Paris

It's been almost a month since Paris, and I've finally gotten around to posting more photos of Paris. There were so many good ones to choose from, and I had a difficult time selecting one over another. Hope you enjoy these.

To read more about Paris, you can follow these links to my recent posts on Paris:

Paris: I Walk for Patisseries
Paris Je T'aime

Le Puy-en-Velay: Chemin Le Puy and Restaurant Tournayre

Le Puy-en-Velay. Definitely one of my favorite cities on this Easter trip. R had visited it years ago and did not remember it being very notable. On this trip he was happily surprised to find a cute city with a pedestrian walking zone, many old buildings, a few great Saturday markets and many friendly locals. While there we noticed that there were a few backpackers..and then found out that Le Puy is a popular starting point for pilgrims in France wanting to walk the Chemin de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle. Following the Chemin Le Puy to Santiago, the average pilgrim covers about 1522 km or 945 miles (and that's only one way)!

Vieux Lyon and Croix Rousse: Roman ruins and traboules

After Paris, R and I were in Lyon to complete some paperwork. While there we decided to spend the remainder of our day wandering around Lyon's old city, Vieux Lyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For an ancient history buff like me who studied Latin for years, I was in my element and happily entertained for hours walking and "trabouling" through the old city, learning about Lyon's ancient and not so ancient history.

Roman Lyon
Lugnudum, now Lyon, was established by the Romans in 43 B.C. and enjoyed prosperity for over 300 years as one of the most important Roman cities, behind Rome of course. Using Lugnudum as a base, the Romans expanded their empire into the rest of Europe. It was not all plunder and pillage though—while in Lugnudum, the Romans built aqueducts, two theaters, and an odeon.

InCuisine in Lyon

Hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend—R and I started our Easter holiday on Friday, heading south in search of sun, great food, and adventures. The sun was shining, we had breakfast packed, and I even brought my knitting in hopes of finishing my curly-whirly scarf before summer begins. Much to our dismay our adventure started a bit slow...first, the French state decided to start road maintenance two days before Friday and the start of the long Easter weekend (the French work Good Friday but have today Easter Monday off). As a result, minutes after getting onto the Autoroute, we were stuck in a traffic jam for more than an hour! Le bouchon (or traffic jam) was so bad that many people got out of the cars and were walking around on the autoroute! However after about an hour, traffic resumed and we were on our way.

As we drove from Ain through the different villages located in the different départements, I loved watching the scenery change as we passed from one valley into another valley. I especially loved driving through the Massif Central and the Rhone River valley, where the Côtes du Rhône wines are cultivated. Of all the cities and villages we visited, my favorites were Lyon and Le Puy-en-Velay.

The sweet scent of spring

A selection of photos of springtime in France, at home. The weather is fantastic and the lilacs are in bloom. First the light purple ones, and now the bright fuschia ones (photos to come of these hot pink ones later). Whenever I'm outside and I pass the lilacs, I smell a sweet scent. I can't help but smile. What a simple pleasure it is to be where I am right now. Enjoying the smells and sights of spring. Besides the lilacs, the irises are starting to bloom and the strawberries and groseilles look promising with tons of flowers on them. Unfortunately I have not found any more morilles even though I'm searching around the strawberry patch every day.

Lilacs, the sweetest scent of spring

We've started barbecuing in the garden, and Poubelle (who joined our family last summer) is always nearby whenever we're grilling. Just the other day, when my back was turned, he jumped onto the picnic table and made off with a chipolata sausage. I wish I had a photo of him running away with the long sausage flapping against his face. He was so happy with joy eating it in a corner of a garden...that we couldn't stay angry at him for long. Not knowing right from wrong, he came back within minutes after his large lunch and sat on the bench next to me, looking cute and probably hoping for more.

Baguette à l'ancienne

After returning from Paris, I got excited about learning how to make a good baguette. My first foray into bread was more than a year ago, when I tried to make bread from scratch using the original NYT's article on No Knead Bread. The bread came out fine but it wasn't what I was looking for...not like the ones I've eaten at my local boulangerie.

There are so many recipes online and I had a difficult time deciding on one, but Appie Pie Patis and Pate's baguettes à l'ancienne looks like the elusive recipe I've been searching for.

I gave it a try and it came out great! Crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. Complex tasting. Next time I will underbake a little since my oven gets so hot so fast.

Paris: I walk for pâtisseries

Paris is a sprawling modern city, divided into 20 arrondisements or districts. Starting from the city center le 1er arrondisement, the city spirals out like an escargot to le 20eme arrondisement. Lined with many tree shaded boulevards, wide trottoirs, or sidewalks, it's a perfect city for strolling during the day or night. For R and I, it's one of our favorite things to do when we arrive in a new location. To take a long walk, visit the local grocery stores and farmers' markets. And since we're in Paris, to people watch and visit Paris' many green parks and public spaces. I feel that I get a really good feeling for a city when I walk through it.

Paris, je t'aime

Having lived in France for almost a year, I still hadn't yet been to Paris, the epicenter of the French state and the capital of all things delicious...croissants, macarons, and chocolate. Pourqoi pas? I don't know...but who doesn't love Paris, especially in spring when the city is just waking up from winter, and it's about a month away until the start of the tourist season. After some planning (and reading articles to get me excited for Paris. Scroll to the bottom for my complete list of articles), R and I chose the first weekend in April just because...the weather forecast looked promising and we hoped to find the flowers in bloom in Paris' many green spaces.

Nous avons arrivés à Paris après a quick 2.5 hour train ride via the TGV, or le train de grande vitesse. R and I brought reading materials, breakfast, and my knitting, but we ended up watching the show out our window. This is no Acela train. The TGV is quick (understatement), and we sped by quaint villages with big churches, stately châteaux, meadows with sheep, cows, and old stone farmhouses. To me, this is France..the beautiful flowing countryside. I sighed appreciatively as R and I pointed out different things to each other as we sped by them. Before we knew it, 2.5 hours had passed and our train was approaching Gare de Lyon, our destination.

Swiss knoepfli in a herb butter sauce

Sorry I haven't posted any stories or photos of Paris yet. Since returning from Paris last Monday night, R and I have been quite busy, doing daytrips to Geneva then Lyon. And on top of that, we've had brilliant weather. Warm enough that I'm wearing skirts, shorts, and my Tevas everyday.

On Friday I spent many hours shaping the garden, planting seeds and transplanting some of the seedlings that had been germinating in the serre, including tomatoes, leeks, salad greens, courgettes, kales and kohlrabis. After a long day of gardening and on my knees, a good warm shower never felt better. As the sage, chives and thyme plants are growing strong, I decided to make something using fresh herbs. And what better then a big plate of Swiss knoepfli or spätzli which is sort of like German spätzle.

Cookies and travels tomorrow

Day 1 Arts Expo: Success! Many people enjoyed my photography and took my business cards. And I sold over 60 euros worth of cookies to benefit Japan. Surprisingly the oatmeal raisin cookies were a bigger hit than the chocolate chunk ones. All the apple spiced ones got bought up quickly as well. 

The cookies sold so well that I ended up baking two more batches late into the night tonight. My Japanese friend M will be selling the cookies while R and I are away this weekend. 

Some hints of where we're going: Canal St Martin. Shakespeare and Company bookstore. Mark Bittman article from today's NYTimes.com about Four Restaurants Worth a Metro Ride. Le Seine. Notre Dame. Champs-Elysees. Galleries in the Marais. Pierre Herme. Lenotre. Tour Eiffel.

We're heading to Paris, the city of lights, and love. Weather is expected to be sunny and in the 70s. 

I'll be back online on Tuesday with tales from Paris. Bon week-end à tous.

Japan and Arts Expo

This weekend my town is putting on its annual arts exposition, and I'm going to be part of it. The past few days I've been working on a Keynote slideshow, highlighting some of my photography of food, landscapes, and portraits. I've selected the photos, the music, and have the transitions all done, and have spent an entire day trying to get an exported QuickTime version of the slideshow to play on an ancient circa 2002 Windows laptop. It has been frustrating times, but I think R and I've finally got it playing now. R stepped in after I declared I was ready to throw the dinosaur out the window, which I may well do after this expo. Just in case the old thing chokes during QuickTime playback, I have a PDF backup that visitors can manually click through.

In addition to showing my photography, I'll be busy baking a ton of cookies to sell, with all proceeds to benefit the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. My friend S has said that Western media has chosen to report on the nuclear reactors, but there are hundreds of thousands of people who have lost everything and they need all the help you can give. I see this on the Dutch and French news every night, and I have many great Japanese friends, so I'm doing my own small part to help.

Please donate at Global Giving or at your local chapter of the Red Cross. Thank you.