Marche aux Puces

This weekend we went to the monster Paris Flea Market. A little different than the vision that springs into my head when I hear the words "Flea Market". The place was overflowing with really nice antiques, and an aweful lot of it was *way* out of our price range. We asked about an Art Deco tea set, it was only 1400 euros, and didn't include cups and saucers. The candlesticks we liked were 425 euros. Ouch. They had a lot of Art Deco and Art Nouveau pieces, which we really like. So I imagine we'll be going back to look again sometime. Different stored specialized in different things, one place specialized in Art Deco ceiling lights, another in Art Nouveau fireplace surrounds.

We did manage to buy one thing, a candelabra. It holds 5 candles, and has a slightly curvy Art Nouveau look to it. The silver plating isn't in perfect condition, but we dined by candlelight tonight, and really liked it.

Wednesday nights at the Louvre

Sarah and I are trying to start a new routine for Wednesday nights. I thought that if I posted it in my blog, there would be a slightly better chance that we'd stick with it.

We got a year pass for the Louvre, and so we are going to try to go every Wednesday night to do a small bit of it. The Louvre has over 35,000 objects in its collections, and I hope this way we can see more of it without getting overwhelmed.

To get an idea of the scale of how big the Louvre is, check out this PDF of it:

http://www.louvre.fr/media/repository/ressources/sources/pdf/src_document_50760_v2_m56577569830634872.pdf

Last night we did 4 rooms of the Levant collection, mainly from Syria and Cyprus. They were from 2000 to 1000 B.C. Definitely built to last.

Amsterdam

Sarah and I enjoyed a long weekend in Amsterdam last weekend. I didn't do a lot of photography, we spent most of our time in museums and walking the canals.

We got museum passes, which worked out really well. Museums in Amsterdam aren't cheap (most were roughly 10 euros).

We arrived the day after a freak windstorm swept northern Europe, in fact our high speed train wasn't so high speed because of the weather.

We enjoyed the food a lot, there seem to be numerous vegetarien options, it reminded us of some of the veggie places in Austin.

I've posted some photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/Amsterdam

And here is a list of the places we visited:

• Anne Frank house
  
• Rijksmuseum - awesome Rembrant paintings
  
• Heineken brewery tour
  
• Canal boat ride
  
• Van Gogh museum
  
• Amsterdam history museum
  
• Hermitage museum
  
• Rembrandt's House
  
• Horticulture garden
  

I think I enjoyed the Van Gogh museum the most. Van Gogh only painted for 10 years, and the museum was able to cover those 10 years in amazing detail. It was interested to follow the different techniques he used as he befriended other artists, and also see how his painting style changed over time.

The tour of Rembrandt's house was cool because we got an in depth demonstration of his etching techniques. That really made the etching collection they have come alive. They were able to recreate his house very accurately because Rembrandt went bankrupt while he owned it, and thus everything he owned was cataloged and sold at auction.

The Hermitage was the biggest disappointment, they have just opened the Amsterdam "branch", I was hoping to see some of the biggies from St. Petersburg Hermitage, but they really didn't have much at all.

Avignon Pics

I've posted some Avignon pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/Avignon2007

Dinner in Avignon

We had a great weekend in Avignon. We bopped down on an early TGV Saturday, enjoyed two days of nice sunshine, and crawled back to Paris on Sunday night. It was a great break away from the winter grey.

We took a nice walk along the Rhone river, toured the Papal palace, and took a side trip to Orange to see the Roman Theater. The pope bailed on Rome in the 1300's and took up residence in Avignon for a bit. A nice papal fortress was built, which was totally ransacked in the French Revolution. So there isn't much detail left to see inside. The theater in Orange was built in the first century A.D., and is the only roman theater in Europe that still has its back wall standing.

I think the best part was our dinner Saturday night at La Mirande. It's a Michelin 1 star in a boutique hotel next to the Papal palace.

We signed up for "Table d'hote" (hosted table). The hotel has a restored 19th century kitchen in the basement with a monstrous wood fired stove. You get to eat in the kitchen, and watch the chef cook each course. There were 11 of us including the hotel owner. It was a fun group, which was good, because you are thrust into sharing a dinner table with everyone. The picture here is Jean-Claude starting on dinner while we were all enjoying our before dinner drink.

We enjoyed three different wines, two light whites, and a suprisingly nice red with the duck course. After dinner Sarah and I both indulged in very expensive after dinner drinks (mine was a 1979 armagnac).


Our 5 course dinner was amazing:

• Pan fried Fois gras set in cream of artichoke soup


• Monstrous shrimp (largest I've ever seen in my life) and sea scallops in a mushroom and leek creme sauce


• Roast duck (roasted 5 hours) in a fabulous red wine and duck liver sauce with small blob of mashed potatoes and a whole roasted shallot


• Mont d'Or Vacherin baked cheese


• Pan fried pineapple slice with apple and grapefruit sauces with orange sorbet.

Have I sold out?

Sarah and I did our first trip to Europe 10 years ago. We pinched and squeezed, staying at the dregs of the listings in Rick Steve's 1996 Best of Europe. Shared bathrooms, anonymous hairs, paper thin walls. One place we had to put coins in the shower to get hot water.

Over the years, I sometimes think we've sold out. Rick's listings now include some nice splurges, and we've started sliding towards them. Case in point, this weekend. We're taking a much needed distraction, escaping the Paris rain, and popping down to Avignon for the weekend. We're staying at a nice hotel with a Michelin 1 star restaurant, and we have reservations for a special dining experience across town at another Michelin 1 star. It's a dinner where the chef is supposed to join you for dinner. I'm not sure how that works, but it is bound to be interesting.

We've still had awesome experiences at some well priced places. For instance, an awesome time at a cheeeeap place in Berlin. But we've also had some experiences that are not "Rick Steves" type, for instance, Hotel Negresco in Nice.

If you are wondering who Rick Steves is, he's the god of budget European travel. www.ricksteves.com .

So Long, Farewell.....

Two of our closest Paris friends (Beth and Vivianne) left to move back to Sydney yesterday. We will miss them dearly. They were wildly entertaining, and we could always count on having a great time when they were involved. I caught a massive cold (probably on the flight back from Texas), so I had to miss our goodbye dinner with them.

So au revoir, Beth and Vivianne. We will miss our endless bottles of Champagne, death creatures, blogging novel titles, Paris mexican food, pears and roquefort, screaming at World cup finals, The Green Fairy, Jardin des plantes, Vivianne's mexican cuisine, hangovers, the Festival of Vivianne, and long stories about Australia.

The expat experience can be like this. You can meet other really interesting expats, and you easily bond over your shared experience of temporarily living in a foreign land. And then you part and go your separate ways.