L'Appart Quotes

“You never feel more American than when you leave America.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Spécial" is one of those elusive French words that means something (or someone) is...peculiar. The use of it is one of the rare times that the French are noncommittal about their opinions.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Lucques and Picholine olives,”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“croissant ordinaire, made with margarine, rather than a croissant au beurre.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“what the French call une soupe au lait: a once-calm pot of milk, warmed up on the stovetop, that was threatening to boil over.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Une deuxième couche” was to make sure they gave another coat of paint to a wall”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“branché (trendy)”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Charantais melons”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Gariguette strawberries,”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“disaster, a word that comes from the French des astres, or “from the stars.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“principe, or “in principle.” The fromagerie or bank is open on Thursdays, en principe…”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Sink-searching meant I had to expand my French vocabulary yet again. There aren’t just sinks in France: there are éviers, lave-mains, bacs à lave, bassins, vasques, and lavabos. Each type of sink has its own raison d’être.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Cedeo, a plumbing-supply store.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“street is also known for its many hardware, cabinetry, plumbing, and flooring stores;”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Boulevard Richard Lenoir is famous for its outdoor market that starts at the Bastille and radiates from there,”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“I learned that a pommeau à douche is a showerhead. The tuyau à douche is the shower hose that’s attached with a crochet (holder) to the mur en faïence (a tile wall, not to be confused with a mûre en faïence, which would be a ceramic blackberry) using les vis cruciformes (screws). It’s a lot to remember when leafing through catalogs of French plumbing fixtures, but harder when you’re in a hardware store and the perplexed salesperson doesn’t understand why you’d want to attach a showerhead to a ceramic berry.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“a handheld hose. I couldn’t find in my dictionnaire the word for the specific kind of hose my European partner was used to, but Claude knew the right term because, as he told me, he had several Italian clients: a douchette anale.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Fermeture exceptionnelle, letting me know that the store was closed for an “exceptional” reason. Ruptures occur just as frequently, which means an item is out of stock.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“The French word copain came about because your friends (copains, from compagnons) are the people with whom you break bread, or share pain.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“lettres recommandées (registered letters)”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Telling someone in France that they did something that was not correct is an affront to their honor, almost as severe as being told they’re mal élevé, or “badly raised.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Americans go into situations expecting things to go well. When they don’t, we have meltdowns. The French go into situations expecting things not to go in their favor, so they’re prepared when they don’t.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Golden Delicious apples reliably hold their shape when cooked and don’t exude too much juice, which results in a deeply caramelized round of apples on top of the buttery crust.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“apocopes”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“Spécial is one of those elusive French words that means something (or someone) is…peculiar.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“the Marché d’Aligre, which I think is the most exciting market in Paris.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“the mistake of calling an assiette à soupe (soup plate) a soup bowl (bol) because it has sides to hold in soup.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“The Butte-aux-Cailles in the 13th is charming (and flat), and resembles a mini village far removed from a big city.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“like the 20th, perched high above Paris. The Parc de Belleville has an unparalleled view of Paris (second only to the view I had from my rooftop apartment), and I could have easily imagined living there amid its rough brick streets and the human scale of the architecture.”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

“The double-digit arrondissements are more diverse, and each has a distinct feel. Being more working class, there’s a greater sense of community. Some are certainly less polished than the single-digit arrondissements,”
― David Lebovitz, L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home