Mama in Paris!

I know it's been awhile since I've written in my blog, but my mama came all the way to Paris to visit me. And after two weeks of sharing the same little Parisian apartment, touring the sights together, and even taking a road trip through the Loire Valley, I'm proud to say that neither one of us tried to kill the other and we are still on amicable speaking terms!

This was Mama's first trip not only to France but to Europe, so needless to say I was very excited to show her so many of the things that I love here. At the same time, I knew she would have horrible jet lag and is not exactly a late-night rager. So I decided to ease her into it - we spent her first day in Paris at the last day of my Francais des Affaires class. I had asked our teacher the week before if we could have a party for the last day, to which she agreed, so I figured we'd spend the first half of our 3 hour class learning a few more things and the rest of the class having our party.

Wrong. Our teacher - a nice enough woman but let's face it - a somewhat prissy, straight-and-narrow type - decided to actually have a real class the entire time. My poor Mama was listening to an audio book in the school cafe for 3 hours. I was VERY unhappy about this but helpless to do anything. We didn't have the party until 4:30 when the class ended. At least the party itself was nice - my friend Valeria had the brilliant idea that we each bring something from our respective country. That presented a dilemma for me as I have no oven in my apartment, and everything I know how to make requires an oven! So I brought Pepperidge Farm chocolate cookies, imported from Norwalk, Connecticut right here to my local Monoprix in Paris. After class, I got to show Mama my favorite park, Luxembourg Gardens and take her for a stroll through my old neighborhood, St Germain des Prés. Valeria came with us and we had hot chocolate at a little café that only the locals know about.

From then on things went much smoother. Mama and I managed to visit Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, Musée d'Orsay, another park Jardin des Plantes, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysées and Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, Montmartre, even the ballet at the Palais Garnier, and a day trip to the Chateau in Versailles. Did I say I went easy on her? Mama was a trooper though. She walked all over the city and rode the Métro with me, never complaining, and always pointing out things that were different here versus the States. In particular, she was distressed to discover that the French have great coffee, but they just don't believe in big cups or free refills.

While the coffee could have been more plentiful, we did eat well. Mama really liked all the ready-made sandwiches you can get in the bakeries here, which is good since that's what I usually have for lunch! And I actually converted her to pistachio macarons over the chocolate ones, which goes to show you how good the pistachio must be since Mama loves chocolate. Speaking of chocolate, on Mother's Day (which is in June here), we went to Angelina's - a luxurious tea room with the most decadent hot chocolate you have ever had. And on Mama's last night in Paris, we ate at La Fontaine de Mars - where the Obamas ate just 2 nights before! We had white asparagus gratin, the most amazing cassoulet, and the same dessert Barack had - the "Ile Flotant."

In short, a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime visit. Although that "once" part may not be true... I think Mama may actually be pulling for me to find a job here now as she's already started planning her next trip to Provence!

Check out the next post for our road trip to the Loire. And thanks for reading!