During one of our first shopping trips to a local supermarket we were somewhat surprised to find that a lot of breakfast cereals here feature chocolate. While it may be normal in North America for chocolate to be part of sugary cereals, usually marketed to kids, here chocolate is even included in so-called “healthier” cereals. [...]
A few days ago I sent out a mass email message to people in my address book telling them about our new Paris blog, and within a few hours I got a surprising reply: “Whaddaya know, I’m in Paris now too.” It turns out that an old friend of mine, a Buddhist monk from Berkeley [...]
Before we moved here, I spent a lot of time looking at Web sites about Paris. I did this partly to keep me motivated through the sometimes difficult visa process, but mostly to get ideas about what we would do and see (and eat of course) once we arrived. I’ll admit that I have an [...]
Ah, the humble baguette. This particular specimen was procured about half a dozen doors down from our building for € 0.80 (a bit over a dollar). We could have chosen at least three other bakeries within two blocks of here, had we been in the mood for a slightly different texture or aroma. And every [...]
On Saturday, July 13 (the eve of Bastille Day, or as it’s known here, Fête National), there was a free concert of African music at the Place de la Bastille. Morgen had read about this, but it drew my attention a couple of days earlier when I saw the name Johnny Clegg (one of my [...]
One of the major items on our to-do list once we arrived in Paris was to acquire some sort of transit pass—not having a car, we knew we’d be relying heavily on the Métro (Paris’s subway system) to get us long distances across the city. Although it’s possible to buy Métro tickets for individual trips [...]
Of the many sights I’ve become accustomed to seeing all over Paris, few warm my heart as much as this one: the ubiquitous public toilette. These things are all over the place (especially in the vicinity of Métro stops and tourist attractions), and I’ve frequently made use of them. Previously, they were all coin-operated, so [...]
Truffles for Breakfast is the ongoing story of two people, Morgen Jahnke and Joe Kissell, whose dream it was to leave behind their familiar San Francisco surroundings and live simpler but (we hope) more interesting lives in France. I described our decision to move to France in an article on Interesting Thing of the Day: [...]
