Il niege a Paris - It's snowing in Paris!

The courtyard at the front of our apartment - the snow was gone a couple of hours later.

Or at least, it snowed in Paris for a few hours one morning.  We've not had anything like the weather that the UK seems to have had recently, but it's definitely a lot colder than this time last year when Paul was here for a month's secondment.  Little did we know then that we'd be here for a year!

The cold weather didn't stop around 70 thousand demonstrators from marching from Place de la Bastille to Republic on 29th January in protest of the government's handling of the financial crisis.  Republic is less than 10 minutes' walk from here and I found myself in the midst of the demonstrators when out for a stroll with Max.  The crisis doesn't seem to have had quite the same immediate impact as it appears to have had at home (ie shops that have been around for years like Woolworths and MFI aren't disappearing) and the fact that such a large percentage of the population are renting may lessen anxiety.  Nonetheless, the French like to strike, and they do so impressively, with a lot of music, dancing and police ignoring protestors who climbed up dangerously high on monuments.   I was just wanting Enjolras from Les Mis to run to the front singing 'Do You Hear The People Sing?' but he never appeared.

There was another soiree here at the Recollets last Saturday (1st February) and a good crowd gathered with food from their home countries.  I'm afraid that shortbread and flapjacks were all I could think of making - but they seemed to go down well.  We've befriended a Greek couple, Vasiliki and Georgious, who have a 4 month-old boy, Nikitas and an Israeli couple, Einat and Ran, who have a 5 month-old boy, Ofer.  I got off to a great start with the Israelis with my conversation opener, "did you have a good Christmas?".  Yep, I realised what I'd done whilst I was still saying it!  It must've made me nervous around Einat because in her apartment last week, when Ofer wakened from what had been an unexpectedly long nap, I exclaimed, "oh, the Resurrection!".  I'm a schmuck!  We're still pals though, so everything's kosher.

Max is close to climbing out of the bath now - what are we going to do then?!?!

My friend Kate and her partner, Jesse, are both English musicians and have started playing gigs for children in bookshops around Paris.  They sing in English and sound very good with their guitar, banjo and violin.  They're called 'This Is the Kit'.  Rachel and I took Max and Oscar along to one of the gigs last week.

Jesse mixes with his fans after the gig

Max and Oscar cheer on the band

Rachel and I decided to go out for a few hours ourselves on Friday night.  I was really looking forward to it but on the way to meet her I began to feel really ill.  I was keen to keep going but also knew that throwing up in a bar wouldn't have been a good look - particularly when I was trying my best to look French.  I called her and headed home and was sick as a dog the whole night.  A short time later, Paul also started talking on the big white telephone and we realised that we must've developed food poisoning.  We don't know the cause, but Paul reckons a goats' cheese pizza may be to blame.  It was a real shame for Max as we spent the weekend begging each other to see to him.  He also chose this weekend to sprout his first tooth!  He's a lot of fun at the moment but also a lot of work as he loves trying to pull himself up on things so I'm constantly looking to soften all potential landings.

You can try and keep me entertained with all of those toys, but I really just want to stand up and play with daddy's computer!