Serenade

Tuesdays have been good of late: things seem to come together work-wise on Tuesdays, and the kids kind of bounce around happily all day (I don't think any of us will ever get used to not having school on Wednesday: so delicious!). Today was especially good, and then just got better. So, first the good. Let's be clear: Garfield is a weird, reprehensible character, but Iris has decided that she loves watching Garfield first thing in the morning. Normally, this would be totally uncool, but, hey, it's in French! and she actually walks away from it when the show ends at 7:30 a.m. - plenty of time for croissants and the ride to school (it's cold again, so we're back in the car). This is the least non-hideous image of Garfield I could find - plus, an art historical reference!

There were actually lots of different things I wanted to write about tonight. The first would have been the Day of the Woman (la Journée de la Femme) - and though I could do an entire entry on how terrible most websites in France are (look at this one - ow!), what's the point since they have cheeses all figured out? I could write about womanhood in France, and the eternity (and oppression?) of such elegance (here on the right you have the beautiful c. 1500 B.C.E. fresco profile of a woman from Knossos who seized the imagination of her discoverers so that they named her "La Parisienne" - because gorgeous, sophisticated women have always come from France!) - but I find myself instead being very curious about working French moms, and having nothing to say on that yet (there was a devastating piece in the New York Times a few weeks ago about German working moms, but that's different - I think!), I'll hold off on that as well.

The second would have been the astounding Easter display at the grocery store today - but I didn't bring my camera, and really, you have to see the size of these chocolate Easter eggs to believe them. Oh! and there were Easter Bells on display as well (never the same since the David Sedaris story, "Jesus Shaves" - wow! found a YouTube video of him reading it!).

SO - all this to say that what I have to share today is a total surprise. This was the "day getting even better" part (work was swell today, too, but truly, I won't write about that!): first, I used that gorgeous Bleu de Gex in a garlic cream sauce over fresh tagliatelle for dinner (the sauce was made by bringing garlic to sing in butter, then adding crême fraiche, then adding the cheese, then mushrooms that had been cooked in butter and wine - we'll be lucky if our kids aren't the youngest people ever to have some kind of coronary experience!) - it was soooo good: I even got kisses from Oliver and Iris for it (love their love of crazy French cheeses!). Then: Eleanor decided to do the dishes with her Dad, which is just so dang sweet. She was the little queenie at dinner tonight, because right before dinner, she did this:



I just couldn't believe it (you can hear me not believe it at the end - oy!). She just went for it and there it was: her favorite little song about a walrus ("morse") who rescues a penguin ("penguin") (!) from a hunter ("chasseur"). After dinner, we settled into Le Petit Nicolas, which we just like more and more each time. This is all so nice - I'm storing it up as Mac is about to do two weeks' of research in Germany starting next Monday. But before then: Mercredi!!! (Wednesday!)