My Perspective of the "Gilets Jaunes" 

Bonjour!  This is David.   I asked Sherry if I could commandier her blog to write about the "Gilets Jaunes".  Some of you may have read or seen news stories about the Gilets Jaunes, so I thought I would give you my perspective on them.

First, what does the name "Gilets Jaunes" mean and where does it come from?  Translated to English it means "yellow vests".   Keep in mind,  unlike English,  in most French phrases the adjective comes second.  This is not always the case,  but it is true many times.  "Jaune" is "yellow" and "Gilet" is "vest.  French law requires that each car is to be equipped with a "gilet jaune" and a flare (I think) as part of the safety equipment.  If the car breaks down while driving, the driver is to put on the "gilets jaune" so they are more visible to other drivers.  Not a bad idea.

The initial purpose of the "Gilets Jaunes" demonstrations was a protest against additional taxes on gasoline.  The new tax was to be used to fund research on alternative fuels and electric cars.  Keep in mind that the price of gas in France and probably all of Europe is close to three times the price in the US.  For as long as I have traveled in Europe (my first trip here was 30 years ago) that has been the case.  Today, by the time you convert liters to gallons and euros to dollars, gas in Paris is close to $8 per gallon!  Which is a primary reason you see smaller cars, more fuel efficient cars and more electric or hybrid cars in Europe.  As a result of the Gilets Jaunes demonstrations, the French government delayed the implementation of the additional gas taxes.

OK, so if those taxes were delayed, then why are we in the 15th week of Gilets Jaunes demonstrations?  Yes, this has been going on for 15 weeks.  Now it is not every day, but it has been every Saturday since late November!  So, what do they want, what are they trying to accomplish?  Well, I think there are two primary reasons the demonstrations continue.  One, they are demonstrating against high taxes in general.  As I understand the French economy, there seems to be an even bigger gap between the "haves" and "have nots" in France than in the United States.  That may be particularly true in Paris!  The cost of living is higher in France than in the US (there are some items and services that ARE cheaper here like mobile phone and internet/cable).  However, food is more expensive here.  Overall,  I believe food is better and healthier here, but it is more expensive.  Housing in Paris is VERY expensive, but it is more reasonable in other parts of France.  Generally speaking, wages are lower and taxes are higher.  While taxes are high here, the French government does provide health care and university education, so there are benefits for the high taxes.  But when you add it all up, the average person has less spending power than in the US.

The other thing the Gilest Jaunes want is a government that is directed by referendum.  They want the population to decide which laws should be enacted and then want the government to enact them.  From my perspective,  this is a bad idea in ANY country.  Take the United Kingdom and Brexit.  The UK had a referendum a few years ago,  and the people decided that they want to leave the EU, the European Union.  Now, please understand, I don't know understand all of this.  First, I never did understand the UK being in the EU but still having their own currency.  So, the people of the UK voted to get out of the EU, and now it is up to the government, the politicians, to figure out HOW to do this.  Anyway, it does not make any sense to me for nations to be ruled by referendum.  One of my favorite people in history is Winston Churchill, here are a couple of his quotes on democracy.

So then, "how do we cope" with the every Saturday Gilets Jaunes demonstrations?  Well, we just do.  The demonstrations take place in different parts of the city.  A few times they have been in "our little quiet corner of Paris".  The demonstrations usually start in the mid to late morning and the police try to disburse the crowds in the late afternoon before it gets too dark.  Saturday's are our market day.  We go to the street food market each Saturday on Avenue du President Wilson (yes, the US President Wilson - who was the President during World War I and helped write the Treaty of Versailles).  We have learned to enjoy going to this market, and we visit the same vendors every week for Fromage at Oeufs (cheese and eggs), bouchier (for meat), legumes et fruits (produce), olives, raisins and nuts and then Sherry's favorite, the florist.  So we do that around 10am and are back to the apartment by noon. While Sherry puts those things away, I go to Franprix the "grocery store" for those things we cannot buy at the Avenue du President Wilson market.  We turn on the TV to see where the Gilets Jaunes are demonstrating, but basically we stay in the rest of the day.  While they may not be near us, we could not go too far in Paris without being concerned with bus disruptions in getting home.  There have been a few times when they were in our area.  A couple of weeks ago they were within 400 yards of us.  That day they burned a car next to where we purchased our DVD player and SONOS speakers.  They also broke some windows at a cafe we have frequented.  A couple of hours later, I went out to get a pizza for our dinner, and our neighborhood had returned to normal.

I did not take this photo, but the florists is "our" florists.

Yesterday, they were close to us but not as close as a couple of weeks ago.  This morning I took my normal walk which takes me across the Seine by the Eiffel Tower, then up to Place du Trocadero.  Here is a picture of one of the statues there.

While the Gilets Jaunes demonstrations are getting annoying, especially as the weather is getting better and we don't want to be at home each Saturday afternoon, at least one of the Gilets Jaunes has a sense of humor!

"A New Gilets Jaunes"

David

WHAT'S GOING ON LATELY......

After celebrating my birthday for nearly the entire week, Valentine's Day slipped by with very little attention.  I think it's usually that way if your birthday is near a holiday..one gets lots of attention and one merely comes and goes.  I love Valentine's Day (being born three days before my mother always made me a heart-shaped birthday cake with pink frosting)  and have always had a wreath on the front door, red/pink napkins, placemats, flowers and candles adorning miscellaneous areas of the house.  Here, not so much.  It's not that I've changed, but my surroundings certainly have!  It's nearly impossible to find a simple wreath to decorate and even if I did, I'm not sure our apartment owner or the gardienne of the apartment building would want me putting it on my front door.  I did put out red/pink/white flowers for several weeks in a row for my weekly flowers from the market, and I exchanged the white candles sitting around for pink.  I guess it's in the little things.

Normally, we might go out to dinner on Valentine's Day,  but this year, here in the city of love and light, we didn't even do that!  We stayed home and had soup and watched a movie!  What's happened to us???!!!  The truth is we had been out and about so much with "birthday" things, we enjoyed just being together quietly in our little apartment.  Plus, our big celebration was happening the evening after Valentine's Day (Friday, February 15) so there was much to finish up with that.

A birthday party was David's idea since I'm honestly not crazy about an event in my honor.  I love it for someone else, and, luckily, I did share the honor with a friend who's birthday was soon after mine.  Yea!!!!  Anyway, we invited some of our friends for a little celebration with warm appetizers, crudités and, most importantly, birthday cake!!!  Our friend, Janine Springall, who catered Bloom last year and is catering Bloom again this year, did all the food which was delicious.

This only shows a small part of the food..perhaps we should have added the other table leaf because the table was jammed with food once all the warm dishes were set out

This chocolate cake was absolutely delicious!!  We hoped we would have some left so we could freeze it and have it in the days ahead.....but no such luck.  Probably just as well.  How much do you have to walk to wear off a slice of cake????!!

There were no planned activities, and I wondered how everyone would mingle....they didn't all know each other.  But it was a wonderful evening with everyone embracing and visiting with those they knew well and meeting and getting to know those they were just meeting.  For me, it's difficult to completely enjoy the evening because I don't want to spend the night just exchanging pleasantries with everyone, I want to sit and really visit with everyone.  Impossible!!!!  So, unfortunately, I didn't get to spend time with as many as I would have liked, but I didn't do too bad!!!!  It was a fun time and everyone went home with a little goody bag of chocolates--don't you always leave a birthday party with a goody bag??? 

One goody bag per couple, please

Then we were back to our real world the next morning with regular market shopping and planning food for the next week.  You can only be Cinderella for one night...longer is way too exhausting!!!

The other night we were watching a movie when I looked out the living room window and saw we had the most magnificent moon hanging in the sky.  I showed David,  and we decided to take a little stroll. The temps have been lovely (I wish it had been this way a year ago when we moved here instead of so cold and rainy, oh, well...) so we chose to walk along the Seine.  Being a weeknight, it was pretty quiet out and this is what we saw...

Always I will love this sight!

this is one of those magical moments I know I'll carry with me.  

Other than this, life is just moving on.  We're revamping the small group we attend on Sunday morning, and that has been good.  We're working on Bloom (we will not be running around like crazy people in July/August like we had to do last year!!!!) and have nearly all our speakers in place (not all confirmed) and most of our committee chairs in place (not all confirmed), the bookstore, and the caterer.  So things are falling into place so that, hopefully, we can make a trip home this summer.

Next week, we have an appointment to see if we can get an extension on our visas until our scheduled appointments (David's in March and mine in May) are met (our visas expire late February).  So, we'll be ending our first year here the same way we began our first year here..dealing with French bureaucracy.  Let's hope it goes as smoothly as it has the earlier times.....   

PARIS BIRTHDAY!

I am now one year older!😲.  If, for some reason, I didn't know it was my birthday (which isn't really possible but these days I rarely know what day it is!!!!), when I opened the computer it slapped me in the face....

Monday was my birthday,  and David asked me what I wanted to do.  I really don't care about fancy, expensive outings and my request was pretty simple...I wanted to go by The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore and pick up a copy of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (I just learned it was more than a movie!!!!!  Who knew!!!!!).

While there, we met a friend of Penelope's (the owner) who's an astrologer!  People really do that???!!!  Anyway, they were out of the book but are ordering it for me.  Just a short, little fun read for another time.  Leaving there we walked across the street to Le Jardin de Luxembourg and strolled a little before lunch.  It was a little cloudy, cool but not raining.  The park is much quieter this time of year.

This picture at the garden was taken last summer so things weren't quite so green when we went and there were no boats in the water!!  I definitely prefer going in the warm months!!

By this time, we were getting hungry so we walked to a new little restaurant we'd noticed other times when visiting the bookstore.  It's just a few shops down from there.  Treize au Jardin is a darling little place with distressed white metal tables outside with plants and vintage decor and inside are antique, shabby chic-styled tables, garden-like planters, wreaths, flowers and miscellaneous vintage teapots, pictures etc.  English is spoken by the kind staff, the food is wonderful, prices are moderate.  I can't wait to go back and sit outside!!

Treize au Jardin

There were several signs with "y'all" - the owner is a young woman from Charleston, SC

This picture doesn't do it justice-look up the website!

The Monday special was a "Southern Plate Special" that was pulled barbecue pork, sausage, a biscuit and a side salad.  David chose that.  I decided to try the  "Quinoa Salad" that was quinoa, greens, apples, and nuts with a citrus dressing.  Large and delicious!

Quinoa Salad-gotta save room for cake!!

If you are thinking of being impressed that this Birthday Girl chose such a healthy choice.....STOP!!!  I was merely saving a bit of room for the cake I had seen them bring in earlier!!!!!  A 4-layer chocolate cake with a nutty frosting between the layers (kind of like a German Chocolate Cake).  David and I shared a slice (that was way more than one person could eat) that was fabulous.  Only thing that might have made it better was ice cream on the side!!!!  Who doesn't love birthday cake???!!!!🎂🎂🎂

I've decided to try and learn calligraphy so Nikki and Andy sent money to David and he bought a book Nikki recommended, a pen and nibs (that's the tips for the pen!!!) and paper.  Courtney got me a beautiful dusty pink scarf that is so soft and warm.  Again, she paid and David purchased it from a shop here.  We hate to see them pay the shipping costs and David loves getting out.  It's a win-win!!

David bought me a star.  That's right..a star.  One of our favorite churches, the 500-year old St. Germain des Pres is renovating,  and you can buy a star for the ceiling and the money goes toward the renovation.  So, we walked over to the church on Monday and sat in the sanctuary and David gave me a card with a picture of where my star is located and then we found it on the ceiling.  Pretty cool!

You can see by the darker areas that not all the stars have been purchased yet.   The twinkling stars are the ones people have purchased.  If you look closely, you can see where the black box in the corner points to my star.   Don't misunderstand...there was a time,  in the not so distant past,  when jewelry or shoes would have been loved by this Birthday Girl.  But today, right now, I don't have need or  space for either,  and the idea that my little star could help this beautiful worship place welcome people visiting Paris or people wanting to sit and worship or pray means much more to me.

BSF ended my birthday with a class fellowship (no one knew it was my birthday and I didn't tell anyone).  I baked Chocolate Chunk bars and they went fast!!!  No one brings homemade goodies (so many of the women work) and I'm home now and have time (and desire) to bake.

Today (Wednesday) we continued the celebration by having lunch with Jim and Odette, good friends of ours.  Remember my earlier post about friends you just connect with?????  Well, here's another couple we've loved spending time with and they're getting ready to go back to California until October.  Odette has been ACP's visiting pastor and she has given me a different perspective on women pastors.  They love movies as we do and good Tex Mex......

Posing for these pictures is a nightmare!!!

The scarf I'm wearing is the one from Courtney

...we will be going back to Fajitas!!!!  Just for a little while, it felt like home.  And the food was sooo good!!!!  We came home with a package of corn tortillas!!

When the day is done, birthdays are celebrations of a blessed life and, to me, one of the blessings I hold closest is the friends I've made along the journey and the time we've spent together.  How blessed I am!!!

NEW FRIENDS

One of the things I love most about our life in Paris is the diversity of our friends.  We don't all look alike, we don't all believe alike, we don't all think alike and we don't all live alike.  Among our closest friends are John and Sharon.  David met John early on through the men's Bible study (which, by the way, he attended even before we moved here!),  and we always referred to him (John) as "John the Boatman" because he lived on a boat and that differentiated him from other Johns.

As happens, I later met Sharon and we've been doing a study with our pastor's wife and another new friend on Thursday mornings.  You know when you meet someone and you just click with them?  I've always believed you don't really choose your friends...you may choose who you hang around with, but a true friend is almost like magic....you meet and immediately there is a connection.  A gift from God.  I love when that happens!!

So, that's what happened with John and Sharon.  We visit at church,  had coffee after Bible study,  had lunch after church.  I have loved getting to know Sharon and hearing her story, which is soooo different from my own.  Both John and Sharon are Americans, but their journey has been very different from ours.  Sharon had a successful career as a fashion designer before marrying John in her forties.  Their life together became a moving one as they both sailed and decided to sail the world.  For many years (ten, I think) they sailed exotic places staying in various ports and enjoying the culture of many countries.  Health concerns ended their open sea sailing, they sold their sailboat and bought a traditional Dutch-built steel canal boat where they now live six months in Paris on the canal and six months in their home in the US.

Seraphim-home on water!

This is  John and Sharon's "neighborhood"-this picture was from a calendar page we have

Last Friday they invited us to dinner on the boat,  and we were so excited to see how they live.
We spent hours (literally we left at 1:30 a.m.!!!!) visiting and exchanges stories.  They absolutely love their life and almost make you want to live the same way!!  They're getting ready to head back to the US, and I hate that, but they'll be back in October.  I think this sweet couple will be one we carry in our hearts long after we're back in the States in our regular life.  God is good!

THIS AND THAT...

The past few weeks have flown by as we passed the cold, sometimes snowy days,  inside when we could and outside when we had to.

It was "hair" time last week which is not enjoyable for me at all.  The ladies at my salon, Le Salon,  are very nice and very French,  aka they don't speak English!!!!  I know I could go somewhere else, but that would involve finding a salon where the stylists do speak English, and, the truth is, I'm not sure it's not better for me and my French (such as it is) to be in a salon where I HAVE to speak French.

Le Salon

 Anyway, the struggle is getting her (my stylist) to understand what it is I really want.  I have yet to succeed😞!  So, last week I went in prepared (or so I thought) with pics from my beloved Pinterest.  Everyone can understand a picture, right???!!!  Wrong!!!  I want dark roots and blond streaks...

like this!!!  BTW if they could give me her skin and lips I'd be willing to pay big!!!  But, alas,  my salon doesn't do miracles!!!!!lol. (forgive the X-it wouldn't let us eliminate it-sad face!!!). Anyway, this is what I got.....

(I first had a front view picture where my hair looks really blond.  Then we took this profile picture so you could really see a comparison and I realize the color isn't as blond in the back.  Hmmmmmm.). I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing...as she darkens the roots next time, the blond will change some.  This high maintenance isn't for sissies!!!!  I could let the gray grow out......uh, NO!!!  Maybe sometime...not now!!!!

Moving right along...one of the things we've (especially David!) missed living here is refried beans and crunchy taco shells.  We've survived this almost year with flour tortillas, which are easy to get, and a type of canned red bean.  But it's not the same!  We haven't even been successful finding black beans (canned for ease).  A friend of David's brought him a gift a week or so ago of....crunchy taco shells.  David was so excited!  He had purchased them at a store here, Lidl, where David visited later.  Unfortunately, it's one of those things that's come and go...sometimes they have the shells, sometimes they don't.  That's okay.  There were no refried beans to be found, so David finally just went to The Real McCoy, a store of all the American foods and treats you can't find elsewhere in Paris.  They are costlier but at least available.  One can of refried beans cost 6Euros!!!!  We'll probably be bringing some back from the US when we go this summer!!!!!  The happily-ever-after was Saturday night when we had our "real" TexMex dinner....

A taste of home!!!

On another subject, as convenient as Kindle and other readers are, I still prefer real books and bookstores.  We walked over to The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore last week to check in with its owner, Penelope.  We first became acquainted with Penelope when she agreed last fall to work with us at the ACP Bloom event.  She did a great job providing the books of our speakers and additional books for our participants.  We've invited her back this year so wanted to visit with her about some  specifics of this year's event.  Her bookstore is a little place, reminiscent of the bookstore in "You've Got Mail" only smaller, that is full of books crowding its antique shelves.  It's located across the street from Le Jardin du Luxembourg and a couple of shops down is a darling little cafe we have yet to visit.  I look forward to going again when the weather is nice, buying a book and either sitting in the jardin or at the little cafe.  That's life in Paris!!

Pursuit of happiness - A trip to the bookstore!

I'll end today's post with a quote I found somewhere that says it all for me.....

A bientôt!!

FETE DE LA CHANDELEUR - FEBRUARY 2

Today is Saturday, February 2.  In the United States,  we would watching for the groundhog to see how much longer winter would last.  The French have a different (and tastier!!) way to determine the season.  It's called La Chandeleur, and it translates as Candlemass in English referring to the blessing of candles which traditionally took place on this day.

I've noticed here that many (if not most) holidays point to a religious event.  In the case of La Chandeleur, for Roman Catholics, it's the feast of the Presentation of Baby Jesus at the temple that occurred forty days after Christmas.  However, while it became a religious commemoration, it is, in fact, a pagan holiday and today has many traditions and superstitions associated with it.

The one I liked (which we didn't try!) was flipping a crepe into the air with one hand while holding a gold coin in the other.  If you can catch the crepe in the pan, you will have good luck in the coming year!!!  We decided to make our own crepes this morning, but David wouldn't toss....to quote one of our favorite Christmas movies (Christmas in Connecticut) he said "I'm a scooper not a flipper"!!!!!

The Finkelstein kitchen is always open for new recipes-ask my kids!!!!

The recipe we used was a very simple one.  I rolled them rather than folding them into quarters like the street vendors do.  It made them easier to eat.   I sprinkled sugar in the crepe and topped mine with cherry jam and powdered sugar.  David topped his with honey and powdered sugar.  They were easy and tasty. Not a bad tradition!!!

Sharing the Groundhog Day weather forecast idea, there's a little French rhyme I enjoyed:

      "Quand la Chandeleur est claire,                        "When February 2 is clear,
        L'hiver par derriere;                                           No more winter to fear;
        Chandeleur couverte,                                         If the Chandeleur is overcast,
        Quarante jours de perte!!"                                  forty days of winter to last"


As you know, I do love a Nutella/banana crepe from a street vendor, and that may be my next crepe breakfast!

Who could refuse this!!!!?????

Oh, by the way, if you look at my plate closely, you'll notice the bacon.  Yes, BACON!!!!  Not turkey bacon, but real, American bacon.  We have looked in various places in the almost year we've been here and been unsuccessful at finding American bacon.  One day while David was at our favorite English store, Marks and Spencer, he found this and picked it up.  Voila!  American bacon!!!!  We were so excited!!!  For my health-conscious friends, don't worry.  We don't eat it every day and the slices are small, but it tastes great and is crispy (important to me!).  I love you,  Marks and Spencer.

Bonne fete et bon appétit!!!