This last weekend we finally visited Allen’s French family in the north. We stayed with Allen’s aunt and uncle (his mom’s sister and brother-in-law), who are also Allen’s godmother and Stephanie’s godfather. Charles and Jacqueline live in Maubeuge, which is in Pas de Calais, close to the Belgian border.

Jacqueline is a wonderful cook, and she served us spaghetti bolognaise (homemade sauce, of course!); a tagine of dates, apricots, almonds and lamb with couscous; a spicy Moroccan soup; a crab, avocado, and tomato salad; and many other delicious plates. Each time, it was a typical French meal with a starter, main dish, sometimes cheese, dessert, and then coffee. The French certainly know how to live.

We were very impressed as well with Charles and Jacqueline’s impressive garden, from which we ate lettuce, radish, and strawberries. They also had several fruit trees: pear, apple, and cherry, plus red currant bushes. We hope to grow a small garden when we get back to the States, so we’re keeping their garden in our minds as inspiration. (However, I did admit our failed gardening attempt in the Arlington Community Gardens, where Cate, Allen, and I went back several times to weed and clear our plot, with so much time in between that that’s all we managed to ever do.)

We spent most of the weekend just chatting, and I got to hear stories about Allen and Stephanie when they were young.

On Saturday night, we headed out to the movies to see Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis. Les Ch’tis are the inhabitants of the north of France, particularly Nord Pas de Calais, and they have a distinctive regional dialect that blends the French of today and the Picard dialect of years past. Charles gave us a briefing on different phrases so we wouldn’t be totally lost during the movie. (And still, it was hard to follow, but we got a lot more having had our little lesson. I’d say I was around 85-90%, which is pretty good for any French movie I watch.) The premise of the movie is that a man from the south gets sent to work in the north as punishment - and he really sees it as such, dreading the cold, the strange people, and the overall inhospitable atmosphere. But he turns out to love it…but his wife doesn’t believe him, so there’s a hilarious juxtaposition between the stereotypes of the north and the actuality, which culminates in…ah, go watch the movie! At the beginning, an old man tells him scary tales of the north, and say in a menacing voice, “Le noooooooord…” Charles got a real kick out of that. And apparently, some US film studio has bought the rights, so we’ll see a remake in the US in a few years. Allen and I were trying to guess what regions and people would star - sunny California and hilly West Virginia perhaps?

We had a great time with Charles and Jacqueline, and I was very glad we were able to get up there before the year was out. Maybe next time we visit, we’ll visit the sky-diving school near their house; this time we sat on the porch and watched parachutist after parachutist. Or maybe we’ll just watch again.

In the spirit of believing everything I see on television, I’d like to share all that I learned at babysitting on March 22. At 11 pm, just as I was getting bored, Flight of the Conchords came on! But not just any Flight of the Conchords. No, this was super-charged Flight of the Conchords with French subtitles. I only got to watch about 15 minutes of the first episode, but I learned a few nifty things in French because of it.

They’re off the hook. = Ils sont a tomber.

Good work, Dave. = Bien joue, Dave.

I do my dance moves. = Je fais mes pas de danse.

part-time model = mannequin a mi-temps

feel each other up = se tripoter

for like six months = pendant genre six mois.

typo = faute de frappe

when you’re hooking up = quand on emballe

That sucks. = Ca craint.

idiot = debilos

another musician’s girlfriend = la nana d’un autre musicos

You can thank me later, folks. For now, go out in the world and spread your vast knowledge.

Sunday was Elizabeth’s last day in Paris, and we had the better part of the afternoon (and of course, all of the morning, though I’m not one to take advantage of the morning hours) in which to see more of the city. It seems like there’s always something new to see. We are truly resident tourists here.

We all wanted to see the movie Paris, that just came out last week. It is Cedric Klapisch’s latest film - you might know L’Auberge Espanole or its quasi-sequel Les Poupees Russes. It stars (among several others) Juliette Binoche and Romain Duris (the leading actor in the two other movies I just mentioned). So we planned ahead and arrived at Odeon for a 11 am showing. I really enjoyed the movie and understood most of it. It followed the lives of several interconnected people in Paris.

After the movie, we grabbed paninis next door and ate them on a bench. Then we headed over to Laduree for macarons. We munched our macarons and did a City Walk that led us down Rue de Buci and then down Rue Saint Andre des Arts to Saint Michel. It was a short one, but in a very picturesque part of the city.

We dropped by the house and picked up Elizabeth’s bag, then walked to the 12th to wait for her train, which involved stopping at an outdoor cafe. We tried Les Artisans on Avenue Daumesnil, which is near one of my babysitting gigs and has great colors. I got a kir, which was a bit too sweet, Allen got a noisette (expresso with milk), and Elizabeth got a Perrier with mint syrup. It was nice to just sit outdoors for a while and watch the world go by. Then we dropped Elizabeth off at the train station, saying goodbye for a few months at least.

And thus Elizabeth arrived at the Gare de Lyon on Friday, October 26! For those who don’t know, Elizabeth was my roommate in Montpellier. We decided to room together after we discovered that we could spend hours wandering around the city without talking to each other. We figured that was a good basis for a peaceful living arrangement. Fortunately, we were right (though I’m sure I drove her nuts often enough).

Even before Allen was offered the job here, we knew Elizabeth was going to be in Grenoble for the year. She’s working with her university’s study abroad program, guiding around all of the young, lost students (like we used to be!). In the meantime, she’s researching for her dissertation, which necessitates a trip to Paris every other month or so. We couldn’t have been happier to be here at the same time as she is! Seeing her come off the train gave me a rush of the familiar; we were in France together again, and she’d know just how I was feeling about everything.

I’m afraid we did too much complaining during her visit - at least, I know I did. Primarily this is because you really have to carefully choose who you complain to when your worst problem is a stale baguette. I’ll leave the door closed on my complaints here because my problems are the type I’m happy to have. Still it was nice to have a friend whose perspective on living in France came from a similar place. (For the record, we both miss Montpellier, except the constant harrassment of creepy guys, which is strangely absent from Paris and Grenoble.)

Happily, we also did a huge amount of walking while she was here. But Friday night we just relaxed at L’Epicerie Fuxia (our Italian restaurant that we like so much) and caught up over a bottle of red wine.