A Christmas Special. Thanks Greg & Donny!

I've left the Christmas preparations to the last minute, which is a grand old Paris and Pittsburgh tradition. So let me share a holiday special from Greg & Donny, who produce a web series based in Johnston, a stone's throw from Pittsburgh. The Special is a send-up of one of our favorite holiday movies, "It's a Wonderful Life." Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Don't Breathe!

Paris veiled in pollution this week

The air has been so polluted this past week in Paris—a 10-year high—that officials restricted car travel, an extreme measure to reduce the toll on human health. Doctors are seeing more children with asthma and bronchial infections. Citizens were warned against exercising outdoors. Worried Parisians donned surgical masks, which offer no real protection.

Meanwhile, one of my brothers emailed me this week about the new U.S. administration, which intends to name a chief in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency who is not really interested in protecting it. My brother worried that Pittsburgh will again merit the nickname the Smoky City. For photos of Pittsburgh when smoke turned day into night, see my post here.

But just how clean is Pittsburgh now, compared to Paris?

I was shocked to find out that Pittsburgh is still one of America’s most polluted—ranking in the top six. The American Lung Association graded Allegheny county with an F for its overall air quality. The reason? Car traffic and industry, especially along the rivers, exactly where Pittsburghers like to play outdoors.

lelysparis.com designer pollution masks

In Paris, people are blaming the French love of diesel fuel, which powers most cars and trucks as well. This love affair is due in part to the government’s lower taxes on diesel, a break meant for the trucking industry. But it’s also due to a weather inversion that has put a lid over the city.

This week, PM10 particulates exceeded 80 micrograms per cubic meter. The EU has set a maximum daily average of 50. PM10 are particulates with a diameter of less than 10 microns, which include the most dangerous ones of less than 2.5 microns, which can penetrate deep into the lungs and the blood system and can cause cancer, according to this report.

In Pittsburgh and Paris, what you can’t see can hurt you. What's a person to do? I just downloaded an app called Plume (developed by Frenchies) that lets me know when it's safe to bike or exercise outdoors, whether the 'Burg or Paris. And I have my eye on on a designer mask that really does work! Sincerely, I hope the way forward is a future of clean fuel that powers our cities and jobs, and allows us to breathe easily.

Rose MarieBurke, an editor and journalist, writes a blog about her personal insights into life in Paris. After 20 years in the City of Light, she still calls her native Pittsburgh "home." Want to follow this blog? Enter your email address into the “Follow me” box. Or find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+.

Teaching Dad French

My Pittsburgh dad—like many—is passionate about the hometown football team, the Steelers. But I’m not crazy about sports unless I’m doing them. That makes for difficult conversations with my dad during my weekly phone home, especially if The Game is on. I can't get a word in edgewise.

keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk

But there’s no excuse for a Pittsburgh native to be sports-illiterate. So yesterday I did something about it: No, I didn’t join Steeler Nation, the official fan club. Instead, I fished out my Terrible Towel, and boned up on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website.

The good news is that the Steelers are doing well. They’re 6-5 with the Ravens, and tied for first place in the northern division of the American Football Conference. As this blog post puts it: “By the end of the day, you might have a pretty good idea if you’ll need money for a playoff ticket deposit.”

That day being Sunday, the day I usually call mom and dad! Ah-oh. I’ll have no chance of talking to dad. The Steelers are scheduled to play at 4:45 p.m., and the Ravens at 1 p.m.

ET phoning home
shmoop.com

So I put into a call into dad on Saturday, and had a nice chat. After conversing about the Steelers, I taught him a little French. When he said he wasn’t feeling “too bad,” I said that in France that means you’re doing really well. I hope the Steelers don’t do too badly today, and that the Ravens do a lot worse. 

Sometimes when you want to speak French to native Pittsburgher, it pays to learn a little of their lingo.

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Rose Marie Burke, an editor and journalist, writes a blog about her personal insights into life in Paris. After 20 years in the City of Light, she still calls her native Pittsburgh "home." Want to follow this blog? Enter your email address into the “Follow me” box. Or find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+.

A Paris Thanksgiving: Without The T

Shopping at Picard

We celebrated our Thanksgiving last night, two days late and without the T.

Don’t get me wrong, we gave Thanks and we had Turkey. But we did it without even a mention of the other T. You know, the name that has been on the lips of Americans these past few weeks. The day before, my daughter banned mention of U.S. president-elect from our household.

I also did Thanksgiving without another T, which I can’t seem to get enough of: Time.

So I did as the French do, I rose early on a Saturday morning and went to a store called Picard, which sells only frozen food—great frozen food. There’s no place like it in the U.S. I grabbed bags of turkey, broad beans, celery rave, rolls, and for dessert, the French version of apple pie: tarte tatin. Something else with a T that I can’t get enough of.

Thanksgiving chez moi

The turkey wasn’t a whole turkey, because in France that’s for Christmas. Instead I bought turkey pieces and made a fricassee, basically a stew. Ours was with mushrooms in a white wine sauce spiked with black current liqueur.

But because Time wasn’t on my husband’s side, as he decided to make stuffing from scratch, we’ll have that tonight, with leftover turkey stew on the side.

The only problem: we’re out of an essential ingredient for the stuffing. It also begins with a T. We are out of Thyme!





Rose Marie Burke, an editor and journalist, writes a blog about her personal insights into life in Paris. After 20 years in the City of Light, she still calls her native Pittsburgh "home." Want to follow this blog? Enter your email address into the “Follow me” box. Or find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+.

The Tiny Country Between Paris And Pittsburgh

Kerid crater lake, not far from Reykavik

We’ve discovered a land between Paris and Pittsburgh that has solved a puzzle for us. It’s a common one for expats: how to see family back home and keep travel costs down, but see more of other folks and the world during our annual homecoming.  

The answer for us this year is Iceland. We’re not the first to discover the island of “fire and ice,” so named for its volcanoes and glaciers, a place of raw, unsoiled beauty. It’s become a trendy, offbeat place to visit (read about that here). Is it cold and dark? The average winter temperature is 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and even the shortest days aren’t inky black but more like a constant twilight. But watch out for extreme weather! Blizzards can blow in unexpectedly. In the summer, however, Iceland enjoys spring-like weather and long days that are a bonus for hikers and day trippers. 

The pull was Icelandair’s “free stop-over” program, where passengers can deplane in Reykavik and spend up to a week discovering the island before continuing onto their destination, without an extra airline fee. Warning: Staying in Iceland itself is not free! It’s known as an expensive place, but there are ways to keep costs down: We stayed in an AirBnB in the suburbs, soaked in public pools instead of the pricey Blue Lagoon spa, used city buses for transport, and made most of our own meals. 

At a farm outside the capital called Farmhotel Efstidalur,
which serves ice cream made from the milk of the cows it raises.

Branching out even further, we selected the airline’s Paris-Minneapolis round trip (with the Reykavik stop-over) so we could visit college friends in the Midwest, fulfilling an old promise. We completed our itinerary with a Minneapolis-Pittsburgh round trip.

We loved Iceland so much that we’d like to “stop over” again and see more of the sights. And that’s just been made easier because Iceland’s budget airline, Wow Air, that added Pittsburgh as a destination earlier this month. Read about that here. Wow starts the service in June 2017, and also offers free stop-overs.

Now that Pittsburgh International Airport is once again starting to live up to that name, with direct flights to Frankfurt beginning next summer as well, we hope to do more PIT-stopping on our way home.

Want to follow this blog? Enter your email address into the “Follow me” box. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+. Rose Marie Burke, an editor and journalist, writes a blog about her personal insights into life in Paris. After 20 years in the City of Light, she still calls her native Pittsburgh "home."

Breakfast in America—In Paris

The "2 X 2 X 2"

Every so often, after living in Paris for many years, I get a craving for a real breakfast that a dainty croissant can’t satisfy. Like those Saturday morning brunches I made for my brothers as a young girl growing up in Pittsburgh: Bisquick pancakes, slathered with Imperial margarine, and swimming in Log Cabin syrup. That was the life!

Those happy memories came flooding back as I read “Pancakes in Paris,” about how an unlikely American with no restaurant experience—Craig Carlson-- started a chain of diners called “Breakfast in America” or BIA for short.

In reading the book, I worked up a pancake hunger. Yesterday, my husband and I left our cozy suburban apartment for the Latin Quarter, home of BIA No. 1.

Now I had been to BIA before, and remembered a long line and an impatient little girl—my daughter. This time, there was a short wait and no daughter, who now as a normal teenager didn’t even have enough patience to join us. Refusing a tiny table for two, we took seats at the counter. The best seats in the house--in a diner!

CC's Big Mess: Not for vegetarians

Hubbie ordered the 2 X 2 X 2, which is two each of eggs, bacon or sausage, and pancakes, with a side of real maple syrup. (Ever the mathematician, he wonder why it wasn’t the 2 + 2 + 2?) I bravely ordered the owner’s signature dish, CC’s Big Mess: Scrambled eggs with bacon, ham, sausage, onions, peppers, mushrooms, avocado, and cheddar cheese, served on top of a pile of home fries—with a hold on the cheese and a side of salsa.

BIA's diner decor

We admired the décor as we waited for our dishes, including the authentic laminated counters. There was a reason BIA reminded me of the diners of Pittsburgh. Because that’s where Craig found his inspiration! After joining the Diner Rescue Fund, he was invited to attend Dinerama 2001, a bus tour of Pittsburgh’s finest in diners dating back to the 1920s. (For a history of diners, go here.)

“Thanks to the Pittsburgh diner tour, I met a diner supplier that still made the authentic 50's era boomerang laminate counter top, which I then had shipped to Paris,” Craig said in a Facebook message to me while on book tour in California.

“I have so many special memories! I wish I knew the name of the diner, but it was a 1950's shiny, classic diner where we were allowed to order whatever we wanted off the menu (included in the tour price!),” Craig said. “I also remember visiting a diner just outside of the city, where they had a muscle car show and Hank Williams, Jr. was there to sing.”

Our dishes arrived on diner-issue oval plates. My mess was hearty, to say the least, and I loved the concept of scrambled eggs and potatoes together. But you’ve really got to be a carnivore for this dish, and not just a half-hearted vegetarian like myself.

But the pancakes!

Before John had a bite, I had already had two. The hotcakes were near perfect, round, evenly cooked, tender, and generously hanging over the rim of the plate. (No small praise for a former restaurant reviewer and child pancake prodigy.) Proust had his madeleine that brought back memories. For me, it's pancakes.

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Rose Marie Burke,  an editor and journalist, writes a blog about her personal insights into life in Paris. After 20 years in the City of Light, she still calls her native Pittsburgh "home." Want to follow this blog? Enter your email address into the “Follow me” box. Or find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+.

Paris And Pittsburgh: So Much In Common

I was surprised to learn that as a native Pittsburgher, I come from Appalachia -- a region I always thought began as soon as I dipped my toe into West Virginia. But the book “The Paris of Appalachia,” by Brian O’Neill, set me right: Pittsburgh is smack dab in the Appalachian region, the mountainous stretch from Alabama to New York.

I wasn’t surprised at the comparison of Pittsburgh and Paris. Just think about what they have in common: rivers, bridges, parks, beautiful views, the arts, neighborhoods, and walkable streets. They are big food, drink, and sports towns, each in their own way. Pittsburgh has pierogis, Iron City, and the Steelers. Paris has pommes frites, café, and Paris Saint-Germain. Both cities work to live instead of live to work.


There are some big differences between the two cities, of course. Paris is expensive, snobby, and dense at the core. Pittsburgh is affordable, friendly, and has a weak core that’s a revenue sinkhole.

Since Pittsburgh at times seems mentally stuck in the 1950s, I asked the author, a staff writer at the Post-Gazette, whether anything had really changed since his book was published in 2009. As the French saying goes, Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.

“The city still has the problem of its largest employers, the hospitals and universities, not paying property or payroll taxes,” because of their nonprofit status, Mr. O’Neill said in an email, “but the city has been talking with the big four -- UPMC, Allegheny Health Systems, Carnegie Mellon University and Pitt -- about a payment in lieu of taxes plan.” That would help alleviate Pittsburgh’s budget problems. 

What would give a boost to the whole area, however, would be the creation of a Greater Pittsburgh to give the city the same scale as other American cities. “In Pittsburgh, for instance, 83 distinct municipalities manage the sewer system that serves the greater metro area,” according to Keystone Crossroads. There are a whopping 418 local governments in the six-county Pittsburgh area, and 130 in Allegheny county alone. That doesn’t make any sense. Or cents. Municipalities in the Paris area are merging to save government overhead costs, deliver better service, and avoid raising taxes. Why not Pittsburgh’s?
 

What about the city’s people problem? The millennials who are moving into city neighborhoods like Lawrenceville are a change for the better, Mr. O’Neill believes. “The arrival of Google, Uber and the like has brought another issue Pittsburgh never had to face before: gentrification driving up housing prices. But, again, that beats the problem of values perpetually sinking.”

I think the only big change left is for Pittsburghers to change their minds. OK, Yinzers aren’t as negative as Parisians, but that’s not saying much. If anything, Mr. O’Neill says he’s more positive about the ‘Burgh than he was in 2009. “But it's now evident I was not optimistic enough. In short, Pittsburgh's future is genuinely looking up. It just has to be smart as it deals with the very real issues it must face.”

Rose Marie Burke, an editor and journalist, writes a blog about her personal insights into life in Paris. After 20 years in the City of Light, she still calls her native Pittsburgh "home." Want to follow this blog? Sign up with your email, or find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.