Bastille Day flyover

I realized that I had forgotten to blog my Bastille Day flyover pic. These guys with the blue-white-red exhaust came over first, followed by group after group of every type of plane the French army has. It thunders right over our apartment, this pic was taken from the quai right by Pont Sully.

Bittersweet

I'm facing reality, and I'm not so sure I like it.

For 6 months, there has been a little nagging voice whispering " You have to return to the US". For 6 months I've done a pretty good job of ignoring the Voice, and focusing on enjoying our time here. I'm now having to face up to reality. Next week movers are coming to do estimates, we're been selling off appliances, getting letters together to break the lease and utilities, futzing with US Customs inventory, dividing belongings between air shipment /sea shipment / hand carry, ....etc,etc,etc.

The extra fun thing about moving out of a Paris apartment is that you have to make a *huge* deposit to get an apartment, and now we have the big showdown inspection to try and get it back. Expat after expat tells me their horror story about suddenly missing $3000 from their deposit, getting retroactive rent increases after they leave the country and having $$ wired out of their French account, getting charged $1000 for a missing key, and on and on and on.


We still have a few weeks here, but I know from the move over here that the wheels come off the wagon pretty soon, and you just have to surrender to The Process. Things are a little whacky already because at work I'm also starting a totally new job that will definitely be challenging. It's time to hunker down.

I am looking forward to seeing friends, and a nice plate of TexMex, but this place really has charmed the socks off me. I never really got past that "pinch me, I live in Paris" feeling as I walk down the streets.


Now whenever I am out I wonder if this will be the last time we:

• Wait in line for the worlds best Falafel


• Stroll down rue des Rosiers


• Watch 3 year olds build sand castles in Place des Vosges


• Eat at a sidewalk table at The Lounge


• Go to Paris Plages


• Go to the Louvre on Wednesday nights


• Eat Magret de Canard at Au Gamin de Paris


• Hear the SNCF jingle in the train station


• Walk along the quai on Ile St. Louis

Birthday Extravaganza!!

I've been having trouble getting my photos together from our last big trip. I tend to put off blogging about a trip until the photos are organized and posted to picasaweb.

We took an amazing trip in June for *two* weeks to northern Italy and southeastern France. The trip was also Sarah's birthday present. She said she wanted to be hiking on her birthday. So I planned and planned, and optimized the plan, reworked the plan, added to the plan, and finally we were able to go. The best pics on this trip are Cinque Terre and Chamonix.

We started in Milan, not because we were dying to see Milan, but because that's where I could get decently priced Easyjet tickets. We had a low key day there, we toured the cathedral, walked around the city, and not much else.


A few Milan pics at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/Milan

Then we took the train down to Cinque Terre. It's a National park on the Italian seashore consisting of 5 tiny villages built on cliffs over the water, with the area crisscrossed by hiking paths. It's where pesto was invented, and the food was very nice. We had a great room in Riomaggiore, with a sea view terrace with a dead on view of the town's little port. The first day we hiked waaay up to a small church with a huge panoramic view over the coast. The hard part was actually the descent, huge steps down and down and down. Unending steps. Both of us had quivering legs by the time we reached the bottom (we were also hurrying because we were hungry). I spent one day doing nothing but watching the ocean and hanging out on the terrace. The last day there we did the classic Cinque Terre hike, where you hike between all 5 villages. We refueled on some of the the best pizza I've ever had in Vernazza (pesto pizza). One night I also tried fresh lemon marionated anchovies, really incredible. The only downside to Cinque Terre is how many college age Americans were there. It has lost much of its Italian charm compared to our first visit to Cinque Terre 11 years ago.

Cinque Terre pics at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/CinqueTerre

After filling up on pesto and fresh fish, we took the train to Aosta, an area in the Piedmont. Aosta is off the tourist track, and it's close to what I really wanted to see, Etroubles. Etroubles is the tiny tiny French speaking Italian village in the St. Bernard pass where my great grandfather was born. We stayed down the hill in Aosta, and unfortunately Sarah didn't do much else. She got a stomach virus of some sort. So I went to Etroubles on a rainy day and checked it out. I had an amazing lunch there. The specialty in the region is meats grilled on hot stone. So I had pork loin, pork chop. chicken, beef steak, sweet spicy sausage, and grilled veggies all on a hot stone. It took a while, but I ate the entire thing, it was really good. I wandered around the town taking pictures as it drizzled. It was deserted because it's between skiing and hiking season. It was the first time in my life I've seen my last name on a street, a memorial, and a wagon. Etroubles is also on the "Via Romea Francigena", a 10th century pilgrimage route from France to Rome. It is also the pass that Napolean took when he led the Italian Army to kick the Austrians out of Italy. The region also has castles dotted on top of hills, we saw a bunch on the bus ride to Chamonix.

A few Valle d'Aosta pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/ValleDAosta

We next hit Chamonix Mont Blanc, and settled into our nice Interhome apartment for a week. Sarah was feeling better, but still not 100% after the stomach flu, so we eased into the hiking. By far our favorite hike was Lac Blanc. We took the ski lift part way up, and then hiked across beautiful spring flower encrusted green tundra to a slushy lake. Fantastic views back across the valley of snow capped mountains and glaciers pushing down the mountain. It was an amazing experience. We really enjoyed the town, it was cheaper than Zermatt, was 'familiar' French, and it was early season which meant not a lot of people.

Chamonix pics at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/Chamonix

Our last stop was Annecy. It's on a *HUGE* crystal clear lake. We spent a half day cycling around the lake. We had crepes in a memorable setting that night, warm summer day sitting outside on a stone patio by a cute fountain, listening to a harp player.

Annecy pics at
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/Annecy

Roland Garros

I'm not a big sports fan. But I decided that with the French Open happening in my own back yard, I should go see it. Our Austin friends, Charice and Amy, were in town visiting, so the four of us spent the day at Roland Garros. Sarah can give you the long story about the painful long wait to get tickets a few weeks ago. I can't portray her suffering adequately.

We arrived to an unruly mob outside the gates, but it moved quickly. We had great seats on court 1. Court 1 is smaller than the two big courts, but still has assigned seating.

I've never seen a live tennis match, and I usually have trouble staying interested in matches on TV, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

It was a blast. You really get a sense of the two players going after each other when you are there live, and it's much easier to get into the game. We watched one game that was especially good, Monfils vs Rochus. Monfils just had a blistering serve. One of his serves was 215kph (135mph).

I also had a lot of fun watching the ballboys/ballgirls work their tails off, and my jaw dropped being around so much high priced camera equipment.

The obligitory pics are at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/RolandGarros

Bastille Sunday Market

A few weeks ago I did the dirty deed and photographed the Sunday Bastille Market. I say "dirty deed" because the market is becoming quite the tourist attraction. While tourists tend to increase the crowd and add to the frustration of people buying food, the tourists don't buy much. The crowds of the market can be a bit overwhelming, people with 30 years experience are pretty good at throwing an elbow when needed. There are several hundred booths, and it is a foodies delight.

I'll let the pictures do the talking....
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/BastilleSundayMarket

Provence, Take 2

We zipped down to Avignon last week. Our neighbors from Austin were visiting us in Paris. I knew they'd love the Chef's hosted dinner at La Mirande, so we all made a short getaway to Avignon.

While the dinner was great, and the place we stayed was a treat, Sarah and I did have our plans ruffled by a French public holiday. We had planned a hike along a grand randonee (national French hiking trail) out in the country. Our first plan starting from Pont du Gard was bust because the bus schedule evaporates on public holidays. A very kind lady at the Avignon TI helped us formulate a new plan of hiking starting from St. Remy, and found a bus schedule that worked. That plan was nuked because the bus never showed up. ...sigh.... So we had to settle for a much shorter walk, but found a killer pizza joint along the river. I found the lavender in this picture blooming, and managed to get a nice shot of it with the famous Avignon bridge behind it.

Dinner in the restored kitchen of La Mirande included: Pan fried Sardine with creamed artichoke, oven baked halibut with white asparagus in a divine red wine and shallot cream sauce, confit du canard with mashed potatoes and baked cherry tomatoes, strawberries in citrus juice with honey, saffon, and baby basil. I sat right next to the chef this time, enjoyed it immensely. He's very 'unfussy', and has a great sense of humor. He let me taste the rasberry vinegar, and showed me his favorite olive oil. Believe it or not, he adds olive oil to his mashed potatoes. We had a very enjoyable red (Chateau Paradis Terre des Anges).

The next day we went to Arles for a quick trip. I wish we had more time there, and I wish I had my other camera. Arles looked like a fun place to take photos.

Photos at....
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/Provence2

Vienna, at last

I keep putting off a post on our trip to Vienna. Part of that is because I've been sick, and part of it is because we had so much fun in Vienna, I wanted to take some time to blog it. I'm feeling better now, so I wanted to get some memories down before they all seep out of my head.

We were able to spend a full week in Vienna, and we timed our visit just right. We had beautiful brilliant early Spring sunny days. We snagged a nice Interhome appartment week long rental right in the heart of downtown.

Vienna was the eastern most outpost of western European civilization, and the ruling seat of the Hapsburg Dynasty for a loooong time. Every Hapsburg king and queen seems to have built their own palace in Vienna, so the city is filled with interesting architecture, and nice gardens. Since we had a week there, we spent plenty of time hanging out in the gardens. We also got in the habit of going to coffeehouses in the afternoon, which is a popular thing to do. Suzy got in the habit of having a slower pulse. :-)

We saw/visited/ate:

• Belvedere Palace and Klimt's glittery gold "The Embrace", and Schiele's depressing "The Family". I really enjoyed both of these artists


• Hapsburg royal jewels. It was interesting to see the Turkish influence in things.


• Natural History museum - Oddly thorough bird and mineral collections, spooky taxidermy collection. The bird collection went on for room after room after room.


• Standing room at Opera. For 2 euros, you don't expect to see much. Very entertaining guard trying to "run herd" on crowd.


• Schoss Schonbrunn. Interesting, but we've done a lot of palace/chateau tours, and this one was especially packed and especially expensive. We enjoyed hanging out in the gardens the most.


• Tofen strudel, Apple Strudel, Sacher torte. Yum.


• Numerous beers - Trumer Pils was my favorite


• Curry Bratwurst with spicy sweet mustard


• To counteract the Bratwurst, beer and desserts: Smoked tofu, fish in papier, Grilled goatcheese with Quinoa, Apple/Carrot/Ginger juice


• Best Falafel Sandwiches *ever*


• Best and most expensive California roll ever: cooked solid crab, avocat, masago, ginger, spicy mayo dressing, greens


• Lippizzaner stallion practise session. This rocked. 4 sessions of 6 horses each working on training and steps, with huge chandeliers overhead, and Strauss waltzes playing.


• Kunsthistoriches Art museum - beautiful museum (leftover palace) with nice compact collection. 3 Rembrandt self portraits were nice, numerous Reubens, and a nice Vermeer


• Exhibit of Ivory Carving from Hapsburg collection. I'm not a big ivory fan because of the poor elephant. But this exhibit was really amazing, they really can carve some wild things using ivory as the medium. Check out my pictures to see what I mean.


• Palace furniture museum. The Hapsburgs had so many palaces, and their furniture traveled with them when they moved palaces. So when the Hapsburg Dynasty fell over, they eventually made their furniture warehouse into a museum.

There are still plenty of things we didn't do, which of course means Vienna goes on our lengthy list of places we'd like to return to some day.

Pictures are at:

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

Bratislava

We just got back from a week in Vienna and a short nip over to Bratislava, Slovakia.

Bratislava is a really bizarre place. It's a broad mixture of many different things. Elegance from the 1800 Hapsburg dynasty royalty, cute domed church towers, funky crumbling Art Nouveau, 40 years of Soviet rule (including lots of blocky concrete), sad little public transportation trolleys, and a gussied up downtown pedestrian area where there are trendy bars and restaurants. Throw in a _completely_ unrecognizable language (hello, 10 cents will buy you a vowel), fantastic cheap beer, nice hiking close by, and that's Bratislava.

Of course, you are still wondering about the bizarre picture here. That was our hotel. I kid you not. We weren't to thrilled by it, it was run by supplement popping hippies pretending to be artists (mind the paint and brushes on the breakfast table). The inside of the room was..uhhh...somewhat lacking in cleanliness. We've stayed in plenty of dumps before, that can be part of the fun sometimes. But this one was a bit too creepy, and the breakfast bar was just icky.

Bratislava was interesting, watching the city shake off the effects of communism in downtown. But you also have a nice view of identical rows of huge monolithic apartment buildings out in the burbs built during communist rule. And we found ourselves a bit frustrated by the public transit, the machines selling tickets *only* took coins, but no one would give you change. We poked around the town the first day, and went hiking the second day.

Pics at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics/Bratislava