This year has had quite an interesting beginning.  Right after it arrived, I had to jet off to San Francisco for a (long planned) business trip to the ASSA meetings.  We are recruiting for a new economist and this was the first time I had participated in the job market since I was looking for a job.  20 years ago. In San Francisco.  Weird.  I was expecting to have PTSD flashbacks but instead I wound up with strep throat.  Flew home on a Tuesday afternoon, spent all Tuesday night in urgent care getting antibiotics.  Left Thursday for a (hastily planned) business trip to Paris with Frank in tow.  Had a great few days of sight seeing before the meetings at the OECD then home.  Apparently with a stomach bug.  I thought maybe my digestion issues were due to travel and antibiotics but even after both were done, things were not well.

So instead of enjoying a lovely night out at the Bank’s Winter Celebration on Saturday night, I was curled up on the couch for most of the day with pains in my stomach (and accompanying gastrointestinal issues that I leave to your imagination) and pain in my heart for the two football games that did not end as I would have liked. Sunday dawned cold and snowy.  The stomach felt a bit better but I was petrified to eat anything in case that changed.  I made it through church and the annual meeting and then tried to figure out what I trusted myself to eat.

Soup.  My mother-in-law’s lentil soup.  So comforting.  Plain enough to not upset the stomach but tasty enough to satisfy the soul.  Family recipes are like that – my kids always want one of our family classics when they come to visit.  And most of them are courtesy of a woman I have never met:  Betty Cumberland.

My mom was apparently not well equipped to be a housewife in the 60’s when she married my dad:  she couldn’t cook.  At least that what she claimed.  Her first neighbor in the new apartment after she and my dad married was a woman named Betty Cumberland.  My mom insisted that just about everything she learned about cooking she learned from Betty.  Most of what we consider our family recipes were “Betty Cumberland recipes” – ones that were some of the first things my mother as a new bride learned to cook thanks to her next door neighbor.  Most are the epitome of comfort food: stew, beef burgundy, chicken pot pie, etc.  Of course, they have evolved over the years and even I don’t make them exactly as my mom did.  And we have added other recipes from Frank’s side of the family: lentil soup, steak pie, etc. Now we have a lovely collection of Cannon Classics that Jesse insists she will someday compile into a cookbook.

But for this weekend, I took comfort in Betty Cumberland’s beef stew and the fact that not even my stomach bug could fight the comfort that the food – and the memories – provided.

Thank you Betty Cumberland wherever you are – you made a great contribution to my family (and my recovery) and for that I am grateful.

It’s amazing how fast time flies when you have lots to do and little time to do it.  Saturday started with us oversleeping for our 9am meet up time.  We had gone to bed at 9:30 the night before so there was no point in setting an alarm, right?  Oops.  But the day just got better and better, as did the rest of the weekend.  A big breakfast at a local cafe (I need the full egg breakfast because coffee and croissants don’t cut it for me) and we were off.  Well, that makes it sound energetic.  It turns out we spent nearly two hours at breakfast chatting over coffee and our oefs and jamon which was just enough time for the sky to clear and the sun to peak out.  We hit the metro and headed to Sacre Coer.  It’s a beautiful church that we enjoyed visiting (and lighting a candle for my mom) and we had a lovely time wandering around Monmatre – even stumbling on to a square full of artists where we picked up some watercolors to take home.

Next church: Sainte Denis, the resting place of the French royalty that reigned between the 10th and 18th centuries.  It is definitely off the tourist path (very few things were in English) and in a very working class neighborhood – the street mark
et had a definite “East Enders” feel to it.  It was one of the best finds we had this weekend.

From dead kings to dead emperors, it was time to hit Napoleon’s tomb.  There is no photo that does it justice and what we found during our visit is that it isn’t even the most interesting thing in Les Invalides.  We wandered through floors of exhibits on French military history that ranged from small lead painted soldiers to Napoleon’s horse – yup, the taxidermist did a great job but it was very creepy.

We had been so engrossed in our visit and travels that we never got a chance to eat lunch.  We found a lovely bistro nearby and had another 3 course meal with wine before walking home under the Eiffel Tower just as the lights began to twinkle.

We had pretty low expectations for Sunday because we knew most things were closed.  No oversleeping today and we headed out to make a practice walk to the OECD where our Monday meeting would be (and the reason we were in Paris) and then found another cafe for the “American” breakfast. Lots of eggs and everyone else enjoyed the gluteny bread products.  Then we headed toward the Opera Garnier and realized that today was the last day of the January sales and most of the stores had special openings.  That was that – Galleries Lafayette, we were there.  Expensive shoes, hats, and scarfs were on the list and were duly acquired.  It started to rain and we ducked into a nearby jewelry shop where I acquired a lovely pair of amethyst earrings. We waited the rain out in a local cafe with champagne and coffee (why not?) and then headed to the other “must see” activity for the day:  Musee Louvre.

Yup, it was time to check with the Mona Lisa and all her friends.  We hit most of the exhibits in the Richelieu wing as well as the Medieval Louvre exhibit showing the excavated bits from very early building on the premises.  Then our dogs being so tired, it was back to the metro and another visit to the Cafe Kleber where our new favorite waiter took good care of us through yet another 3 course meal.  I may need to buy a business class seat just to get home!