Tour de France

Our very cool and wet summer weather continues, but now that it's almost August most people are leaving. A handful of local businesses closed from Bastille day through the end of August, but many that were open during the last two weeks are now closed. Steve and I attempted to find a dry cleaner yesterday morning and after finding three with signs on the door saying they are on vacation until the end of August, we gave up and resigned to having our clothes cleaned in September. I hope we don't need to buy flowers or a newspaper in the next month, because we'll be out of luck. So much has slowed down and it seems that the city is exhaling.

Today was the final day of the scandal ridden Tour de France and despite all the problems, I thought it was a very cool day. We arrived on the Champs Elysèes around 11:30am, met three friends and settled in about a block from the Arc de Triomph. We weren't early enough for the front row, but we were close. We spent the following five hours chatting with friends, walking around, eating lunch, and taking things in. Running late, the riders arrived about 5pm and took their eight laps. The first lap goes at a friendly pace and then the remaining seven are more competitive. We purposely settled near the Arc because we knew the riders would have to slow down to turn the corner and head back down the Champs Elysèes but they still were flying by and as you will see in many of my pictures, I had a hard time focusing. It seemed like it was over almost right after it started, but after watching for the last three weeks on TV I realize how hard the riders train and that making it to the end is a true achievement. It was just another day of me wondering how I got so lucky that I get to live in Paris.

July

Brian and Sarah McAdam came to visit and we were lucky enough to spend three days with the at the end of their trip. They left the morning of Bastille Day. The French (at least the ones in Paris) celebrate Bastille Day with a series of Firemen's Balls the night of the 13th, a parade the morning of the 14th, and a fabulous fireworks show the night of the 14th. My pictures come nowhere close to how awesome the fireworks were.

Italy with Lauren and Betsy

Lauren and Betsy came to visit. We started with three days in Southern Italy. We flew from Paris to Naples and stayed in Sorrento. We used Sorrento as our home base and took the ferry and a bus for day trips to Capri, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, Pompeii and Naples. Ravello and Positano were our favorites, mainly because of the beautiful views and the feel we got from each place. Each of the beach towns fall out of the Italian hillside into the most beautiful beaches and oceans, except Ravello - this is above Amalfi in the hills. Apparently the cruise business is booming because these towns were overrun with cruise tourists during the day. Luckily at night they all returned to their boats and sailed away so we got to hang out with plain old tourists.

The morning we visited Pompeii was so hot that I couldn’t take out my camera to capture anything as I was too focused on avoiding being run over by the aforementioned cruise tourists and finding shade to escape the blazing heat. After our morning in Pompeii we took the train into Naples and played human Frogger with the traffic. I have never been anywhere, especially in a really busy city, where pedestrians simply cross the street and hope for the best. While there we ate at the pizza restaurant mentioned in the book Eat, Pray, Love. If you’ve read it, you’ll know what I’m referring to. If you have not read it, you should. The pizza was probably the best I have ever had, or ever will have. I would love to repeat the trip someday in September or October as I think the weather would be a cooler and the cruise tourists wouldn’t be as prolific.

After Italy Lauren and Betsy spent five days with Steve and me in Paris. They walked the city during the day when Steve and I were at work, and we met up each night for fabulous meals and night time fun. Summer is here and we are so enjoying the fact that the sun doesn’t go down until after 9pm and it doesn’t get dark until after 10pm. Last week was the Fete de Musique which was so interesting and fun. It happens each June 21 when musicians fill the streets and perform. There was a band or a DJ almost every other block throughout the entire city.

Here are Italy pictures and a few recent Paris photos.

Food. Church. Beach.

These three things pretty much sum up our visit with Maeve and David, as you'll see from these pictures.

Vacation

We have just finished a fun filled ten days of vacation. We started in western France with Maeve and David and finished up with five days in Tuscany with eight friends. We went to Brest, France to explore, and attend the wedding of the son of Steve’s French family. The wedding was fabulous – full of lots of good food and wine, and really genuinely nice people. The reception took place right next to the ocean and was amazingly beautiful.

In Tuscany we rented a villa with eight American friends, four who are living in the US, two who are in the navy in Sicily, and two who are living in Marseille. The week was full of fun, good food, wine, friends, games, and laughs. We visited Sienna, Bologna, Pisa, Lucca and Viereggio, and their surrounding regions. I had been to Sienna and Pisa before, but it was great to see the cities again, and Bologna, Lucca, and Viereggio were all interesting, beautiful, and full of history and good gelato. One of the trip highlights was a tour and then a tasting lunch at Castello di Verrazzano (Verrazzano as in the Verrazzano bridge in NY). The food and wine were some of the best I’ve ever had. We also had a local cook prepare dinner for us during two nights in the villa. The woman did not speak English, couldn’t have been nicer, and made one of the best meals I have ever eaten. We all thought about her with a smile as we attempted to finish off her tiramisu the next morning for breakfast. Here are some very so-so pictures that do not even begin to capture how pretty Tuscany is this time of year.

Colmar

Last week our friends Lisa and Matt joined us for a night in Paris, and then the four of us headed east to Colmar and Strasbourg, both in eastern France. Lisa and Matt were in the middle of a two week honeymoon in France and hence we felt very lucky to be invited to spend any time at all with them. Saturday we rented bikes and rode from winery to winery. We shared some excellent meals and had a fabulous weekend! Pictures for you if you'd like to see what it was like...but overall it was kind of like Napa, but in my opinion much better because the bike paths are in such great condition (only on the road next to cars at the very beginning), and no need to drive. The scenery was breath taking and Saturday was a perfect day, not too hot, not too cold, and somehow we missed the downpour of rain that Paris and London got. Clearly, the wine is one of the main attractions, but the region is known for other things as well.

The new president

As of tonight Jacques Chirac is out, and Nicolas Sarkozy is the new French president. Steve and I have loved following the election and learning more about the French culture in the process. This is our absolute favorite (albeit American) commentary on the French election process. I really recommend you watch it.

May Day

Steve and I have the day off today for Labor Day. It’s a beautiful spring day, and lilies are being sold on every corner. We spent the afternoon at the famous cemetery, Pere Lachaise. To me, it is part park, part art museum, and part cemetery. The cemetery holds 1000s of gravestones, some belonging to very interesting and famous people.

The first picture is Oscar Wilde's grave, full of lipstick kisses. The second picture is the lilies Steve gave me.

Giverny

Kate and Ken came to visit and yesterday we rode bikes through Giverny. Enjoy the pictures.

Pâques (Easter)

Steve and I had a great Easter. It started with a Catholic mass at the church at Madeleine. After we had brunch with two friends and then spent most of the afternoon sitting in the park. Spring is here, and it is beautiful.

Champagne

Steve and I spent Saturday in Reims. Reims is about two hours by train, north of Paris. It’s the center of the Champagne region. Needless to say, I loved it! We went to Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot and I had a smile on my face the entire time. The town has an awesome cathedral that is somewhat well known, but I believe overshadowed by all the tourists trying to get to the champagne houses. Our morning tour, at Taittinger, was in English. You don’t need reservations at Taittinger so their tours are big, and frequent. I asked our guide how many visitors they have a day and she was flustered and said 100, but I think she meant 1000. Reservations are required at Veuve and our tour was in French so that tour definitely had a different feel. I could understand a little of what the guide said, but mainly because it was essentially a repeat of the tour we’d had that morning. Here are pictures for you.

Versailles

Before Steve and I moved to France we had a friendly debate about who would have more friends visit while we're here (although technically his friends are now my friends and vice versa). I win for having the first friend come to visit - a co-worker, Kate - from New York who has never been to Paris before. Steve's friends have more trips planned than my friends, but I am sure that in the end, I'll win. Kate's loving Paris, and we had a great weekend - a cold and rainy Saturday spent at Versailles and a lazy Sunday spent wandering around in the sun and enjoying a beautiful spring day. A few pictures for you: http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=6611175460150870/l=258881700/g=2307863/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Bern

Steve and I spent the weekend in Bern, Switzerland with Steve’s cousin, Anna, and her husband and two kids, Louise and Jon. Louise is 12 and speaks four languages. Bern is the capital of Switzerland and has a large international community. This site explains it better than I can. We had a great time chatting and catching up, and eating a lot of wonderful food, including my favorite, fondue. For those of you who attended the wedding, Anna is Louise and Conal’s youngest daughter.

Pictures

A few recent pictures for you.

Chartres

Steve and I went over to Bon Marche on Saturday. It’s a great store, but their food store across the street is even better. It’s actually a very close replica of Whole Foods, with endless gourmet offerings, a beautiful fruit and vegetable department, and a great prepared food section. It was also crawling with Americans. If we lived closer I would probably do a lot of my shopping there, so it’s good we’re not next door.

On Sunday we took an hour train ride to Chartres. The main attraction in Chartres is the cathedral, which is very impressive. The stained glass was like nothing I’ve really seen before, and the interior of the church was literally amazing. It was the most gorgeous spring day outside, but inside it was freezing and dark. Grace Cathedral and Chartres have a connection, including the labyrinth which Grace copied from Chartres. Because it was Sunday almost everything was closed in the town, but we walked all around and really enjoyed the day. It must be puppy season because we saw four yellow lab puppies – so cute! The town is very French, very old, and full of adorable winding roads, a stream crossed with beautiful old bridges every few blocks, and a lot of very well dressed French people out for a Sunday walk on a beautiful day. Steve was particularly happy because no one responded to him in English, which drives him crazy; although I maintain that the French are so polite that they are only trying to make him feel comfortable (because they assume Americans can’t really speak another language). I'll post pictures soon.

The election

In May the French will elect a new president. I doubt this race is getting much attention in the US, but I find it rather interesting as there is a good possibility that they will elect their first female president. Segolene Royal is running against Nicolas Sarkozy. The first election will take place in April with the final runoff in May.

Hemingway's at the Ritz

Not too much to report this week. Steve and I had our six month wedding anniversary on Friday, but we both forgot (oops!). Forgetting was actually a good thing because we started the night off by having our friends who we had invited to dinner call and cancel 30 minutes before they were to arrive, which turned out okay because then our oven broke, again. After eating a very modified menu of what we were planning to have, we trekked over to Hemingway's bar in the Ritz. It has an interesting history, but also charges €25 per drink so when the snobby hostess told us there was no room because it is fashion week we headed off. We ended up at another bar which we thought was okay until we noticed a handful of transvestites, so we called it a night.

Saturday night we made it to a crazy club which was so much fun it made up for Friday night's lack of fun.

I made my first ever tart, which I am pleased to report turned out to be delicious. I followed this recipe, but added in powdered hazelnuts and skipped the pears, instead I topped the tart with a ring of raspberries. Delicious!

We're an aunt and uncle

I’m an aunt! Last week, very excitingly, Steve and I became an aunt and uncle when Steve’s brother, Greg, and his wife, Emily, had Ella Caroline Franklin. We can’t wait to meet her!

Steve and I have just returned from a fun filled weekend in London. I went over on the Eurostar on Thursday morning and worked Thursday and Friday and met Steve after work on Friday evening. I had a bit of time to kill before meeting Steve so I stopped in one of my favorite places, the National Portrait Gallery. They always have the most interesting exhibits. Saturday we met South African friends who we knew in Boston for brunch and then Kate’s college roommate, husband, and new baby for lunch. I spent the afternoon wondering around and went into Harrods. I trust I saw the most important facets of the store – the fine jewelry section and the food halls. After Harrods I went over to the National Gallery, another one of my favorite places to visit in London. We stayed with one of Steve’s friends in his flat in the suburbs of London and overall had a great weekend.

About ten days ago Steve’s French ‘aunt’ (the sister of the father of the family Steve lived with in high school) had us over for dinner, along with her nephew and his wife (who are about our age). It was my first official French dinner party. It was a fantastic evening, with delicious food, and I’d say I maybe understood 10% of the conversation. We had five courses, wonderful wine and champagne, and good company.

My French Soup

Last night I prepared my first French dish, cauliflower soup. Why do I consider this one my first, after already mentioning that we've been eating soup for weeks due to the broken oven (which got fixed last week)? Because the recipe is from a French woman who spends her days writing about French food, while everything else I've made is out of my US cookbooks. Kate pointed out her blog, and I have been visiting it a few times per week. The author is French, but spent time living in the US so she writes in English. I believe she lives somewhere right near us because she often writes about places within a few blocks of our apartment. I made cauliflower soup (recipe), which I have to say, was delicious.

On another note, Steve and I went to the police station this morning and picked up our receipts for our carte de soujours, our next step in the French visa process. In two months we will go back to pick up the actual carte de soujour.

Pictures

A few pictures from the last month+: http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=275121171318497238/l=244766853/g=2307863/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB