Champs de Mars

The happy couple at the entrance to the Champs de Mars.

One of the things that is very different between Paris and the majority of Canadian cities are the green spaces and parks that can be found in virtually every Canadian neighbourhood. In Paris, due to the lack of space, these parks just do not exist. One of the exceptions however is the Champs de Mars, which is found at the base of the Eiffel Tower and extends south towards the Ecole Militaire. During our promenade, we decided that wandering the park was a great idea as the sun was out and taking a walk in a park in the month of January would something new for us.

The Champs de Mars is named after Mars, the god of war, as its original purpose was for military drilling and parades. Today however, the Champ de Mars is a beautiful, lush, green park where even in the month of January you can find joggers, people having picnics, and of course more than a few tourists taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower.

We knew the Eiffel Tower was close to the Champs de Mars, but couldn't agree on a direction to take. Mindy wanted to go left...

...while I was convinced we had to go to the right.

Mindy sends her love from Paris!

Gardens of Les Invalides

Mindy in the middle of the parade ground at Les Invalides.

As Mindy and I found ourselves with the day off due to the strike by the Metro and RER workers, we decided to put our tourist hats back on and explore a little more of Paris. We headed for the Hotel National des Invalides with the full intention of taking in this fortress commissioned in the 17th century for retired and disabled soldiers. Les Invalides boasts a stunning basilica and now also houses a war museum with artifacts detailing the history of the French military.

Upon our arrival however, we were surprised by the weather we were experiencing as the temperature was only one or two degrees above zero, however due to the fact that there was not a cloud in the sky, it was beautiful day to be outdoors and we decided that it was best not wasted inside a museum. So we stuck to the gardens and explored the outside of the building.

The gardens at Les Invalides are perfectly manicured and contain more then a few historical pieces including rows of cannons used by the armies of Napoleon. It was a fantastic way to spend an afternoon in the beautiful sunshine.

Going into Les Invalides.

Can you guess which Looney Toons character was Mindy's favorite? Maybe Willie Coyote!

In front of the real "Golden Dome".

As we left the gardens, I asked this gentleman for directions to our next stop. He kindly showed the way on his map and then we were off.

Grève = Strike

Metro information announcing the reduction of services for the strike day.

Le droit de grève (right to strike). It is often joked that the national pastime of France is to go on strike. If you don't like something, strike about it. Someone says nasty to you, go on strike. It is the solution to all your woes in France.

In response to the financial crisis, the public sector employees in the fields of transportation and education have decided that to send a message to the government, they would have a day where they would go on strike. It is of no concern to them that by doing so they are inconviniencing thousands of other people who rely on the Metro and RER services to make a living and do their jobs. Yes, this group includes both myself and Mindy.

The best part about the strike is they would not tell anyone until 24 hours before the strike how badly services would be affected. Needless to say, we had to play it safe and reschedule all of out classes from Thursday to either today or Friday. As it turns out, the Metro is only slightly disturbed as most trains will be running at 50% of there regular schedule or better. The RER however is only going to be running 20% of its trains and only during peak times. This really affects me as I need the RER to get to where I teach on Thursdays.

So tomorrow will be an unofficial holiday of sorts here in Paris as we will participate in the strike, although unwillingly, and take the day off.

Not going anywhere on this tomorrow.

Mindy & Elodie

Mindy & Elodie after an exciting night of hockey.

Being the wife of a hockey player is a very challenging task as you are forced to move to faraway cities where you probably do not know anyone. Your husband gets an immediate social group in the form of a hockey team while his wife gets to hang out at home, waiting for husband to come home from practice.

Fortunately, Mindy is a very social girl and has had the pleasure of making a few friends to help pass the time and make sure she gets her quota of girl-talk. One of those friends is a former student of her's with whom she made an instant connection. Elodie is an employee of Chanel and works in the original building purchased by Coco Chanel when the company was just getting started. Sharing a common interest in high fashion and Starbucks, her and Mindy have become fast friends and rarely does a week go by where they are not meeting up for lunch.

This past weekend, Mindy invited Elodie and her boyfriend, Fabrice, to an Asnieres HC hockey game to help introduce them to Canada's pastime. They seemed to enjoy the game, even though the home team lost, and even joined us for a drink at the TGC for more hockey and a beer after the game.

Fabrice laughs at one of Mindy's jokes, or maybe her french.

Regular Season Game #14

Inconsistent play is starting to become our motto, and it's a trait that we really need to shed before the playoffs start in just 5 short weeks. In our second last home game of the season, we welcomed the Elans (Elks) of Champigny to Asnieres this past weekend. The last four periods of hockey for our team have been really good as we came from behind to beat ACBB and then played a complete game in our victory over Evry. For some strange reason however, the streak would end there.

We started out the game in a slugish mood and never really shock off the feeling. Instead of playing the body, we were stick checking. Instead of skating, we were coasting. Instead of shooting, we were holding onto the puck. Instead of driving the net, we were playing on the perimeter. The list could go on. We just were not playing to our strengths. We did manage to notch a goal in the first however as Franz Ehrhart notched one on a scramble in front of the net.

Unfortunately in the second period, Champigny figured out that they had a chance to steal the game from us. We got caught napping and one of their players slipped in behind our defense to take a breakaway pass in on goal. Of course the puck ended up in the back of our net. At the end of a pretty unexciting second, the score was 1-1.

In the third, Champigny came out on a mission. They wanted the win. They notched a goal six minutes into the period on a blown coverage in our zone. We were not going to go quietly however and responded just three minutes later when Andronik won a face-off to me back at the point. I lofted a wrist shot towards the net with Andronik moving towards their goalie. He scooped the rebound and sent in cross crease to a wide open J.C. Fornero for easy marker. Again however, we could not get things moving as a unit and while we were on the power-play, they managed to take the lead on a short-handed goal. Add another into our empty net and we go home with a 4-2 loss.

A tough game to swallow as we have been playing really well of late. The guys were pretty disapointed in themselves after this one and I think it might serve to motivate us that much more going into the final four games of the season.

Images of Paris

During our time here in Paris, Mindy and I have had many wonderful adventures that we have been able to share via the blog. Usually we have a couple of photos or a short video to accompany the description of the event or activity in which we participated. Occasionaly we have also posted about regular features of Paris that most tourists don't write home about like the Metro, billboard advertising, and the climate. Below are some photos I took that shows some of the daily scenes that we view as we travel throughout this magical city.

A typical Parisian building with a rounded corner. Businesses are often located on the lower floors with small apartments on the upper levels.

Even when the weather is a little cooler in the winter months, the Parisian still enjoy taking a coffee or a meal on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.

The poor can be found everywhere in Paris. In the Metro or on the sidewalk, you can often see them with a cup in hand hoping for a few euros.

Cars are everywhere in Paris. Most roads, such as Boulevard Haussmann above, are quite picturesque with trees lining the sides.

While in New York last year, I made sure to sample some roasted nuts from a street vendor. The Parisian version is not quite the same.

A typical scene outside of most buildings as the French love to smoke and chat.

One Year Wiser

Cakes just don't look this good in Canada.

Today marked the beginning of the countdown to thirty for my lovely wife as we celebrated her 29th birthday. Lucky for us, this countdown will continue for the next couple of decades as Mindy has decided she will remain in her twenties for as long as she wants to.

The day started out like any other, with me waking up early to make my bride her breakfast and pack her lunch for the day. I guess I'm in training for when we have kids. The cookie for me however was that today, her wake-up call was "Good morning sunshine, how does it feel to be old like your husband". Her prompt reply came in the form of a flying pillow and a groggy response that went a little something like this: "I was born at 7 am Canadian time, so shut up and leave me to my denial!"

To treat herself on this momentous day, Mindy decided that Starbucks with one of her students was in order. A tall mocha sans creme and the smile was back on her face...mainly because at noon she still considered herself twenty-eight.

After work, we picked up a cake on the way home to share with the rest of the Frat House from our local boulangerie. We knew it had red fruits in it, but the rest of the description from the baker was lost in translation. It turned out to be a pistachio cake layered with red fruit sorbet and a white frozen yogurt layer on the top with a mango glaze. As with anything produced in a French bakery, it was excellent.

Now as I write this post, Mindy is frantically working the eye cream and checking for grey hairs in the mirror as she continues her journey towards becoming a senior citizen.

Slicing the cake. Look for the big piece, that's the one belonging to the birthday girl!

Paris Metro

Both a blessing and a curse to the daily commuter in Paris, the Metro allows for quick, somewhat reliable, and economical transportation around the greater Parisian region. As most of our teaching occurs in the offices of our students, we are privilaged enough to get to ride the Metro a minimum of twice a day as we commute from Asnieres. More often then not however, we have to ride it a little bit more then that as our students might not all be be in the same location that day.

The Paris Metro system is considered one of the world's finest in terms of access to the entire city and the surrounding suburbs. Combined with the RER (regional train) and the suburban tramway, there is not a location that you cannot reach by rail. Most of the Metro trains run at two or three minute intervals so you are never waiting very long for a lift. The unfortunate part about the Metro is that everybody uses it, and as a result, the trains can be very crowded. This is especially true during the morning rush hour as everyone tries to get to work on time.

Our commute times range from 45 minutes to an hour and fifteen, depending on where we have to go in the city. Although it is far less stressful then the stop and go driving of Edmonton's winter streets, Mindy and I have both agreed that we miss our cars.

The Paris Metro stations are a maze of underground tunnels.

A train arrives at Republique station.

Can you figure out how to move around Paris now?

Game Photos vs. Evry

A couple of action shots from the game this past weekend at Evry.

Missed on a pinch, but still took my man.

Clearing the net on a penalty-kill.

Stepping up to meet the oncoming rush.

Set for the faceoff in our zone.

TGC Saturdays

Everyone has a beer and is ready to watch the game.

Everyone has heard of TGI Fridays, but what about TGC Saturdays? Canadians really don't comprehend how truly lucky we are to live in such a great country, especially those of us who live in both the Pacific and Mountain Time Zones. Between the NHL on TSN, Edmonton Oilers Hockey on Sportsnet West, Hockey Night in Canada, and the occasional NHL on Versus, we are never short having a game to watch. If you can catch a double-header, you can even watch hockey from the time you get home to when you go to bed.

In France, watching an NHL game is a little more complicated. First of all, we have to deal with the time zone issue as the Paris is six hours ahead of Toronto. So an "early" 7:00 pm start time is 1:00 am in Paris. Second, hockey is a little bit of niche sport in France as football rules the sports pages (and I'm not talking about the NFL here). So if we want to watch a hockey game you have to stay up until the middle of the night and watch via an internet feed, which can make it hard to gather the group to cheer on Montreal Canadians on a Saturday night. Unless you go for a TGC Saturday!!!

The Great Canadian bar on a Saturday night is the one spot in Paris where you are guaranteed to find a hockey game on the big screen and has become a favorite with the Asnieres Hockey Club after a big Saturday night win. This past weekend, as noted in my post yesterday, we won a huge game in convincing fashion, and so the boys and their ladies decided it was time to watch another hockey game.

We headed to Place St.Michel, where the TGC is located, and took over the biggest table in the bar. The boys headed outside to sit on the patio, while the girls stayed inside to chat until the game started. At 1:00 am, we all congregated back in front of the big screen (HD TV no less) and cheered for the Montreal Canadians against the Ottawa Senators. My grand-father, Ferbie St.Cyr, would have been proud.

After a couple of beers, two periods of hockey, a Montreal lead, and lots of laughs and fun, we all headed home as the effects of the playing the game earlier started to catch up with us. As per usual, I was asleep when the game ended.

Mindy was thrilled to be able to watch TWO hockey games in one evening!

Anne-Julie, Ludevine, & Mindy eventually did what girls do while watching a hockey game; they ignore their surroundings and chat.

Regular Season Game #13

This weekends game marked the beginning of the last third of the season for the team. We are in the streach run towards the playoffs and are battling for position heading into the post-season. We travelled to the south of Paris to face the Peaux-Rouges (Redskins) of Evry in an important game as Evry is one of the teams behind us that we would like to keep there.

The first period started off a little slow as we played a trapping system designed to limit the other team's scoring chances. We wanted to wait for the other team to make a mistake and our patience paid off as Andronik forced a turnover just inside the Evry zone. He grabbed the loose puck and went cross-ice to Olivier Ducam, who has been moved up to wing on the first line from defense, who put the puck into an open net. In typical New Jersey Devil/Minnesota Wild fashion, we relied heavily on our goalie to be better then the opposition goalie and Tommi was up for the challenge as he made several big saves for us in the period. After 20 minutes, Asnieres 1, Evry 0.

After the first period we changed our strategy and started to attack more aggresively. Unfortunatly we took a few penalties as a result which seemed to even out the momentum of the game. We did manage to notch a goal shorthanded however as Emelien Rouyer did a great job of finishing a nice counter-attack while Evry had the man advantage. If you take enough penalties however, you will eventually get burnt and we allowed Evry to notch a power-play marker mid-way through the period. The goal was a little suspicious however as their defenseman lofted a puck towards our net which was then re-directed into the net by their player's glove in front of Tommi. The referees missed it however and the period ended with the score 2-1.

In the third period we continued to quicken the pace and we started the period off with our captain, Sly Bourcet, getting on the scoresheet after a fantastic play by our young Finnish import, Paul Manushkin. Paul, with his linemates, had forced a turnover just inside the Evry zone which resulted in a short 2 on 1 situation in tight to the net. Sly tapped in an easy one and we were rolling. Evry were not going to go as quietly as ACBB did last weekend and scored another power-play goal on another suspect goal. This time the puck exited the zone and was brought back in off-side. Everyone in the rink saw it except for the guys that mattered (ie. the referees) and Evry put one into the back of our net as a result. The Asnieres Castors wanted the win however and we notched a power-play goal of our own a few minutes later when I moved a puck to Andro as we crossed the Evry blueline who then moved it Baptiste who ripped a twenty footer past the Evry goalie.

Evry continued to pour it on and tried to make a comeback as we took some more penalties and had to kill a 2 man advantage, but thanks to some great shot blocking, tough stick work, and a stellar goalie, we actually managed to spring our first man out of the box, Bruno Rivero, on a breakaway. Bruno made no mistake and sealed the win for us.

It was a great team effort as everyone bought into the system and played hard. Tommi was spectacular and probably played one of his most active games as he was really moving in the net. Next week we play Champigny at home in another big game as the road to the playoffs continues.

Sunday Brunch

Every season in France has a corresponding pastry and for January we have the Galette des Rois.

Sunday brunch in Canada usually means a late big breakfast enjoyed sometime in the late morning to early afternoon. In France, Sunday brunch as Mindy and I found out this past weekend is an all-day event where the goal is to make sure it is your only meal of the day. At least that was our interpretation after accepting an invitation by our friends, Robert and Corinne, to come over for "lunch" this past weekend. In addition to Mindy and I, Andronik & Anne-Julie, Tommi, and Paul also attended to round out the international contingent. Representing France were our loyal supporters Marc and Jocelyn, who had us over for dinner in the fall. It ended up being a fabulous day with great friends and fantastic food.

The meal started with appetizers of bread stuffed with goat cheese and ham, together with a hot cream cheese dish that Corinne whipped up. I would have been satisfied with this as the main meal, but being an experienced dinner in France, I have learnt about pacing yourself when eating. We then sat down for Beef Bourgeon with potatoes and once again Corinne proved her talent for cooking as the meat absolutely melted in your mouth. Robert was of course very helpful in choosing the appropriate wine for each course as a red was selected for the main course.

After eating a sizable serving of beef, it was time to move on to the cheese. Corinne produced a round bloc of cheese (unfortunately I can't remember the name) with a blade on a centre pole that produces rosettes of cheese. Of course a wine was required as you can see below.

The designated cheese cutter. The cheese wheel is little harder to use then it looks.

Robert, Corinne, Marc, & Jocelyn look amused by my efforts to work the cheese wheel and produce the perfect cheese rosette.

Mindy finally had to demonstrate the proper technique.

After we finished with the cheese, it was time for dessert, and we had the opportunity to try Galette des Rois, which is an almond flavoured pastry that is consumed in January in France to celebrate the coming of the Three Wise Men to visit the Baby Jesus. The tradition with the Galette des Rois is that each cake has a ceramic figure inside. The person who finds it is designated the King or Queen for the evening and must wear a crown. We dove into the cake, which proved to be delicious, and Anne-Julie was the lucky lady to find the ceramic princess.

Corinne cuts careful slices of the Galette des Rois.

Anne-Julie found the ceramic princess and chose Andro as her prince.

Rollin in the Alps

We had planned to have this video ready last week, but there were production and editing delays. Such is show business.

Our time in the Alps was absolutely amazing as we partook in an amazing variety of activities including skiing, touring multiple towns (Annecy, Geneva, & Chamonix), eating, and flying. It was an amazing experience and we cannot thank Romain Sauvage and his family enough for their hospitality.

Enjoy the video!

Regular Season Game #12

Have you ever been to a hockey game where you watched for the first two periods and thought about leaving because the game was simply brutal? But you stayed anyway because with the game of hockey, you just never know how things will work out and the third period was worth the price of admission by itself. Well, the Asnieres Hockey Club treated their faithful fans to this exact game Saturday night as we hosted our Parisian rivals from Boulogne (ACBB). Thus the video is a little short this week as there were not a lot of choice highlights from the first two periods and the memory card was full by the time we reached the third period.

The first period just really seemed to lack any intensity as we just could not get our legs under us. Despite that, we managed to strike first as our third line managed to seek a shot past the opposition goalie. Even with the goal, we still could not get moving and ACBB tied the game up on the power-play mid-way through the period. It was a sloppy period with few highlights and finished with the score tied at 1-1.

In the second period we seemed to struggle even more. After an uneventful first ten minutes, ACBB scored on a bad turnover by us in the neutral zone followed by an even worse defensive play. We were down 2-1 and things were not looking great. The referee then made a few questionable calls and that took our focus away from the game. As a result we took even more penalties. Fortunately our penalty killing was working as we managed to keep things even. At the end of the period, ACBB still held their 2-1 advantage over us.

In between periods there was alot of frustration in our dressing room. However we settled down a little and the team re-focused to come in the third period and play our style of game and get both pucks and bodies to the net. We knew we were the better team and it was time to simplify our strategy and get the basics taken care of.

Three minutes into the third period and we got the break we were looking for as once again our third line provided a little offence. A loose puck thrown towards the net, a little deflection and the red lamp was on. The very next shift I picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and drove to the net. In the scramble that followed, where four Asnieres players could be found within five feet of the net, I found the loose puck at the side of the net, stepped behind and fed a pass out the other side to Olivier Ducam who tucked it neatly in the net. 3-2 for the good guys and we were not looking back. The very next shift, J.C. Fornero added a goal and we were really trucking. We had momentum going for us and were determined to make a statement with this period. Andronik added a goal on a penalty shot before Ducam scored his second on a pretty feed from Andronik, who had picked up a rebound from one of my point shots. A final goal by Andronik on the power-play with 30 seconds left in the game capped off a six goal period and sealed the win.

Hockey night in Asnieres is ready to face-off.

The ladies in the stands enjoy a chocolat chaud while cheering on the team.

Pictures from the Alps

Just a few more pictures from our trip to the Alps. It was an amazing experience for us and we can't thank Romain and his family enough for their kindness and amazing hospitality.

We sure did enjoy our trip to the Alps.

The staircase in the chalet. We stayed in the loft at the top.

The huts discovered by Mindy and Anne-Julie after a two hour climb with snowshoes. No hot chocolate was served.

During our trip, Romain arranged for us to tour a farm where they made Thome cheese. Above is the cheese as it ages.

Mindy and David at the top of Annecy outside the chateau.

Flying in the Alps

Mindy and Anne-Julie are strapped in and ready for take-off!

In the Happy New Year post, I added a picture with Mindy and I beside a Cesna plane. Well that plane wasn't just for posing beside. It actually belonged to two of Romain's friends from Paris who instead of making the six hour drive like everyone else, decided to fly down from Paris for a quick little visit. Farred and Kef make quite the duo and you have already seen them other pictures as they joined our group and partook in meals and skiing with the rest of us.

Being quite kind and generous, they offered to take all of up on a couple of sight seeing flights over Lac d'Annecy and the surrounding mountains. It was an incredible opportunity and of course we were all for it. And so Mindy and Anne-Julie jumped into the back of the little four-seater and away they went.

The flight was incredible as they had the chance to see the Alps from a new perspective and take some amazing aerial pictures. The pilots of course took the opportunity to joke around about running out of fuel and other inside jokes that don't seem that funny to the passengers, but the girls played along and had fun anyway.

When they returned, the guys decided that lunch was in order before they took Andronik and I up for a flight. Unfortunately when we returned and loaded up the plane, our pilots discovered that the radio was malfunctioning and as a result the plane had to be grounded. And so the girls were the only ones to truly enjoy the experience of flying above the Alps.

Watch out for that mountain ahead.

Overlooking Lac d'Annecy.

After a stomach churning flight, Mindy is glad to touchdown safely!

Eating in the Alps

Romain prepares the Raclette for our opening meal in the Alps.

French food is widely considered to be some of the best in the world and during our recent trip to the Alps, we were prepared to take one for the team and really find out how good it can be. We were warned by Romain that we would be consuming several great meals consisting of regional specialties with names like Raclette, Tartiflette, and Fondue. We came prepared and of course, the food was amazing.

Upon our arrival in the Alps on the evening of the 27th, Romain quickly informed us that we had about 15 minutes to unpack our bags before we had to leave for his uncle's house for the first of many great meals. We arrived to find that the evenings speciality would be Raclette, which consists of a meal of French cheese melted over potatoes. Sounds pretty simply, and it was, but the quality of the cheese really defines the Raclette. I believe we had Thome that evening which is a cheese native to the Haute-Savoie region of France. Of course we also had meats, other cheeses, breads, wine, and dessert (like any proper French meal), but the Raclette was what really hit the spot.

The table is set for Raclette.

The Raclette was only the appetizer of our fabulous tour of food in the Alps as I am convinced Romain planned it that way to acclimatize our Canadian stomachs for the culinary delights that would follow. Next on the menu was Tartiflette and for this specialty, we would be making it ourselves as Romain was going to put on a cooking demonstration for us. With Romain leading the way, Mindy and I followed him around the grocery store as he selected only the finest ingredients for the cooking workshop that was to follow.

The Tartiflette is now ready to bake.

Tartiflette is a dish made with potatoes, bacon, cream, onions, and of course, a specialty cheese native to the region called Reblochon. Once again it is a fairly simply dish, however the taste of all the ingredients baked together simply overwhelm the taste buds. Mindy took careful notes and is planning on importing this dish to Canada upon our return.

The group is ready to dig into some Tartiflette.

New Year's Eve in France is celebrated in style with of course, a fantastic meal. We were invited once again to the house of Romain's uncle where the Sauvage family warmly welcomed us and made us a part of the family for the evening as we sat down with a group of 21 people for a fabulous home cooked gourmet meal. We started the evening off with some meats, light cheeses, and bread to warm up the taste buds before proceeding to the second course of oysters on the half shell.

Twenty-one for dinner on New Year's.

Mindy is ready to try her first oyster!

This was a first for Mindy and although nervous at first, she tried them out and found out that they are actually pretty good! Next came the foie gras and another first for both Mindy and myself. Leading up the Christmas holidays, our students had raved about how good foie gras tasted. Now was our chance to find out and let me tell you, it lived up to its billing.

Foie gras on baked baguette with a little fig jam = Delicious!!!

After the foie gras we then had sausage and small potatoes with a salad for the main course. This was followed by the cheese platter of a variety of regional cheeses especially selected for the occasion. Dessert was another traditional French dish as we had a Buche de Noel, which is a Christmas log cake. It finished off a fantastic meal that only took about three and half hours to consume.

The cheese platter.

For our final meal in the Alps on New Year's Day, Romain reserved a table for the group at a restaurant built on top of a barn. Yes, that's right, a barn. As in the kind that cows live in. Thankfully there was plexiglas between us and the cows although a certain farmyard smell was still evident throughout the meal. It didn't really matter however as we prepared to feast on more Raclette and experience authentic Fondue. I know you can get Fondue in Canada, but I'm telling you it is simply not the same as the quality of cheese used in France is no comparison to the Canadian counterparts. After another five course meal including meats, cheeses, potatoes, more cheeses, and fruits, we were down for the count and ready to close this chapter of our trip to the Alps.

The group had no trouble polishing off the fondue and raclette.

Bon appetite from the Alps!