Aujourd’hui, Miles et moi avons fait son premier bonhomme du neige. Today, Miles and I made his first snowman.

You can view a slideshow of all the pictures here.

Well, it finally snowed here in Boulogne. We woke up to a world of white. What a surprise!

You can view a slideshow of the photos here.

Lately, I’ve been getting off the metro at Cluny – La Sorbonne and just walking around. There are so many things that give me such pleasure, like getting lost in the basement of Image comics and coming out with just the right treasure (like a little book by Sempé) or sitting at table at Loulou’ for a burger and an actual milkshake.

We were walking though the Place St. Michele in Paris when Miles’ attention was captured by a man blowing bubbles. He was delighted and dancing and running after each bubble. People were watching, some people were taking photos. I was laughing so hard with joy that I forgot to take a photo… but I saw it in my mind, just like this, like an illustration out of a Madeline childrens’ book. So I went ahead and attempted to draw it.

America extends a gesture of thanks to the French on Thanksgiving.

Our second movie together in two years! I almost forgot what a pleasure it is to sit in a dark theater with the gal I love. We saw George Clooney’s The Ides of March which was wonderfully tense. Afterward, while taking a leisurely walk past galleries, bookstores and shops we found an actual mexican restaurant! We noshed on nachos and smoky salsa and sipped a pretty good margarita while chatting with Miguel, the owner, about horchata and memories of Phoenix Ranch Market. We meandered back to the subway and leaned on each others shoulder on the metro ride home. Miles did great at the creche, his first full day there. Back at home, guilt free, after a great date!

On the way home from Concorde, Miles was getting antsy, so we got off at Pont de Bir-Hakeim and took a leisurely walk down the Ile aux Cygnes, one of our favorite places. We saw dogs, birds, boats, trains, joggers and more. In particular, it was great to see the leaves changing and to shuffle through the leaves that have already fallen.

Sun setting at the Bois. Light through the changing leaves. The breeze spreads around the sound of tumbling leaves.

Miles opened his present from dad and was surprised to find Bullseye. But what was so cute was to hear him immediately ask, “Jessie?” Where’s Jessie. His eyes lit up when he then opened his present from Mom. “Jessie!!!!!”

Again, in search of the perfect cafe gourmande, I took the 123 bus to the Michel Ange Auteuil metro stop and ambled from cafe to cafe scaning the posted menus and guaging the tables outdoors for their proximity to the wind.

It was such a thoroughly gray day, I had the feeling I was walking inside an old-time, hand-tinted daguerrotype.

I sat down at one promising cafe, but it just didn’t have the charm I was looking for. So I meandered a bit, eyeing the Foie Gras shop and remembering how Rene and I had been walking here about this time last year when the first snow flakes of the season started to fall.

I descended into the metro at Eglise d’Auteuil‎ and popped up again at Jean Jaurès and walked towards Route de la Reine. On the way, one cafe which, in the past, I had seen seating crowds of people had erected a plastic tent around their street-side tables; perhaps on a blistering cold day that would be fine, but today I wanted to feel the wind on my face and listen to the traffic like it was the sounds of the rainforest.

Nothing. I hopped on the 72 bus and got off just before the round pointe. I sat down at Le Boulonaise cafe where I had seen so many dyed-in-the-wool locals and thought I could see myself relaxing there; but the noise from the construction site next to the Monoprix sent me packing. I checked out the menu at the Beaux-Artes cafe and decided that the Brasserie Jean Baptise was still the best cafe in the neighborhood (although there was the quaint cafe with the sunlight-yellow fascade that I still want to check out with Rene…) but for now, after empirical testing, it really was the best.

I went in, talked with the waiters in my apologetic English and was served a complete cafe gourmand as expected. Instead of espresso, I had asked for a cafe viennois which arrived with a comical cone of whipped cream dusted with powdered chocolate. I should have taken a picture, but suffice to say that the adventure was getting to this point.

I was so tickled to use my mobile phone as a wi-fi hotspot and to be taking a whole hour to relax and read, write at the computer and patiently shave away at the edges of my deserts while I watched people walking through the daguerrotype of the day.