Diamonds are a girls best friend

Pictures from the Bvlgari exhibit and some others

yellow diamonds and sapphires
This is the necklace that I mentioned the American man bought for his wife... Some lady is getting this as her christmas present this year.

One of many of Elizabeth Taylor's pieces
Some incredibly beautiful yellow diamond earrings

The Suspended tree at Galeries Lafayette
The Opera house
My Amazing Macaroons from Pierre Herme!! I got just a plain caramel one but the other was ginger/banana/chocolate/passionfruit. Delicious.

Ups and Downs

The past 3 days have been a large mix of ups and downs of emotions for me. I will start with Monday night...

Gisa Straith was back in Paris working this week and we almost didn't get the chance to see each other but luckily on her last night I was able to join her and her colleagues for dinner. We went to a lovely little restaurant close to Rue de Rivoli called Le Souffle. As you may have guessed, their specialty is souffle. I had a spinach and goat cheese souffle for dinner and it was delicious! Spinach is something I have been missing here as the kids don't like it. Arnaud is allergic to goat cheese so they don't keep it in the house either. All in all, it was the perfect combo for me! The dinner was lovely and the ladies that Gisa works with, all Canadian women who work for Chanel, were really nice and very interested in the aupair concept. For dessert I had another souffle, this time a pear and chocolate one. It wasn't as good as I expected because it really lacked on pear flavour and was kind of just a plain souffle, with a little pear in it and then chocolate sauce poured over it. I tried some of the other girls' desserts though and they were very tasty. It was nice to see Gisa and she gave me a few little tips for things to see in Paris too.

Tuesday morning after my french class, Stephanie and I went to Galeries Lafayette to do a little bit of Christmas shopping. We were both in search of presents for the families that we work for and as we discovered, it was harder than we had originally thought. After an hour being overwhelmed by the house section we gave up and went to get lunch. We were both craving something exotic because I have come to realize that although french food is mighty delicious, it lacks in spice and sometimes flavour. French food is rich and buttery and often you really get to taste the main ingredient but I think most french people are actually afraid of something with a little kick. Anyways, Steph and I found a sushi restaurant right by the Grands Magasins (department stores) and even though my previous experience with sushi in Paris was awful, I decided to give it another try. Thank god I did because our meal was delicious! We both got the basics and I am not sure whether it was because I have missed sushi so much or that it was actually really good but I thoroughly enjoyed our meal. I also really enjoyed spending the time with a new friend. Steph is 2 years older than me and from a town outside Brandon, Manitoba. She is super cool and even though meeting new people can be a little intimidating, I think I am getting a bit better at it and we had some great conversation. After refuelling, we went to take another shot at shopping. This time we went into the home section of Printemps and I was able to find 2 candle holders that match a bread basket that the family already has. I had already bought books for the kids and although the candle holders were a little bit more expensive than I had planned on spending, I thought I might as well get them and be done with it. I had officially finished all the shopping I had to do this year!!

Today was a rare and precious Wednesday because Cecile wasn't working! I had the entire day to myself and because I had known this in advance, I bought myself a ticket to an exhibit at the Grand Palais. Bvlgari, the jewellery house, was exhibiting their most magnificent pieces from their 125 years. I knew it was an opportunity not to be missed because Elizabeth Taylor's collection was going to be a part of the exhibit! Words cannot describe some of the jewels I saw. Diamonds the size of quarters and there was a sapphire that was literally the size of a chicken egg. It was truly incredible to see all the pieces because let's be honest, I don't know a single person who would ever wear anything like that. Only in Paris! There was a showcase of brooches and they were called "tremblant" which translates to trembling. The brooches were attached by a tiny spring so that they oscillated at the tiniest movement and with the hundreds of diamonds and jewels, they really sparkled. The final piece in the collection was an incredible bib necklace made of diamonds, rubies, mandarin garnets and sapphires of every colour. I had rented an audioguide so luckily I was able to find out the story behind it. The Necklace was bought by an american man in 2009 and he has been waiting to give it to his wife. He is taking her to the exhibit in Paris while its open and when she reads underneath the necklace, she will see her name as the owner. Being as hopelessly romantic as I am, I though that was a pretty amazing story and what a lucky lady she is!

After I finished at the exhibit I considered going home but realized that I should really take advantage of this day to myself so I continued on. I was already on the Champs Elysees so I stopped at the Christmas market for some food and a warm drink. I couldn't turn down some "Punch de Noel" so I went for a big mug of it! Its a mixture of orange juice, cinnamon, rum and some other ingredient I forgot but it was delicious and it really warmed me up. I walked up and down the Champs and I saw that one of the movie theatres was playing a movie I had wanted to see in the english version! I have never in my life been to a movie on my own but I really enjoyed it and it felt good to spend a day with me.

When I got home, I went into the studio to wrap the presents I had bought for the family. Last week, after hearing Philippine talk about Christmas I discovered that in France, every gift comes from Santa. There are no gifts from mom and dad or from Grandma and Grandpa, every single gift comes on christmas, from Santa Clause. I figured I had better ask Cecile about it before I went ahead and signed my name on her card so I went into the house. Cecile had gone out to get bread and so I went to talk to the kids and was greeted by a punch in the face from Philippine. My entire day's worth of being in a good mood and feeling good about myself was gone within a second and I left the house and cried for the 3rd time since coming to France. I felt very under appreciated and especially in the moment while I was wrapping her present! I really wanted to take it back to the store. I found out from Cecile later that I am not allowed to give my gifts to the family before I leave for Vancouver. I have to wait until I get back in January because presents only come from Santa and he only comes on Christmas. Another huge let down for me because I have rushed around and put a lot of effort into the presents for the family and now I have to wait until January to be able to give them. Not to mention the fact that according to Philippine, the gift doesn't even come from me, it comes from Santa. Once again, under appreciated. I am really going to try, over the next 3 days, to make the best of things here. My mom gave me some insight as I was sobbing to her on skype and that was that if I leave on a bad note, its going to be really hard for me to board that plane back to Paris come January 2nd. I need to be able to look at the positives here so that I can have that to look forward to when it's time to come back.

That is going to be my focus for the next few days! I haven't uploaded pictures from today yet but I'll get on that and put them in another post.

Love you all,

M

follow up

Hello again!

It is very unlike me to do 2 consecutive blog posts but I felt that after yesterday I needed to clear a couple of things up. First of all, I made the post quite negative and I did not mean to make it that way, and second, I also didn't do a very good job expressing why the situation was so uncomfortable for me.

I mentioned that a lot of these family blow-outs happen around the table during meal times. I always eat with the family and so I am always present during these fights. Generally Alex will pick a fight with one of his younger siblings and it is often because they are being a "suck-up" to their parents. This usually entails one of them thanking their mom for the meal she prepared and saying that its good. I am not sure how things work here, but for me that is not sucking up at all and its pretty darn normal, and even expected to thank the person who made the meal. This is where the problems start but they only get worse from there and about 5 minutes later, all 5 members of the family are yelling, there is crying and at least one person leaves the table. For me, this is incredibly awkward because I sit there and do not say a single word. It's most definitely not my place to get involved but the whole situation is so uncomfortable. It is selfish of me to think about myself when the rest of the family is clearly so devastated by it, but it truly makes me want to not eat meals with them at all. If I had the money to eat my meals out of the house I most definitely would, but the reality is that its just not possible. I also end up spending a lot of time in the house instead of in my studio because I don't have internet out there, and that means no skype, no facebook and no blogging!!

Anyways, I also think that my issues are also a result of just plain living with new people. I am sure that after a good 2 week holiday spent with family, friends, eggnog, gingerbread and turkey I will be ready to face them again! I am going to finish the post with a few pictures now so I hope you enjoy.

xo

Hello friends and family,

I hope you are all well and happy on this fine Sunday. Once again, I have neglected my blog and now have tons of things to tell you, but have a hard time remembering them all. OHOH!

I will start by saying that for the last month, I have been in full on Christmas mode. Pretty much everything I think about revolves around Christmas, and that includes seeing all (or most) of you wonderful people when I get home. In exactly 1 weeks time I will be sitting on an airplane probably somewhere over Ontario. Hey, I may even get to wave at Pere Noel in the skies, or am I a little early for that? I really have had trouble thinking of much else, and I think that is in part because everywhere I go I see Christmas. The streets, store windows, and even the snow just make me wish I was home drinking eggnog under the Christmas tree. They don't have eggnog here!! Who are these people anyways?

Truth be told, There have been some less than pleasant things happening here lately and I think that is why I am so desperate to get out. I have not, up to this point, written much about the family goings on on my blog in case they read it one day but I am not sure that will ever happen, and if it does, maybe they will understand how it affects me also. Things with the family are 95% wonderful, and I am still really enjoying them. Philippine and I have become better friends now and although she has her days, I do feel like we have a pretty strong bond. Arnaud is great as usual and we even went to see the new Harry Potter movie a few weeks ago. Yes, we saw it in French without subtitles, and I understood everything!! Alex is where the problems start, and although they do not concern me at all, it makes things around the house very tense. As I have mentioned before, he is at boarding school during the week and only comes home on the weekends. Since I got here at the end of August, not a single weekend has gone by where at least 2 meals have been completely ruined. It is not usually fair to blame a sole person for something like that, but it is honestly awful. I do not speak for sometimes 2 hours at a time because its not my place but it is truly uncomfortable and unpleasant for me. But think, if it's that bad for me, how bad it must be for his parents.

Maybe once a week, if the timing works out, Xavier will drive me to school on his way to work. It is great for me because I get to sleep in a few extra minutes, and it also gives me a chance to catch up with him. I talk to Cecile a lot during the week but Xavier always has other things going on so this is a good opportunity for me to get to know him a bit better. He is a vice-president of technology development at a very large telecom company here in France and is currently working on a massive deal. His job is clearly very stressful and I am not sure I have seen him relax since being here. Forgive me for sidetracking a bit, but I feel the background is necessary.

Around mid-october is when the problems really started... I was aware that things were not good with Alex (clearly) but the past few days had been exceptionally bad. Late night phone calls to him at school and a lot of yelling, and then he was kept in a detention on Saturday morning. Xavier revealed to me in one of our rides to school that Alex had caused some sort of mayhem on the coach bus he normally took to and from his school. He was permanently kicked off the bus and forced to take the train twice a week, costing his parents an extra 400 euro a month. After this incident, Xavier and Cecile met with the principle of the school and were informed that Alex was on thin ice and had to show some behavioral improvement, or he was going to be asked to find a new school in January. Fast forward a few months and we get to this past week. Alex had been expelled from his school. Xavier and Cecile now have 5 days, before the schools close for Christmas, to find him a new place to go to school in January. I am not sure if this is selfish but it means he is moving home, and I am now going to be living with him all the time. I have only spent 2 days at the house with him when his parents weren't home and they were truly awful. I have only cried twice since coming to France and one of those times was because of him. For the most part of the time he ignores me and pretends I don't exist but on those days where I am responsible for telling him when to do his homework, things can get quite bad.

I feel very sad for the parents because they are at a complete loss for what to do. They both have stressful jobs but this on top of it is just awful. I wish things would get better but I guess I don't really see that happening any time in the near future. Anyways, now I have all that off my chest, I'll get back to the good stuff!

Last Sunday I met up with my friend Christie Lee. I have known Christie since kindergarten and she has been at school at Versailles since September. We had been trying to get together for ages and when we finally did it was well worth it! We met at Place de la Concorde and spent some time at the Christmas market there. Christie's mom, Carlotta, is here for the month so she came with us too. After that we ventured to the market at La Defense and each made a few purchases there. Christie has worked a bit with Nike and was given tickets to go to the Paris Saint Germain soccer game that night and asked me to go with her, so after a good lunch in the market we headed off to that. It was really awesome to be in such a huge stadium and with so many enthusiastic fans! Paris won the game too which made it even better.

As you can probably tell, I am getting tired and my writing is getting increasingly worse so I am going to end this post here, and rather abruptly too. I hope you are all good and happy and feel free to leave comments or send me an email if you ever want to say hi!!

Love you all and hope to see you next week!

xoxo

M