One more Christmas Pic!

No one had more fun that night than little Morgan. She did a number on all of the wrapping paper like you wouldn't believe.  It was hilarious!

Christmas Pics

T-money feeling no pain at the Ham Family Christmas.  Cheers everyone!

Me with my new stocking that Delsa made for me this year. This is an absolute work of art, lined in purple with 2 great tassles that you can't see in this picture. I learned needle point 101 in France and I hope one day I will be able to make something like this! A girl can dream!

Hope you all had a fabulous holiday and have a safe and merry NEW YEAR!!

SF Twins

Last night was our annual girls night out Holiday Christmas "Work Party" The restaurant we ate at, Nob Hill Cafe, was accompanied by the famous SF Twins.  We went over to take a picture with them and talked to us for a bit, which was basically them spouting off. They kept saying, "You can have single bliss or married hell"

hahah

Weirdos!

Our last dinner in Paris for a while!

I lied. We are posting again!

Tonight we decided that, to celebrate our last night here for a while, we should go out to a fun dinner.  We went local, right around the corner from our place, to the famous Brasserie Lipp..

This is my kind of place.. Right on top of the menu in red:

(No salad as a meal)

We both went with the roasted chicken, a speciality of theirs, and split a small carafe of "Lipp" label reisling. It is a fun place and a total SCENE! The place was packed!! Rumor has it that the closer they sit you to the window, the higher they think of you when you walk in.. Reasoning being, they want people to be "seen" eating there...  So, if you go into Lipp and they seat you upstairs in the back.. well...  yeah... Time to enroll in charm school ... (This is Lipp talking, not me.. )

C and I must have been charming tonight, because we got placed right in front of the window. So either we look like high rollers, or we were just there really early. We are going with "A."

We are just putting the finishing touches on our packing, and contemplating wether to stay up until 5 am, or try and get 5 hours sleep.. I think it'll be a combo of the two!

See you all soon!

Last Day :(

If ever a day deserved the upside-down smile keyboard frown, it is today...

:(

Today is the last day of our vacation... Tomorrow we get on a plane. and in 12 hours, we will be back in the United States. This trip, if you have been reading, has been FULL of new adventures for Courtney and I. When we get home, our adventures will continue! We have a new place to live in, new jobs to find, and we have acquired on this trip new hobbies and desires that we will be bringing with us back to America! I have rekindled my love of drawing and reading, and Court has become a master needle-pointer! Im pretty sure that next time I cut my finger, Court will be able to stitch it up with a selection of fancy colored yarns.

Today we spent packing and cleaning. I THINK we are going to make it out of here in the same amount of suitcases that we came in! Bonus! That normally doesnt seem like a huge task, however, if you go back about 3 weeks, you will remember that we have a deer-head carry on this time. (wine related purchase)

Last days dont always have to sad, in fact, I don't think I would have felt right leaving France, without one last trip to the laundrymat! Every time I go, the craziness level builds just a little..  Today was no acceptation.  When I went there today, I walked in and could SWEAR that I heard someone watching "THE EXORCIST" on a portable TV...  I was close..  it was infact a homeless woman on the ground, smoking cigarettes, drinking some kind of liquor (or detergent, who knows...  same effect) yelling at people who were doing their laundry around her. I am not exaggerating when I say her stale, smoke stained voice sounded just like Linda Blair in the Exorcist.. Only a french dubbed version. 

People were just walking around her... ignoring her... So I figured, "Im here," and I have to get this done, so Ill just go for it. I sat there for 2 hours doing laundry, listening to a woman who was possessed by an apparently highly pissed off french Demon. Sometimes she was quiet. If someone walked to close to her, she started screaming. If you walked to close and looked at her, she would scream then spit on you. And sometimes, just for no reason, she would just start screaming and spiting at nothing at all. Its nice when someone is an equal opportunity swear-spitter like that.

Anyways... To make my day even better, about 45 minutes before my laundry was done, ANOTHER crazy delinquent walks in, and the two of them start talking, and share a beer and cigarette. Obviously, this newcomber didnt fear catching crazy (or tetanus) and the two of them talk-spit-yelled for a good 15 minutes.

I was going to take a video of this little vixen for everyone to see, but I was afraid that if she caught me, she would put a gypsy curse on me (and I dont mess around with those!) so I just snuck a camera phone photo. What you cant see if the big bottle of booze behind her, or the stale pile of extinguished cigarettes next to her...  

Ahhh... what a catch.. If only I were single....

We still have a few hours left in the day to enjoy Paris  (Like it could get any better than this morning!) so unless we post again later tonight, we will be spending time with you all the the States really soon!!

Zero Degrees?!? I didn't think that temperature existed!

Friday we decided to take the Paris "Hemmingway's Paris" walk.

The walk is mostly directed towards his book "A Movable Feast," which is all about his life and early years in Paris.  Needles to say, neither C or I have read this book (But we really want to... It's on the list now...  Courtney's list at least.)

The walk was fun, but it was freezing. It was one of those Bone-chilling colds. The type that hurt when you stand still, or feel a slight breeze. It was literally ZERO degrees out. ZERO. That means that any temperature at all that isn't a negative, is warmer than we were.  

We walked for 2 hours, and afterwards C and I ducked into an old fashioned Paris "Bar Cafe." They are really fun places to eat... Very authentic Paris.. Essentially a bar, with a few tables, and a small menu (2 items) C ordered "The Fish" and I got "The Sausage"...  Then the lady who served be told me I "Obviously wasnt french" because I ordered a sausage, and still had some of my hot chocolate left?? I laughed at this, but it turns out that it was sort of scandalous, since about 5 minutes later I heard the two guys behind the bar say "blah blah Sausage blah blah Hot chocolate" and stare at me in unison. Wierd.

Later that night, we went over to our good friend Jennifer's house for some wine! She brought us out some delicious goat cheeses, and we sat and talked for HOURS!!! 

Today, it was JUST as cold outside, and rainy, so we pretty much stayed in! Not the most adventurous way to spend our last saturday, but it felt good to just do nothing and rest up!! Tomorrow is going to be a big packing, clean up day, so at least we can attack it well rested!

We cannot believe that this trip is almost over.. 10 weeks!! We have learned so much about ourselves and the world.. about culture, art, and wine...  There is no better education than traveling! 

Tues, Wed, and Thursday

We have had a good few days here in Paris.  The internet has been so bad lately, that we havent been able to really update the blog daily..  So, here is our 3-Day blog update.

Tuesday:

Tuesday we got up and took the train to Versaille Palace. Courtney and I have both been to Versaille twice, but have never actually gone inside the chateau. Plus, right now there is a exhibition by artist Jeff Koons inside the chateau, which is the first time a contemporary artist has been allowed to display work there. If you dont know who Jeff Koons is, google him. His art is really fun to look at, and was a great contrast to the decor of the palace..

Also, when we went to Versaille, it started DUMPING snow... This was actually pretty fun! C and I got totally covered between the walk from the train to the palace doors...

Snow, In action at the palace.

Me, covered.
C, covered!
Jeff Koons art...  Giant balloon dog

Jeff Koons "Michael and bubbles"
More Koons
C and I reflected in the famous "Hall of Mirrors"
Koons sculpture outside Versaille, snowed on.
Snow covered palace gardens

Wednesday:

On wednesday. Court didnt feel like doing much during the day, so I went back to the Musee Armee. The Musee armee is the military museum here in Paris. I went before on this trip, but it was closing and I only got to see a part of it. This time, I went JUST to see its display for WW1 and WW2.  They have such a fascinating collection...  Pretty much at least one example of every uniform worn by all sides in each of the world wars, not to mention guns, cannons, documents, etc...  Also a lot of interactive displays. There was also enough english there that I was able to read about most of the items and events described.

On my way there, I passed a movie theater I had never seen before called Le Pagode. It was China themed, and in a house built to look like one of those old Chinese houses you see in movies.. Very cool. I guess it was built by the founder of THE BON MARCHE, whose wife loved China, so as a gift, he built it for her, and had everything flown in directly from China for the construction. Anyways, now its a movie theater... It had the most interesting crowd.. Seriously.. It was like going to the Opera.. All adults, dressed really nicely. No kids, not really even any young people... very fancy! We saw BURN AFTER READING. And in the end all we could say was "At least the theater was interesting!"

Thursday:

Today we just walked. We left the house at noon and walked for 6 full hours (with a short food stop)

I have no idea how far we walked today, but we pretty much covered all the Paris landmarks...

We started on our street, and walked to Montparnasse.. From there, we hit Invalides (where the Musee Armee is, as well as Napoleons tomb) . then the Eiffel Tower, then the Arc du Triumph...  After that we went down the Champs Elysee, then up to the Hermes and Chanel stores (The Chanel store is actually built into Coco Chanel's Paris townhouse) to the Place Concorde, then back home... From a distance, we could see Notre Damme also.. And even though we have walked by that at least 10 times this trip, Im going to add it to today also.. Just to cover ALL the landmarks at once...

Invalides..  That whole building is Napoleons tomb...

The Champs lit up for Christmas
Place Concorde and the Ferris Wheel (We thought about going on it, but thought again and didnt)
View from the walk home...