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Published: October 12th 2016
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Nut free macarons
Combining two loves - Eiffel Tower and macarons, brought from vancouver as the French don't do nut-free! France is a feast for all five senses. For the girls especially, everything is a new experience, stimulating reactions both good and bad. It’s never a dull moment watching Asha and Keira use all their senses to explore everything around them. Jet black baguettes made from squid ink and ash? Crazy colorful cubist portraits? Jazz music just outside of Notre Dame? We’re in. Let’s go discover everything France has to offer.
L’odorat Asha:
“Do you smell that? It smells delicious! Like…… sugar!” Seriously, it does. Come anywhere near a patisserie and it smells like heaven. Sugar and butter fill the air with its heady perfume. And it even gets better when you can feast your eyes on the beautiful display of delicate lemon tarts, flaky croissants and crusty golden brown baguettes. It’s so hard to choose! Our daily ritual has become a pain au chocolat, washed down with a noisette. Yum.
Paris has a distinctive smell. There are some delicious smells, like those from the bakeries and the pristine gourmet chocolate shops. The streets, however are another matter. As Keira asked, “why does it smell like pee pee?” It’s a common thing to avoid the puddles seeping
Fromaggerie
So many delicious cheeses to choose from! down the sidewalk… and they’re not from dogs, generally!
Another interesting smell comes from the cheese shops. Asha, with her keen nose, can pick up on a fromaggerie a block away. These are fascinating places, as the French take their cheese very seriously and produce close to 1000 different types. The girls stared in awe at all the various shapes and textures, from a beautiful pyramids of chevre to an Eiffel tower (yes!) of brie to a huge wheel of wheat-coloured aged comte. They loved sampling different types. Asha loves all things cheese, even stinky Camembert. Keira, however, prefers her stringable mozza cheese back home.
L’ouïe Keira:
“Toooooooooo loud!” Keira has supersonic hearing. There is no other way to explain her fear of motorcycles, live sporting events and absolute loathing of the dyson hand dryers. Paris has very few public toilets. If you see one, you go. No ifs and or buts. With Keira however, if there is a hand dryer, it’s like pulling teeth to get her to go. She had a tantrum when I accidentally forgot and deigned to dry my hands. I won’t forget again. The irony is that Keira is extremely loud
Hold my arm!
With hands clamped firmly on her ears, it's hard to maneuvere her round the crowds. Maybe ear plugs next time? herself. And even louder when she is angry.
Sidd is a big football fan and wanted to go to a live football match in Paris. We debated buying Keira some noise cancelling headphones but decided that she would just have to “suck it up”. After spending 20 minutes with her hands firmly clamped on her ears, Keira had enough of the raucous fans and their cheers. Yelling ensued. She was so loud that the fans around us turned to seek out the source of the noise… I spent the remainder of the match outside, trying in vain to catch a glimpse of the action. Ahhh, c’est la vie.
Our other “mishap” occurred at Notre Dame. Both girls were super excited to get an up close look at the gargoyles. After waiting in line for 45 minutes, we cheerfully ascended the narrow, winding staircases to peer at the stone creatures. Asha loved the view and wanted to climb higher. This meant a trip past the bell tower...and of course, at that moment the bells rang. Yelling ensued again. This time Sidd took Keira away, crying the whole way down the spiral stairs.
La vue Paris is a
Winged Victory
One should not rest against this famous statue... museum lovers paradise, with about 130 in the city. Our favorite was Musee D’Orsay, with it’s amazing collection of impressionist works set in an elaborate train station, although the modern art at Centre Pompidou was a close second. There are so many works of famous artists, from da Vinci to Picasso to Monet to Rembrandt. Despite this, the girls have not gained an appreciation for art. On walking into the Greek sculpture gallery at the Louvre, which houses the famous Venus de Milo, Asha asked, “
why are they all nago nago (naked)?” This, accompanied by some giggling… In that same vein, Keira has come to realize that beaches in Europe are a bit, how do you say, different. “
Daddy, daddy, can I show my boobies in France?” Although the girls may not appreciate art, they did develop an obsession with the Eiffel tower. They were fortunate to have a view of the famous monument from their bedroom and it became a nightly ritual to brush their teeth while watching it sparkle. For 5 minutes on the top of the hour, the Eiffel tower is lit up like a Christmas tree. Magical.
Le toucher “Ne touche pas!!!” Mmm.... delicious
All the choices at the many patisseries and boulangers. Asha and Keira were in heaven. "I'll take one of everything!" Honestly, I get it. Everything is so alluring and screams, “touch me, touch me!” This is especially so in the fancy stores with delicate displays of every colour of macaron possible (Laduree sucks you in with the gorgeous packaging alone). In ultra-modern and uber-posh Jaques Genin, a store specializing in sinful caramels and chocolates (for a mere 1-2€ each), the girls spent considerable time drooling over the glass display of rainbow f
ruits de pate (jellied fruits). Fortunately the sales people were very nice and ignored the ample finger prints and instead rewarded them with many samples. We then felt obliged to purchase something. A good sales tactic!
The girls took it one step farther in the Picasso museum. Keira really, really, really, really wanted to touch one of the paintings! Luckily we caught her grimy little hand before it hit the canvas… This after she got scolded for leaning on the Winged Victory at the Louvre. Can’t take your eyes off of that one!
Le goût Asha: “Mummy, mummy, it’s so delicious! It’s so salty and chewy!”
Struggling with the clamp to hold the shell, I insert the metal prong and dig.
Escargot
As Asha's favorite protein is octopus, followed closely by squid and raw salmon, it's no surprise that she loved snails. Finally gaining a grip, I gently pull and out slides a grayish-black squishy body, dripping with electric green sauce. First thought, “yech”. Second, “it’s about right that Asha likes them.” When she demolishes a cool dozen and asks for more, both Sidd and I say no – there’s a daily limit on escargot, mainly due to the price!
The French love their food and wine. Back in the day, it was normal for the French to take a 2 hour lunch to properly enjoy their food. Given the delicious sauces, perfectly cooked meat, decadent desserts and liberal use of butter (ohhh the butter!), it’s not hard to imagine spending 2 hours on lunch. One cannot rush perfection. But after a particularly heavy meal of foie gras with apricot preserves, coq au vin and some generous bites of the girls’ steak frites (perfectly medium rare with the best fries ever), I groaned when the waiter presented the cheese course. A massive wicker tray loaded with 8 types of cheese. I chose three and asked for petite portions. Glancing around, I saw other diners with their plates piled high. Urg. And dessert was to follow! How on earth do the French
Photoshoot!
The girls were fabulous models, despite being woken up at a very early hour. not get fat? Is it in their genes? Does the combination of wine and espresso speed up your metabolism? Or is it because the French walk everywhere? Well, I bought into the latter as we weren’t about to miss out on the deliciousness. So we walked. And walked. And walked. I’m not sure if the girls were thrilled about this but Sidd and I send a big thank you to Heathrow airport for losing our strollers and luggage for the first few days. Without that, we would never have known how far the girls can walk! This has meant many kms traversed, which translates into many kgs of food.
C’est tres bon. La vie est belle.
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Gohills
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Awesome blogging!
Soounds like so much fun! Great pics!