Coffee

This could perhaps be the courtyard of the Macondo house... (via)

I started drinking my coffee black after I read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" last summer.   It's funny how little things about books stay with you - I remember being in Acadia with my family, sitting in the hammock over the Sound at our campsite before we went hiking or biking for the day, wrapped up in the long lives of the José Arcadios and the Aurelianos of the Buendia family, in their long full house in Macondo, the first in line tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by ants (you will understand this if you have read the book).
One of the things that the Buendias did was always drink their coffee black, with no sugar.   Before reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude" I used to drink coffee rarely, and then it was more like a glass of milk with a little bit of coffee in it.  I've always been more of a tea person - and I still drink more tea than I do coffee.  But when I do drink coffee, it's now strong and hot and black with no sugar, the way I imagine that the Aurelianos and the José Arcadios drink theirs.
Do you drink coffee?  Have you read "One Hundred Years of Solitude?"  Did you like it?  I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his style of magical realism - the myth-history quality of his novels, especially this one....
Let me know!

Wednesdays are Sleeping-In Days

At Ursula's school, the kids have Wednesday off, which meant that we all kind of slept in today - not a bad day to sleep in given that it's cold and grey outside.  I have thus far spent the day reading Infinite Jest and making espresso in an attempt to show my father that I should get the machine when I go off to college and we return home to the trusty French Press machine that makes more than a half-cup of coffee at a time.  Seriously, in a house where three people drink coffee, the espresso machine is a little small.
Anyways, how about a ridiculously light-filled room to wake everyone else up?  It's like seven on the East Coast, right?  Here you are...

Amazing, right?  Seriously, if I lived here I would never leave my room and survive on books and Lapsang Souchong for the rest of my days.

At home, I have a skylight above my bed, but nothing like this, and I have to say that it's way harder to wake up without it.  There was something about the light in my room that just made it easier to get out of bed, and while we have a window in our room here in Paris, we keep the curtains closed at night, which rather hinders the flow of natural light...

Anyways, have a lovely Wednesday morning!
(photo from Apartment Therapy)

Espresso Maker

Recently, tired of spending tons of money on coffee every day, we invested in a little stovetop espresso maker, one of these guys:

Photo from here.

And, seriously, it's my favourite thing.  I love that it just goes on the stovetop, which means that you don't need to figure out the whole filters thing (I can barely make coffee in a French press, okay?), I love that it's elegant and little and a pretty ingenious design, and I love that it makes just enough coffee for my parents and me, who are the only coffee drinkers in the house.

Since we have a fancier coffee thing at home, I'm campaigning for the espresso maker to take with me to college.  I think it would be nice, anyways....

Also, my weekend was filled with a trip to Belleville to buy za'atar and sumac and orange-flower water, a trip to Shakespeare and Company to buy Infinite Jest (well, I bought Infinite Jest, not really sure that that was why we went), and a jazz performance on Sunday by our friend Jobic in a beautiful building in the sixth.... how was yours?

Mornings

Lectures on Ancient Athens...

Café Crème...

Ulysses...

Jardins du Luxembourg...

The best kind of morning.

pictures from here, here, here, and here, respectively