Freaky French Foods

One of the (many) paris blogs I read had this post today...top 5 Freaky French Foods we're afraid to try. Sounds right up my alley! Let's dig in.

I'm happy to report, I've tried all of them!

1. Boudin Noir. aka blood sausage. This isn't just in France, right? I think the first time I had this was in Ireland. No matter, I've had it..and I see it often. It's an option for lunch in our cafeteria often as part of a 'tagine' plate with couscous. The first time I didn't know what it was so I dug right in. Not for the faint of heart, I now have learned my lesson and pick around it.
2. Andouilette: aka. course sausage with intestine. My father ordered this bravely when he was in town and I tried a bite. I'm going to go ahead and say that french sausage as such are not my thing. GROSS. next.
3. Steak Tartare: raw steak. Basically a hamburger, but not cooked. YUM. It comes with onion, capers, mustard, worcestsire sauce and fries on the side. I like it a lot, although, I do agree the thought sort of creeps me out. Also, the amount tends to be more than I can handle so it's best left as an appetizer somewhere :)
4. Fromage De Tete: Head cheese. NOT - CULTURED ALERT: I ordered this once thinking it was cheese. It's not cheese, not even a little bit-- it's a terrine made out of parts of the pigs head. No matter, it's still good, salty, meaty, deliciousness. Just try not to think about the parts...(sort of like an oscar Mayer hot dog. BURN!)
5. Oursin: sea urchin. I've had sea urchiin before and really liked it, but only in France have I had served to me on ice still inside it's spiky shell. Risking puncture, it's quite the adventure in eating, but OH SO WORTH it. Get to the middle and you are rewarded with a salty, yet sweet goodness with a delicate and uniqure texture (ignore the almost neon orange color).

If you're in France, I highly recommend 3 of the 5 of these delicacies. It's worth it and you'll feel like a real bad ass...as you should aspire to after any good meal ha.

Homeless People's Food in Paris

There are many, many, many homeless people in paris, but that's not what this post is about. This post is about what they eat.

On my way to work this morning, a homeless guys I see quite often was sitting on the subway steps. I didn't think much of him munching on what looked like a sandwich or something, until my nose was accosted by the smell of stinky cheese. The homeless guy was eating a round of Camembert as if it were a sandwich. Hilarious. And good for him! I totally respect anyone who can down camberbert like a champ at 9 am. (reminds me of Anchorman..."You ate a whole block of cheese? I'm not even mad! I'm impressed!)

And as my 'Cheese teacher' would say (yes I took a cheese class) ....Cheese is almost the perfect food...so he's only missing Fiber and Vitamin C. Good bang for the buck I say. I shoud bring him some vitamin C metamucil on the way home and he'll be all set. Oh Paris, you never cease to amaze me.

Oh Chipotle is here at last day!

The blessed day has arrived....Chipotle in Paris! I know, I know, I should be blogging about baguettes, cheese, coq au vin, etc etc but you know what? Sometimes you just want a bowl full of mexican flavor and as you can see here and here and here it's a growing trend in paris, albeit slowly and sometimes hit or miss. So imagine my glee when I walked past the 'ameri-corner' (andrew's name for a corner with McDo, Starbucks, subway, hardrock...) and saw the beauty that is the chipotle logo with an 'opening soon' sign. Opening soon, like most things time-wise in Paris, was a relative term. I believe I saw the sign in January. NO MATTER, the day has arrived and it was glorious.

In short: It was very, very good. Not an exact replica, but close enough.  Differences:

• They use a brown rice here, which is fine, but I really, really like the chipotle/lime/cilantro white rice in the US. I think the brown rice overpowers the lime.
• No fountain soda. This may not seem like a big deal, but fountain soda is hard to come by in the Paris and I was looking forward to a huge diet coke with lots of ice and a straw. Le. Sigh.

A few french-isms:

• They are a bit stingy with the serving probably to tone down the fatty american fast food stereotype. This is fine for me, but when I was talking to the guy about the rice (gently mentioning that I liked the white in the US better) he asked me if i wanted a bigger portion. I think he knew I was a regular and it wasn't up to snuff. I declined, as to not seem like a fatty :)
• They have 4 salsas instead of the normal 3...Normally the 'medium' is the corn salsa...but the 'regular' salsa here is medium and they've added a mild. My theory is that they know the french palate is sensitive and not used to spice so they needed a toned down option. Can't fool me chipotle! I went for the medium and it was perfection.
• The Price is high...but as I was watching people check out I realized why. The price here for a burrito is 9 euro, which admittedly is high in the US too-- I think it's a little over 8 with tax in the NYC (okay, yes, my name is Lindsay and I"m a chipotle-a-holic). Anywho, I think they've done some keen market research here....Basically, because of the previous socialist gov't and (and new gov't) employers are required to subsidize lunch (see previous post here). You can supply a cafeteria like Danone does, OR, they give you these meal tickets that are accepted pretty much everywhere. They are normally around 9 euro. DING DING DING. Most restaurants do not give change back, so pricing at 9 euro parisians can use their ticket up fully. So smart!
• There was a huge amount of seating in the restaurant and no place for the line. Remember when I blogged about McDo having lots of seating because French people sit and eat for like 2 hours a day? Chipotle (previously franchised by MacDo which is right next door) has seating in spades. HOWEVER, the line was out the door because they didn't plan the space properly. They need to get that figured out.

ANYWHO, to summarize I am very happy. And I will be return again and again and again yipeee.

France's First Lady: No Nancy or Michelle in the house!

So I know I mentioned the new first lady's age appropriateness and chic attire in my previous post, but oh la la I had no idea what interesting fodder she actually is! The New York time's had a great article on miss Valérie Trierweiler this morning. Here are my comments.

1. Firstly, notice her last name. It's not Hollande and it's not because she decided to not take his name...it's because they aren't married! And on top of that, Mr. President was married (with 4 kids) and she was the mistress. They didn't come out publicly until 2010. SCANDAL. Except not, seems to be sort of blaseé in France. Whatever, it's a SCANDAL to me.
2. Secondly, she's a journalist. And still covered politics until recently. That whole conflict of interest thing is a lot more lax in France. In fact, I've heard that a lot -- journalists are more opinionated here (Not having the ability to read the French media, I can't comment ha).  And I quote, " All journalists have opinions, they all vote, they all have sympathy, friendships. But they’re not asked to justify them. We believe in their integrity, we trust them and we’re right to do so." Although, I guess there is always FOX News in the US -- an unparalelled example of journalistic integrity ha.
3. Thirdly, she's struggling with her role of First Lady in France because there is no role of First lady in France. The first lady's are not supposed to do anything. I find this quite strange, as I've always known first lady's to have an agenda...or at least the memory of my recent first ladies (hillary with health care and michelle with childhood obesity...I wonder when this first lady agenda thing started? hmm). Plus, US First ladies help with the campaign, give speeches, kiss cute children, save Africa, etc. They are definitely well known and in the spot light, but apparently that doesn't happen here. They  have babies...Carla did that quite well although it didn't help boost Sarkozy's popularity. I can understand why Valerie is struggling with this...surely you aren't allowed to be a journalist if you're first lady! They also aren't married, so she doesn't want Hollande to support her family (she has 3 teenage boys). 
• As a tangent, I wonder if this has something to do with the misogynistic culture which is latent in French society. This is a whole 'nother post, but you have to wonder.
4. She had no clue that when she 'fell' for him that he would be president. It was over 6 years ago, he was an odd, leftist politician who wasn't really on the radar. She says she's almost laughing about it now, because the thought 6 years ago would be too ridiculous. 
5. INTERESTINGLY, Mr. Hollande's EX-WIFE  Ségolène Royal , ran for president in 2007 (from possible first husband to president, bizarre!). She obviously lost to Mr. Sarkozy, whom Mr. Hollande defeated. Talk about getting back at your ex-wife!

Sorry that was a long one, but wow, French politics are so different here! No pesky republicans picking apart everyone's personal lives (okay, I'm sure democrats do it too, but that whole 'family values' platform really wouldn't fly here). Imagine when all that really matters in a campaign are the politics? That's crazy speak.

oh la la, two posts in 1 day!

This has been an exceptional day - an exceptional day in that all the bosses are out of the office and I have no impending deadlines! Therefore, it was a long lunch kind of day (taken with my Andrew on the rooftop of Galleries lafayettes in the sun yay!) and a two kind of blog post day. I've been neglecting the blog too much lately so it's time I catch up!.

This one is inspired by Prét à Voyager and I thought it was super cute. For those of you that don't know, Anne writes  a great ex-pat blog and she does an illustrated French Lesson once a week or so (see picture). This week's is: Avoir un oeil au beurre noir. I always try to figure out what they are before she translates...and I have to admit this one stumped me, which is quite silly.

With a literal translation of: To have an eye of black butter, or less literally as it means to have a black eye...but I kept focusing on the beurre part and thought it was about cooking. Apparently, it may have come from cooking, something about the butter changing color when the egg is ready. Anywho, now you know!

ALLO ALLO, Je T'aime, Je T'aime

The weather is finally getting better in Paris (sun!) and it's honestly a different city. I'm finally starting to understand why Paris in the spring is so famous...From March and April I thought those people were masochistic.

Anywho, today I'm sharing this fun little video that shows a different side of Paris. But it's a side that I see living here, but which you wouldn't necessarily see if you visited as a tourist. It's what I call 'hipstamatic' Paris, (or Bobo, hispter, too cool for school, whatever you want to call it). The video is shot by 2 americans visiting Paris, but I think the look and feel capture perfectly the sense of modern Paris. You'll see it through the sites like the grafitti everywhere and the small details like the glove hanging off a wire. You'll see it in the way people are dressed (normally like they are out of the 80s) or guys walking while holding baguettes. You'll see it in the way they crowd into their tiny kitchens to chat or piling bottles of wine at the end of the night. You'll even see it in the way they've chosen the music and picked the lighting for the video. Bienvenue à Paris :-)

http://vimeo.com/41450032

Cultural Observations from the French Presidential Election: 2012

So in case you didn't know, France has entered a new era (again) and has elected the socialist president Francois Hollande (pronounced Orland it seems to me. Not sure where the R comes from...it's like the double L magically turns to an R.) ANYWAYS, as an outsider who was in the 'thick of it' it was quite interesting to me. My uncle would not be proud -- I was a mere 5 minute walk away from the Bastille where thousands of socialists were gathering to celebrate this historical event, but I decided to watch it safely from my couch. The Collins gene certainly outshined the Scott gene last night.

Anywho, here are 5 rather frivolous observations.

1. The new first lady is much more age appropriate than Carla Bruni, but still a looker! I look forward to critiquing her wardrobe on the front page of newspapers in the future. 
2. Did you know that the French colonies can vote? I saw results for Guadaloupe, Martinique, etc while they were posting results for other regions of France. I guess the 'no taxation without representation' really works here. Poor D.C & Peurto Rico.
3. The car of choice for both presidential candidates was a TEENY TINY 4 door renaut (or peugot? i dunno, a French car). Compared to the limos and huge bullet proof vehicles I'm used to my politicians riding in, I was horrified for their safety. Also, the journalists were allowed to ride along side in Motos. There were no bodygaurds to be found.
4. I watched both speeches (watched being the correct word here, as I probably understood less than half). I can see why Sarkozy was president for 10 years -- he's an excellent speaker. And the crowd responds loudly and appropriately. Hollande just yelled and seemed like he might have a heart attack. I worry about this.
5. When they were showing clips they played random accordion music in the background. It was odd and so stereotypical.

Et Voila! I'm sure this transition period will have tons of blog worthy hilarity. Until then!

May.Is.Awesome.

Before coming to France, I was really looking forward to August in Europe. August was what I thought was the quintessential vacation month -- an entire month to frolic through the south of France, visit beaches, mountains, etc. And this is not incorrect. However, as it turns out there is ANOTHER month of amazing-ness, and this month has arrived.

Whereas in August you must use your vacation days, in May there is a plethora of public holidays. And because most of these public holidays fall on a tuesday, we are 'forced' to take off the day in between to bridge the holiday to the weekend. Twist my arm...

Since April 29th here are my vacation days:

April 30th and May 1st (May day/Fete De Travail/Labor day)
May 7th and May 8th (Victories of Europe day...end of war in 1945)
May 17th and May 18th (ascension day? I'm a christian and I don't even know what that is, but I appreciate the days off)
May 28th (day of Solidarity. This one I still dont' really understand, but basically it's a day off for charity? And apparently companies give the equivalent of our salaries to charities or something).

So, to sum that all up I only work 1 full week in May. It's quite incredible.

Last post on April 11th...could that be???

So, you know that rhyme April showers bring May flowers? France (and europe in general really) is taking it QUITE literally.

Here is what I have to say to that.

I'm.sick.of.rain.and.clouds. We had 2 awesome days over the last 30 and the forecast just makes me want to pull my hair out. There better be some damn good flowers soon OR ELSE. (empty threats also make me feel better apparently).

Parisians Heart New York

As I was walking to work this morning, I saw a sticker that said "I heart NY" and I thought "Me too!"....what a nice way to start a wednesday!

No matter what my differences are compared to Parisians, I always know we have 1 thing in common -- we both heart NY. This commonality is something I can always fall back on as a spark of conversation, as seriously, I have yet to meet a Parisian that doesn't swoon when I say I'm from NY. They may 'hate' Americans (I don't really think they do), but they love New Yorkers.

I've thought a lot about the 'why' for this and I have a few theories. On the surface, the two cities are like night and day. One is fast paced and modern, the other slow and traditional. One has sky scrapers galore and taxis as far as the eye can see, whereas the other barely has a building over 5 stories and taxi can never be found. One has work-a-holic tendencies, the other prefers to vacation half the year. In short, they're different. But when people ask me how I'm 'adjusting' to Paris, I say it's quite easy and I think one of the reasons is why all the Parisian love NY -- because what makes the cities tick is essentially the same.

Hear me out -- What did I love to do in NY? Eat, drink, walk, admire buildings, visit some museums (I swear I did!), picnic in central park (okay, just twice), check out the newest restaurant, go shopping, etc. What do Parisians Love to do? Eat, drink, stroll, visit museusms, picnic, shopping...yes the eating and drinking are contain more cheese and wine, the walking may be a different pace and the shopping is at a different price point, but really, it all the same. And they both have the energy that accompanies big cities in which people are living, working, and playing all in close proximity. I think there is comfort in going somewhere that is seemingly different, but overall familiar, which can lead quite easily to a 'I HEART NY' from any Parisian. Of course you do -- it's the Paris of North America :-)

(I have yet to hear a Parisian say "I love LA". I have plenty of theories on that, but that will have to wait for another post)

"I have a new friend"

So it's wordless wednesday...I'm posting a picture andrew sent me today with the subject "I have a new friend" and absolutely no explanation. I think you'll see why it's weird.

What? Andrew and a charming french lady in a chocolate shop? This is all too strange. (and there I go again, failing at wordless wednesday. UGH)

Anywho, turns out it's none other than Denise Acabo from one of the best candy shops in Paris -- L'etoile D'or. Apparently, she's super famous and well photographed so don't go thinking Andrew's special (although he is, just for other reasons). I'm dying to go home and try what he walked out with (37 euros later...on candy! but I digress). According to David Lebovitz, it's worth it...who am I to argue? I will post with the taste test results on a later day!

"Le Hunger Games"

We will all be spectators. 

So an awesome birthday present from the country of france was one of the most anticipated movies of the year was coming out on my birthday. A whopping 48 hours before north america. So exciting! Andrew got us tickets for last night (the day after, but still before North Americans tee hee). In anticipation, we bought our tickets 2 days early and made an early dinner reservation to get a good place in line. I'm not a fan of the crick in the neck I get in front row seats and to be honest I find the previews quite amusing.

WELL, obvious fun fact of the day: The french aren't that into the hunger games. Or perhaps not that into the movie. Or maybe it was because it was one of the first nice nights in Paris, I dunno, either way, we were 20 minutes early and we were first in line. FIRST IN LINE! what nerds we were. (aka me). But no matter the external factors, I still think in the US you would find people who were probably fanatical about the first viewing.

Second interesting fact of the day: there aren't ads before the movies (I mean like before the start time). Which I find weird, but you know what else is weird? There are these little preview magazines you can pick up that talk about future shows and have ads. So people are actively seeking out this information. And nearly everyone had one when we were in line, which is good because they only let you in 5 minutes before the movie. I've gone to see other movies in Paris before and thought it was a major marketing opportunity missed, but I now realize they just do it another way. Oh parisians, so intellectual, they'd rather read about upcoming films than have them blasted in their face.

In other news, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Highly recommend it, excellent representation of the book, good casting, awesome story. A+! Andrew thought it was a bit violent, but really that's the whole premise. I thought it could have been much much worse.

Birthdays in Paris

Well, yesterday was my birthday. It was a day filled with....work. blech, but the next 3 days promise to be more exciting.

Three interesting observations about birthdays here:.

1. Everyone says Congratulations!!! I seriously thought either A) people weren't talking to me or B) I forgot I was pregnant....This happened all day long. It was weird. What happened to just saying Happy birthday!?
2. Everyone asks immediately how old you are. This was also strange to me, but not entirely unexpected. My boss has asked my age no less than 5 times, so I was expecting it again. I'm not self concious or annoyed with my age, but I don't like blasting it either. So this was annoying to me.
3. Champagne is a neccesity on birthdays. This I obviously had no complaints about.

The celebrations continue this weekend with a viewing of the Hunger games tonight, drinks on friday, and dinner at mama shelter on sat! yay!

Fountainebleau : C'est tres beau!

My parents are here (yay!) and we had an excellent weekend. It was filled with wine, food, and a little adventure. Yesterday, we hopped on a train at Gare De Lyon and went to a beautiful town called Fountainebleau to visit a chateau and Andrew's school (!!). I had never been out there before, so it was an excellent opportunity to site see, with a little business mixed in.

[side note: there are a million train stations in Paris (at least 5 that I can think of) and did you know that by the name of the station you generally know where the trains come from? For at least 3 stations....Gare Du Nord (station from the north), Gare De L'est (station from the east), Gare De Lyon (station from Lyon...or south). You may have already figured this out, but I had never put put two and two together and it blew my mind a little bit.)]

Okay, back to Fountainebleau. (Another thing that blew my mind: I've been spelling it wrong forever. It's fountainEbleau. An extra E is thrown in there...just realizing this post is making me look very unitelligent ha). Anywho, the chateau is gorgeous. It's the summer palace of many kings and queens, as well as Napoleon (I,II, and III). In addition to being awe inspired, Andrew and I walked away feeling a tad bit ignorant on French History. (Who was Francois I again? Why are there multiple napoleons? Why are we so stupid? and/or why is the North American Education system so poor? j/k to all my teacher friends :-)) Anywho, I took lots of fun pictures and have vowed to read a book on the French Revolution (orrrrr at the very least watch Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette again doh).

Let's start with the grounds. Stunning. Can't wait to see it in the spring, but there is something beautiful about an ominous sky and naked trees.

The inside is gorgeous. The french clearly understand opulence and Fountainebleau is no exception. After seeing the 15th gilted ceiling you start to understand why the French revolution happened (and question why it didn't happen sooner).

I also noticed there were a ton of chairs everywhere (many I would love to steal and put in my apartment). A lot of sitting was done back in the day apparently.

Also, the detailing is magnificent. Below are two of my favorite examples from the party room. The salamander is the symbol of Francois I (or 'brand logo' as I like to call it. An old example of marketing at its finest -- a salamander was apparently known for being able to resist fire...take that enemies!). The other are 3 interlacing crescent moons. They are either supposed to be a C for his wife Catherine or could be construed as a D for Diane his favorite. Bit of a stretch, but a fun story none-the-less.

And lastly, here are some pictures of INSEAD yay! The campus is approximately a 10 minute walk away from the Chateau, which is pretty cool if I do say so myself. The town is quite charming, with a mix of an old french feel, with some busier commerce. The juxtaposition is seen quite well actually in the pics below -- on the left is the old chateau in which the strategy department is housed (how cool!?), coupled with a beautiful, modern and angular building on the main campus. I'm looking forward to making this my country home next year. So proud of you Andrew!

Chez Moi

The subway had 'technical difficulties' this morning and I decided to work from home. I don't normally get to enjoy the apartment in the morning light (and there hasn't been sunlight for a while), so it has inspired me to do a post on my apartment, which I adore.

Starting with: My view working from home. Not too shabby, eh?

We're on the second floor (3rd to you North americans) of a traditional Haussman building. Which means, we have a balcony! According to my intern, traditional haussman buildings have 5 floors. The ground floor is for retail. The one above that is traditionally for the people who own the shop. The second floor is the first of the 'tradiontally more well off' people flats, which is why there is a balcony. The 3rd floor used to house the servants quarters for the 2nd floor people, the 4th floor is the servants quarters for the 5th floor people and the 5th floor is the other well off family (hence a balcony again). Don't know how accurate this is, but it makese sense to me. Nowadays, clearly they all have been transformed into normal apartments.

Moving on (I feel like I'm in Cribs...remember trhat show?), is the living room.

So, I don't know much about the man who owns my apartment, but I do know he likes leather. We have 3 (!!) leather couches. From this detail (and a few others), Andrea and I have crafted a creative story about his life. We think he is a bachelor. We thought he may be gay (good decorating), but perhaps he's just perpetually single, career focused, and rich enough to hire a decorator. We thought he was german as he seems meticulous (turns out he's from Venice). He clearly didn't spend too much time in the apartment -- perhaps every other weekend -- whisking off to Asia and the middle east for very important meetings about bank mergers and IPOs....anywho, you get the point. We have too much time on our hands.

Next, the dining room (although I didn't take a pic of the table hmmm minor detail).

Two important things. I'm obsessed with my bookshelf! Thank you Ikea for giving us a place to display fun knick knacks. Second thing, not sure if you can tell but that is not a working fireplace. Notice how we don't even pretend-- that my friends is our wine storage. You can tell our priorities. And the fact that I've killed the orchird Charisse gave me. Sad face.

So if I were on cribs, I'd definitely have to do the mandatory 'what's in your fridge' segment. Welcome to that segment. Our fridge is basically a commercial for Activia. Can you tell I work for a yogurt company? Oh and we have wine and cheese. Once again, priorities.

Two other awesome things about our kitchen....Check out the rack for silverware in the dishwasher! So genius and clever, I've always thought it was awkwad getting silverware out of a dishwasher (another reason why we thought the owner was either german or perhaps swedish). The second is my favorite saying on a postcard that Andrea picked up. It's by voltaire, who happens to be the namesake of our metro stop. It says (en francais), "I decided to be happy because it's good for the health." True.

And here is the bedroom. If I were in cribs, I would say "This is where the magic happens." 

Lasly, the bathroom. We are incredibly fortunate to have huge bathroom, which I feel like is rare in europe. HOWEVER, to quote Cam Davison, 'Showering in Europe is Awkward,' and ours is no exception. Don't know if you can tell, but that piece of glass only goes about 3/4 of the way (WHY??). Which is normally fine, but on more than one occasion the shower nozzle has accidentally not been pointed the right direction and I've flooded the bathroom. I am not the only one, it's happened no less than 3 times. Whoops. And why no lip or something to block the water? Also, no bathtub....sad panda.

And that's it. Once again, to quote cribs "I don't care where you go, but you can't stay here. See ya" I've clearly seen one too many rappers give tours of their home. Thank you MTV.

Happy Birthday @ Natalie's News!!!

Okay, so Natalie's birthday is actually tomorrow. BUT since I'm not really a weekend blogger, I figured a day early was better than forgetting! Happy Birthday Natalia!!!! I'm so lucky to have you in my life :) (pic below is not the best of all of us, but it was such a good time it makes up for it....one of the many good times we've had and will continue to have!)

Wordless Wednesday

I've been inspired by one of my favorite blogs (@natalie's news) to do a wordless wednesday. Mainly because I'm stressed for time, but feeling guilty that I haven't written anything in a while haha. So enjoy a few instagrams from Paris I took last week.

Have I mentioned how much I love instagram? (okay, so much for wordless wednesday) I've always loved photography (as a 'conceptual' artist, I find photography was the one way I could express myself articstically, since I can't draw, paint, or sculpt to save my life). Anywho, a bulk digital SLR is great, but hard when you're on the go, or in a sort of sketchy place, or just walking around the city in your daily life. I've found instagram has really stirred and reignited my love of photography and I'm documenting my life a lot more.

If you're an instagram user, let's be friends! click here to follow me.
  

Wayfare magazine...How do you understand me so perfectly??

"We recognize that travel is not defined by how many miles you cover. It’s about finding inspiration along the way and celebrating the everyday moments. It’s about the spirit of discovery – breaking out of your routine to unwind, connect, and learn.  It’s this desire to go, to celebrate and to experience that drives everything we do."

Beautiful quote. Beautiful Mission. Beautiful Magazine. Check out: wayfaremag.com if you feel the same way.

Relish And Quaff: Le Garde Robe

So Andrea and I clearly have been spending too much time together lately...I was about to sit down and write an entry about our favorite wine bar Le Garde Robe, when I clicked over to Relish and Quaff and saw that she had just written a post!

No matter...the place is so fantastic it is well deserved of two posts. I've now been to many a wine bar in this city, but every time I head back to Le Garde Robe. It has stayed at the top of the list for a few reasons: relaxed and casual atmosphere, consistently good and inexpensive wine and cheese, and smoked filet mignon. Yes, you heard me right. Smoked.Filet.Mignon. It's filet, that's smoked! Absolutely awesome. The texture is like soft, pillowy steak and the taste is a mix between a fine jerky (oxymoron?) and saucisson sec. Yum Yum Yum.

This wine bar was confusing to me the first time we visited because we didn't quite understand how to order wine...It's a mix between a wine store and a wine bar (more bar, than store) and the wines are lined up in shelves to the left with two prices on the bottle: one to stay, one to take away. Talk about exposing your margin! But this is pretty typical in France, I've seen a lot of 'wine bars' do it. Generally, it's minus 30% to take home. Really makes you think :)

I plan on going again tonight with a dear friend from Dannon US. I can't wait to see what they have in store for me!

Chateau Vincennes

Did you know that this Chateau pictured above is really close to Paris? Like not in 'versailles' paris (which is close, but not close at all) but like a 10 minute drive, 22 minute bike ride or a 35 minute run from my house? It's Chateau Vincennes and I discovered it on Saturday and am totally amazed. First off, IT'S HUGE!!! The castle part itself is not the biggest I've seen, but the structure takes up an incredible amount of space. It's also magnifed by the fact that it's 'on the subway' line close to Paris....You're just minding your own business, going down a beautiful parisian street and then BAM huge ass castle. Gotta love France.

We visited the chateau on saturday when we decided to go on a bit of an adventure, which started by renting a bike via the Velib service here in paris. For those of you unfamiliar, it's a shared bike service which is pure genius. I pay 29 euro a year and I have unlimited bike use for up to 30 minutes. If you want to bike for more than 30 minutes, put the bike back and take out another one, or pay a euro or two extra. Easy as that! And they are all over Paris, so it's quite convenient. The hard part is biking in Paris. I must say that I've used bad weather as an excuse as to avoid trying this service, but really I was just being scared. I find walking terrifying in Paris somtimes (Motorbikes are the worst!!) so I could only imagine biking. Alors, determined to tackle our fears, we grabbed a bike and set our destinies on Chateau Vincennes.

The second part of the adventure was not only seeing Chateau Vincennes but going for a run around the Parc Vincennes. Unlike other major cities, there aren't really 'central' parks in which to run in Paris. And that makes it quite difficult as a runner because there are cars everywhere and you end up having to stop a lot or people honk at you and it's just a disaster. Considering I don't like gyms and I'm not keen on getting run over by a car, I needed to find another solution to exercise (and no, running through the cemetry pere lachaise is forbidden, despite looking like beautiful green space on a map. We know first hand). So we set our sites on Parc Vincennes and it did not disappoint. It was a huge, had lots of paths, tons of trees, grass, dogs...I was truly one with nature (or perhaps as one with nature you can get within the confines of Paris).

And it had the added bonus of an ancient chateau! Culture + exercise, what a pair! The chateau "like most chateaux' according to wikipedia was constructed as a hunting lodge for one of the Louis Kings. It's actually quite a famous castle, many of the kings were married there it's been added onto throughout the years (fortified, as they say). It was abandoned in the 18th century, made into a porcelain factory, a state prison (in the 1700s so not like those kind of prisons) and now is a beautiful place to go for a run. I highly recommend it.