more exotic foods

I found this beauty in the Supermarket in Fez, Marocco. 
No one could tell me what it was called.   But they did tell me it was like a melon and cucumber. 
It wasn't as good as the cherries.
But it was pretty.

The best friend I made...

I say:  I have a fancy wedding to go to this summer.  It says on the invitation that "the mother of the bride will be wearing a hat". 

She says:  Oh you can borrow one of my dresses.  Do you want to come and try them on next week? 

I say: Sure, you probably know much better than I or B does about what a girl should wear to a "chapeau" wedding. 

I think: I doubt my slightly-taller-than-a-woodland-creature-self will fit into your average height, average weight and average chest-size dresses (damn you and your averageness!).  And I fear you have floral prints. 

Next week at her house...

She says:  Let me just get my dresses out of the closet and we'll take a look. 

I think:  How am I going to politely say no without offending her floral-print-pattern-taste.  Maybe I'll just take one with me and then say I found something else.

Unzipping the plastic protector.  

               Gold and velvet hangers Louis Vuitton.  

                                             Dress labels: Kenzo, Christian Dior.  

I think:  Oh right.   I am the jerk thinking that you wear curtain dresses. You work at LVMH.

She says:  What size shoe do you wear?

I think:  Are you my fairy godmother?

I say: 36


She says:  I'm 36.5 but let's take a look, we might be able to find something.   

Cue closet filled with shoe boxes full of delicately made Louis Vuitton shoes.
 
I think: I love you. 

Let's just file this under "other things your kids don't need"

a 349 euro sweater

Unicorns

Do you have nuns and priests where you live? 

I do.

I saw one yesterday

Like seeing a unicorn in the metro. 

Confession

My mom shops at Forever 21. 
Her skirts are shorter than mine. 
I still ask her to find me shoes.

Fun outside of Paris

This is the view out from the line at the Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs ride at Disneyland Paris.
You can faintly see the gray and muted colors - and notice the women taking cover next to the princess dresses and the person in the center in a blue hooded rain coat.  It might have been a smarter idea to build Disney in Spain somewhere.  Afterall Paris isn't know for its good weather.

On the plus side:  Disney for the kids - Paris for the adults.  A very equal vacation for all.

A picture of the castle, just for fun

Speaking of toilets...

We had a Saturday lunch today (flowers + chocolates in hand) with some friends of ours and the subject of kids came up. (They have a 9 month old and a 2 1/2 year old).

Standard Maternity Leave is 16 weeks for a 1st child.  3-6 weeks prenatal and the remaining weeks for postnatal (Leave is longer for each additional child). When women go back to work children generally either  go to a nounou (nanny) or go to the crèche (daycare) until 3 yrs when they can go to maternelle (preschool). They must be potty trained BEFORE they go to preschool which means it is generally done during the child's time at the crèche. But in typical fashion, France has a polite way to say this, which no one told KB about. This was the short and misunderstood conversation I had with his mother:
 
Paris Mom: Il devrait déja être propre à 2 ans ou il ne sera plus accepter à la creche.  He should already be clean by 2 or they won't allow him to come back to daycare.

KB: Il a l'air déja propre. He seems clean to me.