cdelphine

 One day when we were walking to the metro we were surprised to see a market set up on the sidewalk.  I was too shy to get close and get really good pictures but I got some decent ones.

My Dad and I are both night owls so we didn't do any early morning sightseeing.  Instead we would get some yummy food from the bakery down the street and eat it in our room before going out for the day around noon.  One day I was waiting for my Dad to get back from somewhere to eat and so I decided to do a little photo shoot with the food.

Brunch for two in Paris:
  

 

I'm at home with my family getting ready to eat all sorts of yumminess.  I love this holiday!!

I am thankful for...

Cute Overload for making me smile and say "Awww..." several times a day,

Laurie Halse Anderson for insight into the life of a writer and the life of a New Englander (New York counts as New England right?),

Blogging Project Runway  for providing me with lots of news about my favorite reality show, Project Runway, and for the great blog community that is connected to BPR which includes Tom and Lorenzo, Eric Three Thousand and Ms.Place,

Paris Breakfasts for a bit of Parisian beauty everyday,

Foodbeam for her reports of pâtisserie in France and beautiful, inspirational photos,

David Lebovitz for his yummy recipies, wealth of food knowledge and observations about the quirks of both the American and French cultures,

and finally, the most recent addition to my blog roll, Pioneer Woman for her stories about being a rancher's wife and her four little punks.

Now I need to go make my stuffing, taken from a Rachael Ray recipie.  Not gourmet but very yummy and that's really what Thanksgiving is all about.  

What are you doing for Thanksgiving?  What are you thankful for?

Why do the cut portions of my posts not appear centered?  They are centered when I type them but then that disappears when I view them in my journal.  Why??? 

All of these pictures are from Café Lyon (previous post).  Café Lyon was about a block away from Maison Zen so we ate a couple of meals there.
 

 Follow the link to cute overload, trust me you will be glad that you did. :) 

     Before going to France I spent alot of time reading blogs, websites and books about France.  Carol over at Paris Breakfasts posted about all the doggies that she sees while in France.  Then, I read the book Spotted in France by Gregory Edmont, in which Edmont wrote about his life in Paris changed once he got a dog.  While it is a myth that the French are rude, it is true that they are a very private people.  The French are happy, and friendly... with their friends.  However, once Edmont got a dog, everyone noticed him.  When he went to the market, the sellers started chatting with him, or rather with his dog.  



    

This is bad timing since I just posted in a whole bunch of communities inviting people to read my journal but I will be taking a one week break from livejournal.  I have become semi-addicted to blogs and spend too much time procrastinating on the internet so for one week I am not going to check any blogs.  Next Sunday, I am going to reevaluate and see if I need to continue my blog fast for another week.   

All of these pictures are from a café right near where we stayed and they are my favorite pictures from the trip.





 

 I am supposed to researching for biology right now but I can't concentrate because I am sooo angry and frustrated.  In the midst of my procrastinating I happened across a link to the blog I Am Emily X.  On it various planned parenthood workers share their story.  Apparently, there is a 40 Days for Life campaign going on right now so many planned parenthood clinics have protesters outside of their clinics.  I'm not really sure how I feel about abortion morally but I do think that it should be legal or at least a state issue.  In a New York Times article it was reported that some commission found that countries where abortion was illegal didn't have any fewer abortions, they just had an increase in deaths.  

Aside from all of the moral and political issues associated with abortion, the tactics that the protesters use are just wrong.  Even if I agreed 100% that abortion is immoral and should be illegal I would still think that what the protesters are doing is horrible.  Taking pictures of license plates?  Calling the workers sluts?   Vandalism?  I can't stand it that people associate Christianity with things like this.  

Also, Planned Parenthood provides lots of services other than abortion.  They even provide services aside birth control such as pap smears which could save a woman's life.  Women who are going to Planned Parenthood should not have to walk past protesters or feel attacked for their decision to go to the clinic.  That decision could save their life.  

On the 40 Days for Life website they list previous campaigns and all of the "successes" that they had.  How did they determine that they had prevented an abortion? And, what happened several months later when the woman had a baby?  If a woman has made a decision to have an abortion then there is probably a reason.  A reason that will most likely affect the baby's quality of life.    So what happens then?

 

 I have been meaning to post this link for a few days.  Last Saturday the fabulous Ms.Place posted about Moleskines.  It is a gorgeous and inspiring post so do yourself a favor and wander on over to the post.  

Actually, I have thought about buying a moleskine for awhile but always talked myself out of it so a few days ago I finally purchased my moleskine :)  I am left-handed so I was worried about being able to write in it but it is amazing.  Somehow, the binding is done so that it lies completely flat and is really easy to write in.  Next time that I go to Paris I can take my moleskine with me so that I write while sitting at a sidewalk cafe nursing un chocolat chaud :)

      French parking and driving is definitely, erm, different than it is in the US. It seems to be that in France anything goes. People park on curbs, park with only an inch inbetween their car and the car in front of them and use bumpers as bumpers when navigating a parking spot. In America if you did any of those things people would be aghast. Bumping the car behind you when parallel parking in America is bad and embarassing; a sign of your poor parking skills. In France…it’s normal. 

( The most amazing parking job ever... )

So I just realized that it has almost been two months since I last posted.  Obviously this is not working out how I envisioned.  I really want to write about my trip, especially before it gets to be too long and I forget all of the fabulous details.  However, life has a funny way of interfering with things.  I'm in college now and really busy so I don't really forsee a lot of posting.   :(  Something that I didn't really think about when starting this blog is that it takes a lot of time to post.  I pictured myself just quickly banging out entries. No, it takes time to write something coherent and then to put it up on lj and figure out how to put up pics and do lj cuts, etc.  Maybe after the semester is over I will be able to post?

When researching places to stay way back in May I borrowed Pauline Frommer’s Paris from the library and it quickly became my favorite guide out of all the ones I have looked at. In the guide there was a section on unusual places to stay and there we found Maison Zen.  

I don't know if anyone is even reading this but if you are I am sorry for the lack of posts.  I am new to this whole blogging thing and also unfamiliar with using digital pictures.  Even though I have been using a digital camera for years I have never really done anything with the pictures besides uploading them to my computer and to facebook.  I have a post that I wrote in word that I have been trying to put up but I keep on running into techical difficulties.  I have to babysit tonight but tomorrow I am going to get that post up!

I got back home Wednesday night and my head is still spinning.  I need to organize all my photos and my brain before I can start posting about my trip but hopefully I will get to it soon.  

A couple of thoughts/questions that have been bouncing around my head for awhile:

1) How much do I share on here about myself? Obviously there are lots of concerns about revealing personal information on the web but where does the line get drawn?  

2) Is there any simple way to protect my photos from being reused without credit?  I have not experimented very much with digital photo programs but I would like to have at least some small level of protection on my photos.  On a related note what photo processing programs do you like and how do you use them?  

Please weigh in with any advice or expertise you may have.  Thanks, and I can't wait to start writing about my trip. :)

ETA: I forgot to mention this, if you comment on my blog and are not an lj user please mention how you came across it, etc.  I welcome anyone to read this but I'm just curious about who is reading it. Thanks.

So powerful.  Thanks to jukebox20 for reminding me of the amazing song.  Link to the original post

My Dad finally got his passport, all of our hotel reservations are made and the trip is fast approaching.  I am hugely relieved that my Dad got his passport and have realized that I feel much more excited with that taken care of.  We leave the evening of July 1st and are in Paris until July 7th.  Then we are going to go to Bordeaux for a few days and return to Paris to fly out on July 11th.  The only thing left to arrange is our transportation from Paris to Bordeaux.

Since all of the major things are taken care of I have recently started worrying about how I am going to see everything that I want to see in Paris.  I suppose it is impossible which just means that I absolutely have to go back. ;)  But it will be very difficult to choose between going to La Maison du Chocolat or Pierre Hermé, or going to Berthillion or Amorino.  Qu'est-ce qu'on fait? What to do?  Also, since I am traveling with my Father I suppose that I should make some time for a few things that he wants to do.  

I probably won't post again before I leave as there isn't too much to say.  I will just be running around packing and getting everything ready. And then anxiously sitting around on Sunday, waiting until it is time to go to the airport.  

I have a long list of blogs in my favorites folder but for right now I will just post the ones relevant to France/food.

Paris Breakfasts The writer of this blog posts every weekday with stories and pictures from her travels in France, often relating to food.  She also posts her watercolors of Paris café settings and the like.  It was here that I discovered Lauderée, Pierre Hermé and La Maison du Chocolat among others.

French Word-A-Day An American woman who married a French guy and lives in France with him and their two kids posts three times a week with a word and a related story from her life.

Laura Florand The blog of the author of Blame It On Paris who lives in America with her French husband.  She just returned from a trip to France so I am sure that there are many beautiful pictures and stories that will appear in the coming days.

Chocolate and Zucchini Young French woman who loves food and writes a blog about her culinary adventures (in English).  She just released a cook book with the same name.

The Traveler's Lunchbox Blog about culinary adventures around the world, not updated frequently but beautiful pictures and good writing.

Foodbeam Young French woman who loves food, particularly pastry.  She has been in New Zealand for awhile and thus not updating frequently but returns to France in a couple weeks.

Frenchless in France Frequent updates of photos and stories about life in France.

Orangette Not a frequent updater but gorgeous picture to salivate over at the top of the page

David Lebovitz Blog of author of many cookbooks, lives in Paris, updates frequently.

Whew! I'm exhausted (and that's just my french foodie blogs).  These blogs have been the inspiration for me creating this livejournal.  The gorgeous photos, the superb writing; I hope to be able to come close to imitating them.