The Iversons' Franco-American Blog: A Look Back at 2015

Spring has come, Easter has passed, clearly we're all well into 2016 now! Nonetheless, we'd love to share our very tardy New Year's wishes with all of you, dear friends and family, for the (rest of the) year to come! It has doubtless taken us a bit longer this year to digest all that was 2015. It was a year in which Perrine and I each started exciting and challenging new chapters in our careers, with Perrine joining a tiny unit of experts dedicated to pain management at her hospital, l'Institut Curie; and with myself continuing to carve a niche in wine and food journalism, while also breaking through a kind of fourth wall professionally to work directly in the wine world, doing translating and communication work for a biodynamic wine-making château in Bordeaux. It was a year in which our son Milo made great adaptations, finishing his first year of school (and beginning his second) in a new neighborhood and a new home, and a year in which he began expressing his lively mind and strong personality with increasing fluency in both French and English – no easy thing!

But 2015 was also a very difficult year. For us and so many others, it was a year bookended by tragic events, a year which began with a terrorist attack in Paris (against the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a Kosher supermarket) and which ended with a terrorist attack touching all of Paris, that of November 13. When Brussels was struck by another horrible attack last month, it brought back all those feelings of sadness, anger and fear we felt in November.

The first day after the Paris attack in November we did not leave the apartment once the entire day. The government was telling everyone to stay indoors anyway, but we were also simply scared. You start to wonder, "Why do we live in a big city? Might we not be happier living somewhere else, somewhere in the countryside, by the sea, somewhere 'safer'?" It took us a day to come to terms with that fear, and much longer if I'm to be completely honest.

That night after the November attack, I wrote a message to my family and friends: "The terrorists could have attacked grand monuments symbolizing France’s history or culture, but instead they attacked the sports stadium, one of those rare places where people of every race and class gather together. And they attacked the old blue-collar neighborhoods of Eastern Paris, some of the most ethnically and socially diverse parts of the capital. This is where so many young, liberal-minded people have chosen to live, it’s also where they like to go out to eat, to share a drink or attend a concert on Friday night after work. The terrorists targeted these places because what they’re really attacking is pluralism and tolerance, multiculturalism and simple joie de vivre. The uncommon abundance of these qualities in the City of Light is a big part of why so many people from all over the world have and continue to come to live in Paris. I feel blessed everyday to have been given the chance to live here, and a handful of fanatical, murderous thugs will never change that, nor will they make a dent in the magic of this city."

The next day, we all took a deep breath, and went out for a walk. We headed straight for our favorite nearby park, Les Buttes Chaumont, where the autumn leaves were still turning.

Milo working on his photography skills with mom and dad

Walking home, it felt good to be surrounded by the other people of the city, doing their best as well to return to their daily lives.

It felt good to turn our heads back to the city walls, to see what our favorite street artists had hung for us lately, like Invader with his space invader mosaics...

and Jérôme Mesnager with his white man dancing across the cityscape...

...and Philippe Hérard with his amusing characters who are seemingly always being pushed and yanked into uncomfortable situations by urban life.

It felt good to come home after a good walk, have a good dinner together with our little family, and watch a lovely sunset from our bedroom window.

The next day, it felt good to see grandpa Papitou, who came in on the train for a Paris visit, and spent a few days with us.

We took him out on a tour of our neighborhood, and showed him our favorite art spots

... we saw some new works by Philippe Hérard, here teamed up with the stencil artist Ender...

On this same wall, just around the corner from our apartment, another piece of stencil art would appear a few days later, portraying Marianne, symbol of the French Republic, with tears in her eyes and underlined by the words "Fluctuat nec mergitur" – the motto of the city of Paris since at least the 14th century – Latin for "Tossed but not sunk". It seemed a fine expression of the human spirit's capacity to resist.

We were indeed happy to have a visitor after those awful events, especially one as dear as grandpa Papitou. Living in Paris, far from our families, can of course be lonely, and having guests over always makes us look at our home, our neighborhood, our city, with fresh eyes again. And by Papitou's last night in Paris, we felt life had begun to return to its normal, peaceful rhythm.

This is what we took from 2015. It reminded us what a gift it is to live in this city, how blessed we are to have landed in our new Menilmontant neighborhood home, high up on the hills overlooking the Paris. We love this city, the art on its walls, the parks that keep it green, the visitors it brings us, and the livelihoods it has given us. And that is the just of what we wanted to share with you, our dear family and friends. That and our deepest wishes for love and peace to you all for the rest of 2016. It looks like there are sure to be some dark and uncertain days ahead still, but let us all keep hope there will be light at the end of the tunnel!

If you have the time and the desire, following below are so many more images from the last year: scenes from our home, views from our window, images of our neighborhood and the art of its walls, and the visitors we've welcomed. View as you like, and we hope to have you in our home and, perhaps, appearing in our blog, some day soon!

Love,

Jeffrey, Perrine and Milo

2015 at the Iverson's

dressed up as a knight for his friend Rodrigue's birthday party

pancake breakfast

In 2015 we worked hard to make our basement cellar functional and presentable. Milo was a big help.

We're doing our best to bring the Halloween spirit to our building too...

Sitting back and enjoying a summer sunset picnic at the window... that is heaven indeed.

This window is an important barometer of our daily life, we look through it everyday, and when weather permits, we spend as much time near it as we can, all year long.

For that reason, here is a peek of 2015, as viewed through our window...

It's a window which keeps us connected to the city, to the seasons, to nature, and which really just reminds us daily how much there is to visit outside our door.

Pantheon (or "mommy's hospital", as Milo calls it – l'Institut Curie, where she works, is nearby)

Eiffel Tower

Background: Notre Dame Cathedral and the Tour Montparnasse

Our window does draw us out into the wider city, but we love just stepping out too into our immediate neighborhood, which has revealed to us so many quiet, secret bends in colorful streets...

Our nearest green space, le Parc de Belleville, has a great view of the city...

The Belleville and Menilmontant neighborhoods have been major centers for street art since the very concept first emerged in Paris with the original French stencil artists in the 1980s. Some associated with that movement, like Jérome Mesnager with his white man, are still at work today...

Which is why walking through the streets of Belleville and Menilmontant, can be like walking through a museum...

Jérome Mesnager's omni-present Corps Blanc

The stencil artist Nemo

Sisyphus pushing his boulder uphill - art by Ender

The artist space invader is all over the neighborhood - he's all over the world in fact. Here's an article I wrote about him a few years back: www.francetoday.com/articles/2013/04/18/invader.html

At Milo's school they even studied Invader last year, making their own mosaic invaders...

Philippe Hérard, our favorite street artist, lives in our neighborhood, and it's always a pleasure to discover a new work of his popping up somewhere while on our daily jaunts about town.

Philippe Hérard has recently been taken on by a gallery, and we were thrilled to go to his first show.

Milo getting an autograph from Hérard

But even in a city covered in art, one seeks solace among the trees every so often - and spring, summer, autumn or winter, our park Buttes Chaumont is our most common escape!

Naturally, we chose the park for Milo's fourth birthday as well...

Yes, the great outdoors is incomparable, and we long for it often, but I can't understand how anyone living in Paris could complain of not having enough green spaces nearby. Here is a selection of the year's picnics...

Ok, wildlife is limited, but no one could deny that the animal kingdom is on display in Paris!

And in fact, on an island on the lake in the Bois de Vincennes park in Eastern Paris, we stumbled upon quite a collection of bird species last year...