Dear friends and family –
Happy New Year to you all! It’s been number of years since we’ve updated our family blog, so we thought that it was high time we shared some news with you all, and so here is our review of 2022!
This year, we celebrated New Years Eve on a plane between Minneapolis and Paris, while we flew home from a magical, snowy Christmas vacation in Minnesota.
 |
| New Years Eve 2022-23 |
It was a fitting for us to finish the year hurtling through the air, as 2022 overall really felt like the year we finally got back into motion in our lives, after a 2021 marked by the lockdown hangover and ongoing pains of COVID. The previous New Years Eve 2021-22, we had celebrated the arrival of 2022 with the first gathering of our whole family in almost 2 years.
 |
| New Years Eve 2021-22 – all the grandkids together at last |
 |
| New Years Eve 2021-22 |
Arriving back in Paris on New Years day 2023, we opened the few last Christmas presents that remained under our diminutive Paris Christmas tree, and were soon back out on the town, catching the holiday windows at the Galeries Lafayette, walking the banks of the Seine and grabbing an ice cream cone on Ile Saint Louis – one of our favorite pastimes!
Milo, who turned 11 years old in 2022, took on the challenge of studying several months alongside a private tutor and at weekend prep courses to get his English grammar and composition up to snuff in time for a very competitive entrance exam in spring 2022 for the bilingual international baccalaureate programme at a French middle and secondary school called Maurice Ravel. He passed with flying colors, making his parents very proud, and started this September alongside his old Franco-British friend Joah, the son of our friends Dan and Corinne, with whom Milo had studied to get in. Despite the heavy workload the programme involves, he has continued with his tennis and cello lessons, filling our home with music on an almost daily basis. He also fills it with his good humor, enthusiasm, creativity, love of star wars, legos and mangas, and hunger for yummy things like donuts and gyozas.
 |
| First day at new school |
 |
| Donuts to celebrate last day of prep school for Milo and Joah |
 |
| Gyoza celebration lunch with dad |
Livia turned 5 years old in 2022. She has followed in her brother’s footsteps and started tennis lessons as well his year, alongside her bosom friend Léonie. Music lessons of some kind may begin in the year to come, such is her enthusiasm for piano and singing and music in general. Livia has excelled in her first years of gradeschool, and is looking like she’ll be an early and eager reader like her auntie Krissy. She can be shy at school and with strangers, but she is a boisterous and at times imperious presence at home, and has a quick wit and a strong, colorful personality.
 |
| Livia and her friend Léonie |
 |
Livia adores her big brother, as he does her, even though she can drive him crazy at times.
The two spent many weekends together traversing Paris, crossing the Seine over to the Left Bank to attend Milo’s English composition prep classes at the Roaming school, where Livia also partook in English immersion classes with kids her age. (Yes, the trips were often punctuated with ice cream on Ile Saint Louis.)
Though we live in Belleville in northeast Paris, we’ve always loved how it’s just a quick metro ride from our neighbourhood to the heart of Paris. I continue to count my blessings for the chance to raise a pair of Franco-American kids here in the City of Light.
Perrine is in her 18th year as a nurse at the Curie Institute, a cancer research centre on the Left Bank with a tradition of excellence, where she has been able to continue growing in her profession through studies in the realms of hypnoanalgesis and pioneering methods in pain-management, which has become her area of expertise and the focus of her daily work at the hospital as part of a small, specialized pain management unit. She is deeply devoted to her profession and her patients, despite the cutbacks in staff and funding at the hospital which have made her daily work increasingly difficulty and stressful. She keeps fit biking daily back and forth between from basically the highest point on the right bank here in Belleville/Menilmontant to the highest point on the left bank near the Pantheon!
As for myself, it was a year of transitions for me professionally. I wrote my last Parisian Walkways column on the streets of Paris for France Today Magazine in 2022, ending a run of 40 street profiles over 7 years. Last year, 28 of them were gathered into a one-off special edition called Discover Paris. I ended the column on a high note, writing about the place where Paris began, Ile de la Cité.
I have refocused my efforts towards writing on wine and culture for publications like the American Express magazines Centurion and Departures, though happily I have not entirely put an end to my Parisian wanderings, having committed to a series of online conferences with BonjourParis.com, which revisit many of those same streets and neighbourhoods. If you’re curious, here’s a free link to my conference on the history and revival of the city’s 19th century covered passageways.
One of the pleasures of my Parisian Walkways articles has always been to mix work and family fun. For example, the kids came along for my article on the Ile de la Cite, when we took a tour of the island together, including a visit of the archeological crypt of Paris, with its vestiges of the city’s founding Franco-Gallic civilization, and a dinner at the centuries old restuarant Au Vieux Paris d’Arcole, following by a stroll down the Rue de la Colombe (whose named evokes a romantic legend about a pair of doves)… and more ice cream.
 |
Earlier in the year, a visit from Perrine’s sister Lucie coincided with my article on the Rue des Vinaigiers in our old neighbourhood near the Canal Saint Martin. We visited the galleries and street art hot spots, and had lunch in a Franco-Vietnamese restaurant (Banoi) which makes the best spring rolls in Paris – a delight!
Getting visits from family and friends is always a welcome break from our routines, and a chance to be tourists for a little while ourselves!
A very old friend who I've known since grade school, Mimi, came through Paris on a tour with a group of history lovers from Minnesota. It was a pleasure to catch up together after all these years, and to take her and some of her fellow travelers on a tour of the city's 19th century covered passageways.
My Boston-based cousin Anne Stetson came through Paris as well, and we got to share a lovely day together, starting with a picnic and fun in the Luxembourg gardens, before talking a walk down the old Roman cardo maximus of Paris, Rue Saint Jacques, and finally partaking in some well earned treats on Ile Saint Louis.
We observed the restoration underway of the Notre Dame cathedral with aunt Lucie / tata Lulu during her visit.
We were blessed to have a visit over Thanksgiving from my sister Rebecca and her boys Lief and Eden, who hopped over on the Eurostar from London while Rebecca’s husband Ajay was away for the weekend leading a FiveRhythms dance retreat. Having her so close to us is a blessing and a joy!
 |
| Milo giving a presentation on the first Thanksgiving in America |
 |
| French oysters, English wine... |
And when Papitou / grandpa Jean-Guy came to visit, we hopped on a suburban train and took a refreshing walk through the vast forest of Fontainebleau.
 |
Perhaps it was the memory of COVID lockdowns, but we were especially eager to discover all the forests and green walks the Paris region has to offer this year, and dedicated several weekends to daytrips by suburban train.
When we weren’t off in the suburbs, we spent a lot of time in our beloved local park, the Buttes Chaumont, and taking walks through the neighbourhood.
Running into a literary hero at Père-Lachaise cemetery, which is very close to our home. |
| On the terrace of our friends Fabio and Charlotte |
But of course Paris has a lot to beyond parks, like art! We loved the Claude Monet - Joan Mitchell exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton (through personally Mitchell’s famous painting “Minnesota” didn’t evoke any pangs of homesickness in me).
 |
| "Minnesota" by Joan Mitchell |
My favorite exhibition of the year was dedicated to the 15th century painter Sandro Botticelli at the Musée Jacquemart-André, a museum within a former urban mansion. The portraits of Botticelli's muse, Simonetta Vespucci, were jaw dropping.
As for Milo and Livia, they probably preferred the dinosaurs and fossils at the museum of paleontology.
Though Paris has a lot to offer, and we never tire of sharing an evening aperitif by the window together while listening to Edith Piaf, living in a big city is definitely made more tolerable by getting out of it from time to time!
We were very lucky in 2022 to spend time by the ocean in Brittany, in the mountains around Grenoble, and in the forests of Minnesota. We returned from each precious trip with our batteries recharged, ready to return to work and school. We’ll leave you now with some images below of our Spring, Summer and Winter trips. We hope that your year was full of good things too, and that we’ll have the chance to see you soon!
Love Jeffrey, Perrine, Milo and Livia
----------------
Brittany, Spring 2022
In Spring we headed to Brittany and spent several days on the magical island of Ile de Batz, before spending time with Maminou / grandma Françoise and great-grandma Maié, as well as Perrine's cousins. I also got a chance to visit my dear old friend Ken!
 |
| On the boat to Ile de Batz |
 |
Grenoble, French Alps, Summer 2022
We kicked off the summer with a trip to the Alps to visit Lucie and her boyfriend Cyril in Grenoble, where we shared in the their passion for the mountains and rock climbing. We stayed in the home of Perrine’s aunt Claire and uncle Jean-Marc, who were kind enough to invite us to stay there while they were away.
Minnesota, Summer 2022
Milo, Livia and I spent a month in Minnesota this summer, enjoying quality time with grandpa and grandma and the cousins. Perrine had to stay home and work, keeping her vacation days for our Christmas trip to Minnesota.
 |
| Jeffrey and his old buddy Kevin |
 |
| Jeffrey catching up with his friend Karl |
 |
| Milo and cousin Phoenix |
Brittany, Halloween 2022
We had a fun trip to Brittany to spend Halloween with Perrine’s cousin Antoine, wife Vero, and Milo and Livia’s cousins Julia and Nora.
 |
| chocolate raspberry 'brain' cakes |
Minnesota, Christmas 2022
After COVID kept us from celebrating Christmas together as a family last year, we were very fortunate to have another chance this year. After a brief RSV related quarantine at the nearby, vacated home of our dear aunt Mimi and Uncle Al, we were able to all gather in Saint Paul at cousins Adam and Meredith for a Swedish Christmas smorgasbord / Hannukah celebration with our extended, multi-faith family. Another holiday gathering followed with the Iverson clan at Kristen's house for brunch. Then it was then up over the river and through the woods, and the gathering winter storm, to our cabin RingRock in up north for a Christmas together. The cabin plumbing was unfortunately frozen upon arrival, but we kept our spirits up and improvised (with the help of Matt and Kristen's extended professional network in Ely) and were able to secure alternate accommodations at cabins abandoned by folks less intrepid in the face of the winter storms. We had a magical time together, with great meals, games, sledding, skiing and walks (short ones, it was -20ºF after all), a Christmas finger puppet pageant, with a warm cabin appropriated with our quickly crafted decorations. The whole trip was topped off by seeing Will and Rachel in a ski race, making a perfect snowman, a wonderful with our friends Dan and Amy, and a visit to the Como conservatory with grandma and grandpa.
 |
 |
 |
| Swedish smorgasbord |
 |
 |
 |
| A plumbing catastrophe at Ring Rock |
 |
 |
| Californian vegan cheese, English sparkling wine – divine! |
