Cheeseburger in Paradise

This blog will be a summary of food.

Since arriving in Dijon on Thursday, Mandy and I have had the most wonderful meals together.  If I learn one thing from the French, it will be to treat the meal as an event.  This is really basic and even biblical.  The food we have had is ranked near the top of all I have had in my life, and coming from Louisiana that means a lot.

We had provencial French at Dijon cafes.  The fish I had at Mandy's favorite cafe in Dijon is still my favorite meal of this trip.  Escargot and chocolate mousse was fantastic.  While in Paris, we've had traditional French (another fish dish on leeks was my 2nd favorite and croque monsieur a close 3rd), Japanese sushi, Italian pasta and pizza, Tex Mex in Versailles (but not really), Indian (Mandy loves curry and I had lamb with coconut and cashew sauce - wonderful), and .... American - a cheeseburger, fries and a coke at Euro Disneyland!

And of course, I have become accustomed to wine with every meal... the kind of wine that doesn't give you a headache the next day.  Does this have to do with the lack of sulfites?

Disney was fun.  There are two parks - Disneyland and Disney Studios.  We were selective on our choice of rides and attractions at both.  Absolutely NO lines today.  We walked on Space Mountain and screamed our whole way through.  It was a wonderful, relaxed day of American excess.

Mandy had her first night with the Cahns.  She got along great with their current day-time babysitter/cook Josephine who is an older woman from Africa.  The kids are very normal and the parents are very nice and similar to Scott and me.  Mandy is very comfortable with her new arrangement and they are excited to pick up her stuff on Saturday and for her to arrive to live there on Sunday.  Mandy's duties will be primarily getting the children ready for the day in the mornings since Josephine has an established routine in the evening.  Josephine was happy to have Mandy to help do the kids' laundry and ironing - although I'm afraid Mandy has not had much experience with the latter.  Mandy will live on the bottom floor of the 3-story home with the children.  She has a separate bath and external entrance to her bedroom, but it's not like the apartment she had in Dijon.  That's just fine with her.  She will take a 3-month French course beginning next month, and she'll return to Texas at the end of July.  I think this will work out just fine, but if not, we have an escape plan.  The de Rostolans already let the Cahns know that Mandy is welcome to go to their home if she needs a break.   We are so happy with this arrangement.

I fly back to reality on Sunday.  Tomorrow will be a laid-back sort of day for us.  They gave her a cell phone so we will pre-pay service on it at a cell store and then perhaps go to Galleries Lafayette which is a skyscraper sort of mall.

Mandy will post pictures from today on her FB.  I hope we are not boring you.  Please post a comment to let us know America is still alive and well.  CNN and BBC give us skewed views of news.  They cover the world - what's up with that?  I stare at the French TV stations and pretend to understand.  Oh The Bachelor, where art thou?

Love to all from Par-ee!
Lisa

From 18th Century to infinity and beyond!!

Wednesday was perfect.  We took the RER to Versailles and spent a rainy day at the palace!       It was by far the most beautiful man-made place I have ever seen.  Royalty had the very best of everything.  Gold paint, sculptures in their likenesses, paintings the size of an auditorium...  They would commission artists from all over France and even bring in Italian artists to work for them.  There are constant reminders and symbolism that Louis XIV thought he was commissioned by God Himself to reign over France.  He was very Catholic and attended Mass every day in the beautiful adjoining chapel.   Ironically, though each room was dedicated to a different Roman god.  I still haven't figured out how those two competing ideas fit together.

There is more to write, but we are up on Thursday early to go to Euro Disney!  It is a short subway/train ride away and I want to give Amanda a day of American indulgence before she begins her next job.  I get to return to the comforts of America, but she hasn't experienced it for a month now and won't again until late July.

Tonight she visits her new au pair family to learn the ropes, then we spend the next two days getting her provisions - a cell phone that works here, house shoes, a robe, etc.

We'll blog again when we return.
-Lisa