What should you do if you see a spaceman?

Park in it, Man!

When it comes to parking in Paris, the above is considered to be sound motoring advice rather then a feeble joke. I think we've seen a grand total of 15 empty parking spaces the whole time we've been here. Size really doesn't matter it seems, so if a space is longer than your car (by no matter how small an amount) it is fair game. Until we came here, we had no idea that it was actually possible to manoeuvre a 4.5m long car into a space 4.6 meters long.

In fact, if the space is shorter than the car, the average Parisian will still have a go.

If the space is not actually a park, but a pedestrian crossing or a roundabout, it is also fair game.

The driving in the city is just as interesting as the parking. Owning a car in Paris makes about as much sense as Paul Holmes, but lots of people seem to insist in doing so anyway. In order to maintain some semblance of disorder, Parisians have developed their own special rode code. A red light at a pedestrian crossing only means "stop" if there are pedestrians actually in the direct path of the car, and does not apply at all to bicycles, motorscooters or white vans. Roundabout traffic is closely modelled on Brownian motion and it is the volume of the horn and magnitude of existing bodywork damage that determines right of way. Lane markings on roads are advisory only: the actual number of lanes is determined by a complicated formula involving vehicle width, proximity to lunchtime and (again) horn volume. Smoking and using a cell phone while riding a motorscooter at high speed down a footpath is not only permitted, but encouraged.

Haute cuisine

We may not have jobs yet but we haven't been idly wiling our time away here. Instead, we've been making the most of our free time by using it to cook. As you probably know, we plan to open a French-style deli in the future, so we figure that this time in France is great experience for that. So we've been regularly visiting the markets, cheese shops, butcheries, delis and even the supermarket for inspiration. We've also found a wonderful cookbook store, and have bought a few little cookbooks to get us in the French frame of mind (it's also a great way to learn cooking vocabulary). In addition, we've discovered E. Dehillerin, kitchenware store par excellence. This shop has been around since 19th century and has apparently changed very little in that time. It's filled to the brim with interesting kitchen equipment (no measuring spoons, though!). Their best-selling items are well-priced copper pots, which look great but are still out of our price range. However, they also sell proper professional carbon steel pans for much (much!) less money, so we've invested in a couple of these, including a crepe pan. They're the best pans ever! They're non-stick but also sear food beautifully. If nothing else, we'll come back from this trip with great cookware!
The most exciting thing, though, is what we've been cooking in our new pans. Here's a selection of interesting things we've cooked or eaten since we've been here:

1. Magret de canard
A magret is the breast off a duck that has been fattened to make foie gras. The breast itself is remarkably lean but has a thick layer of fatty skin (the fat drains off when you cook the breast). You eat them rare like a good steak. This was amazing! Tender and delicious, a cross between beef and duck. The best thing is that they're cheaper (and nicer) than the beef here. May even be a regular thing on the menu.

2. Quail
Quails are much cheaper here than in NZ, and more popular, so we thought we'd try some. We bought some free range ones from the supermarket of all places, and when we opened the packet found that they still had their little heads attached. Kind of gruesome but the French are much less squeamish when it comes to food and seem to appreciate where the food comes from more. The quails (minus their heads) were very tasty, washed down with some cheap French chardonnay.

3. Fresh sardines
Fish is incredibly expensive here, with some types being sold for $120/kg, but fresh sardines are quite reasonable. We bought some fillets from the market and cooked them simply with some oil and lemon juice. Very different from tinned sardines and definitely something to try again.

Fish stall at local market

4. Breton crepes
Crepes are very popular here, both sweet and savoury, and make a tasty dinner. You can buy ready made buckwheat crepes from the supermarket and fill them yourself (with ham, gruyere, mushrooms, goat's cheese etc) but last night we made our own for the first time using our new crepe pan. They were a resounding success, just as tasty as any we've bought before.

5. Mushrooms
I (Emma) have never been a big fan of mushrooms, and have only recently started to eat them after trying the wild mushrooms sold in NZ. I've never liked button mushrooms. However, Paris is known for it's button mushrooms and they are absolutely delicious! I'm a complete convert. They look exactly the same as NZ button mushrooms but have much more flavour. We bought quite a lot from the market last week and had a mushroom meal every day for 3 days. You can also buy a good selection of wild mushrooms here, including the very pricey morel ($120/kg). Autumn is mushroom season, so it can only get better as well.

6. Cheese
French cheese is a given, of course. There is apparently a variety for every day of the year. We're working on it! The best thing here is being able to buy unpasteurised cheeses. They really do have more flavour. If only you could buy Roquefort (an unpasturised blue cheese make from sheep's milk) in NZ. There is also a much better range of goat and sheep's milk cheeses here. The supermarkets in Paris are small but there is usually one whole aisle devoted to cheese.


Fromagerie at local market

Just so you don't think we've given up on NZ altogether, there are a few things we've found that NZ does much better. The steak we've tried has been expensive and tough. High quality minced beef seems to be a more popular choice here, to make the beef tender enough! Milk is also expensive and not that great. Most French people drink UHT milk, which tastes even worse. At least we're getting our calcium from the cheese! We have been unable to find liquid chicken stock here. The only stock you can buy here comes in powder or cubes, of varying quality. Maybe most people make their own here or something. Coffee here is average to bad. Wellington coffee really is amongst the best in the world. We've stopped drinking coffee at home and only occasionally buy it in cafes. The worst experience with coffee was Starbucks. We went there to check our email but it turned out we still had to pay for the internet and the coffee was the worst I've ever tasted. I don't think the French have been exposed to good coffee to appreciate it. Maybe we could convince Supreme to open a café here!
Apart from these few things, the food situation here is amazing, and I think we're going to have a hard time giving it up to come back to NZ.

A song for Europe

Last night we had the "pleasure" of watching the Eurovision Songquest 2006. I thought I'd just flick it on while we did the dishes, for a bit of laugh. I also hoped to catch the French entry, who seemed to have a fairly good song. However, we quickly got drawn in to this bizarre showcase of low to average talent. If these were the best acts that each country could come up with, then European music is in trouble! Most acts seemed to be a pretty girl or boy bopping around on stage while singing a bad pop song. So far, so average. Then Lithuania's group came on stage. The French commentator announced that Lithuania had come last in the previous competition, and it seemed like they had decided to take a different approach this time. The group's song was called "We are the winners", and pretty much just had two lines repeated over and over again in kind of a football anthem - "We are the winners of Eurovision. Vote for the winners of Eurovision." You had to admire their courage! Then Finland's group came on stage to sing "monster hard rock", according to the commentator. Monster? Well, the group all had impressive makeup and prosthetics on to look like monsters. It was a homage to bad 80s rock but a refreshing change to the bubblegum pop songs that the rest of the contestants had been singing. The group had a lot of stage presence and were memorable if nothing else. When they finished, the two French commentators laughed and said, "Well that's not the way to win Eurovision." They were impatient for the French singer to come on and show the rest of them how it should be done. The French girl was actually quite good, with an OK song. The trouble was, she didn't show much leg compared to the rest of the contestants (fairly important as it turns out), and didn't bop around on stage, but the French commentators were confident that she would at least get in the top 5. By this stage we "had" to stick around to find out the results, which are done by phone vote. There were 24 countries in the final but almost all countries in Europe get to vote. The only rule is you can't vote for your own country. Depending on the phone vote, each country then allocates 1-7 points to seven countries, then gives one country 8 points, one 10 points and one 12 points. Amazingly enough, Finland quickly shot to the lead, with Lithuania not too far behind, much to the French commentators' amazement. They consoled themselves by saying that there were still heaps of countries to go and anything could change. However, by the time half of the countries had given their results, Finland was still way in front and France had no points. Each time a country gave more than 8 points to Finland, the commentators would interject with "Oh no, this can't be happening."
They were still hopeful, though, that their neighbours would support them. Unfortunately, neither Belgium, Germany, Spain or Switzerland gave any points to France (and gave lots to Finland or Lithuania!), much to the commentators' annoyance. The commentators became more and more desperate sounding the more the voting went on. France eventually got 5 points, some from Monaco and some from Armenia, but the commentators kept referring to Belgium's "betrayal". Finland, as you may have guessed, won the competition, and Lithuania came 6th. I guess Europe was ready for something different! All in all, the best piece of unintentional comedy and drama we've seen for a while.

Random ramblings

Week three in Paris has ended and we are starting to feel well and truly at home. We've been doing lots of exploring of our area, doing a new walk and discovering a new quartier each day.
Yesterday, we walked out of Paris proper, crossing the peripherique ring road to the wilds beyond. There's an old railway viaduct near our apartment that has been turned into a promenade plantee, a walkway bordered by gardens. The walkway is about 4.5 km long, and takes you all the way to the edge of Paris. From there, you cross the motorway and end up in leafy suburbia, a world away from the bustling city, and eventually end up at the Chateau de Vincennes, a real life castle right near the city. So we packed a picnic lunch and headed to the chateau.



The castle was a mishmash of styles, the earliest bit dating from the 14th century and the latest bits from the 19th. It had a huge moat, which was unfortunately no longer full of water, turrets, and a fancy chapel. Not bad a place to go for an afternoon stroll!

Other than that, we've just been acquainting ourselves with French culture and customs. Here's a few weird things we've noticed:

1. French people do not use measuring spoons. You can not buy a set of measuring spoons at even the most well-equipped kitchen shop in Paris. Apparently, they just use ordinary teaspoons and dessert spoons. Very strange but guess it works for them!

2. Toilet paper only seems to come in pink colour (??)

3. Game shows are still the pinnacle of televisual art here. If you start watching TV at 5pm you can watch about 4 in a row. Genial!

4. Converse shoes are THE shoe to be seen in if you a young, hip French girl. They don't seem to own any other type of shoe.

5. Every car in Paris has at least one dent or scrape and usually more.

6. If you are on a motorscooter and you have a choice of a) riding the wrong way down a wrong way street, or b) riding down a busy footpath at high speed, the correct choice is always b). Answer c), going the correct way down the street isn't an option.

That's all from us for the moment. Till next time...

No room at the inn

Yes, thats right, we have been reduced to living in a stable.

It's a very nice stable though, and there aren't actually any horses residing there quite at the moment.

Our new apartment is a short walk from the Place de la Bastille down a quiet street next to the opera house. It is in the ground floor of an old musketeers stable and is about 25m2. Kitchen is tiny but functional, and the bathroom is really nice. The bed is on a little mezzanine and is accessed via a set of drawers. Bit treacherous, but we haven't fallen off. Yet.

As they say, a picture says 1000 words, so:














Altogether not bad!