Honeymoon Part 1 (St. Jean-de-Luz)

We returned at midnight last night from our beach vacation to St. Jean-de-Luz, a small beach town in Southwestern France. In the heart of Basque country, this town consists of a beautiful beach surrounded by the sprawling Pyrenees and a ton of restaurants serving chorizo, wine by the pitcher and other regional specialties. We spent our time strolling, reading our Kindles at the beach, and we took a day trip to Biarritz, which, we were told, is where young people go, as opposed to St. Jean-de-Luz, where old people go. Regardless, we loved this little town (maybe even more than "hip" Biarritz) and had an extremely relaxing 3 days together.

Our favorite meal was at Boinga, where we had a tasting starter of 4 entrees (which in France are appetizers), of crab with avocado, cod with a pesto sauce, gazpacho with couscous and langoustine, and shrimp with mayonaise. Our main course was a shared 15 inch cod roasted with sliced garlic and olive oil. One of many great nights so far.






In St. Jean-de-Luz, we had nice weather, but not "beach" weather, except one day. So much of our time was spent strolling the streets, checking out neighborhoods, and one day we took a boat ride across the bay to a different part of town. Filled with families braving the slightly chilly, but still beautiful day, the gentleman depicted below shows you just a small example of what a European beach is like. We were happy with our decision to stick to the city streets.

Back in Paris for one day, we spent the day with a long walk and lunch at a well-known brasserie, Chantier, with cheap food in a classic French atmosphere. Dinner was a simple salad, cheese, bread, olive combo followed by packing for our next adventure to Strasbourg!

Blue Bag Found!

Incredibly enough, the missing blue bag was not lost by Continental Airlines. Nor was it misplaced by the airport workers who were on strike today. No, just as we arrived to 4bis rue du Cherche-Midi, exhausted and unhappy about the lost luggage, the phone rang. It was not the airline calling to confess that our bag had been misplaced while a luggage handler had left his post to go have a cigarette, but it was a friend of my mom's calling to say she had the bag. What? How? Apparently, she'd been on our flight (in first class, I might add), and had mistaken our enormous bright blue bag with a neon green "G" monogrammed luggage tag to be her own. Eventually, she did bring the bag over to our place and all is now right in the world. Dinner tonight consisted of 2 cheeses (one of which was a delicious marscapone/gorgonzola blend), baguette, a five euro splurge on a bottle of rose wine and spicy olives (guess who picked those out?).



We're happy as clams, and after this bottle of wine, will be ready for a good night's sleep before heading to the train at 9 am to kick off our honeymoon!

Have You Seen Our Blue Bag?

We've landed in Paris!  However, one of our bags failed to make the trip.  If you have seen it, please let us know because Continental Airlines hasn't found it yet.

Our first stop today will be Cuisine de Bar (aka Open Face) for our first French meal.

At the Airport

It was a lovely last few days in Old Greenwich. After spending the time running all over town, finishing our last minute jobs and tying up loose ends, we enjoyed a beautiful take-out pot-luck dinner with our friends down by the beach on Sunday, and a great lunch on the porch of Palmer Island on Tuesday. A few good friends (those who are fortunate enough to not be working this summer, or who could get a decent lunch break) came to share sandwiches, cookies and a few last farewells. It was hard to leave, but sitting in the airport we know we're embarking on an exciting journey and just can't wait to get there...it's just too bad the flight is delayed 2 hours. But it's a small price to pay for the adventures lying ahead. We'll be in touch with more once we have more to tell!

-Caroline

Crab Bash

Our close friends gave us a great send-off at the annual Riverside Yacht Club Crab Bash.  Basically, it was a feast of Maryland blue crabs with kegs of beer and a steel drum band.

Caroline and I want to thank everyone who was there for such a great time.  Bon Voyage!

-Peter