A Plan for Crunch Time
Items to be completed: beaucoup (a lot)
Time to complete: pas beaucoup (not a lot)
The good news about the arrival of June, however, was that the inhabitants of Rue Cassette, one of whom is relatively used to last minute rallies, the other who never leaves a chance of last-minute anything, had rather miraculously agreed on a plan of attack. A Plan for Crunch Time if you will. A three-pronged strategy that can be summarized with the straight-forward acronym IROFTIDIG. Which clearly, when composed in longhand means 1) Invite the ‘Rents to experience Our Favs, 2) keep Traveling (International and Domestic), and 3) perform some painful yet necessary ISP Goodbyes.
It was going to require flawless execution, but with summer in full force, it was clear that the city was on our side. When strolling through the gates of the West entrance of Luxembourg, the distant sunbeams illuminating happy walkers, runners, and palm trees always gave us a feeling of tranquility…and that if it was more good lasting memories we were after, Paris was going to offer them in abundance.
Part 1: IROF – Invite the ‘Rents to experience Our Favs
There is a scene at the very beginning of movie / musical “Moulin Rouge” where the young, starving writer is about to set off to Paris and his father (firmly skeptical) warns him that he’ll end up “wasting his time gallivanting with the Can-Can dancers of the Moulin Rouge!” The funny part is that he actually did. Parents can be so right sometimes.
My father, however, issued no such warning when we first packed our bags in September 2006 and headed East. On the contrary, my mom actually said that if there is one thing that she wanted to accomplish during her Paris visit, it was to witness first-hand the glitz and glamour of this spectacular! spectacular! 120-year old tradition of shimmies, high-heels, and champagne-fueled good times. And so I told my mom, in the way of a Christmas present gift certificate, to “be careful what you ask for…because it must just become true….” because 5 months later during their “goodbye visit” to Paris, voila….
There wasn’t a chance that we were about to let them experience this magic alone (for instance, what if they needed some translation help, or assistance with finishing their generous allotment of bubbly?). And magic is exactly what it was. Quality entertainment, modest amounts of skin, and plenty of unexpected acrobatics (as a former juggler and unicyclist I can appreciate these fine arts.) And if you think we were going to comply with this “no pictures allowed” policy, you are sorely mistaken….a small glimpse of the action (ATTENTION NON-PG CONTENT!):
People often refer to the 80-story building at the far end of our street, not by it’s legal name Tour Montparnasse, but instead something slightly more derogatory (“A Scar on Ze Face of France” comes to mind). But if we have to look at it everyday, I suggested to my parents that we try to get some value out of it.
And if you pay the 10 EUR entrance fee, and wait in the elevator line of flocking tourists, then I assure you, you will find value. People often wait in a 3 hour line to reach the top of Eify, just to realize that when you hike up Eify, you don’t get to take scenic rooftop panoramic photos of Eify. When you get to the top of Montparnasse, you get Eify….
And SO SO much more. For instance, getting to spot the main drag street that you live on (this picture re-affirms its status as “main”)…and if you look closely, your own apartment! Loyal RC readers should be able to pick out Rue Cassette on the right side, but if you need help, look first for the only apartment that is at a 45 degree angle to the street….or even more precise, the one directly to the right of the white and green bus. Two from the top roof…that’s home! Okay as I wrote this, I’m back home – in Seattle, and I may or may not have just shed tears.
So all of this stuff so far was about the ‘Rents but not so much Our Favs – it was trailblazing through Paris touristy yet noteworthy highlights. That’s about to change with this musical rendition of a few our our Parisian “Favorite Things”…just try to sing along in the spirit of Julie Andrews….
Croques at Café Vavin and Tatin with Crème Fraîche…..
Walks in the Luco with Flowers and Sailboats…
Sunday Rides Biking through calm Marais streets….
Yummy Greek pitas on the banks of the Seine…..
These are a few of our favorite things! And with memories like this, these are a few of our favorite visitors!!! Merci Mom and Dad! 
IROF Part Deux
Now, when I said “Invite the Rents”, I did utilize the plural form I do believe. And while one could easily interpret that as “both Glen and Susan” – I think all of you loyal RC readers were picking up what I was putting down….which was that both sets of rents were to make a Paris pilgrimage in the month of June. This being the Bettesworth visit number 4, you would have thought we would have run out of pioneering experiences, and the trip would have been filled with modest revisions. That could have been the case, before Obama had come to Paris. Because it allowed us to take on a new mantra, which went something like this “Good enough for the Obamas? Good enough for the Betttesworths”…Next thing you know we were dining for the first time at “Le Fontaine de Mars”…
In fact, dining and enjoying the culinary mastery of Paris seemed to become a central theme of our times with the Bettesworths – shown next in the shadows of the Eiffel tower. And seeing as discovering new restaurants falls well under Shannon and my “favorite things”…we got along quite well…
And if you would like more proof of that, see the following mini-series, titled “happiness found at the table”….
When we weren’t exploring the boundaries of our taste buds, there were some important Rick Steves’ recommended sites to visit outside of Paris. If you don’t recognize which paintings these landscapes inspired…
Then perhaps this will help (yes, if you said Monet and some form of Water Lilies you were correct). And if you are upset that I am obstructing the beauty from the painting on the right, displayed majestically inside Paris’ Orangerie museum, then you…shouldn’t visit museums with me. I tend to think I’m a natural substitution for an impressionist tree trunk.
This is not to say that it was all fun and games. Rich and Carol learned to pay their dues in exchange for RC hospitality, similar as they had done in the trips prior. Rich (left) did this in the form of performing quality control on Pierre Hermé croissants each morning. Carol (right) performed contemporary slave labor each day, also known as cutting construction paper to help make Shannon’s end of the year classroom portfolios (at no small risk to paper cut injury). Seems like an even trade to me…
But if pictures tell the results, they seem to think all of this work paid off with plenty of smiles! Merci Carol and Rich!
Even when we weren’t showing our ‘rents our favorites, our ‘rents were showing our ‘rents their favorites! Carol and Rich thought as long as they were on the continent, it made sense to pay a visit to Heidelberg and experience another take on Johnson expat life! It appears to me that the results were a success (it also appears they have established a seating pattern that works for them)…Prost!
Part 2: TID – Travel, International and Domestic
I’m sure most of you loyal readers are assuming that June was going to be the month where we added the final piece to the puzzle of our May Scandinavian adventures, with an extended visit to Finland. And while your thinking wasn’t far off, I am sorry to inform you that you won’t be seeing any Sauna pictures in this version of le blog. Because “Northern” adventures were limited to Montreal, Canada for Krisbergh’s bachelor party. You may think that is a long distance for a bachelor party…well so did the immigration department at the Montreal Airport, who had an exchange with me that sounded somewhat like the following:
Montreal Border Control: “Where are you coming from?”
LJ: “Paris, sir.”
Montreal Border Control: “Business or Leisure Trip?”
LJ: “Probably more Leisure than Business”
Montreal Border Control: “Why are you here?”
LJ: “[Awkward Pause]…Bachelor party, sir.”
Montreal Border Control: “A bit far to travel for a bachelor party, wouldn’t you say?”
LJ: “You’re telling me. I was hoping for Iceland.”
Next thing you know, I was cleared by customs, and immersed in the celebratory culture known by the French simply as “the burial of the life of a young man”…we just call it good times. The Bachelor can be found in the top left.
I’ve been to a few mandatory bachelor parties in my day. But none of them have involved putting on a munchkin-style purple suit and booties. This one was certainly going to be one of a kind…..
The waterproofing process was required for an activity known as “Jet Boating,” which, in case you enjoy extreme amounts of adrenaline-pumping torture, is probably not for you…
Why? Perhaps because you literally swallow massive amounts of ice-cold water from the Montreal Lachine Rapids. One of the few services experienced in my life where people pay to receive generous doses of pain. Why tell though when I can show you in a brief 5-second clip. Indeed, this ride is better demonstrated as this month’s integrated video experience….
Other than that event that I will categorize in the “Near-Death Experience” category, Montreal presented itself very well. And while I’m not going to go as far as call it a “Paris Wanna-be”, there is a lot of evidence that these guys are taking “best practices” from the French capital. Let’s take the European architecture and abundance of open-air plazas…frenchified.
The outdoor café life featuring aperitifs and beers imported from Belgium? Frenchified.
A public bicycle rental system? Frenchified. Note my friends standing by as I navigate the kiosk with near auto-telepathy…and the result on the right.
Seafood platters on ice (apparently scary ones), under a warm summer sky? Frenchified.
Hotel bellhop dudes with AMAZINGLY forward-thinking hairstyles (aka, the conservative, stratified faux-hawk?) Frenchified.
Note that the Duke guys made me take this one. I personally didn’t think it was quite the same vintage as mine, but majority rules.
So my point is…if you love frenchified, you’ll love Montreal. And if it’s a big group of 30s males you happen to be travelling with, timing it with Montreal International Beer Festival in June isn’t a bad idea.
As for the Bachelor, despite the whole jet boating thing, he was happy. And that was good, because we still need him steadily marching down the aisle in the end of July for his wedding in the NY Hamptons (yes, that is a juillet blog preview!)
Now, you don’t need to subject yourself to border control in faraway lands to experience travel bliss. When in France, quality domestic destinations that are just a short train hop away, such as the quaint palace town of Fontainebleau. When we went there, we rocked French pride.
Michelle and Xavier, our dear friends, invited us for the weekend to tour the chateau (not to be mistaken with their chateau), alongside a whole posse of ISP favorites…
If you know me well, and you’ve studied the picture on the right, would you doubt that that is me rowing Shannon across the chateau’s Koi pond?
For dinner, this really was Michelle and Xavier’s family chateau, and they hosted a magnificent outdoor BBQ dinner with many of our favorites (from left going clockwise: Kate, moi, Fred, Xavier, Michelle, Fiona).
Part 1: IG – Painful but Necessary ISP Goodbyes
And speaking of ISP crew, with the end of the school year came the harsh realities that goodbyes were immanent. During her two years teaching at ISP, Shannon was blessed to have had very good (and if I might say, 100% quality) friends, and those friends will not leave our memories. As Shannon was getting ready to leave ISP, some of these ladies were also preparing for some big next steps of their own. One of these was Ling Lange, who le blog readers will probably be familiar with by now. At the time of blog publish, Ling is now the proud maman of a beautiful baby boy named Luc! Congrats Ling and Jean-Marc! Pictured below are Shannon and Ling at Ling’s baby shower…
More ISP buddies: Danielle, Fiona, Michelle, & Susan…Louise & Ling…Julia & Emily. BTW, Julia, a Canadian living in Paris, is also “moving home” this summer and lucky for us, back to the NW and her native land of Vancouver BC!
Awwww…group pic!
But Shannon, Ling, and Julia weren’t the only ones saying au revoir to ISP for the moment. Another of Shannon’s dear friends, Danielle, is expecting a new baby come September and so yet another baby shower (we’re getting more and more used to this tradition) was held in her honor. Below are Shannon and Danielle just before bidding their farewells….
From left to right…Michelle and Fiona (getting each other through all the sad good-byes), the girls at Danielle’s shower, and Emily and Shannon – good buds since their first days starting at ISP together.
And then there was saying good-bye to her first grade team teachers that she had worked so closely with over the last two years. First you see Shannon and Geneviève (Gigi) who she taught with this past year, and then Shannon with Rukiya, who she taught with last year…
To cap it all off, there was one “Last ISP Supper”, hosted by Fiona and Fred at their newly remodeled apartment just outside of Paris. (From left going clockwise: Fred, Xavier, Fiona, Emily, Shannon and Michelle.) Not pictured but also celebrated: Scarlett, Fiona and Fred’s French Bulldog.
These ladies are keepers, simply put. Michelle, Fiona, and Emily provided us with laughter, support, and friendship during a cherished time abroad. Thank you ISP friends for making our time in Paris so memorable!!! We love you!
Final Days
But let’s not turn this blog too tear-filled. With June wrapping up, that 40s countdown turned to 15, which left plenty of time to revisit perpetual favorites (for example, the outdoor terrace at La Palette, below). But how exactly we spent the last 15, you can only find out in the last version of le blog…coming to a web-browser near you in not so distant future!
