End of Winter Near?

Some random pics I have collected and would like to share..
the butcher shop which contained cuts of meat that I have never imagined..example the "boudin noir"..the snake like thing in the lower right hand corner, still don't know what it is.

cafe in L'aigle (closest town to the farm)

it's Phillipe's Birthday weekend, this was taken as he was about to blow out the candles to his cake..

playdate with a little girl named "douce" she is adorable and quite the tom boy. she spend most of the day in a pirate costume. they were trying to convince me to by them prizes

thank god for the american icon known as mcdonald's. not only do they have free wi-fi but the food is still the same as in the US. can somebody ship me some sierra nevada :)
so this will probably be my last post for january...it's going to be a busy weekend so at the end of the day i will probably crash. I will try and take some pictures of the house and post those..

Case of the Mondays (pt. 1)

Monday is my favorite day of the week (unlike in America!) It's the full day I have to myself to spend in Paris..today i ran in the morning (found the American Church!)..went grocery shopping, then went on a walk in the Saint Germain/Latin Quarter. I wish i would have taken more pictures but i was too busy looking everything! I found a McDonald's! I think i am going to go tomorrow..they have free wi-fi so i'll probably write another blog while I am there. I also saw the Notre Dame..very big. I don't know why I am surprised by how tall things are. I also located a starbucks. The flowers are for Megan, they are her favorite and these are so beautifully arranged :)

Eiffel Tower, Sheep, and Tramps (not what you're thinking)

auntie abby that first pic is for you! i went on wednesday to see it, it's really close to the apartment, but i didn't go up..I can wait! and yes let's go to EURO Disney..it's right outside of Paris and there is a shuttle! Today (samedi 24 janvier) was awesome! I got to go for a run this morning and we had a visitor. Lately the sheep (aka mouton) have been escaping! but we (raph and I) like to pretend we are shepherds :) I also have been eating mouton..apparently i have had both the tongue and shoulder..yum! I pretty much tell them to not tell what I am eating until I have finished! I've come a long way since my steak and mac n'cheese days! I love my yellow wellies..they aren't the black HUNTER pair I've been eyeing but they have a lot of character (plus a sail boat on the side!) We also took the cover off of the tramp since the weather we so nice (40 degrees not raining! partial sun = amazing!)

The past few days in Paris have been amazing! I watched the Inauguration via cnn.com it was pretty neat. I think that I cried for a majority of the event. Raphael arrived shortly after Obama's speech. We did a little coloring before he went to bed...I love the lights at night here. especially from the tour eiffel and the dome of the invalides..I also discovered that I can see the grand palais, notre dame and the sacre coeur from the terrace. Raph and I went for a walk today..tried to go see the musee de Air France, which does not exist (as we sadly found out!) C'est tres tres grave! But we saw some sights on our little tour.

so today I went on an adventure in search for the US Embassy... didn't find it! I did find some great shopping! The grand magasins..(Au Bon Marche, Au Printemps...) are amazing! I have never in my life seen such great clothes and shoes in the same place! If only i had the money to buy some Alexander McQueen, Chole Pumps..a little ring from Cartier. I haven't been to the Champs Elysses but I am sure I will be even more in awe! The pics are (from bottom to the top) a little used bookstore, i picked up Bridges over Madison County the little old lady is so cute that I am probably going to visit frequently; then there is one of my trying on some new clothes i purchased today, suprisingly i actually bough colors other than grey and black; the amazing building is the Grand Opera..it was on my walk to the department stores, beautiful building; Saint Francis Xavier is the Church that you can see for the terrace also my metro stop; the street pictures is my street..rue monsieur.

isn't my bike adorable...it's about forty years old but still works perfectly! These pics are form my little bike ride into the village. I had to take some documents to the mairie for my visa...If you thought taxes were bad in the US try living in France. But they do have great health care :) We had a terrible storm last night! Raphael came up to my room around 2:30 scarred...my acting must have been amazing because,I had to pretend that I wasn't scarred. Hope everybody has a great sunday!

very grey day in Paris

these pictures were taken on wednesday...It was raining and cold so we spent most of the day in the apartment. Luckily Elenore took me on a tour of the neighborhood and dropped us of at a parc by the bon marche. I located a zara right by the apartment (rive gauche). and the soldes are happened right now..its the half yearly sales (july too) everything is on sale in every store across france..if only the christian louboutin's were on sale too!

I finally have the internet connected!! and i am very very excited! so i will finally be able to respond to facebook posts and talk on skype (have you added me yet?)

the first week (weds -sun)

summary: the premier semaine (first week) is over. i survived. i find it weird how normal everything is! everybody is very nice and kind. my french is coming along very well! but i start my french lessons this week, so it shall hopefully improve tres vite! starting to miss california, especially because once people find out that is my home the become very interested, apparently people thing it's really cool :) not going to paris this week, going to get settled and work on my french...

having some trouble getting connected to the internet with my computer, once it's up and running i'll be able to post pictures. and skype!

details:

from the begginning. day 1 is boring, but memorable pour moi)

day 1: my flight to dublin was over nine hours and i only slept for one of them. upon the arrival we were greeted by the police. the man sitting next to me drank to much jameson and threw a fit the whole time we were in the air. boring wait through immigration flight delays, finally arrived in Paris.
phillipe met me at the airport and took me for a little driving tour through montmarte, by the grand palais; the great shopping (the new years sales are amazing!) we got to the apartment and i starred at the tour eiffel out the window. deided to go to the country house.

DAY 2: i woke up at noon! i blame the time difference. ate lunch with elonore and phillipe. got a tour of the grounds and took lots of pictures. mostly of the animals! the lambs are only a week old and so cute! (tres mignon)

Day 3: the whole house is preparing for a dinner party. went to the market in verneuil. still lots of snow on the ground. pipes are all frozen too. makes the cooking very difficult! went over to claude and luc's after we cleaned everything, luc's nephew is in town and wanted to practice english. stayed until 2am. we did a lot of celebrating! (very long day)

Day 4: managed to get up at 7, even though rapheal did not get up until 9. played until breakfast. went for a long bike ride. 1st play date with two neighbor kids. played foosball aka baby foot for two hours..rough life.