I’d begun to think things were getting a bit stale. Maybe it was just that it was winter. I mean January and February are always a bit rough, even if you’re in Paris. I don’t think I quite realized it, but I needed to mix things up.

The first thing that happened was that at Le Salon, the expat happy hour on Wednesdays, I met a wonderful woman named Susan Herrmann Loomis, who happens to be a cookbook author who specializes in what the French actually cook in their homes rather than the stuff you see on restaurant menus. She’s been living in Normandy for two or three decades, doing on-the-ground research, and is now in the midst of moving to Paris.

So after our conversation, I ordered a couple of her cookbooks and dove into them with relish. In one (“In a French Kitchen”), she actually documents their kitchen layouts and what they keep in their pantries and refrigerators. You have to understand — the French are very private, they don’t do the whole house tour when you come over for dinner, you’ll never see their kitchen or what’s in their pantry or, god forbid, their refrigerator. But somehow she managed.

And so what’s been lovely about reading through those books is that it’s broadened my repertoire of French home cooking. Earlier this week I made merlan (a mild white fish) with beurre blanc (a creamy sauce of white wine vinegar, shallots, and butter), served with potatoes, celery root and sunchokes all mashed together. Accompanied of course by a sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley. A very pale dinner, and delicious!

Tonight I made a one-egg omelet with crème fraîche and chives folded into it as an appetizer, and then scallops sauteed with garlic, parsley and lemon, served over a mache salad in vinaigrette. Also delicious!

And then a couple weeks ago, my friends Libby and Carm came for a lovely visit. Aside from having an excuse to go see the Mark Rothko exhibit again, listen to live jazz at 38Riv, and go see a contemporary dance performance by Georges Labbat, we also went out to some wonderful restaurants like Le Pinardier (wine bar), Sur Mer (seafood bar), and Les Bistrotters (modern French restaurant). All the delicious food made me realize that I need to eat out a bit more often. Especially if it involves French toast served with salted butter caramel for dessert. Heavenly!

And then last week I made a quick trip back to the U.S. to visit my family in California and retrieve my books and artwork in Seattle (and see a couple friends of course). Leading up to the visit, I shopped for gifts for my family at La Grande Epicerie de Paris, and I was like, okay, I think I need to shop here every once in a while for myself. The apricot preserves with beautiful quartered apricots floating delicately in syrup are, I think, definitely something that I’ll need to start stocking at the apartment.

And then the other thing I’ve been thinking about, as I’m feeling a bit more settled in Paris and as we edge closer to spring, is travel. I mean, it’s a bit odd, because in my head at least, Paris is the place I travel TO, I mean, why would I leave to travel someplace else?

But like any large city, you do want to get out of it for a bit. So in thinking about doing some traveling this spring and summer, at first I was feeling a bit daunted by the options (I mean seriously there are a million places to go), but for the moment I’m thinking maybe some trips to Normandy and the French Alps and Genoa. Along with a quick trip to the Champagne region when Dwain comes to visit in May. Because, you know, Champagne.

So a few new things to keep things fresh as we work our way toward spring!

And then yesterday I went to go see some more art, because, you know, Art. This was an exhibition called “A partir d’elle: Des artistes et leur mère” (“Starting from her: Artists and their mothers”). A really varied body of work on artists’ relationships with their mothers, really touching and also at times hilarious.

And then to end on a silly note, I thought I’d include this, which was sent to me by my friend Kyle…