Giuliano Libero Fortunato

Ladies and Gentlemen, here is my nephew. This picture is dated two months ago. Now he's even better. 

Isn't he beautiful?

Dear sister, please, when's the next one?
 

2 months in Paris

I just realized today that we moved here exactly 2 months ago. I'm shocked. Time is running and it seems to me that we arrived yesterday. Looking back, I have to admit that this has been the hardest transition so far. 

Moving to LA was a piece of cake... Perhaps it's because I have an older and more demanding kid. When we arrived in LA, Josh was 3 1/2 and he would never question my choices. Now, it's a complete different  story. 

The school is hard, even more than expected and at the beginning we were all a bit frustrated. 

We were expecting a romantic, smooth and enchanted move to one of the most beautiful cities in the world and BAM! Surprise, nothing was easy. So it was hard. 

But we survived and I have the feeling we are getting better every day. Our son is relaxed now, he made new friends (same language, obviously), he started using some French words, he regularly buys the bread and few other items all by himself without getting hysterical (I'm of course 200 meters away, watching him), his sport and extracurricular activities are better organized and closer to his school now. We found a "tutor" for Josh, he is 22 and lives in the area. He speaks also some English. In a few months our son will speak way better than us this language. 

I finally was able to organize my working days in such a way that I get one day off and I can stay with Josh most of the afternoons.  

Giuseppe is still very busy, even though he stays home on Tue and Thursdays, but he is always traveling (now he's in Paraty - Brazil). Hopefully he'll get some rest in a month. 

Step by step, we made it through this hard time. We still miss our home a lot, and our friends. But we're trying with Skype to keep up with them. Who knows, perhaps in the future someone will come to visit us and Josh will carry his friends around...Let's hope!

Stop, this is the empire of Death!

After a week of rain, finally a sunny Sunday. And where my son wants to go? Down, underneath the ground, to visit the Catacombes of Paris. And so be it. Let's go 130 steps down, let's forget about the warm temperature and the sunlight...What a spectacular place! We spent 45 minutes in the dark, in long abandoned stone quarries transformed in a municipal Ossuary. Long corridors (1.2 miles) lined with "walls" made of ancient Parisian bones...what a site! I expected Josh to be somehow scared, on the contrary, he was fascinated by the place. But other kids, younger, were not as comfortable as him and we could hear them cry. 

Of course I wouldn't come here all alone, but apparently someone does: in fact the guide told us that there's a special Squad in the Police Department that spends nights rescuing adolescents lost in the galleries (it's part of an "initiation ceremony"). And that's not all, apparently in the past someone  organized a concert (guess the music? ) in one of the galleries!  

Coming out, this was Josh's comment:"Mom, can I have an ice-cream bone?". No comment!

La Cite' de la Science

Here we are, in La Villette, visiting for the first time the Cite' de la Science, this incredible huge museum that so much reminds me of the California Science Center. Of course we did the yearly-card so we'll get the chance to visit it several time. This place is immense and very well organized. We only had 3 hours and so we ended up visiting only a couple of areas. 

Naturally, Josh wanted to see the submarine first. So we did.

It was actually very interesting and the best part was the interactive museum at the end, where kids can play with the periscope and see all the models. As expected, Josh asked me to buy him all the boxes to build them...

Then we went inside the main exposition areas where there's all kind of scientific demonstrations. One suggestion: if you're in Paris and you have your kids with you, come here. It's really worth it!

I personally found really remarkable that they tried to explain, in a very realistic way, how people on a wheelchair struggle in doing all basic actions, as opening a door or going up a ramp. Well, this is the first time I saw something similar in a museum and Josh was impressed by how difficult it is to deal with such a "common" device. 

That said, I hope I'll never see him again on that kind of chair...scary!

l'Arc de Triomphe

Our Saturdays are a bit of a challenge ever since Josh started school. Perhaps is because of the amount of home works or because we are tired of all the week, we tend to go out only in the afternoon. I know, there so much to see and so little time. Any how, this time we tried at the Grand Palais, but if was closed. Hopefully he'll visit it next week with his school, so there you go....problem solved. Thanks school.

 

Of course, I had to take my mom to "Leon's", the one and only restaurant where "moules" are in every serving. I ate here the first time years ago, in 1997, when I spent 2 weeks in Paris as a visitor at the Institut de la Main (coincidence! It's the same place where I'm working now....). My cousin took me here the first night and I remember I loved it. So many mussels in one dinner. OMG. Fantastic! 

It's still the same, after so long. Fast, good food and good prices. Josh didn't want to try them so he ended up eating the more classic "fish and french fries". Next time, maybe?

Since we arrived here in Paris, Josh kept asking me to go to visit the Arc de Triomphe. Well, it isn't precisely around the corner from where we live and, with the school and the work, we didn't have time yet. There is reason why Josh is so interested in this monument: a couple of days before we moved here, he spent an afternoon at my dad's home playing "flight simulator" and of course he was able to lift off from Paris CDG with his Piper and fly by night all over Paris. He tried a couple of times to get through la Defense, but without success. Then he decided to fly through the Arc de Triomphe and of course he crashed right at its base. Naturally he wanted to check by himself the dimensions of the monument.

Sorry Josh, you'll have to practice more in order to get in that "little" arch!

Why do French say .... " tomber dans le panneau " ?

The term "tomber dans le panneau" (fall into the trap) is used to describe a person who has fallen into a trap without realizing it. This phrase refers to the origin to the field of hunting. During the XIII century, the "panneau" (panel), from the Latin "pannellus" (piece of cloth), described a net that hunters tended to catch small game such as rabbit or hare. The animals were often deceived by this trick and found themselves prisoners. The term therefore has no connection with traffic signs (panels)  or advertising that did not exist at the time.

  

September 12: the Tour Eiffel

This is a day I need to mark on my calendar. I was able, thanks to Josh, to take my mom on top of the Tour Eiffel. She doesn't even climb a ladder, so imagine her getting into the glass elevator and reaching the top. Obviously we were very excited and the day was windy but not rainy. 

She got lost endless times but who cares! No infarction, no fainting...a bit of dizziness between the second floor and the top ...just great.

Here's the proof. Mom, you're history now. 

Brava mamma!

September 11 - Versailles vs Van Gogh: 0-1

How big is the Palace of Versailles? 520,000 square feet according to the official website, not counting the gardens. I think that you can also see it from the space...so missing it it's quite an achievement. And of course, that's what happened to us today. We were 4 adults (Linda, Joe, my mom and myself) and 3 kids (Cal, Gabe and Josh) and we all jumped on the train heading to this immense palace. 

We were so excited about this adventure and we kept talking about all the magnificent fountains and gardens and galleries that we would see...that we didn't realize we were on the wrong train! After about 50 minutes of chatting, we finally look around us and that's when the "inconvenient truth" was revealed. We got off the train but by that time, between going back to Paris and then get to Versailles, it would have been another 1 hour 1/2...we would have waist the entire morning and part of the afternoon. So we took our chance and we decided to go and visit the surroundings....I have only one word that can define our day: serendipity. Infact, I would never ended up here if not by mistake.  Well, it turned out that we were in Auvers-sur-Oise, a village famous for the amount of Impressionist artists who lived or visited the place (Pissaro, Cesanne)...the most famous was Vincent Van Gogh. 

Josh in front of the Hotel de Ville 

Then we went to the Auberge Ravoux, where V.G. died 1 day after shooting himself in the chest! Now the place is a restaurant and is obviously a local attraction. My suggestion to them would be: make a coffee bar!
 

This is where Vincent Van Gogh lived and died.

Of course it was raining, so we decided to stop by the Touristic Office....bad luck, it was "fermee' " since it was lunch time. You see? Everyone always makes fun of the Italians who take the "siesta": here we are, in France, and noone works at lunch time! 

We had a pic-nic in the covered patio. 

At 2 pm finally we begin our visit to the Museum Daubigny (honestly, not worth it! It's just a collection of 2008-2009 paintings inspired to the naif artists). The book shop is more interesting!

We stop by the Musee' de l'Absinthe: I got a bottle (did anyone ever taste it? You can find it in the USA since the ban has been lifted some years ago). You have to pour 1/5 in the glass, then lay a spoon on the top of the glass, put a cube of sugar then pour 4/5 of fresh water soaking the sugar and mixing. We tried it tonight: it's nothing more that an anise-flavoured spirit and since I'm not a big fan of anise, no harm!

The best part of the visit was the Chateau d'Auvers http://www.chateau-auvers.fr/: it hosted a spectacularly modern-stroboscopic-interactive exposition. I'm not sure what my son understood about the Impressionism, certainly he was impressed by the amount of rotating spot lights and interactive displays. Ok, ok, it did last a bit too long but it would have been longer in Versailles. 

We made a quick stop by the Eglise Notre Dame...do you recognize it?

 

And then, just to complete our Van Gogh afternoon, we went to visit the place where he rests next to his brother. 

And that's about it!