Life in Paris: January 2013

I’ll be honest, there’s a lot of life happening over here. But because I write at a three-month backlog, there are some events that are no longer relevant by the time I get round to them — or just aren’t major enough to warrant their own posts. For example, I don’t really want to post about every party I go to, because that’s what the popular kids in high school used to do and I never liked them.

But, life in Paris is fun, and I do love to share. So every month I’m going to do a wrap-up of some of the smaller points of the month — the things I won’t ever write about otherwise. If nothing else, it’ll be for my own personal memories, so I can look back when I’m old and boring and remember those good times when I was an expat in Paris.

January 2013

This is how I started off the year:

Sun, Asian food, and time spent with the fiancé. It was hard to get on that plane back to Paris. Especially since…

This is what I returned to in Paris:

Snow!: I believe it’s only worth putting up with cold temperatures if there’s snow involved. So even though I was frozen to the core — Paris has that special kind of humid frigidity that cuts you straight to the bone — I couldn’t deny it was worth it when I saw how beautiful Paris was in the snow.

Funny thing is, people kept telling me it doesn’t snow in Paris; that this is ‘highly unusual’. Well it snowed just as I moved to Paris last  year, and now it’s snowed again, so I think some people need to rethink their definition of unusual because from where I’m standing, this is totally par for the course.

(By the way, if you’re in Paris when it snows, watch out for teens who like to stand outside metro exits so they can dump powder and chuck snowballs at the first unsuspecting person to come up the escalator. Little punks.)

Gay marriage protests: Paris had two large public protests this month: one anti-gay marriage and adoption, and one pro-. Sadly I didn’t see the latter; only the former as their route happened to go through my neighborhood. I took this photo as I went to lunch — when I came back four hours later, the sun had set and they were still marching and chanting in the bitter cold. I was especially saddened by how many young children were participating with anti-gay marriage icons painted on their faces.

Fluffernutters!: Happy happy joy joy! I’m not sure how it’s taken me over a year to find this supermarket (it’s in my neighborhood, embarrassingly enough) — but for any Americans out there missing their marshmallow fluff, Skippy peanut butter, Pepperidge Farm cookies, Newman’s Own popcorn, Hershey’s syrup, etc. — you can get your fix at the Casino Supermarche at 16 Rue des Belles Feuilles (closest metro Victor Hugo).

They’ve got quite the international section, not just American foods — in fact, this whole supermarket is as large as a Wal-Mart in the States. It’s mind-blowing. You’re welcome.

The Social Life

Champagne brunch: First off, I can’t even begin to tell you how many cupcakes I ate this month. I’m so glad I didn’t make any new year’s resolutions against carbs or sugar, because that’s pretty all I ate this month.

The above two plates are only a small portion of a classy homemade brunch I had with Kiwi Felicity and Aussie Emma — Felicity is a fantastic baker who lives in a beautiful Parisian apartment with her French boyfriend and adorable cat, Chouquette. Emma and I could do nothing but drown our envy in mimosas while watching the snow fall outside.

Parisian housewarming: My friend Jackie celebrated her new move out of the ‘burbs and into the 7eme by throwing a party. And seriously, what a surreal reminder you live in Paris when you go to a housewarming and you’re staring at Invalides — aka Napoleon’s tomb — all night while drinking on the balcony.

Mad Hatter party: Another friend turned 25 and celebrated with a Mad Hatter-themed party — everyone wore outlandish hats and fascinators and the apartment looked like a setting out of Alice in Wonderland. One girl created an earl grey-infused gin cocktail just for the party, while another baked up green tea cupcakes and teabag-esque cookies. I was so impressed, I’m seriously hiring these three ladies to do my birthday party in May.

Sunday blogger date: I finally got to meet Swedish Carin, who is behind the beautiful photo blog Paris in Four Months, as well as Aussie Grace from Will She Love Paris? Another blogger and friend Diane spontaneously joined us as well, and we spent a beautiful Paris afternoon eating eclairs, walking through the Marais, and drinking coffee along the Seine. Carin has a beautiful photo essay of our afternoon here.

Paris Tweetup 2013: Unlike the cities I lived in in Asia, Paris only has one tweet-up a year — so it’s a big deal, complete with branded cupcakes and a booked room in a proper fancy venue. One of those things where you bring your business cards for raffles and whatnot. Networking aside, I loved being able to catch up with some of my favorite Paris people, some of whom I haven’t seen in months — because it is just so damn hard to get people together in Paris. So thanks to Priscilla and Kasia for organizing it all (after seeing how much work they put into it, I now understand why it’s only held once a year…)

I always enjoy finding out what my readers like and dislike, so tell me: Monthly wrap-ups, yay or nay?  (I’m still going to do them anyway, but I like getting feedback.)