Martignac, France

Last week Peter's mom, Terumi, came to Paris for a visit. We had a great time walking, eating and shopping. While Peter was at French class (mine is over for the summer), Terumi and I spent an afternoon in the Marais, exploring the stores, sampling some of the local Jewish pastries and enjoying the beautiful weather. On Friday, we all hopped aboard the SNCF train to Cahors, France, and after a 40 minute drive, we pulled up to the Gale's house in Martignac. Martignac is a tiny "town" of maybe 10 houses and one beautiful, old church. The view from the porch stretches over the Lot valley for miles. There's nothing more relaxing than enjoying a glass of rose wine, reading a book with a background fit for a painting (actually, there is a painting of this incredible area in the living room of the house, painted by a family friend, hung over the hundreds of years old, 4-foot tall fireplace. The fireplace, I might add, still has a hanging iron hook and chain, for hanging your dead rabbit or pot of gruel over the fire). It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend and after visiting two local vineyards, and the "cave" at the house, we came back to Paris 6-bottles of wine richer, relaxed and happy.

Team Europe Comes to Paris

One of the huge benefits of us moving to France has been that we already have friends close by in London. Being the third couple to move to Europe from the Tri-State Area, Peter and I were officially inducted into “Team Europe” last weekend. Jeff and Rebecca, and Niki and Kyra came to visit us for our second weekend in Paris, and what a weekend it was. It was filled with walking by the Seine, eating crepes on the Ils-St. Louis followed by the famous Parisian Berthillon ice cream and a boat ride down the river.

There was a champagne picnic, (champagne provided by our thoughtful guests) complete with a variety of cheeses, baguettes and olives, all enjoyed in the Luxembourg Garden- until the weather took an unexpected turn for the worse, and we had to bolt for the nearest restaurant to continue the party. Saturday night also included time spent at Peter’s favorite spot, La Pinte, a pint-sized bar in our neighborhood where the six of us pretty much filled up the bar, and we spent the night doing what we do best- laughing, chatting and drinking. We spent Sunday in the Jewish Quarter, the Marais, enjoying a leisurely lunch and time to hang out in the Place des Vosges. We walked west through the city, past the Louvre and spent some more time relaxing in the Jardin des Tuileries, while some enjoyed a “petit snack” from the Paul bakery stand in the park.

Eating in Strasbourg

Where to begin?

As Caroline mentioned, we had a great time in Strasbourg.  While we were there, I managed to pretty much eat myself through the city, so here is a quick summary of what we ate.

Our first night was Caroline's birthday, so we went to dinner at a nice place on the main square and I made an attempt at the local specialty, chocroute, which is just French for Sauerkraut.  My chocroute was also topped with 8 different kinds of meat, which are plainly visible above.  There were 4 different kinds of sausage, a chunk of bacon and three other pork products of various sorts.  You will be glad to know that responsible Peter showed up for the evening and did not try to finish the entire plate.  Caroline's meal (in the background) was no less delicious.  It was a really well done chicken in cream sauce (not to be mistaken with team cream sauce).  To top it all off, we were entertained by a number of the terrible street performers of Strasbourg, including the guy below.  Caroline and I have established that despite its charm, Strasbourgeois street performers are far and away the worst we have ever encountered.  After this saxophone guy, we were serenaded by a young man with a recorder and a girl with a flute all over the course of one meal.

I digress.  Later in the trip, we ate the following masterpiece for lunch.  It is a spaetzle mac & cheese with gruyere and mushrooms.  Very good stuff.

Anyway, I'm going to bed, so I'll write more later this week.  This is our first week of language classes, we are going to see George Clinton on Wednesday, and we have friends in town for the weekend, so I am sure there will be lots to write about.

Bonne nuit.

Honeymoon Part 2 (Strasbourg)

We spent the second half of our honeymoon (or lune de miel) in Strasbourg, a city on the border of Germany. Strasbourg displays a lot of German influence with its architecture, language and cuisine. Again, we spent most of our time strolling aimlessly through the streets (our favorite thing to do), and resting occasionally for a glass of Alsatian wine or beer. Strasbourg is beautiful, filled with small cobblestone streets and little shops, and hundreds of restaurants and cafes.
In the center of town was one of the most beautiful cathedrals we've seen. To our surprise, during the months of July and August, a nightly light show is put on. As we enjoyed our after-dinner beer at a small cafe on the street, people started to gather around us and by 10:30 the entire square was filled with onlookers, ready for the light show. It was a great sight, timed to beautiful classical music.
We took a day trip to Colmar, a small town 30 minutes south of Strasbourg. It was worth a visit. We saw the home of the sculptor who built the Statue of Liberty, including some of his drawings and models. A little boat ride gave us a view of the canals of the town, which was nice (and was better than the boat ride we took in Strasbourg, during which the driver fell asleep at the wheel and we smashed into the side of the river). All in all, a lovely side trip.