Chet thinking deep thoughts on where the next glass of wine was coming from.

Landaise salad

This has Chicken gizzards and Chet was surprised how good this was. We are going to make it at home.

Ile flottante dessert (Floating island)

Lynne loved this. It is a meringue ball floating in an island of liquid custard. (Chet wasn't impressed.)

Moules and Frites in Arcachon, France.

Lighthouse at Pointe de Grave

This is the lighthouse you can get out to but it looks pretty far out to me!

Plaque to General Pershing and his Army from WW1 at Pointe de Grave

Night scene in the new cleaned up Bordeaux

Bordeaux Grand Théatre at night

Bordeaux Grand Théatre at midday

Lynne with friends Yves, Luc and Catherine

May 29,2011 Sunday
Took the tramway to the Gare St Jean and got a rental car from Avis. Started our drive out to the Arcachon peninsula area. It was fête de mères day in France (Mother's Day) and it was a nice day out so the traffic was pretty thick at times. Arrived in the town around noon-ish, found a parking space and walked to the beach area. There were probably 15 restaurants in view of the water and they were piled high with people and their moms. So we kept walking and eventually gave up on the idea of eating on the beach and picked, instead a café off the beach where we had some good oysters, moules marinières and a salad.

So we had our fill of Arachon and moved on to go to the Pointe de Grave to see what it and the famous lighthouse looked like. It was going to be a quick trip, though, as we only had the one day to do it. We drove for 3+ hours in the trusty Peugeot 207 through very hot 30C weather and finally made it up to the Pointe, which is at the mouth of the Gironde by 8pm. It turned out the view was nice, but not amazing. What was neat was to see the memorial the French had built to General Pershing's Army who helped save the French in WW1. It was even more impressive because the Germans blew up the memorial in WWII and the French rebuilt it. We didn't hang out here for very long since it was already 830pm.

Next we headed south for Bordeaux through the famous Medoc wine country. There is a 12-mile scenic wine route that takes you by all the famous wine chateaux which are really just castles, some modern and some not so much. But what they are is impressive and our friend Yves said (in answer to my question) that the really fancy places you can't even go to taste. Luckily there was no temptation to taste because they were all closed anyway since it was Sunday night at 9pm on Mother's day anyway and everything in the rural areas was closed. Not a single place, with the exception of McDonalds, was open. I should mention too that we saw an Aldi's food store along the French coast also which a surprise since we didn't know Aldi's was in France.

We finally arrived back at the hotel in Bordeaux and went out to grab a quick bite to eat at the Quick burger place which happily was open. It stays light here until about 1030PM so everyone stays out and enjoys the day to its fullest. We took a short walk around the warm (27C) evening since this was our last evening in Bordeaux for now.

May 28, 2011 Saturday
Got up a little later than vacation normal given that we didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight the night before. After a light breakfast and Lynne's essential cup of tea, we went first to the Librairie Mollat, which is a huge bookstore in the center of town. Lynne remembers it fondly from her student days and is really glad to see it still prospering. We got some regional cookbooks and basked in the weather which has been getting nicer and nicer. It was 72 or so with bright blue skies. Then we went over to the Grand Théatre and bought tickets for the tour. Lynne saw "Porgy and Bess" there years ago, by the Harlem Opera Company, but never did hear about the history of the building and it's architecture. The building is very nice and has an interesting history. It took 7 years to build, and they brought in an architect (late 1700s) from Paris, who didn't know the locals or their tastes. He brought in a whole team of artists from Paris, and this also was not very popular with the Bordelaise because they wanted their own local architect and artists on the job. But when the job was done apparently they loved it and after 100 years (yeah, it took a while) they put up a statue to him in the lobby of the building. Only downside here was the tour was in French so Chet was doing a lot thumb-twiddling as there wasn't enough time for Lynne to translate in real time.

Next we went to the Centre Jean Moulin, which is a museum to the French Resistance and all they did and went through in WWII. Very interesting and really brought a reinforcement of what people did and how they sacrificed for the world then.

Then, on a lighter note, we walked down to the waterfront and took our shoes off to join the rest of the Bordelais young and old, as we walked through the Miroir d'Eau (water mirror) which was very fun and pleasant and no more than about 3 inches deep. Very refreshing on those feet, which have taken a workout through the past couple weeks.

Dinner in the Quartier St Pierre, which is in the older part of the city. And then back to the hotel by about 10 for a relatively early evening.

May 27, 2011 Friday
Bordeaux. We got up and walked over to the Palais Gallien, which is a 2nd century Roman forum that held events similar to those at the Roman colosseum. Good old Roman "fun", but here in France. The place was burned in the 3rd century, and then in 1793 (just after the Revolution), the current wisdom was to tear most all of the remnants down to make room for new housing (sound familiar?). It seems the ruins weren't serving any practical function, and were therefore useless. Fortunately one of the gates and part of the wall are still standing. We then walked over to the town center where we found yet more good pastries and bought a baguette sandwich, which we greatly enjoyed.

We did some shopping at the local "hyper-marché", which is a huge 4 story affair and must have had 50-60 linear feet of yogurts of every type and flavor. Pretty amazing. Although we were later told that with the appearance of this "superstore", some of the smaller store have started to disappear and it was less social because people don't know you and ask about your wife, your dog or whatever. Sounds similar to the US also, however apparently the smaller food marts are said to be making a comeback.

Then we had to see the newly renovated sites: the Place de la Bourse, the Place du Parlement, the Porte Cailhou, the Porte de Bourgogne, and the Eglise St Pierre, where Lynne lit candles to St Antoine in memory of both of our fathers. And, finally, the Grosse Cloche, which is looking "simply mahvelous" these days in her renovated splendor.

We later called on Lynne's friends, Yves and Catherine, from whom she rented a room when she lived here while studying at the university. They spoilt her thoroughly then, and we spent a very enjoyable evening catching up. We had a grand time talking and drinking lots of wine and enjoying a pâté made from a wild boar Yves had shot outside of Paris, himself. We really enjoyed that so much he brought out a second pâté, which we also devoured. Yves showed us some home movies of the family today (4 children and 8 grandchildren now!), and later Luc (the oldest) came over and we all had a good time talking about old times, new times and everything in between. From l'affaire DSK to the election ofmthe first African American president of the United States. We really had a great time and exchanged email addresses and promised to try to stay in contact.

Palais Gallien

This is the 3rd century coliseum that was torn down.

Lynne's dinner

This was Lynne's dinner at L'Embarcadère restaurant. This was called couscous à la mer. (Cous cous of the sea.)

Jardin Public (Public garden) Bordeaux

Carousel in waterfront park area Bordeaux

Bordeaux waterfront area. Huge flower beds.

Bordeaux water front mirror of water

Bordeaux completed remodeled and upgraded their waterfront areas. It looks really nice now. Lynne wouldn't even go here when she was a student here 30 years ago.

May 26 Thu
Took the TGV (train à grande vitesse) at 830 to Bordeaux. This train is fun to take because it travels at speeds up to 200 mph. It's a very smooth ride, and we arrived at the Gare St Jean in a little over 3 hours. We walked from there to our hotel, which is near the center of town. A lot has changed, and Lynne had trouble recognizing some of the streets. The old town center has been cleaned and brightened, and the waterfront now sports a broad promenade which makes for a very pleasant walk.

We wandered through the city before stopping for dinner at a restaurant called l'Embarcadère. There we had what Chet pronounced the best meal we've had this trip. We shares a couscous à la mer and a St Jacques poilé with asparagus and a light parsley cream. And a carafe of an excellent white wine. Very yummy.

May 25, 2011 Wed
Went to the Musée Marmottan et Monet via the Paris metro and enjoyed their collection of Monet paintings, medieval illuminations and Napoleonic portraiture. This was another converted mansion/hunting lodge that was given to the Institut de France. We had a moment of excitement when a visitor came out of the bathroom telling the security guard that there was "no water to flush the toilet" in English, to which the poor security guard replied "of course there is" and proceeded to charge into the restroom to demonstrate the toilet's function. Upon returning, the complained (as the visitor walked away) that they "don't have toilets where they live." It was actually pretty funny, but maybe you had to be there ...

We later had dinner at the Cafe Cassette where we had some very enjoyable lamb and the most veggies we'd seen in a long time. Not to mention excellent bagguettes which Chet went on about for too long. (Look for the gluten structures...) Turns out, they came from his favorite bakery. Uh oh ....

May 24, 2011 Tue
Today we got up and headed out from our hotel and stopped at the local pharmacie where Chet got some type of anti-histamine for his episodic sneezing fits. The pharmacist said that the pollen season had come a full month early this year and I think we noticed because the last time we came here Chet had no allergy problems and oddly never does back in the US.

A short stop away then was Chet's favorite Viennoiserie, where we got a couple things and a sandwich for lunch later in the day. (At the corner of Rue de Rennes and Rue Mezières. And oddly, this place has no name. It has short lines out the door but no name. Chet asked Lynne to ask them what the name of the place was but she wouldn't, fearing an international incident!)

At any rate we took a couple trains that Liang deftly navigated through to get to the Jacquemart André museum, which was a private residence until after the "middle-upper class" residents passed on in 1912 and donated the mansion and extensive art collection to the Institut de France as a museum. The people had collected a very large collection of art works similar in vein to the Frick in New York. The odd thing was that in the US they called the owners rich industrialists but in France they were just middle-upper class, or haut bougeois. Lynne says the difference is that the people weren't nobility so they weren't considered to be true upper class despite however well off they were. (And just as an example they were buying entire walls of houses with frescoes by Tiepolo! The most spectacular example came from a villa in Venice, and took six months to successfully move to Paris and install on the wall above the grand staircase. An interesting observation in the thoughts of two cultures.)

Also present was a temporary exhibit of the Caillebotte brothers, one of whom was a painter and the other a photographer. Both the brothers did some of the same works but in their own medium. It was an interesting exhibit and well worth seeing. There is an iPhone app available under keyword Callebotte also for free we are told if you want to see what we saw.

Then we walked east on Bd Haussmann and stopped at some passages that had stores in them were early indoor malls with covered glass. They were cool but not as impressive as the big one we saw in Milano next to the Duomo church. And last we stopped at one of Chet's favorite places - the Librairie Gourmand, which is a two story store which has cookbooks only. He exercised restraint and left with only three books. Our next stop was an outside cafe that we stopped at because we were parched. And our last stop of the day was the Café du Metro for dinner. Chet revisited the Suprême de Volaille there, and was relieved to once again enjoy a great Parisian meal.

Interestingly also, the iPad has been really a huge help for us while traveling for anything from looking up museums, getting maps, googling things to writing up these comments. We can't say enough about how useful it's been. Plus we have magazines from our New Yorker subscription on it too to read offline while traveling too, although we've mostly been too busy for that!

Chet's favorite place in this universe!

I'm having so much fun I can't open my eyes!

Is this Kubla Khan? (Did he initial "KK was here-in Paris?")

More decadence!

Covered passages shopping areas

No Cheese Wiz here!

Jacquemart André mansion main lobby

Tiepolo fresco taken from Venice and brought to Paris

Parisian bread

Sunset at the Seine

A fish market somewhere in Paris

May 23, 2011 Monday
Got up early today (630 while on vacation) and took the train to Giverny to see Monet's garden. It was a pleasant outing and we got to see France's train system in action - which has a very good network and covers a lot of places and generally is very timely. We arrived at Giverny at about 945 and saw that the parking lot looked like the Euro Disney parking lot with lots of buses and people, so we were wondering how crowded it would be here. We got in and agreed that it was well worth the wait and the crowds. The gardens were super and reminded us of Butchart Gardens in Victoria. The water lily pond and bridges were splendid, even when enjoyed with 300 of our "best friends". The flowers were fantastic even though we missed the tulips.

Made our way back to Paris and rested up for an hour+ and then went out to find some dinner. We ended up witnessing some type of drinking festival with people dressed up in costumes of various kinds (some almost non-costumes, so to speak) which was all noisy and off-putting to Lynne, who doesn't like crowds, so we moved on to find another area to eat. We did find another restaurant row which had a busker in front of every place. We settled on one finally and were entertained by the man busking every likely looking couple coming by. He told us his life story and how he had lived in Auburn, Ca for a 6 months while his girlfriend hesitated to get married, and then came back to France where he could actually work legally. Then very quickly he said "oh here comes Jacques Chirac, I promise" and then seconds later a black Mercedes rolled by with the back windows open and inside was the man, himself. On his way to get a pizza. With his security detail in tow. Chet missed the picture because he initially didn't believe the guy. The meal was pretty below average, but the live entertainment was pretty good. At least it was inexpensive!

Got up finally feeling refreshed as I think we are finally caught up to the time zone change. We had a quick breakfast and went off to the Petit Palais along the Seine. The streets were largely empty as people slept in and hung out with their families and friends. Only a few scruffy looking dog walkers were out and about. Most restaurants and bars were closed too. The Petit Palais was very nice and they have an adequate, if smallish, collection. No cameras were allowed and hence no pictures which is odd because some museums do allow cameras but no flash and some don't allow any cameras at all, which begs the question of why. If anyone knows be sure to let us know - maybe we should google that.   After the Petit Palais we went through the Place de la Concorde to the back entrance of the Louvre, which avoids almost all the crowds. It worked out very well and we bought tickets at a machine and then got inside within a few minutes. And as usual the Louvre was fantastic - for €10 each you get all the entertainment you can take before museum fatigue sets in.  We had about 4 hours and went right to the Marly and the Puget courts, and then to see the Italian sculpture section for the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Canova's Cupid and Psyche, Michelangelo's slaves  and other amazing blocks of stone cold marble that were made to look amazingly lifelike.   After that we finally found a good baguette after being served some really average bread in a couple restaurants. We gobbled that down with some Camembert that we found at the neighborhood grocer's that smelled like 3-day old diaper when unwrapped - yummy!   (Mental picture there.) We also found some excellent (and much more reasonably priced) millesfeuilles, which made for a nice dessert.

May 21, 2011 Saturday- Got up later than usual as we are still getting used to the time zone. Walked to Montparnasse cemetery, and saw the grave of John Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as many elaborate gravestones there. Then we walked up to the Bastille (which refers to the monument, not the actual jail because it was torn down by the masses in 1793 -vive la révolution!)  and saw the Opèra Bastille, which is quite a contrast to the Opèra Garnier, being very modern. We also wandered through an artists' street market that we thought was pretty cheesy since the goods largely looked like they were things you regret buying later because they aren't used and just clutter up the house. Based on advice from an article Chet found in the Atlantic Monthly, we found a very tiny street called Passage du Chantier,  where artisans made and sold very nice furniture.  It looked like small-scale furniture makers who were down a narrow alley.  Pretty cool. Then we walked down the Rue du Charenton, a pre-Haussman residential neighborhood, to the Aligre market, which was closing down for the day.  After that, it was the search for the perfect millefeuille. The bakery on Boulevard St Germain that Lynne remembers is gone, so we wound up finding some highly overpriced "deux milles feuilles" at a swanky bakery called Pierre Herme. After about 7 miles of walking in hot weather, we were about done in. After a rest, we had a quick and light dinner at a street cafe around the corner. Lynne had a warm chevre salad with honey and a citron pressé, which she enjoyed immensely. Chet had a pesto penne, which reminded him that the Italians do it better. The world was supposed to end today, according to various prognosticators. It would have been an excellent way to spend the "last day".

Dinner Fri night

May 20, 2010 First day of exploration

Lynne woke up at 4am but she refrained from turning the light on. She had dreams about work even. Now we have to figure out what to do here and there is just a blizzard of yyyuuchoices. I do know for sure we will visit our favorite viennoiserie this morning for croissants and possibly some sandwiches for lunch.

Later:

Got up and went for a long walk today. We went to Chet's favorite boulangerie and went to the Luxembourg Gardens to enjoy them. Then we went up to the Seine, and walked along it, taking in the sights and sounds. Lynne found that some of Seine smells like urine because some of the locals use this area as their private bathroom. We had no desire to camp down there, ourselves. Checked one thing off our list of things to do.

We walked for about six hours and went over to the Trocadero and the Palais de Chaillot, but it wasn't that interesting and looked a surprisingly run-down. We even saw a young guy in a foot race with 3 athletic-looking gendarmes. (I think the chasee might have gotten away but the chasers had radios, so who knows.) We had our nice sandwich crudités, and then wandered over to the Eiffel Tower. Neither of us had been there in years, but the lines were so long we opted to give it a pass. Note to future tourists: make reservations for the elevators if you want to go. Much shorter lines for the stairs, but you still have to wait and there was a 45-minute delay before you could get past the first level!!

Down past Les Invalides and Napoleon's tomb, and we used the Montparnasse Tower to navigate back to the hotel. Had a rest and nap, then headed out to supper in St Germain. Found a nice little bistro with menu in French only and sat next to a young couple from New York. Fun way to close our first full day here! Now ... what to do tomorrow?

May 18, 2011 Thursday
We finally arrived at our hotel in Paris after taking the RER and Metro in from Charles De Gaulle. It's not our "usual" place, but is about a half mile south and still near the Luxembourg Gardens. We were both totally whooped and instantly took a 4-hour nap even though we were both dying to get out and do stuff. We roused ourselves at at 9pm and made it out to our favorite cafe which is Café du Metro. Once there Lynne had a very authentic Andouillette sausage (so authentic that Chet didn't care for) and Chet had a Southwest salad (that's French Southwest as in Basque with gizzard, thick ham and a poached egg on top). The food was good and the service was nice on this slow Thursday!

May 17, 2011 day 1 (start of trip) Started our trip with huge lines getting into the secure area at SFO. Not sure why everybody decided to go the same day but they did. Made it through this gauntlet which included Chet's first 'naked scanner' and the security guy even looked through Chet's wallet, which had surprisingly little in it. Lynne took note of people's conversations in the security screening line and they ranged from "United airlines sure sucks" to an Indian couple turning around to say good-bye to their grandkids.  Incidentally we are using our iPad to do all this and it's quite convenient compared to using the hotel computer.