my friends are coming!

Two of my very best friends are coming to spend a week with us here in Paris!  

On the agenda is of course:

Tour of our neighborhood - Le Marais, Bastille and Notre Dame (within walking distance)

Eiffel Tower/Parc du champs de Mars/Tocodareo

Bateaux Mouche Tour

Les Invalides & Pont Alexandre III

Rodin Museum

Montmartre and Sacre Coeur

Latin Quarter/St. Germain (Les Deux Magots or Cafe de Flore, Pantheon, Rue Mouffetard, Jardin des Plantes)

Laduree Macaroons!

Versailles

Le Louvre, Jardin de Tuileries and Place de la Concorde

London is Calling!  One crazy day in London (First Train out Last Train in)

Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysee, Shopping day - Haussman/Opera Area

Musee D'Orsay

Pictures of our crazy tour of Paris/London are to come!

what music is popular in france right now?

Do you love old French music like Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel or Serge Gainsbroug?  Are you craving some more modern French music?  Below are some current French favorites.  Even though they not all are necessarily French these are some of the most popular singers/bands enjoyed by The French today.

French Singers/Bands:
Bb Brunes - Rock/Indie Rock
Camelia Jordana - Pop
Ben L'Oncle Soul - Pop/Reggae
Coeur de Pirate - Indie Rock
Gaetan Roussel - Rock
Christophe Mae - Pop/Rock
Joyce Jonathan - Pop/Rock
Zaz - Pop/Rock
Lily Wood and The Prick (French but sing in English) - Indie Rock
Phoenix (French but sing in English) - Indie Rock
M - Matthieu Chedid - Rock
David Guetta - Techno
Stromae - Rap/HipHop
Yannick Noah - Pop
Olivia Ruiz - Pop/Indie Rock

Non French Singers/Bands:
Muse - Rock (UK)
Keren Ann - Pop/Indie Rock (Israel)
Ayo - Pop/Indie Rock/Reggae (German)
Radiohead - Indie Rock (UK)
Angus and Julia Stone - Indie Rock (Australia)
Mika - Pop/Rock (UK)
Robert Francis - Rock/Indie Rock (USA)
Adele - Pop/Rock (UK)

Enjoy the new French music!

You can download all MP3's off of Amazon.com directly by clicking the CD cover and in most cases listen to a part of the songs on their website.

Not included in this article are the Top 40 in The United States i.e. Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Katy Perry as they are also popular in France

what i'm reading...

When F was in the US a few weeks ago he picked up a new book for us to enjoy.  Here it is Winter's Bone.

teaching aids for small toddlers

When we were in the US I picked up a few teaching aids...since I am the only English Speaker in the household and I want to make sure M would learn adequately.   I found that there wasn't much to offer little toddlers...boo!  Below is the Brain Quest series I bought...they didn't have much to offer for 2 year olds...but I am very excited for him to get older as they are GREAT!  M really enjoys using these...I can usually get about 20 mins of focus.  Right now (20 months) he is answering about 20% of the time.  I am not sure if he is acquiring more words or not.  But it's a start!

 

I also saw the KUMON series which sounded just as great but they didn't have anything for 2 year olds that was language related...more activities and that's really what I was looking for.  But it might be good for others!

What have you used?  Any recommendations or ideas to encourage language skills?