food: coq au vin with juniper, meatloaf with star anise
One of the reasons I love Top Chef so much is that aspect of “a twist”. So common the challenge is to do something like traditional family favorites, comfort food, but with “a twist”. Maybe it needs to be modernized, maybe it has to incorporate the chef’s signature style, maybe it needs to be low calorie, but there is always an interesting element that makes it something beyond the literal interpretation of the dish.
There is something special in that combination of tradition and mystery. Gordon Ramsay knows it. His whole philosophy has always been about doing away with pretentious dishes, fancy for fancy sake, and finding the heart of traditional cuisine. His recommendations on Kitchen Nightmares always boils down to returning to simpler food, but not simple as in boring, there always has to be something that makes it unique.
So I had fun this week creating various comfort foods with “a twist” based on some particularly delicious looking recipes from Food & Wine magazine. Coincidentally, I visited Town Tavern in Royal Oak this week, which is supposedly known for their comfort food, specifically a lobster mac and cheese. In the end, I was a lot more pleased with my own creations than the Town Tavern mac and cheese. Maybe I just had some really good successes, or maybe I just don’t think a dish can be called mac and cheese unless you can actually taste some major cheese. Whether it be cheddar or swiss or gruyere or parmesan, that doesn’t matter, but I just don’t buy little tubes in a cream sauce as “mac and cheese”.
Coq Au Vin with Juniper
Coq au vin is good French comfort food. Tom and I experienced a lot of rustic cuisine on our trip to France, delicious meats with full flavored sauces. I became especially interested in doing an updated version when I found an article in Food & Wine that listed 4 different takes on the traditional meal, each uniquely delicious. One was made with a Sauvignon Blanc and capers, another with Chardonnay and artichokes, and yet another Cotes du Rhone and carrots. The one I chose was the most unique… a sauce made from figs, juniper berries, cipollini onions, and Riesling.
Juniper berries are a strange substance in and of themselves, something I’ve be interested in playing with. It is the ingredient that gives the distinguising pine flavor to gin, and to see it being used in a coq au vin dish was certainly that “twist” I was looking for. The chicken came out perfectly cooked and juicy, and the sauce ingredients combine to create a rich, flavorful and sweet gravy that really felt like home-cooking. The juniper was not pungent, but was just enough to give you this holiday-esque feeling. Roast chicken, sweet figs, and pine trees… definitely a dish I’ll be trying again in the Christmas season.
Smoky Meatloaf with Star Anise
Second attempt at some comfort food was the very American meatloaf and ketchup. My mom had gotten me some star anise pods for Christmas, and here I found a recipe that not only used them in the meatloaf itself but in the accompanying prune ketchup. Alone the meatloaf turned out good, not great… I’m always afraid to pump up the spices beyond the recipe and there wasn’t really any way for me to taste it before cooking. Going to France did not make me comfortable with raw ground beef consumption. Anyway, the meatloaf was good and I appreciated the strong smoky flavor that came from using bacon and some smoked salt I had picked up in Paris. But even better than the meatloaf alone was the way it tasted with the prune ketchup, a fantastic blend of sticky sweetness and tangy with that lovely liquorice bite.
Two great recipes I shall be making again. To anyone listening out there, feel free to post some of your favorite comfort foods with a twist. I’d love to get some more ideas.
food: butternut squash soup from Les Papilles in Paris
The French know how to do winter soup. Lots of cream and lots of butter. At Les Papilles in Paris, they took the fun of eating a hearty soup even further, and thus created one of the most memorable singular dishes of our whole Europe trip. They filled the bottom of a large bowl with roasted chestnuts, cheese, fresh chives, and a large wad of freshly whipped butter. The soup came family style in a big tureen for your to pour over the butter and tasty treasures. Mix together and magic happens.
Since it is nearing the end of winter, I thought this would be the perfect time for me to test out recreating the memorable dish. And I have to say that for the most part, it was a real success. The soup was a bit thicker, like a puree, and next time I will go for some high quality whipped butter. But all in all I found it a delicious and fun way to serve a soup with endless possibilities for alterations. This time I tried roasted apples, toasted chestnuts, and smoked cheddar, but next time maybe it can be poured over yogurt and Indian spices.
book: The Physics of Consciousness
tv: LOST “The Constant”
Wow. I am just going to come right out and say that this most recent episode of LOST was by far my favorite of the entire series, and that it had me bawling my eyes out at the end. Desmond is the coolest character, a sexy time travelling Scotsman who is so deeply in love with Penny that he is willing to travel to the ends of Earth and time to be with her. Man, that really shows how trivial the whole Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle is.
Besides watching that amazing episode yesterday, I also finished a book called the The Physics of Consciousness by Evan Harris Walker. The book is about consciousness as one of the underlying forces in the universe similar to gravity and seeks to prove it by looking on the quantum level. The theory goes that the observer plays an essential part in the universe, that consciousness itself causes the wavefunction collapse. In less scientific terms, the microscopic universe is based on probabilities (like that an electron can be here or there, or bounce around in between) and that it is the act of observing (like by experiment) that causes it to become something. And, since our conscious observation of the system determines the final outcome, that consciousness itself must be an important, if not the most important, part of the system.
The book seeks to answer one of the most important questions of the human existence… does matter exist because of the mind? Or does the mind exist because of matter? Materialists believe that mind creating matter is just a bunch of pseudo-science New Age hocus pocus, while Walter sees the materialists viewpoint as failing to explain that which makes us human. Why should we as humans love or think or feel this deeply if it is just neurons firing in our brain? He believes that through experiment and physics, he can prove that matter is the illusion, not mind.
While I didn’t agree with everything Walker concluded, I found myself satisfied with how it bridged Eastern philosophies about the interconnectedness of all things with the very fabric of the human brain. And after watching that last episode of LOST, I was amazed at how this book gave me a new perspective on the mysteries of the series. So here goes my interpretation of some of the island’s events based on the nerdiness that is the quantum mind.
CONSCIOUSNESS + TIME
“Time does not flow as a stream but passes by as chunks… In addition to physical, biological, and psychological time, there is also consciousness time, the time we experience. This time has its own role to play in reality…”
If time is merely a series of “snapshots” taken by our consciousness which is continually present, then it could be possible to go backward and forward in that series. It is time travel of the mind, just like Desmond experienced. Desmond’s consciousness was bounced to other periods in his temporal experience, and thus the body container his mind was previously in would go unconscious during the jump.
The fact that Desmond’s consciousness bounced around was pretty straight-forward in the episode, but I got a new level of enjoyment out of it because of the book. My deeper nerdy theory is that the mind is like an electron, and when excited by something like electromagnetism or radiation, it can bounce into a different orbit or in the mind’s case a different period in time.
WILL VS. CONSCIOUSNESS
“The will is the channel that determines what our next move, choice, and thought will be. It selects the path our mind takes through the images of things the brain scatters before us… We are saying that our mind can affect matter - even other brains - and that distant matter and minds can have an effect on us… Why does it seem so strange? Because the signal (will) is small compared to the noise of our everyday consciousness.”
Walker suggests that the bandwidth and resolution of consciousness (number of bits of information coming into our head) is much greater than the bitrate of our “will”. What we are concentrating on and thinking is only a piece of all the sensory input coming into our mind. Because of this, the world is mostly what we observe and only a small portion of what we will it to be.
In the world of LOST, maybe there are people… special people (ahem, Walt) who have a greater strength “will” than most. Maybe this is why he can cause birds to die and the dice to always roll a 6. Maybe because of this he has some ability to manipulate matter and project his consciousness in a visual way to people like Shannon and Locke.
Locke, being the more spiritual force on the island, has also been called “special”. Maybe his “healing” had more to do with the island empowering his will rather than it actually physically effecting him. Locke also seems to be able to gain insight, to slip into some higher level of consciousness by way of meditation.
COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS
“The will is our innermost nature, our being that is there even when the things we might see go blank. It may even be there when all else is gone… It is perhaps this aspect of the mind that comes to fore when one is in deep meditation, a state of consciousness designed to remove thoughts and sensory contact with the world.”
Many have suggested “collective consciousness” before as part of LOST, and I have dismissed it as too much spiritual mumbo jumbo in what I thought was a mainly sci-fi series. However, I am giving the idea more validity now that I see that it could explain a lot of the harder to explain aspects of the island… smoke monster, zombie dad, the whispers, etc.
If there is something of ourselves that indeed survives after death, this could explain why we occasionally see Yemi and Christian Shepard just wondering around the island. Something of their unique selves is left, but they have also returned to the collected stream of consciousness, the more unified energy that exists outside the containers of our brains. The whispers are the collective consciousness, the cosmic mind if you will. And perhaps there are some exceptionally strong “wills” in the bunch that while dead in the physical world, are trying to continue their efforts from the non-physical world consciousness. Maybe the smoke monster is some man-created “security system” that tried to tap into the power of the collected consciousness, but has since gone haywire (we all know what awareness and smart machines can lead to).
THE GRAND UNIFIED THEORY
All this consciousness stuff still fails to explain things like the Orchid video, where two of the same bunny end up in the same space at the same time, perhaps as the result of a wormhole or vile vortices? Whatever the case, there is a lot in LOST that still suggests that perhaps physical people, and not just consciousness, can skip around in space and time. I’m looking at you Richard Alpert.
Until someone can present a theory that explains both the physical and mental displacement in time and space, I think there is going to be a lot of LOST that still remains a big mystery.
presidential candidate: Barack Obama
Politics is intensely complicated, and I find it a shame that the powers that be still want to propagate the idea of this false dichotomy, this “two party” system, when it is so clear that we live in a world of “varying shades of gray” (as my mom likes to say). This presidential primary is just a perfect example of that concept. We have Republicans saying they will vote for Clinton, because she is more conservative than McCain or that they don’t want McCain to make their party look bad. We have a kooky Libertarian running on the Republican ticket, when his views are so clearly opposite from many of his running mates. It’s all over the board.
The illusion of the two parties becomes clear the minute you take a political quiz with any true thought. Here I am registering Barack Obama and Rudy Guiliani as my top two candidates. Say what? But they are on different sides, right? Well if you really break it down on the many axis of political thought, it isn’t so crazy. Apparently, I am a socially-progressive pacifist who is moderate on economic and government control issues… maybe I lean a little Libertarian and a little Capitalist. If I look at where I map out, there is actually no candidate running who takes on my exact pattern, and there probably never will be, so long as the two-party system remains that is.
So, how do I choose who to support? Well, I started by prioritizing my issues. I usually put social and science issues on the forefront of my mind, but with tax time hitting us hard, the stock market down, and our need to refinance our house during a time of complete housing market bust… its really hard to ignore the economy. And this is where it gets really complicated. The most beneficial economic plans that effect me directly come from people who are so polar opposite with me on social issues that I can’t possibly vote for them. The candidates that I agree with most when it comes to social issues seem to leave people like me out of their plans altogether… I’m not wealthy, but I’m not struggling enough.
Then add into the equation that the “fair tax” proposal, one of the most interesting ideas in tax reform, is on the table of Michigan’s government and in the hands of the House and Senate in Washington. That begs the question, will the president be the catalyst of tax reform, or are there many players involved? So if economy is off the table… and if you really start to think about it, a lot of issues are determined in this complicated checks and balances system… what is left?
Inspiration, passion, direction, unification. A glorified figurehead of how we want to be perceived and where we want to go.
And I have to say… Barack Obama inspires me. I think he is a cool dude that speaks well, yes. But there is more there than that, and to anyone who doesn’t think there are plans underneath his lingo, they just haven’t dug far enough. What really pushed me far over the edge was this website that compares candidates views on science and technology, and this amazing 30 point plan from Obama (Hilary Clinton’s was a 1 point plan by comparison). I can’t believe some of the stuff in here. Making government policies available online for public comment before they are voted on, requiring representatives of government to hold online “town hall” meetings, and using social network technology to promote cross-agency communication within Washington.
This guy gets technology, and he gets why it is important and how it can change the way we live. And a guy who gets that is just more interesting to me than a boring old white dude who probably gets uncomfortable when people talk about what they twittered today.
tv show: LOST
LOST is a strange romance for me. I get so nervous about it not living up to my expectations, which become huge after months of waiting and waiting, that I almost set myself up to be disappointed. Often it takes a while of thinking for an episode to grow on me, for me to realize how much I really liked it. Sometimes it takes me rewatching it as part of the entire season, without commercials, without weeks in between plot points, to see how it fits into the overall story. That fact alone speaks volumes about the true craft with which the show is handled and why it is one of my favorite series of all-time… I would say it is THE FAVORITE, but it is hard to compare it apples to apples with half hour comedy gems like Flight of the Conchords or with the indescribably good horror thriller Dexter, which offers more satisfaction in intense character development but less on mind-bending mystery.
Anyway, the point of this post really is not for me to comment on how well I liked the Season 4 premiere or where I think the series is heading. The point of this post is for me to talk about this nerdy hipster dude pictured above and why I can’t believe he was able and is able to do what he does and have it work so well. Why I can’t believe that most people probably don’t even know his name. And why I can’t believe that with the level of religious obsession that is involved with being a LOST fan, that 16.1 million people tuned in Thursday!!
Most people consider JJ Abrams to be the “creator of LOST”. While JJ Abrams was certainly a catalyst that originated the ideas behind LOST and directed the pilot episode, it is this guy in the hipster glasses, Damon Lindelof, that deserves more praise for turning the series into what it is today. He is the head writer, co-creator, and from what I can tell, the true mind behind where the show goes on a weekly basis. I think he deserves some major props, and I just couldn’t go another week without gushing about why.
Imagine television before LOST… think about the landscape of shows. Was there a single TV show in the primetime line-up, bringing in 20 million viewers, that was science fiction in nature? Sci-fi doesn’t play well to much of American. Maybe it has to do with the fact that something like 60% of Americans don’t believe in evolution. Whatever the cause may be, if I was a studio executive and a writer came into my office and told me they were going to produce a primetime series about time travel, fertility experiments, mind-reading, teleportation, world-ending electromagnetism, mysterious healings, people materializing from the dead, and a giant monster (or “security system”) made out of black smoke… I would have laughed in their faces. But I would have been wrong. And now in a time of Heroes and other sci-fi shows, LOST doesn’t seem so revolutionary different, because the show has changed the landscape of primetime television.
There are plenty of cynical “I’m too cool for LOST” comment posters over at the AV Club… people who read news articles about how LOST’s ratings have dropped from 20 to 14 million… people who say the show has “jumped the shark” since Season Two… people who say the show introduces mysteries but never gives any satisfying answers… to them I just would say that I can’t believe that there are 14 million people in the world who even watch LOST, who tune in week after week. To me, that is a sign of success, not failure. To me, that has me scratching my head and trying to figure out how my man Lindelof is able to do it. How do you bring something of Twin Peaks level complicated plot into the homes of America and have them go… yeah, I love that show?
The answer… by carefully crafting a story line that can be appreciated on many wavelengths, by different levels of intelligence and enthusiasm. That craft is what makes Lindelof and company pure geniuses.
Levels of LOST fandom
At the very bottom of the pyramid, you have people who watch the show week to week, possibly miss an episode here and there, and are only able to interpret the base level of what is given to them in the show. They are able to enjoy LOST because they care about the characters, who have been very well developed in flashbacks over the course of three seasons. They are emotionally invested in their quest to get off the island, and they are curious about some of the most tangible mysteries the island has presented… such as polar bears and those darn mysterious numbers. These people still think purgatory is a viable explanation, and are able to continually support that theory based on the always running themes of good vs evil, redemption, and healing that surface in the series. These people have no real idea what the series is truly about or how sci-fi it will continue to get from here on out. Yet, somehow, there is enough put into every episode (consciously) to keep them hooked. There is a simple storyline about characters trying to survive in an unknown environment that is so universal, that you don’t need to care about time travel or four-toed statues to be invested in the series.
Next level of the pyramid are the casual theorizers. These people do pick up on a little more under the surface. They like a little bit of science fiction in their lives and probably grew to love the series more in those opening moments of Season Two… the turning point of the series when it was revealed what was inside The Hatch. All the sudden the series took a major plunge into science fiction, a direction that probably left a few heads spinning at the bottom of the pyramid, but got those on higher levels more invested. These people will chit-chat at the water cooler about what the numbers could mean, did Desmond really time travel or no, and why Dharma is interested so much in this weird island. These people may have looked at some screen captures on the web of the Dharma shark or of Jacob. They think easter eggs like that are cool, but don’t spend too much time thinking about what it means to the overall series. They are invested and curious to see where the series heads, but are also easily annoyed if they don’t feel like the pace is moving fast enough and often wonder if the writers know where exactly they are going. However, their loyalty can be easily reclaimed, when the geniuses behind the LOST team finally decide its time to reveal a bigger piece of the puzzle… like they did at the end of Season Three by finally “flashing forward”, a twist that was praised by all and gave new momentum to the story.
Then at the top of the pyramid are the fanatics, which I will admit I am one of. While I am nowhere near as fanatical as some, I can’t deny that I am a little obsessed. I read the blogs, I look at the screen caps and transcripts, and I do spend a great deal of time the day after each episode airs thinking about how the new “clues” presented change my theories about certain things. It is for people at this level that the dedication the writers of LOST really pays off. It is an attention to detail that I have never before seen in any television series or movie or anything. Little to casual viewers know that every name, every song, every book, every wardrobe choice, every sign on a business, everything… that is included in an episode of LOST is a clue. Nothing is at random. The name of the airline that Juliet took is an anagram for Amelia Earhart, who crashed (in real life) in the South Pacific and may or may not be one of The Others, which of course would signify the island slows down the aging process or that time travel is real.
I won’t go into all the delicious clues, because luckily there are enough good web sites out there that do it for me. I usually am a follower of blogs rather than a writer. It depends on your level of dedication on how much you want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. There are those who will chat, listen to podcasts, or follow supplementary online experience games that allow users to piece together clues from web code, MySpace pages, billboards, commercials, newspaper ads. And yet somehow, despite the additional clues the writers reveal for thirsty fanatics, no one is any closer than those at the other levels of the pyramid to figuring out “the answers”. They leave enough off the table to keep some secrets to themselves. And for that, they are AMAZINGLY talented.
The fact that they can create a video game that brings satisfying new information to the series, that is interesting enough to not seem like a gimmick but to actually be a contribution to the canon of the story to have people excited (myself include) to play it… and at the same time have that stuff not be so essential to the enjoyment of the series that it leaves the lower pyramid dwellers in the dark… that makes LOST one of the smartest series in the history of television, hands down. The fact that 16.1 million other people agree is frankly a more interesting question to ponder to me, then what those darn numbers mean.
(The numbers, by the way, have been explained already in an experience game, if you want to know. I frankly find knowing that fact one of the core puzzle pieces that I base any of my theories of the series on. I am increasingly curious about how the series will finally explain the numbers to the rest of America, or if they even will. How they will wrap up the story and satisfy everyone is something that people remain highly skeptical about, but since they have pulled through this far, I don’t see why they would fail us in the end)
cities: firenze, sam gimignano, siena, orvieto, roma
We have returned from our trip, returned to work, but certainly not returned to our old way of life. Things will never be the same. Cooking will never be the same, breakfast, coffee, drinking wine. The urge to say “grazie” often and to everbody has been hard to overcome. While I’m working on cataloging our photos and transferring my journal entries to blog articles, I figured I’d finish up my mini-blogs with the final days of our trip, which represent a polarity of the best and worst of Italian life. From nirvana-inducing meals of Florentine steak and SuperTuscans to an onslaught of tourist traps, crappy pizza joints, and loud Americans.
FIRENZE
Arrive in Firenze by train at night, just enough time to see the statues at night over some thick cups of cocoa. This is a city of art. Such beauty and effort put into every muscle and expression. Visited the Uffizi in the morning to see ornate ceilings and paintings from various eras, it’s overwhemling.
Grab some picnic supplies (we’ve become addicted to fresh prosciutto parma) and head across river to high grounds. Get a great view from the Boboli Gardens, a great divide with the city of Firenze on one side with its duomo and honking horns and the gorgeous green landscape of the Tuscan hills on the other side.
Sunset, wine, nap. Awake to nightime Firenze filled with people and the smell of food.
SIENA / TOSCANA
Firenze killed our digital camera. 500 pictures in one day and our camera gives up its life, we hear the death throttle in the middle of the night. Have to visit “Media World” to get a new one, then off to Tuscany. First stop is Sam Gimignano, famous for its white wines and ancient towers. Then to Siena, where we check into our “apartment” which is gloriously huge with a full kitchen. We go into town to get a night time view of the famous Piazza del Campo.
Siena makes a good home base for exploring Tuscany. Much (a lot actually) is closed for the season. Chuiso fino a marzo. Our Garmin waivers between not working at all and dumping us into a vineyard, like actually into the vines. However, we finally find all that we are looking for at Castello Brolio… incredible Chianti Classico and SuperTuscans (the best wines of our trip), an ancient castle with a view of the bright yellow autumn hillside, and a steak twice the size of my head and twice the price of fairly great bottle of wine.
The steak was our only meal for the entire day that day, but we were able to use the kitchenette at least once. Using some goodies we picked up from around Tuscany, I made a meal of pappardelle with sundried tomatoes and porcini. We taste our first Brunello di Montalcino at Enoteca Italia, and my mouth will never forget the thick dark liquid and its explosive flavor.
MONTALCINO
On our journey to Roma, we stop in the town where Brunello comes from. We taste several more through out the day, both at Enoteca Fortezza and Castello Banfi, but none compare to the first Brunello we had, one that we snagged for a mere 23 euro (about 33 USD), which is a ridiculous bargain even at the terrible exchange rate. Tom attempts to eat fresh olives from the trees, which are everywhere, and isn’t too pleased with the results.
ORVIETO
After an amazing six course lunch (only place we could find that was open), we visit Orvieto, another city known for its white wines and ancient structures. Orvieto is a hillside town known for the “city” underneath the city, which consists of ancient rooms that were used for various purposes including making olive oil and storing pigeons.
ROMA
Roma is busy from the moment we arrive. No traffic laws, vespas everywhere. The city is thick with tourists, and over the next 24 hours, they grate on my state of Tuscan bliss. We find solace by spending much of our time in the back alleys of Navona, hopping from wine bar to wine bar, sampling all that the Roman nightlife has to offer. One of our favorite (although highly popular) daily stops was Della Roma, whose claim to fame is the 100 flavors of gelato of which we were only able to conquer 12 before our time in the city ended.
Roma was probably our least favorite place on our trip, but we still made the most of what it had to offer. Beyond the enjoyable nightlife, Roma is quite interesting for being an ancient city within a modern city. Wherever you turn, you see fountains, sculptures, and ruins against the shops and billboards. Some of it is strikingly beautiful, some of it is downright ugly. This all exhibited best in the “old city” where the Colosseum is located.
Boring day at the Vatican, rained out of the park… our best Rome experiences really happened in the evening. Still, it was fun to rent a motorized bike cart to roam around Villa Borghese. We had our final picnic under the roof of our bike cart, in the pouring rain, bundled up in hoodies. Still the Raboso never tasted so good.
Arrivaderci Italia. We will miss you. We are not terribly happy about the wine that the Italian KLM agent confiscated from our belongings (luckily she only got 3 of our 8), but we won’t hold it against you as a country.
Italy was very different from France. So much of the everyday is about “la vita bella” or the good life. It becomes part of their entire culture in both good and bad ways. Non che problema, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow, the motto does not work so well when it comes to preserving the ancient, organizing road systems, making sense of airport regulations or public transportation. However, when it comes to sitting back and indulging in the gifts of the land, the freshest tasting olive oil, the pungent porcini mushrooms… the meat, the wine, the cheese… they have it figured out, they own it better than anywhere else on the planet.
cities: fontainebleau, beaune, lyon, venice
More fun to report on our lengthy trip. Can’t believe we have done this much and still have so much to go. It’s getting a little ridiculous, and I miss our home and our cats… and friends and family too. But of course, that doesn’t stop my enjoyment and collection of stories, pictures, and experiences just because part of me really wants to snuggle Ollie, he’s such a fluffy fucker. Anyway…
ILE DE FRANCE
On our way out of Paris and to Burgundy, we explored a little more of the “Ile de France†or the area surrounding Paris. We attempted to go to two famous Chateaus. Vaux-le-Vicomte had just that day closed for holiday season, and we missed the entrance to Fontainebleau by one minute. Such is life.
Instead we drove to a hidden area in the Forest of Fontainebleau, parked with a view of the pretty colors, and had a picnic inside our car. We munched on bread and cheese, and watched the hunters wander the forest.
BEAUNE / BURGUNDY
Beaune is a small town built on wine tourism, nothing but fancy restaurants and wine shops. Reminded me of a French Sonoma or Napa. At Marche aux Vins, you went down into their ancient cellars and had some self-regulated tastings off of barrels by candelight.
Burgundy outside of Beaune was a lot of small hillside towns and chateaus. Looked for signs that say “degustation†for some more wine tasting.
FETE DE BEAUJOLAIS
The new Beaujolais has arrived. One of the most unique experiences of our trip. 4 euro for a wine glass gave you all you could drink all night long. We snacked on cheese and sausages in bagette (French version of a hot dog) in the village square with people from all over the world.
A local bar had a very French accordion player and we made friends with the locals, some good stories there. At midnight they lit up torches, set off fireworks, and welcomed the new vintage of Beaujolais.
LYON
Like a mini-Paris but bitterly cold. Lyon is a peninsula with a big hill to one side of the river that you can climb up to get a view of the city. The hill is much bigger than it appears in this picture and was quite the workout getting up to the top. Beautiful fall colors and good shopping that is pretty reasonable compared to Paris.
VENICE
Alps look like whipped cream poking through the clouds. They served mozzarella and tomato skewers on our Flybaboo flight, must be on our way to Italy.
Venice is ugly from the outside, but once we were on Vaperetto 1… we were cruising down the Grand Canal to much beauty.
Italian wines dark and flavorful, and they go well with our first meal in Italy: an incredible cheese and meat plate. Too many tourists, Americans, flower sellers, mask shops, and pushy pizza restaurants. The best Venice experience is wandering the back alleys looking for hidden gelaterias and gastronomias. One fun tourist activity definitely worth 1 euro is buying food for the pigeons in Piazza San Marco.
Coming up next… Florence, Tuscany, Rome and then home
There are so many new memories floating around in my head. As Tom is napping in preparation for our adventure out later tonight to a jazz bar in a cave in the 5th arrondisemont, I decided I would like to try and post up a blog with a few thoughts and teaser photos that give a look into our lives in Paris right now.
I’ve been having fun Twittering, taking lots of photos, and writing down notes in a little notebook I’ve been bringing with me wherever we go. It has come in super handy, as I filled it with maps and sights to see. We can be standing there for fifteen minutes trying to get ourselves unlost, but you wouldn’t know we are tourists because it just a nondescript little black book.
Anyway… here we go:
Day One
Land in Paris, train system confusing, France fall colors as we approach the city… Tom getting into the groove of speaking French to waiters… wander around to a few must see sights, including Notre Dame and ice cream on Ile St Louis… things are just so beautiful and quaint here, the area of our hotel is straight out of Ratatouille, speaking of which we had some for dinner and it was delicious…
Tom in awe of Notre Dame:
Day Two
We have fun overhearing children speaking French, always adorable… Montmarte not so adorable, 10% cute cafes a la Amelie, 90% sex shops and tourist traps… sacre coeur not as inspiring over grey sky as opposed to blue, but still pretty… we meet up with Julie, Maneesh, and Ava for long lunch and do a scene drive around Parisian sites… food in Paris is just as inspiring as the scenery, or maybe it is the scenery that enhances the food to such exquisite levels…
Here is us in front of Sacre Coeur right after running away from a South African bracelet making tourist trap:
Day Three
Pastries are an absolute art form… dropped off at Eiffel tower, decide to take stairs and not wait in ridiculous line, we made it to the 2nd deck… lunch on Sunday hard to come by, but we manage… say goodbye to Julie, starts to rain and hide out in an arch by the Louvre, never make it to a few shops and sites but still feel like we have done so much… snack on tapas in wine bar, which isn’t very “French” but amazing nonetheless… Tom finally gets to take the nap he has been desiring as I blog…
One of our many pictures of the Eiffel, but how can you not help but take a lot, it’s the symbol of Paris:
All in all Paris is exactly how most people describe it. It is stunningly beautiful, romantic, quaint, and pretty expensive but well worth it for the atmosphere. We see couples kissing on the streets and people taking photos everywhere. Two myths debunked for the most part though… French food does not come in small portions and French people are not rude. We’ve had many pleasant exchanges and tummy filling meals (even with us splitting). Everything seems to be done with such passion and panache from the delicately decorated little pastries to the art and architecture to the fashion of everyone on the street.
PARIS, JE T’AIME!!!
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