An enjoyable visit to Brooklyn

In contrast to our last adventure, How cars are sold today, we had an enjoyable visit on Thursday. We went to Brooklyn Heights to see MA, E's French friend from the earlier days living in Paris. MA is the mother-in-law of the husband of a customer who befriended me while I was working at Danone, in Palaiseau.

Anyway, we set off to Verandah Place, where MA, her daughter and husband and kids were staying. It is really hard to find parking here (too much construction), so we parked a couple of blocks away. That allowed us to see some of the elegant old buildings and apartments in the area.

Then, right at this beautiful little park, we came upon MA. Soon we were inside a delightful maison with 4 floors and a beautiful backyard. It is a big place, with others sharing the house. One of the people there (C) is married to the keyboardist for Sheryl Crow. (Update: this morning we saw him on TV.)

MA introduced us to her family, and we sat for some conversation (halting French and English).

Before long we were on the road, trying local streets to get around a bouchon on the BQE, headed for Brighton Beach and Little Russia. The Tatiana Restaurant is one we have gone to several times before for lunch. The food there is quite good and certainly plentiful.

The salads are unbelievable!

And so are the rest of the entrees. However, this is an expensive place, probably because it is right on the boardwalk in prime territory.

It was a nice, lazy afternoon of small talk, proceeding via halting French (on our part) and pretty good English on theirs. The kids had a good time, beaching a little and enjoying the scenery. It was quite nice to find more French friends.

We ended up driving past Coney Island so they could see it before it gets destroyed. Then we continued on to Verandah Place. They seem to be having a very nice trip here and enjoying themselves in New York. So did we today.