Our fifth wedding anniversary is in just a few short days and we’ll be celebrating in Italy so I thought I’d post a few days early. It’s been five wonderful years!
- Archives
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5 Years
June 20, 2012 -
Le Chateaubriand
June 14, 2012Le Chateaubriand is one of the cool places to go if you’re a foodie in Paris, at least that’s what we’ve read and what some of our foodie friends say. Dusty was able to get us reservations last night and the chef, Iñaki Aizpitarte, was did a superb job. The word we came up with to describe the food was “interesting”. Dinner was unique, even for a bid city where there are an abundant number of creative chefs. They served a prix-fixe menu and we selected to have the wine pairings to match. We had several amuse-bouches along with our courses, including two desserts.
The staff was very friendly. We were shown our menu and given an excellent description of each dish. The dishes had an interesting combination of ingredients that somehow went well together. There were a couple of times that we had no idea what something was, even after asking our waiter. Our wine pairings, I do believe, made the dishes so much more. They paired well with the dishes and were very much like the dishes, interesting.
Dusty’s favorite dish was the green one. It was describe as “risotto of samphire”. I had no idea what samphire was but Dusty did a little researching and found out that there are two different kinds, we had marsh samphire. Marsh samphire has “vibrant green stalks, similar to baby asparagus, with a distinctively crisp and salty taste”. The dish was most definitely salty. The green stuff on top tasted like seaweed but other than that, I have now idea what the green liquid was or how it was even made. Many of the other dishes were much the same, we knew what one or two ingredients were but couldn’t tell you any more than that. My favorite dish was the second dessert, which was a caramelized egg yolk on a cookie. The cookie reminded me of a macaroon but when we tasted it alone it was almost like cotton candy, both in taste and texture. You were supposed to eat it in one bit and it was amazing!
Amuse-bouches
top left: fish broth; top right: risotto of samphire; bottom left: cod, mushrooms & asparagus; bottom right: lady lamb 6 ways with a shredded white vegetable and mascarpone cheese (or something similar to it)
top left: fluffy whipped marshmallow or cheese with berries; top right: caramelized egg yolk on cookie;
bottom left: seeds on melon; bottom right: people standing in line when we left -
French Open – Roland Garros
June 14, 2012The French Open, also known as Roland Garros, is one of the major international tennis matches. It’s held in Paris for two weeks at the end of May and beginning of June each year. The stadium where the tournament is hosted is also called Roland Garros and is located in the southwest part of Paris. I’m a novice to tennis, although I was on the tennis team in high school for one short season. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t even know how to play tennis before I joined. Dusty and I were lucky enough to get tickets from a friend of Dusty’s who works for ESPN and attend a few weekends ago.
I don’t think I realized how lucky we were until that evening when we were out for drinks and we started talking to some gentlemen from Czech Republic who were trying to figure out how to get tickets.
It was super easy to get to Roland Garros using the Metro. The gates opened at 10am and matches started at 11am. We arrived early enough that we could get our bearings and figure out which courts we needed to be at and when.
I think just as much fun as watching the star athletes is watching the “ball boys” and yes, there were girls too. You can tell this must be a huge honor for the kids and they take their jobs very seriously. There’s lots of unspoken communication between them to make sure the balls stay off the court and in the right place. My other favorite part of the event was people watching.
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Photoshop Tutorials
June 11, 2012We love taking pictures and being in Paris means we take even more pictures than normal. More pictures doesn’t mean better pictures though. Last summer I took a photography lesson from our neighbor (who’s a professional photographer) and continue to research how to use our camera. I’ve also been reading up on how to enhance our pictures using Photoshop. I know there are many different kinds of software to use but I own Photoshop and am familiar with it just enough to make me dangerous. I’ve followed many design blogs, photographers, and others who enjoy taking pictures for a long time and have decided it’s time for me to start taking advantage of all the free information, tutorials, and advice out there.
Well, here’s my first attempt at enhancing a picture (and understanding what I’m doing). I took this picture at the Bastille market. There’s a subtle difference but just enough to make the vegetables look even more enticing.
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Frenchie
June 6, 2012One of the differences between our trip last summer in Lyon and this summer in Paris is the food. For many reasons, the food for us has been different. I’d say it’s because of one or more of the following reasons 1) Paris has more food options, 2) we feel more comfortable going to restaurants, 3) we’re here a week longer giving us more time to schedule dinners, 4) we’re better acquainted with the food scene, and 5) we have a working iPhone (that has a map, making it easier to find places).
Dusty has been researching the Paris food scene for months and has a lengthy list of places we need to eat. They range from a food truck (which we ate at today) to some of the highly rated restaurants in the world. Some you must make reservations for months in advance and others you can’t even make reservations for but must stand in line with other food-loving patrons (while drinking wine to keep you busy).
We’ve went to several restaurants since we’ve arrived including a couple in London but here’s one of my favorites so far. Gregory Marchand is the chef and owner of Frenchie, a small place with just a few tables that serves a three course prix fix. Here’s a picture of the window to the kitchen and a picture of me sitting by the window. We had a perfect seat that enabled us to see the entire place including what was happening in the kitchen window. The window spot also allowed us to see and hear people trying to get a table, making it even more special that we were one of the lucky ones (and confirming how much we loved the food).
left: Dusty’s lamb dish; right: My amazing fish dish
right: Dusty’s carrot cake for dessert and my rhubarb tart -
Life Lately
June 6, 2012
(Lunch at Paris Food Truck)
(Kate’s Last Night in Paris) -
Daily Life in Paris: Laundry
June 5, 2012Laundry in Paris (and I’m sure in most parts of Europe) is an event. It’s even more of an event when it’s just a little bit cold and rainy outside and it takes twice as long to dry anything. I actually don’t mind doing laundry. My routine at home is to do laundry once a week or even once every two weeks on a Friday when I have the day or afternoon off. I sort our clothes into three to four piles and then begin washing. Before putting things in the dryer I sort out what should be hung up. Then I do the ironing, hanging and folding part of the process. It’s a little bit different in Paris because our washing machine (and dryer) is half the size and we don’t have an endless supply of clothes. We probably enough clothes for 2 weeks, if the weather worked in our favor every day. Once you’ve worn your two pairs of jeans or two pairs of capris you need to wash them.
(left: washing machine/dryer in kitchen; middle: drying rack; right: clothes to be ironed)I started the laundry this morning and I’ll be finishing it tomorrow (and maybe the next). Our washer and dryer is all-in-one. It still amazes me that a machine can both wash your clothes and dry them (in theory). The thing about this two-in-one contraption is that it doesn’t really dry anything. Which means you have to hang dry everything and that means finding places to hang all of our clothes around our very small apartment. We not only use the drying rack but chairs, bath tubs, etc. That also means very still clothes and having to iron everything.
And ironing, I actually like ironing or at least don’t hate it. Ironing always gives me a good reason to listen to my audiobooks but lately I’m despising ironing. One reason being that there’s more ironing to do because I have to iron everything. Second, I only have a miniature ironing board and third, the iron trips the circuit breaker every so often and after realizing my iron has gone cold I have to switch the circuit breaker back on. One thing that baffles me is how all the beautiful French women’s clothes always look so pristine with no wrinkles. Even with my very skillful ironing I still find wrinkles!
