I am officially in love...

Not just with Paris, but with my new family.  I'm sure you all could tell that I was smitten with the children from day one.  They are the sweetest, most loving and compassionate children and it took them all of .02 seconds to accept me as a part of their family.  They get excited when I pick them up from school (Alice even gives me a running embrace), and they ask for me when I'm not there.  Normally this level of comfort and security takes a few months to acquire in any previous position I have had, so it is a nice reassuring treat for it to happen so soon here, where I need it more than ever. 

With the parents, however, it's always a different story.  It's never comfortable going into someone's house and essentially taking over the "mommy role".  Val and Nico have been super understanding and welcoming of me to try and make the transition as soon as possible, but there was still hesitation on my part.  This is partly because the cultures are so different, I didn't want to come in and enforce things or punish them for things that are socially acceptable here.  Val has been very good at explaining everything, twice in necessary, and being very understanding when things don't go quite as planned.  Nico on the other hand, while I rarely see him, it's been a slower transition.  It's interesting to me because once I was hired, he was the primary contact person for sorting out my visa, flight, etc, and any and all of my questions were directed towards him in emails.  Upon arrival, their roles have swapped and now I have very little interaction with him.  While I normally eat with the children because it just makes life easier, they have decided that every Tuesday night I will have dinner with them.  (The kids eat around 6:30 and the parents don't eat till about 9:30).  This "adult dinner" has been great for me because not only do I get to sample authentic French dishes (and superb wine), but I also get time to not just share with the parents about the kids, but share with them about myself and vice versa.  Our dinner nights are the only time I really talk to Nico, other than a "good morning!", "how are you?" type thing.  I think the reason why it is almost awkward the rest of the time is because you all--yes, YOU, the majority of the readers of this blog--have scared the crap out of me.  You all warned me to "beware of the dad", "French men cheat on their wives with the au pairs", blah blah blah...so I have been SUPER cautious to be overly professional with him, which is the opposite of what they want, they want me to be a member of the family.  I think either Nico could sense this (most likely), or he was also showing me that that whole affair thing isn't how he roles and that I have nothing to worry about.  Either way, last night was finally my breaking point where I realized they both really do see me as a family member, not just hired help.

Therefore, as I'm sure you can gather by now, last night was an amazing night for me.  They have wanted to take me out to dinner for a while now as my official "welcome to Paris dinner", and not just a home cooked French dinner.  So they hired my friend Ally to babysit Alice and Lucien last night, and they took me to a wonderful art-deco style Brasserie in the 2nd, just the 3 of us.  We had champagne and sampled many different wines and ate like kings.  In France most restaurants have a regular menu, and then a "set menu" where you choose 1 of 5 appetizers, entrees, and desserts.  They decided to go with the set menu, so for the appetizer I had foie gras, which is duck liver.  It sounds absolutely awful, and I admit I was super nervous to try it, but they said it was the best in Paris at this place, and it was quite delicious.  For the entree I had roasted beef with a sweet potato pudding, which I ordered medium, and it came out bright red, but it was still delicious.  Then for dessert I ordered creme brulee, my first authentic creme brulee, and it was better than I ever imagined possible.  We sat their for at least 2 hours talking about me, my family, the ranch, their kids, their jobs, their ages (43!!...I totally thought mid 30s!), and their good ole college days (Val did a year of PhD at Berkeley and she told us about some of the parties they hosted at their house there).  It was amazing how we just get out of the house and it's like we are long lost friends!  No talk about work, no awkward conversation, we were all just open and enjoying each others company.  Then out of nowhere, Nico (who went to school in Valencia, Spain) says "I think we need to go to Valencia this year for Las Fallas.  Las Fallas is THE biggest celebration in Spain, only second to Easter (duh).  It occurs in the week prior to March 19, where people work for months creating huge 3 story wooden statues of characters and people, etc.  During the week, they parade these statues through the narrow streets of Valencia, finally the night of the 18th in the Plaza Mayor.  A HUGE party ensues that night with delicious food (Valencia is the birthplace of Paella) drinks, fireworks, etc.  Then, all day on the 19th the party continues with more food and wine and contests, until sundown that night.  At sundown on the 19th, they stuff the statues with fireworks and torch them, sending flames and fireworks way into the sky.  I learned all about this when I lived in Spain, but the videos we watched in no way did it justice.  Nico wants his kids to experience this for the first time, and after learning that the 19th falls on a Saturday this year (meaning they don't have to miss school), they decided they are going and are booking tickets this week.  While I was interested in the conversation, I was super bummed on the inside because I was like aw shucks, I wanna go.  BUT, once they were set that it was happening, they both at the same time looked and me and said "with you of course, if you'd like!"  I kept it cool then, but I was screaming on the inside.  I am included in their family vacation...hell yes!

So, after an unintentionally longgg blog, I will end by saying it's gonna be hard to get me out of here come July 2011.  This family was made for me.