First glace of the summer

by Kylie

Last week I got a chance to finally meet up with Ali of AliThinks who helped me out with some proof-reading for #thepaper.

Since it was a very warm day, I proposed to head over to Berthillon to get some ice cream - my first of the summer.

She agreed so we headed over to Ile Saint Louis to get us some from the Berthillon shop itself which was rather crowded.

There are lots of flavors to choose from - and handily translated into English as well...

I waffled between the Mint (Menthe) and Pear (Poire), but pear won out!

k&k get cultured #5 : urban art tour

by Kylie

this month's k&k get cultured was an urban art tour led by our good friends Michelle and Axel (of Paris Urban Adventures & Gadabout World fame).

since a picture is worth a thousand words, and the topic was art, i think i'll let them do the talking...
here is a sampling of what we saw:

if you are interested in a bit more info, Michelle put a link on the k&k forum - which you can find here.

we had such a great time on the tour, we may just have to do it again in the fall!

Following Aimée Leduc...

by Kylie

In Episode 338 and Episode 339 of Katia and Kyliemac V.O. we had the pleasure of speaking with Cara Black, author of the Aimée Leduc Detective Series.

One of the stories she told us was her "investigation" of the Maison Victor Hugo and how Aimée could escape the museum in the novel Murder in the Marais.

So when I was there this past weekend with some friends, we decided to see the place of escape for ourselves...

Aimée Leduc was here:

How to escape?

It won't be easy...

Clearly someone has read the novel and taken care of this oversight...

space invader

by Kylie

as i was out and about the other day, i spotted this :

i see these guys all over the place, but this was one i had never tripped over before. (probably since i'm generally never out of my own neighborhood).

you can find these invaders all over paris. the artist even has a wiki page. ( i want a wiki page. and an oompa loompa!)

if you are interested in finding out the locations of these bad boys, you can purchase maps of the cities where they can be found, and now there are even invader shoes you can purchase (they are giving me ideas...)!

for more invader-y goodness you can head over to the site.

Salon des Vins des Vignerons Indépendants

by Kylie

The other day I got a texto from the delightful Ksam telling me she had tickets to the Salon des Vins des Vignerons Indépendants, and asked if I was interested in going along. Was I interested? HA!

We met up and headed over to Espace Champerret and trundled ourselves inside. We waited in line and when she handed them our tickets, we were each given a tasting glass with the logo for the Vignerons Indépendants.

On Facebook, we'd both become Fans and had downloaded a game to play, which would give us an opportunity to win one of 50 bottles of wine. Obviously, answering the questions became our first task of the day. We decided to get that accomplished before we got into the serious tasting.

Most of the salons I've been to have had more than just wine, and I hadn't been to one like this before, so here's a gander of what we were looking at:

One of the great things about these salons, is you can try all sorts of stuff you could a) never afford or b) not want to buy a whole bottle of.

Here's the most unusual flavor we tried...

I would like to thank Ksam for suffering through I can't recall how many different tastings of various Cognacs...

We tasted wine, pineau, eau de vie, crémant, champagne, calvados, but my favorite of the day was a jurançon moelleux.

Let's just say it was a good thing that neither of us had to drive home...

As we were taking a pause to eat a little some to counteract the affects of all the stuff we were drinking, the delightful Ksam and I heard suddenly heard our names on the loud speaker.

Look what we won!

Look Ma! Two Hands!!

We walked up to the stand, and they recognized us right away. Gee. I wonder how. They asked us where we were from, and when we responded "les États-Unis" they added another bottle each! Yay Us!

If you ever get a chance to go to one of these salons, I highly recommend it!

(And you get to keep the glasses.)

The Taste Test (Macarons)

by Kylie

McMacaron on the left - La Durée on the right

In Episode 329, we had the delicious Rhino75 in the k&k boudoir for our taste test of the new McMacaron vs. La Durée. How did they stack up against each other? You'll have to listen to the episode to find out!

Wanna have your own taste test? The McDonald's and La Durée on the Champs-Elysées are conveniently located close to each other...

La Durée
75, avenue des Champs Elysées - 75008 Paris

McCafé
140 Avenue des Champs Elysées

Share your opinions with us on the k&k forum!

échecs

by Kylie

How I spent my Thursday afternoon.
by Kylie

Here's some vocabulary for you:

Chess - Échecs

Eng           French

King          Roi - (lit.) King
Queen       Dame - (lit.) Lady
Bishop       Fou - (lit.) Madman
Knight       Cavalier - (lit.) Rider
Rook         Tour - (lit.) Tower
Pawn         Pion - (lit.) Pawn

I noted in the rule book that calling the "Dame" the "Reine" and the "Cavalier" the "Cheval" is technically incorrect. Though typically that wouldn't stop me. And it amused me that every time my opponent (age 8) moved his Knight he said - CA-VAL-I-ER . One syllable for each square to count how many places to move his piece. Adorable.

He took great joy in smacking my pieces down as he took them.

I won, though.
But just.

Think I need to be boning up on my chess playing skills.

k&k get cultured #2 - les égouts de paris

by Kylie

Last time I didn't manage to get any photos on the blog before I inadvertently deleted them ALL, so this time I'm getting a couple of these photos up now, before I (inadvertently) do the same thing again.

We met early on Saturday, so thanks to all of you that braved the cold and managed to get up in time to make it. It was chilly on the riverbank, so it was actually a bit of a relief to get inside the sewers!

Here are some of our intrepid adventurers on the
lookout for a little culture!

We had enough people to get the group rate (yay!) and had a tour guide all to ourselves. The visit took about an hour and we learned many very interesting factoids about how the sewers work.

FACT: Certain vaccines are mandatory for sewer workers.

FACT: The Paris Sewers have 2100 km of tunnels.

FACT: There are lots and lots and lots of rats in Paris. (And they don't cook.)

FACT: The sewers can be really smelly. However, some metro stops actually smell WORSE.

FACT: Streets aren't just labelled above ground, but below ground as well, to aid with navigating throughout the sewers.

FACT: Kyliemac can outrun a stationary Sewer cleaning ball. Take that, Indy!

We learned a lot more about how the sewers of Paris operate, but if you want to learn more, you'll either have to google it for yourself, or brave the sewer on your own. Although I suggest it with a guide!

LES EGOUTS DE PARIS
Open everyday except Thursday and Friday from 11am to 4 or 5pm depending on the season. (And it's closed in January every year for two weeks for maintenance. I suppose it smells less then.)

Metro: Alma-Marceau Station (Line 9) and cross the river.
RER: Pont de l'Alma station RER C

how not to celebrate new year's eve

by Kylie

Since we know how people love to laugh at old photos of us, I thought I'd oblige with some New Year's photos that my loving father sent me from a New Year's Eve, a long, long time ago.

Once upon a time, Kylie Mac was a much younger creature than she is today (as most of us are), and didn't despise the cold as much as she does today.

These pictures are from the day that her internal thermostat broke.

Yes, Dear Reader, I went ice diving and spent my New Year's under the ice.
Crazy?
Absolutely.
Do I recommend it?
In words of one syllable, Hell. No.
Unless you like shivering to death and hypothermia.

Don't I look happy?

Well, I'm not.
'Cause I've learned that I don't like shivering to death or hypothermia.
Diving = fun. Freezing = not.

You can't tell from the photo, obviously, but I'm shivering, very very hard.

I have NEVER been so cold In. My. Life. And I don't think I've ever fully recovered. To this very day. I've been scarred for life.

It didn't help that there was a leak in my dry suit. It's called a Dry Suit, people. Because it's supposed to be just that - DRY. And, if you can believe it, there are actually people who dive in Wet Suits in the freezing (as in ICE, hello) cold water ON PURPOSE. Insane-o people. Not that I'm going to mention any names.

DAD.

My Dad, being the clearly insane creature that he is, has done a New Year's Eve Ice Dive, with his dive club (MUD Club - Michigan Underwater Divers) every year since before I was born. Which means that there are more crazy people out there than just him.

Frightening.

Galette des Rois

by Kylie

In Episode 309 of Katia and Kyliemac V.O., I talked about the Galette des Rois that the boys, Mamie and I dined upon.

The galette is a flaky pastry cake, generally filled with frangipane (almond), and is eaten in January to celebrate Epiphany - the day the three wise men visited the baby Jesus.

Mamie couldn't remember the name of all three of the magi, and I could only remember what they brought the baby Jesus, so I had to look them up. Thanks google! So if it's ever a trivia question for you, here is the answer: Gaspard, Balthazar and Melchior.

If you want a far more eloquent explanation, and that from a French person, head over to Clotilde's Chocolate and Zucchini blog (she actually makes one!!)

So the 8-year-old popped under the table, since he's the youngest, to decide who gets each piece. It's a part of the tradition. And, to my surprise, named me as the first galette slice receiver.

Now, I've eaten more than a few of these with the boys, as well as with others, and I have NEVER found the "fève" - which is a little porcelain figurine hidden inside the galette. This year I can no longer say that. For the first time in my galette-eating history, I found the fève.

Yay me.

This means that I got the crown, which, yes, I still have somewhere...

Arrrrrrrrrr

by Katia

Now I'm a legitimate pirate. And a classy one at that. Bling!

Thanks Janilani! You put glamour in glamorous!

As discussed on episode 311.

canadian moose

by Kylie

Awhile ago we met up with one of our listeners, PH, who brought us goodies from "The Great White North," aka Canada.

Amongst the treasures were Katia's Beaver that you've heard mention a time or two, and my lovely Moose that is now hanging off my bag.

Incidentally, when did hanging stuff off your purse/school bag/satchel become so popular? I don't remember doing that in my youth...

trapped in the internets

by Kylie

skyping with frog over the christmas holly-days.
this has got to be one of my favorite photos!

chocolates from the mayor

by Kylie

Apparently, the Mayor of Paris offers those Parisians of a "certain age" a box a chocolates at the end of the year.

This is the interesting fact I learned today.

Here is this year's box -

From what I understand, this is something that was started by a previous mayor as a way to encourage fuzzy feelings for reelection and has since become somewhat of a tradition. This is also something that perhaps the current mayor would like to "supprimer"* - which would not make him very popular and perhaps discourage his reelection. Hence, at least for the time being, it's still a line item in the budget...

*supprimer = delete or eliminate

roue de paris

by Kylie

After the booksigning, where I ran into Ksam, we headed over to the Marché de Noël on the Champs-Elysées, passing this little treasure on the way:

It's located right on the Place de la Concorde from November 20, 2009 to January 20, 2010 and is 10€ for the privilege to ride in one of the little gondolas (but a bit cheaper for the little childrens).

This is the blog. Part of the Official Katia and Kyliemac Empire. Cos we have LOTS of stuff to say. And the podcast? 1/2 an hour twice a week? It's just not enough.

more of our listeners...

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