi drivers intent on helping us get "there"

Yogurt

A kitchen to cook in on vacation

Hearts willing to take an adventure

A husband with an interest in history and a great flair for sharing it

Traffic round-abouts so you could always go around again

The TGV

Brightly colored umbrellas

...and so much more.  Please check back as I share some of our adventure!

Gratitude No. 8

The cell phone!  The bane of our modern existence, and yet...

My husband is traveling in Europe this week and sends me regular texts.  What a joy to get a little message every so often:  "I see chateaus!  Old, abandoned, beautiful" or "Waaaay better than China."  I know he's thinking of me, sharing a little of his day even though he's halfway around the world.

...and Gratitude No. 7

We had a bunch of family here yesterday (waiting on a pic so I can post that one!) so we had an early Thanksgiving.  Now we have early Thanksgiving leftovers.  Today, I am grateful for

apple pie for breakfast!

Gratitude No. 6

I am a knitter.  I am grateful for the warm alpaca, soft silk, fuzzy mohair, and all the other wonderful fibers I've been using lately.  This is the reason to knit--the ripe color and the absolute luxury, even if only enjoyed for a few minutes every day.  And the repetitive motion can be very meditative and restful.

In this picture are two projects I'm working on.  The teal blue is alpaca/silk/mohair, destined to be a large shawl just for me.  Unbelievably yummy, and absolutely unlike anything I could buy for myself.  The greens are a pattern I'm creating for some fingerless mitts, handpainted 100% alpaca.  Mitts so you get to touch the fabric all the time.  Chunky and soft soft soft.  Oh, and those black needles are ebony.

My shop is a yarn shop, so it's my business to get other people to "buy in" to this fiber love.  It feels good, though, to know I can still enjoy it so much!

Gratitude No. 5

Ugh...I am not good at this daily blogging!  Last week, though, I was thankful for...my patio heater!  This thing rocks.  The weather here has been gorgeous, warm in the afternoon but chilly in the morning.  Thanks to this great invention, I sit outside and enjoy my second cup of coffee in the morning.  Absolutely perfect.

Sadly, it's supposed to rain tomorrow morning so I won't be out there.  But I'll be ready for the next clear morning.

Gratitude No. 4

I took a major tumble tonight riding horses with a daughter, so tonight I am grateful for the smart polymer scientists who created the tough foam that my helmet is made of.  Think of how many times we are surrounded with something that some smart person came up with that keeps us safe, like in the car or on an airplane.  I am really pretty much of an anti-nanny when it comes to safety equipment (like I think we wear way too many bike helmets).  But I am smart enough to wear a helmet when I'm jumping with a 1300-pound animal, and I was glad to have it tonight.

Unfortunately my gold heart hoop earrings did not survive.  Wonder if I can talk my sweet husband into something new....

oops, I forgot...Gratitude No. 3

So it takes a few days to develop a habit.  We are in the middle of some glorious crisp fall days here, full of golden morning light.  My mom and I walk about 3 1/2 miles every morning around a lake near my house, and right now it is spectacular.  I'll take the camera today and try to get a picture.  Anyway, I am thankful that I live in a place where we get four real seasons, especially this technicolor one.  And also that my husband and I made a good decision 13 years ago to buy a house in my hometown where I get to see my parents every day and they are a part of our day-to-day life.

Gratitude No. 2

I am thankful for my husband, who does a way better job of accepting and loving me as I am than I do!  He is a fun partner, a great father, and an amazing provider.  I am blessed to share my life with him.  Here he is with our Boy Scout a couple of months ago.

Gratitude post No. 1

Because it's November, I think I'll post something I'm thankful for every day that I can.  We might miss during vacation, but I'll be thankful while I'm there, too!

Today, November 7, I am thankful for my new church family.  We have helped to start a Lutheran congregation here in my town.  We don't have a pastor, so we take turns with all the duties, even preaching, and we don't have a building, so we meet in a local hotel.  And God dwells there with us.  I am so grateful for every single person in that room, how they encourage me, my husband and my children.  I love our closeness and the energy.

The Grand Unified Theory of Parenting

This is it.  This is what you've been looking for:  the definitive secret to a happy household full of happy kids.  I am sharing it after we had it confirmed last weekend.  So far, so good.

The theory:  children want to love their mama, and siblings will fight for the pieces of mom-love just as surely as puppies fight over table scraps.  My home is happier if my children see themselves as being on the same team.  For that to happen, they must see me as being on a different team.  (Ouch!  This is painful.)  Therefore, when given the choice to pit the kids against each other or united against me, I choose to unite them.

An example:  The kids are bickering over something, and one comes tattling to me.  BAM!  You all are fighting--everyone is in trouble.  Not spankings, just a "go to your room, no TV tonight" kind of punished. Ideally, sending them to their room sends them to the SAME room.  My boys share a room, and my girls.  More than once I've overheard, "Mom sure is mean." "Yeah.  I can't believe blah blah blah..."  There might be some "Why did you..." but surprisingly little!  They have found common ground, their anger with me.  So now they are on the same side.  And after a little while, they are hanging out, playing, reading, but spending time together.  And after the time away is over, they really aren't even mad at me for long.  Remember, their natural tendency is to love their mama.

This is how we've raised our kids.  I'm not sure when I came up with this, but with four kids under six I had to figure something out pretty quick.  I have to say that we have four of the most fun kids you would ever want to see.  They get along great, which makes everything from dinners out to chores to travel a breeze.  Yes, they fight and argue once in a while, but they also genuinely love each other and are best friends.

This even works to their advantage, more than they know!

Here's what happened last weekend.  DS1 had a bad weekend, losing some things but then also lying about them!  Terrible.  We were disappointed and lowered as many booms as we could grab, including NO TRICK-OR-TREATING.  Wow--he was devastated, but took the punishment without complaint.  A couple of days later we heard crying coming from upstairs.  It wasn't DS1, though; it was his younger brother absolutely distraught that his best bud wouldn't be going out on the biggest night of the year.  The girls were also indignant at us that we would levy such a punishment.  Those three kids surrounded their brother with love and lobbied us HARD on his behalf.  To DS1's great credit, he didn't argue with us, but the other kids sure did!  They even "threatened" to stay home in solidarity with their brother.

Well, we changed our minds.  I was secretly so proud of my sweet kids, sticking together like they did.  His punishment is ongoing, but we relented and he brought home his requisite six pounds of candy.  And I feel just a little vindicated in my approach.  It isn't always fun to be the heavy but it was certainly worth seeing them stick together like that, knowing that they love each other not only in the fun easy times but through trouble, too.  I am really proud of those sweet guys.

This is turning into a recipe blog.

A friend wanted the recipe for the macaroni and cheese my daughter took to school today, so here it is.  Actually, she said,"I must have the recipe!  I almost licked D's container at lunch..."  So, you know who you are and here's the recipe.  It makes a generous 13 x 9 pan.  The original recipe, years ago, was plenty for my family of six, with leftovers for my lunch the next day.  I've increased the recipe a good bit, because now my kids eat a lot more and there weren't any leftovers to fight over!  It's that good...

2 c. small elbow macaroni
2 c. 1/2" cubes sharp cheddar cheese (about 8 oz.)
1/4 c. flour (I use Wondra because it's smoother)
2 t. salt
2 t. dry mustard (or use about 1 T prepared dijon mustard)
1/2 t. pepper
scant 1/4 t. cayenne pepper (or use Tabasco)
scant 1/4 t. nutmeg (really, go light on this, somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 t.)
2 c. half-and-half
2 c. whipping cream (yes there are about a million creamy delicious calories in this!)
1 c. sour cream (light is okay here if you must)
3 large eggs
1 1/2 t. Worcesteshire sauce
2 c. grated cheddar cheese (or whatever you deem appropriate for the topping)

Cook the macaroni according to package directions.  Drain and place in a Pyrex 13 x 9 pan.  Add the cubed cheese and mix.

Mix the dry ingredients.  If you are using prepared mustard and Tabasco wait to add them with the sour cream.  Then whisk in the 1/2-and-1/2, whipping cream, and all the other ingredients down to the Worcesteshire sauce.  Pour over the noodles and cheese.  Top with grated cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Check it during the last five minutes.  You want it to be wobbly in the center when you take it out of the oven.  Let the mac and cheese stand for about ten minutes before digging in.  Enjoy!

Wish I had a picture of the bubbly creamy goodness but I wasn't thinking. This is what I fixed for dinner last night (Halloween).  I had six excited kids at my house who couldn't will the sun to set any faster.  They were impatient but I knew they needed to eat before they headed out.  This was yummy enough to get their attention, and with some baked ham and green beans I felt like they wouldn't be completely sugar-overloaded.

Bon appetit!  Maybe some shop blogging a little later...We had an amazing sale last week.  I learned a lot and it went really well, far beyond my expectations.

Best. Cauliflower. Ever.

Yeah, I know.  Unbelievable.  But in continuing to blog about whatever the heck I'm thinking about, I'm sharing another recipe.  We had a fantastic fall menu last night:  pork roast, sweet potatoes, apple pie (that recipe is also on this blog!).  But the best part of dinner was the roasted cauliflower.  This recipe is several years old, torn out of the paper (AJC) way back when we still got the paper.  Here it is:

A head of cauliflower, rinsed
1/4 c. golden raisins
4 garlic cloves
2-3 T olive oil
2-3 whole thyme sprigs (which I usually forget; they aren't critical)
1/4 c. panko crumbs
2 t butter

(Oven at 400.) Cover the raisins in hot tap water and let them sit while you do the other things.  Core the cauliflower and separate it into small flowerets.  You want the cauliflower to be fairly uniform in size.  Crush the garlic and remove the papery husks.

Place the cauliflower and garlic, along with pine nuts, in a 9 x 13 pyrex dish.  Drizzle with olive oil and stir.  Spread it back out, add thyme sprigs, and place in oven.  Roast for about 10 minutes, give the mixture a stir, and pop back in the oven for 10 more minutes.  Add oil if it looks dry.  Stir again, and roast for 5-10 more minutes.  The cauliflower will start to look caramelized around the edges.  Remove the pan from the oven, remove thyme sprigs and garlic cloves, and turn the oven up to broil.  Add the raisins and give things another stir.  Then push it all together so it is touching but still pretty much in a single layer.  Sprinkle with an even layer of panko crumbs and then dot with butter.  Broil for about 2 minutes, about 6 inches from the heating element.

YUM.  Just had some leftovers for lunch.  Enjoy!

Open to Buy

Part of the idea of my blog is to give a view from behind the counter at my shop.  Here goes...

Did you know it's possible for a business to grow itself out of business?  Actually it is, and there's a formula in one of my corporate finance books around here.  The idea is that, in funding your future activity with current dollars, your future sales are so big that you end up going bankrupt even as you have amazing cashflow.

That's not quite my problem, but I've been thinking about that as I deal with my current issue.  In a retail shop, the only source of revenue is the inventory.  You can't make money if it isn't in the shop to sell, flat out.  My method of buying was, I thought, kind of careful, replacing only what I liked as it sold, increasing inventory judiciously.  But I didn't really link it with revenue or actual sales. Part of that was because, when I opened, I had held back a portion of my initial investment to increase inventory later, as I got to know my customer base.  Good idea, but it made me feel like I had money burning a hole in my pocket!

Fast-forward to this summer, as I'm doing my summer/fall buying in preparation for the fall high season.  No "extra" money this year. In addition to replacing my low stock in preparation for fall, I also expanded into several new lines, to the tune of several thousand dollars.  It's not as stupid as it sounds, because I did it in several baby steps:  visits with reps during April, the trade show in June, and rebalancing as I assessed my stock.  (It was kind of stupid.)  BUT I hadn't planned on terrible cash flow in May.  May was awful, and I was unprepared for it.  And then June wasn't much better.  So, I increased inventory while my cash flow was through the floor.  This is bad news!!

Enter Open to Buy.  This is an inventory system based on cash flow and expected sales, a way to put yourself on a diet.  The idea is this:  at the end of the month, total your sales.  Take 50% of that, and that is how much you buy the next month.  Period, with a couple of caveats.  For instance, consider your sales trends.  Low expected sales?  Lay off!  Don't buy as much.  Only buy in anticipation of a good month.  So for me, I should let my inventory dwindle a little during April-July, and then slam the shop full by October.  The method of buying keeps you from having a full shop during months you just know you won't sell anything!

So I had way way WAY overbought this summer.  And my cash flow was terrible, negative actually.  I was glad to be able to give an influx of cash, drawing on my own personal credit line.  (Writing that loan check to the shop was probably my all-time low so far with this business.)

I implemented Open to Buy in August.  Ugh.  I overbought tremendously, but mostly because July was such a low-sales month.  September was better, but again a little over the line, because of deliveries I had had scheduled and just couldn't give up.  Now, I'm only half-way through October and I've hit my limit!  I don't quite know what to do...I'm out of needles to go with my yarn.  This is after TWO purchases of needles this month.

A tightly run shop requires more than a good eye and a great passion for my customers.  This has been a hard lesson to learn, even though it seems like a retired actuary should have this part down cold.  But--ouch!  It is a tightrope.  I don't like seeing some of these empty shelves, but it is better than an empty bank account.

How to Create a Job

It occurs to me that I have more first-hand experience creating jobs than the President.  There seems to be some confusion about where jobs come from.  I would like to explain where private-sector jobs come from.

First, where they DON'T come from:  piles of money just sitting around with nothing to do.  Unselfish rich people do not look at the poor unwashed, have mercy, and throw money at them.

Now, where they do come from:  A person has an idea for making more money, some sort of good or service they want to provide.  The sole purpose may not be to make money, but making money--really, creating WEALTH--where there was none previously is the basic building block.  Now, the person may be able to execute the idea all by himself, for example a shopkeeper who works alone in the shop all day long.  But what if the shop gets so busy that customers leave, unhappy that the shopkeeper can't wait on him?  Or what if the shop grows because it is so popular and the shopkeeper is doing a great job?  Both are good problems to have!  Eventually, the shopkeeper may realize that he needs to hire someone so that his vision of his shop can be realized.  The hiring of an assistant will help the shop to sell even more, thereby increasing revenue, or it may free the shopkeeper to have more time off or to start a new venture.

That's the important point right there--the hiring of an employee makes sense ONLY if the shopkeeper realizes a benefit.  Actually, it is the only reason to hire an employee, ever.  And if an employee ceases to return a worthwhile benefit to the company, then the job should not exist.  This isn't because employers are mean; it's because eventually an employee like this, or many, will kill the company.

Since creating a job means hiring an actual person and forming a relationship with a person, most employers take this very seriously.  They realize they are dealing with another person's livelihood, security and stability.  So unless they are very sure of future demand for their good or service, an employer won't hire someone.  Everyone else may work a little harder, even the sole shopkeeper who works longer hours.

In my case, I decided that I could not open my shop unless I had some part-time help.  So employing people was part of my model all along.  Creating a couple of jobs was required if I was going to even open the shop.  But I didn't do it out of the sheer goodness of my heart.  It was to fulfill the ultimate goal of making enough money to pay the kids' tuition.  I wanted to make a profit. I haven't hired more people, as fun as it would be, because that gets in the way of making more profit.

So the next time you hear any government official or journalist discussing the jobs that aren't being created, I hope you think about this post.  Jobs don't just appear because someone is feeling generous.  Those are the worst kind of "make-work" jobs.  REAL jobs create real wealth, both for the employee and the employer.  They are the only ones that are a true benefit to the economy, and an employer can't be bullied into creating them.  They only come from hope and determination and an atmosphere willing to recognize and reward risk.

Toyota v. Honda at My House

We did it.  We joined Minivan Nation last week.  We researched, we drove, we bought.  Here's what and why.

Former vehicle:  our beloved 2001 Chevrolet Suburban.  We purchased this vehicle when the boys were very small and I was expecting DD3.  I emphatically didn't want a minivan because of the image and the room.  I loved the acres of space in the back and the feeling of being the biggest guy on the road.  This is the car we brought our girls home in, the one we took endless road trips and back-and-forths to the lake in. It was our living room on wheels.  After 9 1/2 years it was a smelly dirty living room!  And I had to face the grim reality--a Suburban, while huge, has a pretty small third seat.  No one believes it until you try to sit back there.  We really needed a car that seated six adult-size people.  Enter the minivan.

We (mostly me) looked at all the offerings.  Honda, Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan, Kia...I'm sure I looked at others but I've forgotten.  The single most important criterion was that third row seat.  The choices pretty quickly boiled down to the Honda, Toyota, and Chrysler, based on reliability reports and lots of different web reviews, like Edmunds.com.  And then I eliminated Chrysler because of numerous reports of uncomfortable chairs--the seating configurations and bells and whistles on the Town and Country are awesome but the chairs weren't too good.  Fine, one less to drive.

I hate to shop for cars.  So the fewer cars we looked at, the better.

I was leaning towards the Toyota Sienna.  Brand new for 2011, the sport model has a really cute commercial about the "swagger wagon."  Not that I'm swayed by advertising.  I've also owned a Toyota and found them as reliable as the day is long.  We went to the dealership on a Friday evening to drive one.  A loaded model just below the Sport was the best they had on the lot, so that's what we tried.

What was good about the Sienna:  Two sunroofs!  Loved that.  It was spacious.  The turning radius was teensy-tiny.  The controls seemed easy to figure out.  The seats were comfortable and easy to move around.

What was less good:  The steering was smooshy, which I guess would be fixed in the Sport model.  It seemed to have some nose dive on a short stop.  But the thing that I really didn't like were the tracks in the floor which are covered by a rubber gasket-type thing.  This is how the seats adjust so much, but it leaves open spaces on the floor.  They looked like trash magnets to me.  And there aren't mats to fit over them.  I mean, I REALLY didn't get this.  But maybe I could get over it, because it looks to me like lots of people do!

So, on to the Honda.  The Odyssey also has a new 2011 model.  The one we drove had just been delivered to the dealership that morning.  It was a Touring model, fully loaded except for a couple of little bells, like the split screen video player.

What was good about the Odyssey:  The look of it from the outside.  It looked sleeker and sportier than earlier models.  I like the "lightning bolt" side that allows for more visibility in the third row.  And that third row--unquestionably bigger than any other vehicle I've been in.  Plenty of room, and even an armrest the kids could flip down in the back.  The controls, of course.  Very easy.  And the steering felt tight and sure, much less floppy than the Toyota.

What was less good:  No second sunroof.  Um, that's it.

Obviously, we got the Honda!  And now I've driven it for a week, and...shhhhhh...I like it.  The fuel efficiency is awesome.  The kids can get in and out so easily, and it really has a ton of space for everyone.  DD3 and I are spending the weekend in North Georgia, so we have gotten to take it on some of the twisty mountain roads, and it has been great.  Not my husband's Porsche, but really good.  And no crumb-catchers in the floor of the car!

So we'll have to wait and see for a real road trip with everyone, but I've migrated to the state of Honda in Minivan Nation and it's not a bad place to be.  (RIP, Suburban.  You were great.)

A dress for Friday

And probably every other day, too.  Oh, Anthropologie, why do you taunt me?  You make the perfect little dress and then only in one color.

Every fall, I mull the fashion offerings.  It's getting harder!  I've done the 80s thing already, back in the actual 80s, so much of this year's stuff is out.  I feel stupid in leggings, and I've hit an age where, while I've still got a pretty good figure, maybe I just don't feel like showing it all the time.  (Thanks, Spanx!)  And, honestly, owning a yarn shop isn't great for feeling young and stylish.  I'm just saying there's high frump potential, that's all.

Enter this dress.  Short, but not too, and comfy with soft corduroy, and just right for showing off my cute Daisy Duke boots* and any of a gazillion scarves at my disposal.  In other words, really perfect.  I'll take one in every color.  So, exactly ONE.

*My Frye Daisy Dukes, brown and cream.  Kind of like the ones in the link except for the color.  The only thing I can wear named after Daisy!

EDITED:  HEY!  They've added two more colors.  Yes, please.

Howdy from Dallas

Blogging today from Dallas.  I'm going to try to blog about travel on Tuesdays, so this works.

Texas is just so darn big.  Lyle Lovett has a terrific song, "That's Right," in which he tells someone not from Texas that it's okay, you can be a Texan, because "Texas wants you anyway."  And it's true.  Everyone I talked to just loves Texas, and they wanted me to love it, too.

I spent the larger part of yesterday shopping.  I visited the Galleria, where I found exactly the same stores that we have in Atlanta.  *yawn*  The Galleria is immense, and it does have an ice skating rink.  I guess I wasn't in the right mood, because I left after about an hour of strolling around and never even got motivated to try on a pair of shoes or some jeans.

I had better luck when I headed down to McKinney Street, in what I think is the "Uptown" neighborhood. One great store was all it took:  Cowboy Cool.  I only bought a belt but also had a great conversation with the owner and staff.  And that is really the point of this post.

Dallas is booming.  It's obvious by the low vacancy rate you see when driving around a shopping district, by the few houses you'll see for sale, and the vibrant restaurant scene.  Not like Atlanta at all.  So when the friendly Cowboy Cool staff asked me where I was from, we launched into a comparison of Dallas and Atlanta.  Georgia's unemployment and foreclosure rates are quite high compared to the national average; Texas' rates are much lower.  The owner said that things were a little tighter this year than last, but really they were doing just fine.  Where last year a customer might have bought TWO pairs of custom-made boots, this year they'd buy just one pair, but they were still buying.

A friend of the owner's had relocated in the last year or so to Atlanta, from a position at the Mansion on Turtle Creek to a similar position at a new property in Atlanta.  The friend is now trying "everything" to get back to Dallas.  Seems the economy in Atlanta isn't supporting the new property.  More than that, though, the friend's experience of Atlanta was that so much of life revolved around race.  The city "too busy to hate" apparently is not too busy to keep careful track of what is fair and what isn't.  Much of this person's professional experience in Atlanta was taken up with placating employees, showing fairness and  dealing with hurt feelings and worse.

Now, this is one person's experience, related to me third-hand.  But this is how a reputation grows.  Why would any company want to locate to a city where they automatically have to prove their good intentions, where a large part of the population is looking for resolutions to grievances, real OR perceived?  Now, I also don't know the state of relations here in Dallas.  But these people were plainly shocked that it "really is like that" in Atlanta, and it was obvious that the level of racial tension--yes, tension, much more than mere awareness--was remarkable to a Dallas transplant.

I wanted to post about this because it was striking--these new acquaintances were looking for verification that the atmosphere in Atlanta "really is like that."  And I had to agree that it is, because even the recent mayoral election bears that out.  While we don't see it out in the suburbs as much, Atlanta spends so much time worrying about black versus white.  It is sad to see a city that helped give birth to the civil rights movement be unable to move beyond it.  I wonder if Atlanta will ever move on.

Well, that was kind of a downer.  So now I'm off to check out Highland Park, GWB's neighborhood, and then I think it'll be time to head home.  One last day to pretend to be a Texan: big hair and big wallet.  At least the hair.