Father's Day In Paris

We woke up to the sounds of the sweeping of broken bottles and glasses and the running of several engines of trucks that were either washing the street below or replenishing stocks that were consumed by the mixed crowds of tourists the night before. It was no wonder now to me how rue de la Huchette got its unruly reputation; it was about 6 am!

Luckily for us, our daughter Mia caught up with us on skype which pretty much set us on a cheerful tone for the day. It was also Father’s Day and we were very excited about celebrating an International mass at the famous Cathedral de Notre-Dame. We were ready for a blessed day.

Brabon and I dressed in our best and took off by ten for the eleven o’clock Mass, frankly though this was the earliest we had ever been to mass; except of course for the occasional ones during Easter or Christmas that required our earliest departure to secure seats so we could be comfortable throughout the celebration.

When we arrived at the church, the queue was already taking the length of half the square, quickly, we decided to line up like everyone else. Not knowing whether we were in the right line (there were two lines but we agak agak (estimate) the entry point and also the attires) OR what we were doing was indeed right at all so we resorted to looking at other faces amongst us hoping to sight some friendly ones so we might ask. We noted that in front of us was an American couple and they seemed uncertain. I smiled at them, they SMILED back and just as I was about to speak the lady asked, “Are you attending the 11 o’clock International Mass?” I replied “Yes, we are but we are not sure if we are in the right line”. We laughed and I ventured “The line is moving fast so it looks like we do have time for mistakes!” “Yes” she replied and so we settled in comfortably.


When we finally got into the church we were struck in awe with the gigantic size of this church and its very high ceilings, one truly cannot help but to pause and absorb. The beautiful voices of the choir accelerated the ambiance. The ushers were prompting us to move along and it dawned on us that the nine something mass, was still ongoing. When we smoothed along in waiting, I noted that the other line of people did enter into the church but were cordoned off from the celebration and they were permitted to observe the ongoing masses, muse at the arts and the surrounding chambers in silence. How odd I thought, distracting and like, unholy! Brabon to my dismay was also swept in his own wonder and was clicking away at every opportunity hoping to capture the stunning celebratory moments. I was not impressed with his behaviour but nevertheless was later delighted with his accomplishments. At some point our eyes and minds started to zero in, to the front, we whispered excitedly and agreed to move ahead as quickly as we can once this particular mass was over.

As you can see, the gigantic size of the church is quite overwhelming!

The main altar - note the choir on the left at the far back

Yes, we managed to push forward happily with haste to the 5th pew. The guy on the outer pew was not friendly in spite of us asking politely if we could slide in. He looked through us without saying anything or moving but we slid in anyways. Because I was going to sit next to him during mass, I told myself to "let him go" for leaving his manners at home. The Mass was not celebrated in English but in French, Latin and Italian so the Americans and British like us had to exercise our memory as if it was done in English. It was an amazing experience for us, we had a cardinal, two regular priests, altar men and at least a 35 piece choir in 4 voices. The air organist (if that’s what one calls them) and his repertoire was brilliant. 

Taken during the earlier mass

After mass we stayed on to make some offerings, light some candles and took our time viewing the rest of the cathedral and its many chambers and chapels surrounding it. 

Brabon

Keeping our promises by making offerings and lighting candles for family and loved ones

Another point for offerings

Another point for offerings - Brabon did this one!

A chapel within the Cathedral

Stained Glass

Beautiful Paintings

An old chandelier - the concept is unimaginable! 

Amazing Sculptures

Face to face Confessionals

When we finished, Brabon wanted to take photos of the side views of the cathedral so I went across the street to window shop for souvenirs. Brabon bought his French beret.

Side view

Side view of the same side

Brabon with his French beret taken at the apartment

Once we were satisfied, we returned to the apartment to have a change of clothes and off we headed to check out the physical address of my 1st cooking class at Liege for tomorrow. It was fairly easy and we made only one mistake of taking the opposite direction. When we arrived at the exact location we were pleased with ourselves. Next was the Paris Jazz Festival!

The route to take to the festival can be confusing and there are no guides with plain and simple intructions on how to get there. For Instance, the only indication we got was “within the Bois De Vincennes, Le Parc Floral de Paris is...” It didn’t say “take the metro and go direct to Chateau de Vincennes and get OFF at that Station then find your way there!” We had asked many Parisians where this Parc Flora was and honestly none was of any help. They did two things, sent us off to other Parks or were kind enough to say "sorry" and shrug. Assuming from that indication, we did take that route, got off and lost at 2 stations before Chateau de Vincennes before we eventually figured it out. By the time we got to the right STOP, we discovered that we had to walk about 2 kilometers to Parc Floral which to our annoyance was in the same vicinity as Chateau de Vincennes!

As we were approaching the concert area we suspected that the first jazz session was just over but we hurried along anyways to catch what we hoped for, the next performance. True enough, the audience were staying put, it was full.

The "Perfect" audience

If you asked me who were playing, I have to honestly say I still have no idea who they were. All I know was that they were good musicians and I was happy to have made it there. I have to also mention that there’s nothing quite delightful like a jazz audience. They are known to be well mannered, quiet and they surely know when to show their appreciation for the music and musicians. So on the rare occasion if you do see or hear someone with a big mouth or a loud group chatting above the music, they’re just pretending to be jazz enthusiasts. This was great music and a perfect audience!


Brabon and I love gardening, flowers and orchids so when we do travel we look forward to visiting as many Parks and Gardens as we can. We were rather disappointed though with Parc Flora, nothing special and nothing what the guides described or promised. We left after a few turns! Having said that though, it is a great venue for Music Concerts or Festivals. 

We were not sure which exit to take out of the park and in the end we ended up walking much further back to the station. Tired and eager to get back, imagine our dismay when we did not have enough coins to buy our tickets.  Why didn't these machines accept notes and how much worst can it get, there are no Kedai Runcit or Seven Elevens in the whole of France to help us out! I suggested to Brabon to buy a bottle of drink at one of the cafes to get change and can you believe it, they serve all drinks in glasses. So I suggested to him again to order a beer, quickly drink so we can go and I seriously don't know how but we got stuck with a guy at the bar for 40 minutes and when we eventually got away, we were literally running to the station - he mentioned something about going the same way! We were relieved when we got on the train and mind you, I couldn't help but look around every now and then to check if he would suddenly appear out of nowhere. Don't get me wrong, he was not a bad dude but you know what I mean?

My Romance in Paris

The fountain of Saint Michael

A bridge above the River Seine and Sainte Chapelle at a distance

You know what they say about Romance and Paris...and yes, I have to say that it's true. Wherever you tend to look, while on a train, a boat, a park, a restaurant and mostly the streets, you will inevitably encounter lovers in love. If you look closer, these lovers make up mostly of the young ones where romancing comes naturally to them OR you could find the special ones, my favourite kind, older tourist couples from around the world., their faces filled with hope and their actions somewhat revealing traces of efforts to rekindle the flames of their pasts. The thought in itself is romantic and I believe it to be true....imagine coming from miles away...in search of love again, only in my thinking, a different kind, a special kind, the matured kind.

Isn't it true that your first wake away from home is always earlier than you planned especially when you're on vacation? Yeap, that was the case for us, up and about by 6 am and how was that not possible with all the racket going on along the street below. Noise of partying all night and noise of cleaning by dawn was going to be the setback for us during our entire stay in Paris. I say this because we ARE in our fifties and we did have an agenda to keep.


From our apartment window, the sky looked clear and sunny and so for today I was adamant to wear light. It was after all summer in Paris and I had no intention to look like a typical tourist. So after a delicious spread of self made breakfast, we headed off to Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris which we had read about, it was approximately 5 minutes of walking distance. The minute we were out in the open streets I began to feel the chilly winds biting through my clothes; Brabon, by the way, was  extremely comfortable, he looked COMPLETELY LIKE A TOURIST! When we arrived at the square, there were hundreds of people everywhere. There was a very long queue of folks waiting to visit the Cathedral which we actually thought they were queuing up to buy tickets. We thought we take a rain check on that one and decide later because we did have our 3 country Eurorail tickets that entitled us to a list of venue discounts and also minus the queuing or so we thought. Our plan was to take photos, gaze at this gigantic Cathedral, find out how much it would cost us to view it and what time might mass be tomorrow, on Sunday.


So we hung around in the midst of throngs of people, managed to take some photos outside, got to speak to a priest about the mass schedule, lost and found my white scarf (remember the winds?) and even got to donate 10 Euros to a group of young healthy deaf kids that I was to see again and again and was approached again and again as long as we were at the square.

The facade of Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris

Myself in light clothes and my lost and found white scarf

Stood here as a Temple to Jupiter in Roman times and in the 4th Century AD, St Etienne, a Christian church and finally replaced by a cathedral. The main part of Notre-Dame took 167 years to build.

Brabon - The completely comfortable tourist 

Next on our agenda was to go check out Sainte-Chapelle (picture right above), another church across the bridge (about 10 minutes walk) and Parc Flora where the Paris Jazz Festival was happening over the next 3 weekends. We wanted very much to watch the "Tribute to Qunicy Jones" which I had read about on Paris Update and also to find out who are the organizers and who knows, get to know them. You see, over the past 10 years or so, my habit is to always to check out if there are any jazz festivals taking place while and where I might be visiting. Once I've checked out the festival and it is good, I will do whatever it takes to submit in my daughter's (Mia) portfolio and materials in to the organizers. So pretty much, any jazz festival is a priority!    

Anyway, by the time we walked over to Sainte Chapelle, it got cloudy, it started to drizzle and there were also too many folks queuing to get into the church. We couldn't take photos, Brabon was hesitant to follow the queue, the winds got stronger so I got restless. Seeing that I was getting very impatient by the minute and the weather more uncertain, Brabon agreed that we should return to the apartment so I could change to something warmer and he could finalize how we could get to the festival.


When we were ready, we went down and got caught in a heavier rain! We had to squeeze ourselves under a small shade of a cafe (don't ask me why we didn't think of sitting down to enjoy a coffee) and what's more, Brabon forgot his notes, his maps and so the weather got the better of us! I got mad, he got mad, we got madder, we found ourselves back in the apartment. Blah, Blah, Blah....all hell broke loose, I decided to to shut up, speak only when I'm spoken to and refused to look at HIM for now.


I found myself following Brabon who insisted we could still catch the festival, probably for the next 2 hours. We were at the metro, in the train, asking for directions, walking, walking, asking for directions, walking again and again until he conceded and suggested we get a coffee. We were completely lost and loss for words. So we sat down outside a cafe and ordered our coffee. I was still looking everywhere else while he was faithfully trying to save whatever was left of the day. When I finally found my senses and saw the sadness in his face, I realized then how very fortunate and lucky I had always been with this man. He had spoiled me from day 1 and was always giving in to my tantrums while I simply became more and more reluctant and stubborn. Why was I angry with the nicest and most loving person I know.


From that moment on I knew that this was my romance in Paris, the special kind, the matured kind.

Taken by the waiter who I think suspected something was amidst and so was trying to cheer us up

Earlier on, we saw some ladies at the cafe having macaroons they had packed from elsewhere and Brabon knew that the famous "Laduree" was on my list of things to do in Paris; so it was no surprise that was to be our next destination. You guessed? Yes, anything to make me happy. So we left Chatelet Les Halles which later we found was no where near Parc Flora but where the Musee du Louvre was close by. Later when we checked, Parc Flora was located at Chateau de Vincennes which you can get to on the same line except it was at the last stop. So Brabon was not wrong, just not right.

Inside "La Maison Laduree" on Rue Bonaparte

Outside "Laduree"

It was most appropriate to find Saint Germain des-Pres after visiting Laduree and so we went in the church only to be pleasantly surprise that the evening mass had just started. We experienced our first mass in French!

Lighting our first candles in France, one for the Palencias, one for the Brands and one as promised for all our who are dearest to us. Each candle cost 2.50 Euro and they are 3 or 4 offerings at this particular church

St Germain des Pres takes its name from St Germain, cardinal of Paris in the 8th Century. It has the oldest bell tower in Paris

On the way back to our digs, a street artist painting with spray paint using the most ordinary tools one can imagine. Awesome stuff!

Looking all the way down from our apartment window - The famous unpleasant rue de la Huchette. Also found on the same street is the "Theatre de la Huchette" where Eugene lonesco's La Cantrice Chauve (The Bald Soprano) has been performed nightly since 1957. Restaurants also known to be overpriced tourists traps.

                   

The view from across our apartment

These are the famous macaroons from "Laduree Paris" and they are as lovely as promised. I especially like the Pistachio and Raspberry ones. This is a tip "note that the crusts are shiny". Brabon and I also found our current and favourite dessert "Saint Honore" that is on the left. At the top is an Eclair Cafe.

Now, isn't this "Romance"?

Paris - Day 1

Before I move into our journey proper I thought I'd give a brief heads up about myself to the folks who might not have a clue as to whom I am. My name is Jennifer and I'm currently travelling through France, Switzerland, Italy and hopefully, Spain with my soul mate, Brabon. We are both Eurasian Malaysians, we come from a very beautiful island called Sabah formerly known as Borneo but our current home base is in the capital City of Kuala Lumpur. We have 4 children, are already in our fifties and pretty much as a family, we grew up with one another and are still continuing to grow together. We have several small family businesses, Brabons Entertainment - Artiste and Event Managers, Jen's HomeKitchen - Food and Cake Suppliers, Jen Homegrown Cooking Academy - Cooking and Baking School and also of late, Jen's Underground Supper Club. So if you are ever in our vicinity and you want to take up some cooking and baking classes, experience our kind of food and our one of a kind hospitality, get in touch with us!

Most importantly, the purpose of this blog is to keep abreast and connected with my family, friends, students and fellow country folks, who might wish to read about stuff that I'm exploring during this trip. I'll be sharing about the cooking and baking classes I’m taking, Chefs I’ll be meeting, Cooking Schools and Restaurants I'm training at, Montreux and Montreux Jazz Festival, digs I'll be staying at, my atonement in Rome and Lourdes, Lifestyles, Foods, The Swiss Alps, Eurorail, People and hopefully many more. So, enjoy if you will!

We arrived in Paris on time as promised by Air Asia and in the excitement we did not freshen up as planned, EVERYONE and EVERYTHING was in FRENCH. Remember what I said about our luggage...well, heavy coats on, one nap sack each, one baggage each, Brabon takes the laptop and I, my rather large and heavy enough handbag. Breezed through immigration and customs, yes, spices and all! Now, the hard part.

Got our tickets, that was easy, now all we have to do is take the train to Anthony Station and then hop on to the Metro to Saint Michel at Notre Dame. Did I say hop? OK, up the ESCALATOR (thank goodness) and QUICKLY....on the train - closest to the door exit. Let's see, how many stops? Oh, they'll annouce...quickly..we're here...get off! SNFC, SNFC, here it is, quickly, help, don't lift, just drag it with all your might, oh and remember if you have to, USE your ARMS! Steady does it....opps....we're here....QUICKLY, QUICKLY, GET OFF! 

Phew, "we made it!" Exit!...where is it...look left - Sortie, look right - Sortie, look ahead - Sortie, look back - Sortie, emmm..sortie, oh must be exit......Look for...Notre Dame...there it is, let's go! So far so good...escalator!.....Alamak....staircase! "How".. Brabon asked? "You go first", I said. Take a deep breath, Jen, deep breath. Someone speaks in French to me...I look at him, smiled and said...."ok"....he lifts my bag and took it all the way up....I said..."thank you, thank you, oh I mean merci"...."de rien", he says and disappears! Now, isn't that just great hospitality? I mean, whoever said French people were snobbish! France was going to be great after all.

Oh, this is the River Seine, we're on the bridge! Mass of folks and little students walking through us, ...sorry.....pardon....ooppss..."let's move over there", I said and we moved. Brabon takes out his GPS and says,"let's see"...I asked..."where's the map Corrine sent?" "Tunggu...patience....yeap, it's behind that building", he says. "Are you sure", I asked? "We try, ok? we try", he answered. So off we crossed the roads, looking for rue de la Huchette. Yes, we're here, Brabon says, "look for 29, should be next to a cafe". There! 

Brabon takes out document, looks at code to enter building, presses the number, we go in. Looks for Pechiodat, press the button, wait...hello, hello...nothing...press again, hello...someone speaks in French, we wait. We looked around, saw the stairs to the lift, looked at each other, shaking our heads from side to side....and together gave out a big sigh. Before we could say anything else, the lift opens and Mrs Pechiodat says "Bonjour", we smiled and replied "Bonjour". So we introduced ourselves, she welcomes us, we kissed and she tells us that we have to walk up one floor to the lift, go to the 4th floor and walk up to the apartment on the 6th Floor. Also, she says "lift is very small, with baggage, one by one, oui? "Ok", we replied. Brabon went up first, we waited....(small talk).......finally she says, "I go check", I again smiled and replied, "ok"...she went. Brabon comes down and eventually we were in the apartment. Mrs Pechiodat gave us a run through, the dos and don'ts, "you read, I show", she says! I read, she showed. "Everything good", she asked, we nodded...she widens her eyes and exclaims "WI FII"! Yes, "WIFII", I too echoed with eyes and hands. I give first lesson to you ah, she tells Brabon and after 10 minutes with the alphabets, VOILA, we got WIFII. We spoke a little more, she picks up a bottle of aperitif and say "For You eh!", I smiled and said " Oh, merci". I opened my bag and took out a scarf for her and a sarong and said "for Mr Pechiodat". "Oh, no, no", she says but takes, then we kissed again. "You go Lourdes, you pray me, oui" she asked in her heavy French English. I replied "Oui". When she finally left, Brabon and I looked at each other and laughed "Well, we're in Paris", he said "This is it!" I said.   

      

This was our digs in Paris. It would have been parfait if we were younger (note the stairs we have to climb on to get into bed OR to climb down in the middle of sleep to visit the loo) otherwise it was comfortable and quite lovely 

  

By the time we settled down we were quite hungry, what with the aromas of food we could smell from the street below. Yes, would you believe it, we were smacked in one of busiest streets in Paris itself, a street full of cafes, bars and souvenir shops. So off we went....down to look around and for some food. We looked and looked and with all kinds of food available, we agreed to ta pau (pack) and share a sandwich. "Safer" Arm in arm, we strolled further down the street munching away....it was a cold sandwich and a bit hard. 

After a while,Paris or not, we were tired and jet lag. "Are you still hungry?" I asked Brabon. "a little" he replied. "Why don't, we order thaaat sandwich with the hot lamb, go back to the apartment, make coffee and eat" I suggested. "We can rest for a while, shower and take a nap?" "When we get up, we go to the supermarket as planned, what say you?" "Good idea" he replied.

We went to the supermarket (Monoprix) as planned and as you can see, we indulged! I mean, Camembert Campagne President - 2.07 Euro, Beurrier Tendre President - 1.84 Euro? We have to pay an arm and a leg for stuff like that in Malaysia!       

Rue de la Huchette

Coming First

Hey Everyone!

Finally I get to find the time to sit down and write and I am already in Zurich. I know some of you have been waiting patiently and actually, I did get to write my first post on the plane but when I read through it again, I thought might as well start all over. Writing does have a shelf life when gone unpublished! Brabon and I left Kuala Lumpur June 17, that's like14 days ago, France is history. Now I'm left to recall, backtrack the days in Paris and Lourdes BUT I'm going to start about the time way before we left.

You see, this Euro trip was not an easy trip to plan to begin with, mostly because it was going to be costly due to the currency exchange, both Brabon and I are in our fifties ( lugging 30 kilo bags from country to country is NOT A JOKE), we don't speak the LANGUAGES, and the entire duration is 65 long but relatively short days. Long because this will be our longest time away from home and family but short when we attempt to cramp Cook, Pray and Jazz among many other stuff, yes, many many other stuff. So basically the bottom line is, we are poor, aged, disadvantaged, short of time but you know what, we just had to make and manage this trip. Hey, for some folks, this is a dream you know and no one, not even Oprah was going to make our dream come true!

You see, it all started with a telephone call, something I've named "The Olga Inception" in 2005, 5 years ago..... Olga is my cousin who lives in Switzerland, you get the drift? So it was there, ever since then, at the backs of our minds, now all we needed was a fake schedule so to say, to get the ball rolling. Somehow, along the way, once we really really really thought about it, Et voila, we had a schedule and the big picture started unfolding and coming together.

Next was research, research, research for a whole year, location was important so if we had to stay on our own, we looked only at places with FREE WIFII. We also drafted several check lists, toiletries and accessories purchased after conversion were shehr so for that we had a long long list. Our Gift list had to have weight in mind so it consisted of a variety of cotton sarongs, scarfs, brooches and a bag of all kinds of spices, sauces and syrup and oh, some Mia Palencia T-shirts and CDs, just in case, gotta be ready! Then there's our "Other" list for documents, correspondence, outline schedules, work stuff to research on and if and when we can "things to do, places to see and what we might like to buy".

Then there was work to do as per usual, mid-term holiday classes to teach and Raya cookie samples to make ahead of time. Anything else? Yes, learn French, Italian and Spanish on time!

I pretty much ended up packing only on the day we were leaving so our night flight was a good thing after all. So far so good, I do have everything I need which were listed, except for my business cards that I had completely forgotten to list down. I can still kick myself for forgetting that!

So there I was sitting on the left aisle with 4 more full hours of thought. I saw the aerial view of mountains and the horizon was a mixture of a pale orange coloured sky. While I was excited about landing on the planet's most fashionable city and the promise of my most sought after cooking and baking classes, I also experienced a sense of dread and the unknown. I knew the minute we took off, life will never be the same. 

It’s true that everyone has their own story, for me this is the hardest trip I had to make so far and the past months had been extremely challenging. Coming first after such a long time and at MIDLIFE is very very

scary!

Eat, Pray, Love is a privilege, a luxury. Try finding yourself when you know who you are, when you know who your God is and when you know whom and all you love.