Our Wishes to You for 2013

Greetings from cold and occasionally snowy Paris, to all of you, dear friends and family. The New Year is well upon us again, and with this blog post we wanted to share with all of you our love and best wishes for 2013, as well as some news and images from our holiday season.

An (abnormally) snowy January in Paris

Naturally, we must start with the little man who is the subject of constant dinner conversation and hesitation and consternation and celebration for Perrine and I. Milo David is 20 months old today, and watching him change as he has daily in the past months has brought us so much joy. Could it really be that it was just last summer that Milo was taking his first steps?

Suffice it to say, walking is old news today. Today Milo is working on more complex things, like learning to talk! Here's his current lexicon, including most of the words he uses in either English or French (there's more French for sure).

English
daddy
gampa = grandpa Iverson
Boo = auntie Booboo/Rebecca
shoe
hello
bye bye
hi
tan-tou = thank you
cow
ba/bane = banana

French
maman = mommy
patou = papitou = grandpa Jean-Guy
coucou = hello
au revoir = good bye
bain = bath
bateau = boat
pain = bread
dents = teeth
cabane = tent
le loup = wolf
chien = dog
Chat = cat
caca = caca
bobo = owie
boom = something fell down
chaud = hot
gala gala = it's cold
doudou = blankie/sleeptoy
tétine = nookie
do = de l'eau = water
bravo = bravo!

Milo certainly gets plenty of bravo!'s from his parents, in addition to ample hugs and kisses.

Looking back over 2012, Perrine and I feel very blessed as well for all the traveling we've been able to do in the past months. Those trips left us with some of our best memories all year, including: romping about the Umbrian countryside last summer in Italy with Milo and our Gingold-Gerhardstein cousins; taking a boat during a stay in Brittany out to the charming island of Ile de Batz; handing a wedding ring to my cousin Andrew Feldhamer as his best man this summer, at his lovely Minnesota wedding; feasting our way through London's finest vegan eateries with my sister Rebecca and Ajay; and enjoying a rosy weekend in Toulouse with Perrine's sister Lucie.

But of course most of our life is spent at home, between Paris and Brittany. Perrine and I have both had many challenges this year in our jobs, as cancer research hospitals and magazines alike struggle amidst the tough economic climate. But thankfully we've also each had many breakthroughs and successes to celebrate, and we are moving into 2013 with ever more positive outlooks. It helps that Perrine and I have a romantic trip we are planning that we can look forward to in April—our first voyage to Sicily! And it helps that we are both trying to get back into shape as well after our exercise regimes went out the window during Milo's first year; for my part, I've been training for the Paris half-marathon—my first one—which I will run in March. These are the things that get us through the day in the end: a good day of work, discovering interesting worlds and people through our jobs, spending time running, walking and biking outside, sharing in sweetness and fun with Milo and our family—and eating good things! And the past Christmas season was full of all these fine things.

After a wonderful white Christmas in Minnesota last year, it was our year to stay in France for the holidays. In December, as Christmas approached, our shelf slowly filled with much appreciated advent calanders and Christmas cards from family back home in Minnesota, and some new toys and warm sweaters which Milo couldn't wait to open!

Paris has its own special kind of holiday spirit which we've grown to love. We had in particular a wonderful day of holiday activities together one Sunday a week before Christmas. Grandpa Jean-Guy and his good friend Simballa took Milo out to see the holiday lights and the Christmas market along the Champs Elysées, while Perrine and I had a romantic lunch together just the two of us at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, a fancy hotel whose chef, Thierry Marx, I wrote an article about.

In the lobby of the Mandarin Oriental

In the restaurant Camelia

An egg cooked under high pressure with mushroom sauce

The whole bottle wasn't for us!

Fois gras and artichoke

Beef Wellington for two!

Chocolate Cake

It was hard to leave—er, move—after such a delicious meal, and a nice long walk past the fancy stores and over to meet the guys was just what we needed.

The Champs Elysées was packed with people for the Christmas market. We met up with Jean-Guy, Simballa and Milo at a food stand.

We walked by the Grand Palais, which had been turned into an indoor skating rink for Christmas!

We stopped and bought some of Perrine's favorite winter treats, Roasted Chestnuts...

Is that snow!? No, just a fancy boutique filling the street with bubbles for holidays. Yes, Paris has a Christmas spirit all its own!

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We hopped on the train a few days before Christmas to head to Brittany, where all the cousins were assembling to celebrate together. Lucie had to stay in Toulouse for work unfortunately, but we were lucky to have Paul, the partner of Perrine's mother Françoise, with us this year.

Here we are a couple days before Christmas, getting into the spirit with some carols.

The day before Christmas eve, Perrine and I left Milo with Paul and Françoise to go on a day trip which mixed work and pleasure. I was commissioned to write an article about a very unique shellfish farmer, a biologist named Sylvain Huchette, founder of France Haliotis, who is raising abalones—one of the most prized shellfish in the world—in their wild environment, something no one else in Europe has ever done. Abalones populations have plummeted around the world from overfishing, so Huchette has become famous in Europe and in the gastronomic world because he has perhaps developed the first truly sustainable way to raise the beautiful shellfish. His farm was just recently certified organic to top it off.

First though, we stopped to get some wonderful 'Prat Ar Coum' oysters nearby, and picked up a bottle of muscadet wine that had been aged under the sea for a year!

Next we met up with Huchette, got equipped with the right gear and hopped on his boat to go harvest some abalones for the Christmas rush.

Perrine and Sylivain Huchette, the founder of France Haliotis

Raising the abalone cage out of the water

The abalones are only fed with the abundant locally-collected seaweed.

Inside the cages, which are kept 10 meters underwater, are a lot of abalones, and A LOT of other species as well which cohabitate with the abalones, and enjoy the shelter the cages offer.

The ship captain with a little friend

Here is some of the amazing biodiversity we saw inside:

A cup of tea was appreciated afterwards.

Back on shore we visited the nursery where the abalones are born and grow until they are 3cm. We then got to see what these wonderful critters taste like after growing three years in the sea.

From big to small: Californian, New Zealand, Asian and European abalones

2mm baby abalones cling to sheets of plexiglass, feeding on green micro algae

It was a wonderful day, and a fascinating experience for Perrine and I. (And a very fun article to write.)

And we bought some home, so Paul and Françoise got to have a taste too with their oysters and sea-aged Muscadet!

Tenderizing the abalones

Made simply with butter, parsley and a little garlic.

Of course, there was a lot more eating to be done when Christmas Eve came.

Visiting the creche, the manger scene, at the Christmas Mass

We celebrated Christmas Eve at Milo's great grandparents house in Landerneau.

Veronique and Julia, Milo's cousin

Milo and great grandma Maïé

Milo and Maïé's sister, great great aunt Anne-Marie

A musical Christmas it was indeed!

Diane, girlfriend of Perrine's cousin Jean-Baptiste, and cousins Lisa and Manon

Milo's cousin Julia got a tiger costume for Christmas, Milo HAD to try it on himself!

Let the feast begin!

Jean-Baptiste, Jeffrey, Antoine, Perrine

The 13 traditional provençal desserts

Perrine and Milo and I had a special treat this year—we got to spend the night at Maïé and Robert's house and wake up there on Christmas morning.

                           
Maïé and Robert's apartment is on a bridge, one of the few inhabited bridges in Europe. One of the bonuses of that is you can go downstairs to feed the seagulls leftover bread!

We took a walk to see an outdoor exhibit on the beautiful carvings that you can find on the stone houses of the city.

Later on we went over to Anne-Marie's for a Christmas Day celebration.

Milo and cousin Lisa

By the end of the day everyone was happily exhausted!



Back at Françoises house, Milo opened his last presents, musical instruments from his Minnesota cousins Rachel and Will!




























The day we left to head back to Paris, Maïé and Robert came to say goodbye, and Milo got a last hug, kiss and horsey ride...

We hope that your holiday season brought much warmth and cheer as well, that your 2013 is off to a very good start, and that in all the good things you do and share at work and with friends and with family, you find ample reason to look forward with a positive and peaceful mind to the rest of the year to come.

         Love, Jeffrey, Perrine & Milo