Tulip fields near Hillegom

Tulip fields near Hillegom and colza fields in France. Breathtaking in every sense.

More Keukenhof and tulip fields

The Keukenhof's many greenhouses were exhibiting different flowers and arrangements, many of them playful. R and I played dress-up at one of the exhibitions, with me donning a bright yellow boa, then picking up an accordion. This was so much fun!

Narcissus and daffodils in an interesting shape

Cyclamens in hot pink

Champs des fleurs: Keukenhof

I've always wanted to visit the tulip fields of Holland. Lured by dreams of colorful champs des fleurs, and a well-timed canal tour outing with R's family and aunties, R and I headed north.

Driving through the beautiful French countryside, we couldn't help being thankful for the continuing great spring weather and the thousand shades of green in the fields, meadows, and mountains. At this time of year, the green is cut with vivid blazes of yellow colza, a plant that is grown en masse in France, Germany, Belgium as well as the Netherlands for its seed which is turned into cooking oil. With the windows rolled down, the scent of colza permeated the air as we drove by fields of it on both sides of us.

In the Netherlands we visited a number of places, including Leiden a cute university town with many cafes and canals...more canals than in Haarlem and Amsterdam. While there we visited the nearby Keunkenhof, a stunning garden/art space set next to the tulip fields.

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

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.

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.

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.

Daytrips to Ambronay, Meximieux and Pérouges

This week really flew by for me. Did it for you? I've been busy lately—for times like these I stick to simple dishes that take less than 30 minutes to make but deliver on taste. Lately I've been making simple couscous or pasta dishes. Try this and let me know what you think. Take simple spaghetti and toss it with caramelized shallots, shiitake mushrooms, petit pois, and soy sauce. For a bit of heat, I add hot pepper flakes. Why is this dish so good? It must be all that umami flavor from the shiitakes and soy sauce.

So what have I been up to this week? Travels, baking, and more. On Thursday R and I celebrated a friend's birthday in Geneva at her photo studio. For that I baked chocolate chip cookies and a bacon mushroom leek quiche. Why chocolate chip cookies? Because my friend is American, and if there's one comfort food I missed when I first moved here, it was an honest to goodness American cookie, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Over the past year I've experimented with different recipes and ingredients. After many tests, I finally have a few cookie recipes made using local ingredients. The results? A crispy crust leading to a chewy interior. And the French like it because it's something new and "foreign".

Souvenirs de Boston

I'm back home en la France! Actually, I've been back 2 days, arriving Wednesday morning after a pretty bump ride across the Atlantic. Recall my last blog update rating AA and BA? Well, maybe they read it, because on my transatlantic flight my wishes were answered! There were no less than 5 pretty hot looking male flight attendants. Super friendly, service-oriented, and easy on the eyes too. And the fun didn't stop there - since the flight was very light, I even got an entire row to myself....it was so good to stretch out. I fell asleep watching Eat, Pray, Love.
 

Another cute moment captured...

What a great trip to Boston - extending the trip by an extra week was so worth it, allowing me to spend more time with friends and family, including the littlest loves of my life (my 2 nephews with their Mom andDad), and eat Mom's home cooking. As an early birthday celebration, my sis and nephew I baked me some dinosaur cakes. Yum.

From Antwerp to Maastricht

ANTWERP, BELGIUM
We stumbled on a high end chocolate boutique in Antwerp. It was in a very fancy building with detailed walls, ceilings and light fixtures. The modern part of the building was in the back kitchen, where there was a chocolatier piping out the word "SAFE" on chocolate condoms. I wanted to lick this chocolate frog...it smelled dizzingly (what, spellcheck says dizzingly is not a real word??) chocolate-y.


WASPIK & DEN HAAG, NL
The best part of the trip was meeting R's friends and family, especially his 82 year old Aunt who recently suffered a stroke but is still pretty lucid. What's more homey than sipping tea accompanied by chocolates? Or knitting a few rows in the Aunt's sock project? Maybe eating Cousin Joke's warm asparagus soup with ham on a cold evening. Perhaps leafing through a photo album capturing his aunt's 80 years of life which her kids surprised her with two years ago? Births, weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries were all captured in black and white and then later in color. Farm scenes transitioned to more modern day settings. I saw R's mother as a baby and on her wedding day to R's father. Then pictures of the 2 sisters on their wedding anniversaries. In the earlier pictures, everyone is dressed in their best clothes. Before the advent of the snapshot and digital cameras, having your picture taken was a big deal, so everyone dressed up in their finery. How different it is today! My two nephews Isaac and Aidan are only 4 and 1 and they probably have 50,000 digital images of them which capture their daily lives. Can you imagine how much they will have in their lifetime?




HAARLEM, NL

Pictures that follow are dinner with R and his two brothers who both live in Haarlem. The older brother is in local politics and is President of his local Free Mason Temple while the younger one just bought a beautiful boat and started his own business, HaarlemCanalTours.com. I think the 3 brothers don't really look alike - what do you think?

If you ever visit Amsterdam, be sure to visit nearby Haarlem. Bring comfortable shoes and be prepared to step back into time. Haarlem has all the modern amenities, but the town market and most of the buildings are historically beautiful. IMHO, Haarlem has the best holiday lights up - classic white lights instead of garish Christmasy themes of every color in the rainbow) .

• The NL celebrates 2 Christmases. On December 5th, Sinterklaas or Sint Nikolaas, a Spanish bishop, arrives by horse on a boat traveling the canals. Zwarte Pieters, or Black Peters travel with him. I was shocked the first time I saw the Black Peters because they are essentially white Dutch in black face and hand makeup! My politically correct self was wondering if anyone else thought that way. But the Dutch don't! They are black from the soot in chimneys which they climb down to deliver good little boys and girls their presents. During this time of the year, you'll see many black faced Dutch kids running around the streets dressed like the Zwarte Pieters. On the 2nd Christmas, December 25th, there is no emphasis on gift giving, just spending time with family.
• Sinterklaas or Sint Nikolaas is the basis of Santa Claus in the US.
  
• There are many Indonesian restaurants in the NL..and Chinese too. And the quality of the food is really high and amazingly good. Does anyone know of any good ones in Boston or NYC?
  
• The Dutch exports the largest percentage of beer than any other country, or about 50% of their annual production. That Grolsch, Heinekin, Amstel are all Dutch beers?
  
• Or that Tom Tom, INGDirect, Philips, Randstad, Shell, Spyker Cars (the co. that purchased Saab from GM), Unilever are Dutch companies?

Haarlem's Centraal train station. R says it's been filmed many times. I don't know what films though and haven't asked either. But it is pretty.


AMSTERDAM, NL
Fun facts about the NL

• Holland and the NL is sometimes used interchangeably but Holland is really just the western region of the NL.
• Amsterdam is named for the Amstel River which runs through Amsterdam.
  
• The Dutch invented the concept of the stocks and stock exchange? And the craze that started this? The tulip!
• Speaking of which, I always thought tulips were native to the NL. But tulips were brought to the NL from the Turkey (they grow natively in the Middle East and Central Asia).
• I can say a few phrases in Dutch like: hi is hoi; good day is dag; see you later is tot ziens; bye is doei; thank you (formal) is dank u vel; informally is bedankt; please is alstublieft; excuse me is pardon but if you pronounce it incorrectly, it means horse!
• That the Dutch start learning English at age 6? And by their teens, they take half of their classes in English? Another reason why they speak English so well is that American, British, and other foreign movies are not dubbed. Kids watch television shows and movies in their original language. In France, all movies are dubbed to French..and often times the dubbing is really bad. Sometimes they even use the same voice actor to play all the male parts and another voice actor to play all the female parts. It is so weird to hear Bart Simpson in a French voice!
• Besides English, the Dutch also learn German and French at a young age. But by their teens they need to pick 1 language to focus on and increasingly, they choose English even though German is the largest language group in continental Europe.
• In Amsterdam, as we were walking by, we noticed a courtyard so we walked in a found this...it is a hofje. This time, instead of taking a million pictures of Amsterdam, I just walked around and absorbed the vibe. Also, it was just too freaking cold to be taking out my camera to take the perfect shot! Oh...have you tried Maoz? It's a falafel place that was started in Amsterdam and is making its way to the US. I think NYC has 2 locations..I hope it goes to Boston one day. The falafels are delicious and you can fill your falafel sandwich as many times as you want from their delicious fresh salad bar.
• Another highlight of AMS was the Van Gogh museum. There we learned more about his life, his artistic inspirations, his close relationship with his younger brother, and his life in France, as well as the other artists of the time that he was inspired by.
  

MAASTRICHT, NL

Maastrict is a city in the south of the Netherlands. It is so south that they speak 3 languages there: Dutch, French, but also their own dialect. It is quite beautiful at this time of the year. Cute boutique shops and restaurants are dotted along the large pedestrian zone shopping area. While there we stayed at the nicest hotel during the entire trip....actually, they didn't like to be called a hotel but a "lodging" even though their name is Townhouse Design Hotel. Anyway, after staying a week in hotels, it was nice to stay at a homey place. It was a nice touch to offer guests a cup of hot delicious mushroom soup when we arrived - perfect to chase away the bitter chill over Maastricht.

Big wooden tables invited guests to sit and stay to enjoy a cup of coffee in the "living room"; there were hundreds of books and magazines along the wall lots; instead of bland couches and chairs, there were all sorts of designer chairs including some Eames leather and rocking chairs, and 2 fireplaces. There were cookies in Mason jars and bowls of fruit laid out for the taking. The fruit that is, not the jars or bowls themselves :) And they even had a fish bowl where you could feed the fish..just like home. And there were even nicely designed vending machines where you could purchase midnight snacks or beverages.

In Maastricht, we had a traditional Dutch soup - pea soup with bacon, ham and onions with some bread with more bacon. On a cold night, it was nice to keep warm with soup. And afterwards, we tried the Belgian fries. Again, they were ok, but nothing compared to the perfect fries and sambal/sate sauce we had last year in Haarlem. Apparently, the fries made by this guy in Haarlem are famous all over the NL. Darn him for being closed on a Monday!

All together, a very nice relaxing trip. Next time though, I really should go in April when the flower fields are in bloom and when it's not so cold!

Roadtrip to BENELUX

Winter is here! R and I just returned Thursday night from a 10-day road trip to BENELUX, a region which encompasses Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. While we were away, it snowed everyday for about a week...transforming our area into a white frosted winter wonderland. Our once green rolling hills have a fresh layer of snow that sparkles in the sunlight. And the trees on our mountain look like they've been dusted with powdered sugar.

With new tires, our old cranky Seat Ibiza (now made trusty after R's miraculous fix) drove us through the French countryside up to the Ardennes mountains in northern France. After 650km, we arrived at Luxembourg the capital city of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the 2nd smallest country in the EU, after Lichtenstein. Luxembourg city sits high up, with an unforgettable skyline dotted with towers, bridges, and old fortification walls.

Each city we visited has its own beat and charm. I couldn't help myself but take hundreds of photos, of people, things, and places I saw, so when I'm 82, I have a visual memory of what I did in my first year of living in Europe.

On this trip, I was seduced by the colors, shapes, designs..and it was nice learning about different customs in each country. Select pictures from our trip, starting with Luxembourg, then Brussels. I'll post more stories and pictures about the rest of the trip in later blog updates.

LUXEMBOURG, LUXEMBOURG



BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Belgians really love comic strips and cartoons. Evidence of this? Tintin hails from Brussels..and Brussels has a museum dedicated to comic strips. I thought only one worked on a comic strip, but at the museum, I learned that it's a team effort. One person to draw, another person to write the text, another to market the comic strips. Also, warning to Americans! The Smurfs are NOT an American invention. Peyo, a Belgian artist, first drew the Schtroumpfs in the 1950s as part of another comic strip.

Hanging out with Tintin, Lucky Luke, Asterix in the Comic Strip Museum.



Mannekin pis is soooooooo much smaller than I expected. But his likeness is happily pissing on everything, everywhere, including here at a Leonidas chocolate shop. While in Brussels, we tried the famous Belgium fries at Fritlande. Unfortunately, they were NOT the best fries I've ever tasted. The best fries I've ever had were actually in Haarlem, NL but the friterie was closed on Monday when we were in Haarlem :( But we did have really yummy Japanese and then delicious Thai in Brussels. We also stumbled on a great Lebanese shop selling platefuls of Lebanese pastries and sweets. Would you believe I didn't try any Belgian chocolate while I was in Belgium, but drank and very much enjoyed Duvel, a delicious Belgian beer?


At the Grand-Place (or Great Square), Brussels' hotel de ville is all lit up with a special light and music display. In Brussels, they speak French..and they celebrate Christmas! On our first night, on our walk to the big market square, we followed the lights and Christmas music we heard which led us to this.



The color, music, and dancing lights brought me Christmas cheer...and made me feel like a child again..in awe of possibilities. R and I were lucky to have caught the light display as the lighting engineers were rehearsing the show 2 days ahead of the opening of the Christmas Market on the Grand-Place.

Six hours to Germany

R and I are on way to Germany today for our friends' wedding this week. In the car we have all we need for the six to eight hour drive to our friends' hometown—snacks and lunch; a fully loaded CD changer with ABBA, Aha!, The Coors, Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, and some Algerian and French music. On the windshield, Victoria (R's British voiced TomTom helper) is perched ready to guide us from the French countryside to the German countryside.

The fastest route to take is via Switzerland, through the French-speaking parts (Geneva and Lausanne) over to the Swiss-German side. At Bern, the Swiss-German border, road signs appeared in both French and German, and childish as it sounds, I couldn't help giggling at the German sign for exit, Ausfahrt. The countryside is beautiful, rolling hills with the mighty Juras in the background. A thousand shades of green cut by bursts of yellow fields of tournesols, or sunflowers. We cross over to Germany shortly after Basel, a Swiss-German city I visited in 2000 with my Mom on our European tour.

As R and I get closer to my friend's hometown I am very excited, even though I only last saw them twelve days ago, it seems like an eternity. Traveling on a Sunday was a good idea—sans arrêter, we made the trip in 6 hours and 15 minutes. Feeling very happy and lucky to be here to share their special week with J, M, and their families.

New beginnings

Bienvenue sur mon blog. Welcome to my blog.

Raised and schooled in Boston, I am a city girl who loves the eats, culture, and heart of the city. I seized the opportunity to live and work in NYC for a short time—and there, I fell in love with French pastries, opera at the MET, ramen, dumplings...and with my boyfriend R who traversed the city with me on bicycle, train, and foot to little dumpling shops, museums, and even an MP3 experience, thanks to the awesome folks at ImprovEverywhere.

Fast forward a little bit—R and I are sharing new adventures together, this time traveling through the French countryside and European continent. I've created this blog for me (and eventually for friends, family and the blogosphere) to capture my experiences abroad. I never leave home without my French pocket dictionary, my camera or Moleskin notebook to jot down names, people, and places. Here I will post photos and updates about my thoughts on life, food, and traveling abroad. Check back often to read about my French experience—mostly centered on food, language, culture and customs.