Hotel St. Regis, New York City

This week I had a work event at the Hotel St. Regis in New York.  This was the kind of event where super-wealthy (and super-generous, and super-committed - I do respect these guys) 1% bankers come to do good with their money.  It's not all bad -  despite my snarky edge. I'm psyched that they will give their time to hear a young woman activist from Pakistan talk about her organization - Aware Girls, founded when she was just 16 - that empowers the body, money, and voice of girls aged 12 to 29.  Go Gulali!  And if it inspires our uber-wealthy friends to open their minds and their wallets, while steak tartare with quail eggs is passed about, all the better.  I call that win-win - pass the prosecco!






But I captured this signage on the marble hallway wall:

<

Versailles

LouisXI

Library

>

Rambouillet

Matignon

Fontainebleau

Restrooms 

Coat Check

...and can't help but gag.  So pretentious. So contrived. So bizarre.  Are we in XVIIeme siecle France or 21st century New York?  Get a grip.  I love to get my fancy on. And you know I'm a francophile (the good parts). I enjoy my swank as much as the next girl, but this is not my kind of luxe.  Non merci. 

Sunday Summer Lunch

Today, my Francophone friends came over for a lovely Sunday afternoon visit during their Stateside vacation.  They moved back abroad from DC two years ago, and I miss them dearly.  But we picked up immediately with good food and conversation, and the three girls played wonderfully together, so the adults could have our talks and laughs.

The composed Salade Nicoise was both delicious and beautiful - with it's summertime tomatoes and green beans from the Farmer's Market; new potatoes with a snappy dijon vinaigrette and chives from my herb garden, tuna mixed with a bit of olive oil, salt, and parsley - also from the garden- and briny black and green olives.  I had picked up a good multigrain bread at the bakery - seeds and raisins - spread with sweet cream butter.  Wonderful.

The Pursuit of Happiness

Sigh.  I've worked long and hard to get here these last years...maybe not perfect happiness, but a sense of peace, contentment, acceptance, enjoyment, and appreciating the moment.  And I'm not sure that the state I'm in in a lasting one; in fact, I'm a bit nervous that it could go away at any moment.  And truthfully, I hate the whole polyanna principle -so annoying it makes me gag.  I enjoy - nay, cherish -  my edge, my skepticism, my cynical bite.  Thank god for those.  But here I am, as if a switch has flipped on, and I have found peace and contentment on more days than not.  I am satisfied.  I am grateful (not  "practicing gratefulness," just grateful to have such a cool life).  I accept the imperfections and the minor irritations, and don't try to wrangle them to submission anymore (perhaps this is my greatest revelation of late).

While it's been a long process, the turnaround seemed to happen as I headed into my 40th birthday - just feeling all-around good.  I remember being in Paris, and eating a salad from a cellophane container from a bakery, and stating it was the best salad I had ever had.  My friend looked at me skeptically.  But it was the moment, *that* moment, of eating a salad of beets and sweet corn with a dijon vinaigrette; sitting on the cool concrete staircase along the Seine (and because of those cool, concrete steps, I truly *felt* them in the moment); the gentle evening light as dusk approached; my last night in Paris after a very satisfying, fully-earned, long-anticipated vacation. The whole thing made that the best salad of my entire life.  Obviously, I'm not making that up, because it is over 2 months later, and I can relive the details while writing this.  I had other such moments during  my Paris trip - the best beer, the best cup of coffee, the best crepe au sucre.

And every once in a while, here, back in the grind, I have those moments again.  Wow, what a gorgeous evening on my porch, looking at the lush green grass (it looks especially green and unweed-y tonight), a child is laughing and a dog is barking, the weather is just perfect with a light breeze, and I am truly relaxed and happy.

I've had a long road since my separation from Dear-ex-Husband - just over four years now.  It was Hell.  My world turned upside down.  Everything felt so uncertain and shitty.  And everything was.  And instead of getting slowly better, as we separated in May 2006 and I re-found my temporary grounding (in fact I remember feeling pretty high on life a year later in 2007), it turned temporarily worse. Life took a steady, and seemingly unending nosedive later that fall, and into the next fall (2008) and winter (2009), and even some pretty endless annoyances as late as August and September 2009.  These years weren't years of complete darkness. In this time, I took a fabulous trip to China, and had many cherished experiences and moments.  But the overall was a total slog, and completely uphill exhausting.   And then - slowly, but also at a relatively identifiable time in retrospect (maybe it was November 2009, maybe February 2010) -  it all eased.  And clear river currents began to flow again.

I have put conscious inputs to this happiness.  First, I identified what made me happy and vowed to do more - cooking, swimming, going to All Souls Church.  At some point, I calculated I was doing 3-5 hours per week of tasks solely related to actively  investing in my well-being (1 hour of swimming, 1 hour of church, 1 hour of counseling/therapy, a 45-min meditation CD that was regular company in September 2008).  I felt good during and after each, but wondered aloud when it would actually kick-in long-term.  I mean, 4+ hours of dedicated "me" time for inner restoration seemed almost excessive to me.  It wasn't like the rest of my life- hours were all slog.  I went to to movies, met friends, took hikes, read books to my daughter, had some steamy make-out sessions.

I still wonder what the hell is next.  I still find that my job can suck the life out of me some days. I can be racked by stress.  But here it is, and here I am.  I'm not expecting a perma-state of contentment, but I do seem to have some lasting coping skills, and new perspective, that I hope to drawn upon forever after -when I need it and also when I don't.

L'americaine mange Paris

A few more random (and last) food shots (because I can't help myself)
(And here's a link to a NYTimes article where people are far more obsessed than I about snapping before eating...)

Salade Niçoise

Weekly Bastille market

Omelette nature

Berthillon
 ice cream 
(chocolat)

Dinner chez Laura

After lunch

Love Locked: Passerelle de Léopold Sédar-Senghor

Hundreds (or more?) of padlocks line this pedestrian bridge across the Seine near the Musée d'Orsay.  The tradition is to go there with your sweet, make a promise to each other, lock the padlock to the bridge rail, and throw the key in the Seine.  Apparently the bridge does fill up however, and the locks are periodically cut off and thrown out by municipal workers of the Parti Anti-Romantiques (PAR).

Here is a link to other places to love lock around the world.

Leopold Sédar-Senghor (1906-2001), by the way, was the first President of Senegal.  He was also a poet.

Étude: Le Tour Eiffel

Crêpe au sucre

This nice gentleman prepared my crêpe au sucre this morning at the weekly Bastille market.  We had lovely small talk as I decided between a simple sugar crêpe or one with apricot jam  He was clearly pleased when I chose au sucre.  "It's more natural" he said, "You have the real tastes of the crêpe that way."He bragged that this was a specialty of Brittanny.  He prepared the crêpe with great pride and a smile.  Things taste so much better when they are made lovingly.  This was delicious.

Vélib' - coolest thing ever!

Vélib' is everywhere around Paris.  Short for "vélo libre" - "free bike" or "bike freedom" - the Vélib' bike share public transport program has dozens of bikes every few blocks for the taking.  Just swipe your credit card or your NaviGo (the public transport electronic card for metro, bus, and now, bike! - a seamless public transport system), and grab a bike from its rack.  It's free for the first 30 minutes, and nominal, increasing rates thereafter (to ensure the bikes are in circulation).  You do need to register for a program charge of a day, a week, or a year - also nominal rates. The bikes are sturdy - almost moped-like - and have a front LED-headlight charged by pedaling.

The program is run through a private-public partnership, in which the municipal government has partnered with JC Decaux to develop and build the bike station infrastructure, provide and maintain the bikes, and run the program, in exchange for a good proportion of the city's' advertising billboards.  Apparently, the city gets revenue and social benefit, and the presumably, the advertising corporation does, as well, or it would not be in it.  The program has not been without some kinks, and costs and revenue have been re-negotiated between the two parties, as noted in the Wiki link above.  But I'm quite impressed with the win-win here.

People use Vélib' everywhere, and the bikes have become an integral part of Paris street traffic circulation,  composed of  pedestrians, buses, cars, mopeds, motorcycles, and vélos.   Unfortunatley, there are a few hurdles for the short-term American visitor to try out Vélib'.  American credit cards are not fitted with the microchip so prevalent in Europe (and required to access the system at the Vélib' kiosk), and acquiring NavigoGo pass requires some bureaucratic hurdles (like registering your card) - just enough of a deterrent to really make it worth it to try out over a few days Paris visit.

I'm pleased and proud to say that DC also as a public bike share program, albeit quite a bit smaller.  SmartBike only has about 10 stations with 15 bikes each in central downtown for an annual unlimited subscription fee of $40; whereas Vélib' has thousands of bikes, over 1400 station of 20 bikes each!  Still kudos to Washington for trying something so cool.

Montage - Tour Eiffel

Design Within Reach

Here are some smartly designed things in Europe that we really should have more of in the US.

The upright rolling shopping basket (like a rolling suitcase, very compact, fits tight spaces)

Better public transport, especially subway systems, with great maps that light the way.

Fab, Eames-style chairs in the metros

Subway poles with three bars for passengers holding on

Articulated arms for the heat lamps in cafés

Velib!  Public bike share programs

Eat Pray Love

Food porn

Lenôtre, Paris

Nigella, eat your heart out

Tartlette à Paris
I had a scrumptuous tartlette aux peches today from Lenôtre, described as 

De juteux quartiers de pêches jaunes nappés de gelée d’abricot, dressés sur un fond feuilleté recouvert d’une crème pâtissière aux amandes. 

but for which one word will suffice...Mmmmmmmm...
Can you taste it here?

Paris Météo

Partly cloudy (but also partly sunny), cool, and windy.  Chance of showers.

Cy Twombly Ceiling @ the Louvre

Cy Twombly has done a ceiling at the Louvre.  It's permanent, it's contemporary, it's a huge honor for him.  Trouble is, I'm so not a Twombly fan.  I first saw his work in the Philadelphia Museum of Art - described as scribbles on canvas, and was immediately unimpressed.  While I can get into some abstract art - Rothko and de Koonig among others - I think Twombly is a twit who is tricking us all.

Today's ceiling did not fail to underwhelm me. It looks like a kids bedroom mural, at best. Admittedly, it was cool upon entry to the room of Greek artifacts - busts, bronzes pieces, etc - and see such bold bright blue and celestial circles.  But really it's poorly crafted, and quite messy (and not in a cool conceptual way).  The description even says his ceiling was "realized" by X painter and Y architect, so all Twombly did was think up this mess.   It's just annoying that he has such billing and such recognition as this by the Louvre.

In the article link above, Twombly, himself, seems to question what all the fuss is about.  So maybe he's just as mystified by the art establishment's fawning over him, as I am.

Here I am am "admiring" the Twombly ceiling.

La Nouvelle Observatrice à Paris

Mon petit appartement à Paris

I have a little studio appartement in the Marais (temporarily, at least, but I can pretend).  It's just lovely, completely mignon.  I love the way, when walking through this lively quartier in the 3eme, you almost miss the small blue door on Rue de Barbette.  But there it is, if you are looking, a heavy, wooden blue door and the blue and white address numerals above it  - '20.'   Upon entering the petit code on the keypad, a small click sounds, and I push it open, to reveal one of Paris's many small courtyards of flats.  Down a narrow passage, and past another keypad, I walk four flights up a tiny, narrow, winding wooden stairway.  Its floorboards are worn, its gorgeous banister spindles have been lovingly turned to reveal just a bit more detail to this otherwise modest space.  Each small landing is punctuated by two doors, behind which are other petits appartements à Paris.  I've always loved the way the stairwell lights here are timed for say 3 minutes - just enough to get up or down, without wasting electricity, and on each landing is, a small switch to turn the light on again and reset the timer, should it catch you in the dark halfway up.

My appartement is small - but it is simple, spare, modern, clean, comfortable and has everything one needs.  Plenty of light from interesting dormer windows, and a sweet sleeping loft.

I've bought some fruit, yogurt, cheese, coffee, Nutella and Petit Beurre so I'm set for petit dejeuner tomorrow morning.

Paris, je t'aime

Fabulous and funny installation in the Paris metro!

Can't wait to go next month!