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Well, this is it. Tomorrow morning we are leaving Paris, after almost 9 months. The past few days have been really great, with hardly a hint of finality, though the fun activities have been punctuated by sadly necessary packing activities. Part of the reason that it has been easy to pretend that we aren’t in fact leaving so very soon is that we’ve had yet more guests the past few days, new ones at that. My brother arrived here Wednesday, after a journey of 6 weeks or so that included sailing across the Atlantic (yes sailing! like on a boat!), taking a ferry across the English Channel and hitchhiking here from the ferry. The next day, my cousin arrived here, the third of three brothers, all of whom will have now visited us during our Paris sojourn.

We’ve had a great time with them — their first day, when my cousin Y was still jetlagged, we walked all around, along the Seine and through the Tuileries gardens, through some of the Latin Quarter and St. Germain des Pres, got great sandwiches at Cosi and went inside Notre Dame and back to our apartment, before going back out to eat the magically delicious falafel and schwarma on offer at L’As du Falafel on rue des Rosiers. The next day we went to the Pompidou Center, and saw both special exhibits which were great, as well as the phenomenal permanent collection. We went to dinner at Cafe Breizh to introduce my cousin to the wonders of Bretagne galettes and cider. Then on Saturday, it being Sabbath, we walked to the Louvre, making one last use of our free entrance cards, and spent several hours there. Cousin Y is a big lover of art and he was seriously wowed by the Louvre– 3 hours probably wasn’t enough for him. He’ll be here a few days longer after we leave town, and I am pretty sure he plans to return and take another crack at it. Saturday night we finally had a picnic by the side of the Canal St. Martin, something I’ve seen people doing many times and always thought would be fun. We had great cheese and salads, with our favorite baguettes from Eric Kayser. Our friends V & M came to say goodbye to us, and my brother J brought his guitar, which encouraged a number of French kids to make friends with us. We met two hilarious girls, Epenine and Margot (I think!), and one of them told us of her dreams of moving to America to be a cowgirl, and informed us that she is not a fan of Guy Debord. We all sang a bunch of songs together, and I somehow drank way, way too much wine.

Then, yesterday, after getting a VERY SLOW start to the day,  we took the train out to Versailles, where we hung out in the massive gardens. We weren’t planning to go inside the Chateau, because we knew the gardens were huge and Y didn’t seem to care to see the inside anyway, but we ended up getting there so late that it was totally free to get in (normally they charge even for the gardens on weekends in tourist season). We only had a few hours there, but it was really great. We sat on the King’s lawns and ate cherries and felt royal, and Y sketched everything in his ever-present sketchbook, and J did a reading from Howl. Then we returned to Paris and had an OUT OF THIS WORLD meal at one of our favorite places to eat in Paris, Le Verre Volé. I’m not kidding — the wine is of course always lovely there (it is inside a wine shop) but they also have a way of making fairly simple food taste incredible. For example, some of the dishes we shared were a heirloom tomato platter (with sea salt, chili flakes, and some other deliciousness), a white asparagus dish with poached egg (versions of which I’ve had and enjoyed at several Paris restaurants) and a platter of mozzarella cheese with eggplant. All of these dishes were fairly simple, but we all agreed that they were also some of the best food we’d each ever eaten. Like, EVER.

Having my cousin & brother here has made everything fresh and new and exciting, and allowed us to feel like it is still “normal life” in Paris, which for us means having guests and running around town with them. Our guests have been a nearly constant feature of our months in Paris, and while I’ve probably allowed it to excuse me from meeting actual Parisians (oops) and doing other work I should have gotten done here, it has been really a wonderful experience, and special on its own terms, to be able to host so many of my friends and family in such an amazing city. That said, I may never have houseguests again.

Just kidding, it has been truly an honor and wonderful to host so many of my friends, and I kind of wish more of my friends could have made it here. I am really eager to be back in NYC soon, after 7 years, where an abundant majority of my friends and family live, so I can start throwing constant brunches and shabbat dinners. What can I say, I really love feeding people! In honor of our revolving cast of characters here at Chez R & A, I am going to do a blog post about all of our guests, a bit later.

For now, I shall say au revoir to Paris, but probably not to this blog. We’re off to spend a month in Greece & Turkey, and I’m incredibly excited for that, as sad as I am to leave Paris. Should I post sporadic updates from the road? What do you think, my 3 readers?

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