Good wine, good food, good friends.

We braved our colds, drove over the mountain and down to the valley of Burbank. Saw some old friends, made some new friends, got merry by the end of the evening.

We have now left Langres and are on our way to Newcastle (girls) or California (boy). After a quick train trip during which the girls slept end to end, we are spending the afternoon in Paris, before meeting with my brothers tonight for dinner.

On the menu, a bit of Champs Elysées, a bit of Metro a peak hour, a dash of walking around the heart of Paris and another mandatory "Apéritif".

And the girls now both know how to cheer with a glass in their hands... 

Halloween is getting closer by the day (only one week to go) and, following my previous post, we paid a visit to a pumpkin patch today.

Here area a couple of pictures of the family amongst pumpkins.

Seen on the menu of "La Cave d'Amélie" in SF...

Had to have it!

PS: Yup, the last bit of French pride only costs $15!

A trip to San Francisco would not have been complete without a visit to Chinatown.

After having explored the touristic parts of the community (and bought a little something for the girls), we decided to follow some of the local carrying shopping bags and ended in the more authentic part of the zone, in the middle of the Saturday afternoon market...

And by authentic, I mean baby sharks sold on the pavement, weird looking roots and shops dedicated to still breathing fishes, flopping on the ice...

Enjoying a quick weekend away with Sarah, we decided to play tourists today and to explore San Francisco...

The weather is beautiful and the days is ours.

First step this morning: Take a ride from Market to the Fisherman's Wharf on one of the famous cable-cars.

Second step: Go from the pier overlooking both the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz to the Ferry Building and its amazing Farmer's Market.

Third step: Stop. Eat oysters and clam chowder while drinking some Sancerre wine at Hog Island Restaurant.

Fourth step: Walk back to hotel to burn the cream and the wine we just ate!

Bye bye 2008. Welcome 2009!

I received a call from Sarah a couple of hours ago as well as a text message, telling me that she had met with the local force and got a ticket! Once briefly explained what happened (as I am away from home - see previous post), it seems that Ponch and Jon are not as nice in the real life as they were in the TV show...

Basically, in this country, you can be on the phone while driving on the freeway (and cause crashes),you can eat in your car and drive with your feet (and cause crashes), you can drive with one hand while sending emails from your laptop on the passenger seat (and crash and burn), you can not indicate and cut in front of anybody without even looking around (and cause crashes) and you can cross the road without warning (and possibly crash with an incoming car) and in none of these cases, get a ticket... But if by any chance, you decide to honk at some dude that crosses the street (out of the blue), well, if you're unlucky enough to be close to a couple of police officer, you will get a ticket!

So that's the score! Sarah got a ticket for honking... The court will decide what the sentence is!!

So the moral of the story, don't honk but drive like a living danger and you'll be fine! Next thing, people will be able to break their parole on several offenses and not go to jail or get a get out of jail free card after a couple of days... Hold on.... Isn't it what really happened (but at least, Paris is back behind the bars!)

PS: BTW, we have seen every bad behaviors example given here while driving in LA, except the guy with his laptop, who actually really crashed and ended up in the news, slightly dead!

Great news... Today, Sarah passed her driver's license test... Well, the US one... :)

So now Sarah is a genuine, official, legal alien Californian driver! Congratulations!

This adds as well the ability for us to purchase our car and get it hopefully by tomorrow (which is funnily enough the last day of our car rental as well). Oh, not mentioning the fact that we can get this new car insured as well, which we will need if we look at the way some of the guys drive here! No wonder, as I was told that you only need 5-6 lessons before you can get your license!

At the same time she passed her test, Sarah collected my Social Security card (a simple piece of paper, nothing big) which means that I am next in the driving school lane. God help us!

For the last 3 weeks, Sarah has been nagging me with a private Red Hot Chili Peppers gig at the Roundhouse in Camden.

We've both been fans for years and we were meant actually to go and see them the last time they played in Hyde Park 2 1/2 years ago (well, Sarah preferred to avoid the crowd while being in early pregnancy... fair point).

So anyways, here is this very intimate gig but you can't buy a ticket... Why? Well, the gig is sponsored by a large London Radio group and tickets are only available via competition... So Sarah tries and registers on every competitions she can find about and hopes... hopes... hopes... and nothing!

Except one little thing... I have convinced her to go to the gig itself with Jef as a chaperon, hoping that a bit of eyelashes flapping and a big smile could get her in! And you know what?!? IT WORKED!!!

I still can't believe it! These two, watching one of the most hype gig of the year (at least for us), in the VIP section (Sarah was told she was not allowed to go with the poor people in the pit and had to sit with the famous people due to the golden armband she managed to get on her way in)...

She loved it (I was told)...