Devotion vs Temptation in Cologne

We zipped on the Thalys high speed train to Cologne last weekend. As an American, it's easier to fit into German culture than French culture. Germans dress down a little, aren't babuzzled by our big American smiles, and don't have the small formalities that the French have in everyday life. Don't get me wrong, we've both fallen head over heels for France. We'll be lifetime francophiles, but it is still fun to bop over to Germany.

Cologne is great for a short trip. We started Saturday morning with a tour of the monstrous cathedral. The cathedral was built in spurts over several hundred years, but they did a decent job of keeping a consistent look. I had trouble picking a picture of it for the blog, I wanted something with people in the foreground, because you need that to grasp the scale of this beast. I was shocked at how grungy the poor thing was, I guess I'm spoiled by the freshly cleaned Notre Dame down the street at home. I'm wondering if they should take a bold new approach and just spray paint it black, it really is that dark.

The inside of the cathedral has some interesting points. I was struck by the difference in the middle aged stained glass, and the pieces added in the late 1800s. Stained glass was like television for peasants. Because they could not read, glass told the story of Christ. The middle aged glass was black and white TV, and the glass from the 1800s was HDTV. Because I've done some stained glass work, the contrast was interesting to me.


They also have a famous crucifix from before 1000 a.d. It's much less gory and bloody than ones from 1200-1600, when people were really getting into feeling the suffering of the whole thing. I highly recommend the tour, it definitely brought out some interesting points.

So if that's the Devotion part, the Temptation part manifests itself in the chocolate museum and in numerous Kolsch beers throughout the weekend. The chocolate museum was fun, but packed. I enjoyed watching the truffle line the best. We also enjoyed really good indian food, probably the best I've ever had. Shrimp masala, Chicken curry, and really spicy Sag Paneer.

The main painting museum had *very* nice pointillism collection, and I also attempted without success to enjoy the modern art museum (check out one of the modern "art" installations on my photo page).

Just a few pics...
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/Cologne

Spring!

Spring has sprung in Paris! This weekend Spring made its first appearance in Paris this year. There really is something special about springtime here. Everybody packs the streets, and enjoys the good weather. The picture at the bottom is the quai on Sunday, it is closed to motorized traffic every Sunday. Today it was packed. Sarah and I sat on the edge of the river for a while, soaking up sunshine and springtime happiness. Both Saturday and Sunday we had lunch guests, but we did manage to get out both days for a nice walk. Saturday's walk came with an added bonus, Suzy snagged a boules set for playing petanque. It's a game popular with older men in Europe in the park.

I snapped a pic in this bakery window, they really are "workin" the patissiere artistry. The bakery (Miss Manon) isn't one that I shop at, it's all flash and no substance. But I have to admit, they have a dang good window display.


Sarah and I are continuing our Wednesday night trips to the Louve. The last two weeks we visited portions of the Egyptian collection. A few more weeks, and we *might* be finished with one of the floors. I keep a master map, and mark off sections that we do each week.

We also have been going to Wednesday dinner on rue St. Anne, home to a ton of Japanese restaurants. We've been working our way down the street, trying places. We found a winner last Wednesday. Suzy found some cold soba noodles that she likes. Fresh noodles, and a much more reasonable price than Zen's over in the 5th.

Next weekend we're off to Cologne. Under 4 hours by Thalys train.

Dinner in Lyon

Last weekend we made a trip to Lyon. It's a quick 2 hour TGV ride, and it was a nice weekend getaway.

Lyon is France's gastronomic capitol. Quite a feat, considering the elevated standard of food in France to begin with. So the main point of our visit was to go have a really good meal. We were not disappointed.

We ate at Leon de Lyon. I mainly chose it because I wanted a place where we could do a set menu of courses, and the set menu here appealed to us. It's a Michelin two star, but it gets 4 Michelin forks. Stars rate service, how nice the setting is, is the bathroom nice, etc. Forks rates the food, so I tend to pay more attention to that.

We had the sommelier chose a wine from the Rhone valley (close to Lyon), and it was a very nice Syrah based wine. It was a Saint Joseph AOC, Domain de Yves Cuilleron 2000 l'Amarybelle. The Lyon wine shop said we wouldn't be able to find that year for sale in a shop, perhaps Leon de Lyon hoovered it all up.

Here is the menu:
Two courses of Amuse Bouche (chef's complementary appetizers) , some wonton bits and veloute of celery.

Scallops and Langoustines (like a saltwater crayfish) in a frothy cream sauce tasting like a shrimp bisque.

Half a lobster in winter vegetables and a clear broth.

Chicken Bresse - My fav. Slow cooked chicken with black truffle slices inserted under the skin, served with a cream foie gras sauce, and topped off with ground black truffle. It was truly amazing. Served with a vegetable terrine.

Cheese course - Two men carry a huge cheese tray sagging under the weight of roughly 15-20 different cheeses, and you pick a few to try. Gooey nutty cheeses to a nice grainy Compte. Drool.

Pre-dessert course - petit fours, and a dish of chocolate truffles.

Dessert - Nougat ice cream, crunchy-chewy vanilla macaroons, on a bed of cooked figs.

We enjoyed 3 hours of eating, and very good service, and the unfortunate ending of paying a large bill. You literally have to prepare for a meal like this by watching what you eat for the preceding two days, making sure you keep things light and simple so that your system can handle unending food for 3 hours.


Check out the video in the lower right of this page:

http://www.leondelyon.com/uk/navigation.htm

Lyon is also the home to the french puppet Guignol, and so we enjoyed some Guignol sights as well, including a really funky museum of Guignol. A few pics (too busy eating to take pictures this trip):

http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics2

Cineaqua

Last weekend we went to the new aquarium that opened in Paris last spring. I'm a big aquarium fan, and try to visit them when we travel (especially now that I don't have my own tank set up at home).

We put this one off for a while, mainly because of the price. It's *outrageous*, even by Paris standards. 19.50 euros *each*!! We finally broke down and paid the inflated entry, and really enjoyed it.

My new spy camera has an "aquarium" mode, which worked pretty well. I had fun taking fishy pics.

While I've been to a better aquarium (Lisbon's aquarium just kicks butt), this one had it's own interesting flair. One room had a music stage in front of the 20 foot x 20 foot glass (or probably acrylic) panel with fishies swimming behind it. They arrange live music on Sunday afternoons, and had a decent band playing Cuban music. We settled into lounge chairs, grabbed some beers from the bar, and listened to music while watching fishies swim. It was quite nice.

We're off to Lyon this weekend, in search of gastronomic adventures.