friend's visit day seven...

The last day...Le Marais

We just stuck close to home on the last day of their trip...

Enjoyed a great Falafel which is a traditional Jewish sandwich and super popular here!

Then we were off for a bit of shopping on Rue des Francs Bourgeois/Rue des Rosiers and then to Place des Vosges for some wine ;-)

The Invader is a street artist who has tagged many buildings in Paris and all over the world

Place des Vosges a famous square near my Apartment and where Victor Hugo lived

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!

fashion week!

So the garage near our apartment holds fashion shows...they even have a facebook page it you would like to see photos of said fashion shows...haha!

Garage Turenne

Very funny venue indeed...

I looked up the line up this past week and it was the following designers:

LUIS BUCHINHO
PEACHOO + KREJBERG
and
MANISH ARORA

Next time I promise to get some photos...it may just be unimportant fashion buyers but still...

my creation!

Well here it is...my first piece of jewelry!!!!

I made this from Silver Clay...I molded the clay, decorated it, dried it, filed it, fired it (well the owner did this part), polished it and then voila my very first piece of ART!

Now since I have finished the silver clay class at La Petite Manufacture I can now work on my own by the hour in studio time. La Petite Manufacture is such a great concept and I am so glad it is just around the corner!

I have a few ideas of things I would like to make next...can't wait!

jewelry making class!

On Saturday we found an Arts & Crafts "Atelier" (workshop) around the corner from our apartment!

I have been looking for a place to learn how to make jewelry and other Arts & Crafts.

At La Petite Manufacture you can either take scheduled classes with an instructor (all materials included) or pay for studio time (use of tools and non media materials included).

Classes they offer this month are:

Clay Modeling - Sculptures
Glass Fusing
Enameling on Copper
Painting Pottery
Origami
Glass Etching
Creating Jewelry out of Silver Clay
Creating Jewelry out of Leather
Sewing
Intro to Drawing
Intro to Photography

I am going to take the Jewelry Making Class out of Silver Clay on Wednesday afternoon! So excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

They speak English too!

I will post pics of my creation and let you all know how it goes!

did you know...

did you know...that Parisians are on vacation most of July and August?  August especially...they close up their shops and head out of the city.  Yes the Boulangerie, Pharmacie, Boucherie, Vegetable/Fruit Store, Flower Shops, Cafes all closed for 2-3 weeks straight!  

They didn't really give us and option on when to take our vacation.  Since everything is closed you kinda have to just leave too!  Especially if you want breakfast, meat and veggies! 

Yesterday was the first REAL day that most (BUT NOT ALL) of the shop owners were back...and I got the below present from my wonderful husband!  He said he has been trying to buy me something from a flower shop for 2 weeks now...every shop was closed that he went to!

So keep in this in mind...if you want to come in August it is going to be a ghost town.  Not alive and bustling like it normally is ;-)

famous person sighting...mathieu amalric

Not many of you will know who Mathieu Amalric since he is a French Actor.  But he was in a very famous and award wining movie The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.  He played the Editor of ELLE Magazine (French ELLE) who had a stroke and suffered from the "Locked in Syndrome" but still managed to communicate and wrote his memories by blinking!  It is a must see movie. 

Yesterday (Saturday) I was picking up the dry cleaning in our neightborhood and there he was riding down the street on a bicycle with his son on the handle bars.  I recognized him immediately but could not place his name...I was sure it was an American actor but nope another Frenchy ;-)  That's what I get for watching so many foreign films with F!

bastille day

Bastille Day is similar to Independence Day in the US.

We were still unpacking so we did not venture out for the holiday (not a huge loss since it rained all day!).

BUT we could see the planes doing an air show fly by our apartment! A week before Bastille Day they were doing a test flight and I didn't know what was going on...I thought a plane was going to crash ;-)

the big move...

Tomorrow is the big move FINALLY!!!!

The movers should be at our apartment at 8:30am (Paris time). M is being watched by his Mammie at the temporary apartment. While F and I organize the delivery. I am forecasting a long day.

This weekend we spent the entire time cleaning and preparing the apartment for our shipment. We got a lot done.

Here are some pics of our bedroom floors (in some of them you can see the before and after). We revitalized them with some kind of Parquet chemical (I attached a photo of the product we used).

More pics to come...

Enjoy!

update on promises...

The contractor did come yesterday and he installed the Water Heater. Not sure if he connected our water exhaust to the neighbors or not...This is important so we can actually USE the new bathroom.

He should be installing the surround for the shower today (as he asked what kind of glass - clear, opaque or one with a decoration on it)...we went with Clear btw.

I will update with pics later tonight as we usually go after 3pm when F's parents arrive.

promises

The contractors promised that they will be here tomorrow - Sunday. YES they are committing to work on SUNDAY! That is amazing for The French. Let's see if they keep their promises...

F's dad finished staining and buffing the floors today. He still needs another coat of wax. But it looks 100% better already. I included one before pic (sanded and unsanded floor) foe comparison.

no progress...

That's right the contractors did not come on Monday nor today!!!! F is mad and so are his parents. They called the contractor today but I had a hard time understanding what was said. I think they are going to connect the water execution with the neighbors on Thursday. They had to make an appointment with the neighbor. If that is true then MAYBE they can at least get the shower finished by our move out date which is Tuesday. Wednesday is a holiday here in France...a big one. Bastille Day ~ July 14th. It is like their Independence Day. So there might be a lot of people on vacation this week for the contractor. Not sure what is going to happen if we don't have a shower. I might be washing my hair in the kitchen sink!

The only progress that was made was by F's dad today. He put the stain on the floors and he will polish it tomorrow. Then a polish of wax will go on after that. Not sure if it will be done tomorrow or Thursday. But Saturday we will for sure be able to move in M's toys and furniture into the room!!! Then we can finish organizing the rest of the space before all of our stuff arrives ;-)

floors

F's dad has been working tirelessly for 2 weeks now sanding the floors of the bedroom and hallway.

Here are a few pics of his progress. Next step is staining and waxing them which will take place this week. This will complete the bedroom.

I have more photos to post of the completed bedroom once we get some good shots with our wide angle lens (sorry can't do it till this weekend)...stay tuned!

Pic # 1 is his first attempt and Pic # 2 is when it is completed (darker flooring is the bedroom next door to compare sanded vs. unsanded.

in construction part trois...almost completed

As you can see the walls are completed and painted and the bathroom is tiled and the shower is in! We are currently only waiting for F's dad to stain and wax the floors and doors to complete the bedroom!!! He will be working on them this week.

And as for the bathroom this is a whole different story. In the bathroom photo looks completed but we are nowhere near completed. The contractors still need to connect the water execution to the neighbors, install the water heater, toilet, sink, and finish up the shower installation. They assure us that this will not take too long. But our Sea Shipment is currently scheduled to arrive on Monday, July 12th (that is 1 week from today!). I am going this afternoon to check if there was any progress today. Let's hope they actually came today and did something!

in construction part deux...

In these photos the contractors have put up the bathroom and hallway walls which have been fitted with Green Board. Green Board was used as the original walls were made of plaster and were cracked. It was suggested the best way to remedy this was to dry wall over the plaster to prevent more cracks and future repairs. Last photo is of the bathroom...sorry the angle is not good. It doesn't give you an idea of how big it is. But with only green walls you can't really tell anyway :-) More to come!

Photos taken May 2010

in construction...

Here are some photos during the demolition phase of the bedroom/bathroom.

In Photos # 1 and 2 they found more space which widens the room! They found about a foot of space which were a few small closets and an old chimney that was not working any longer. We were able to cap off the chimney and take them out which widened the bedroom to 9.5ft x 11ft!

In Photo # 3 the contractors removed the flooring where the bathroom will be placed.

Photo # 4 is a view from the main door to the Window.

These photos were taken back in April 2010

apartment BEFORE pics

Here are 2 before pics of the Bedroom that we are updating. This will be a series of posts as I have a lot of photos.

This is the space where we are creating a new bathroom/bedroom. This is a long but narrow room (8.5 ft x 19ft). So we used up some of the space for a 6x8 bathroom.

The first photo shows the bedroom before from the window to the main door. The bathroom will be to the right of the main door. There is a corridor/hallway that connects the main door to the bedroom entrance.

And the second photo is from the main door to the window.

As you can see there was a lot of work that needed to be done. In the following posts you will see this room be transformed! Stay Tuned ;-)

Photos taken February 2010

le weekend part trois

This weekend we had M's 2nd birthday party on Saturday and cleaned the apartment 1/2 day on Sunday.

I do not have a lot of photos yet from the party because our card reader (for the other camera) is still offline. I will add another post in a few weeks with pics from M's bday party. I do have pics of the cake that I will share now.

Also today we had lunch together at Place des Vosges. It is where Victor Hugo the French Novelist's apartment is around (he wrote Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame)...it was a cooler day today since it rained yesterday morning. A much needed break from our heat wave.

around le marais

Here is a beer pic from one of our local café's!

square léopold-achille

Paris Parks will be one of my reoccurring contributions...



M and I have a goal to visit all of the local parks in the surrounding Arrondissements (1,2,3,4,10 and 11 - not the entire arrondissements just in walking distance from our home in the 3eme) and the big Parks/Squares/Jardins elsewhere in Paris.

We visited Square Léopold-Achille which will probably be our neighborhood park we visit often (as well as Place des Vosges and Square du Temple).

It was a decent park for children it had a sand pit (like many Parisian Parks have) as well as a Jungle Jim and a few bouncy seats for little ones. It was nothing compared to Jardin Villemin in the 10eme (as for the amount of activities for the little ones).

More to come