Friday, August 31, 2007

Apero Jeudi


Passarelle Debilly




Caught anti-socializing


Good ol' Eiffey put on a nice show

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Questions

My summer vacation is almost over. As much as I am going to miss surfing the Internet and reading Anthony Bourdain books (highly recommend Kitchen Confidential, A Cooks Tour and The Nasty Bits) I am looking forward to seeing the kids and teachers again on a regular basis. The start of all school years seem to involve some sort of shopping, it wouldn't be a new year after all without some retail therapy to numb the pain of the end of your freedom. As a result I spent some quality time at WH Smith picking up some books for school, and I also splurged on some new clothes for the fall (a necessity seeing as I've been wearing the same clothes for almost 12 straight months now. The summer skirts and dresses never stood a chance in this weather).

Hmmm...that was a bit of a tangent. My whole point today was that I was checking my stat counter today (something that I probably won't get around to doing very often once school starts), and I'm always surprised by who is reading this blog. StatCounter is a handy little tool that can tell you the countries and sometimes the cities of the people reading this blog. I like to think that it's mostly people that we know who are reading, but I'm not so naive to think that anything on the Internet is that private. I think I can make some pretty good guesses about the make up of the Canadian contingent, and I'm going to assume that Steve makes up the 3% Japanese readership but almost 50% of the readers are apparently coming from the States and someone in Germany logged on yesterday. So, who are you? I know you're reading :)

Leave me a comment, or send me an email. The curiosity is killing me!

Monday, August 27, 2007


Apparently what we look like when we're talking


What we'd like to think we look like

How to ruin a good night

1. Arrive at Alex's with two bottles of Champagne in tow (the payment she requested for the bookshelf she is selling us)

2. Pop the champagne, and enjoy it with a delicious meal prepared by your host.

3. When the champagne is gone, drink the 'coke-hitos' that Alex has created in an attempt to finish up the duty free vodka that she has (yes, the drinks contained neither rum, nor lime, but since we are mojito obsessed, and had mint, we figured the name was appropriate).

4. Open up the bottle of Baron to drink with the cheese course, and dessert (pain perdu)

5. Head out for the Scary Bathroom Bar. Enjoy the 15 minute walk through the deserted streets of Paris.

6. Arrive at SBB and greet the owner with kisses (us) and handshakes (Erik).

7. Order the obligatory bottle of rose, and inform the owner that this is Alex's last weekend in Paris.

8. Begin taking the necessary drink induced silly photographs.

9. Realize that Alex's bag is missing when she reaches for her camera (camera was actually forgotten at home).

10. Sober up quickly when you realize that Alex's bag is REALLY missing, search the entire bar, the streets, and the bar again.

11. Try and figure out how it could have disappeared when there were only about ten other people in the bar, the bag was on my chair, and none of us saw anyone pass behind us.

12. Leave SBB without even using the bathroom, and hop in a cab so that Alex can begin cancelling all her cards.

13. Have an impromptu sleep-over because Alex's house keys were in the bag that was taken.

Luckily Alex was able to get back into her apartment the next day, and all her cards were cancelled on time. We all went to Rock en Seine on Sunday, and although the weather was great, the bag theft certainly cast a grey cloud over the remainder of the weekend.






Wednesday, August 22, 2007

More pictures

On the road





Looking through the vineyards to the Chateau du Clos de Vougeot


Standing next to one of the huge grape presses at the Chateau du Clos de Vougeot



In the caves at the Marche des Vins in Beaune


We are wine tasting experts!


Yes, we are drinking out of metal saucer shaped things called tastevins


We thought this was a pretty funny thing to have written on a wine glass.



And then the camera battery died. You know how you always forget one thing when you go away? We forgot the battery charger.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Happy Anniversary to Us!

On Monday August 13th, we celebrated our second wedding anniversary by getting up really early and catching the TGV to Dijon.

We spent the day climbing towers


Checking out the lucky 'chouette' (owl)



and having cocktails on a patio.




Apparently two years of marriage doesn't agree with me. Or maybe after two years of marriage Erik is getting better at catching some of my finer faces on camera.

Then we got dressed up and treated ourselves to our first one-Michelin-starred restaurant dining experience at the Hostellerie du Chapeau Rouge. It was fantastic. I now want to eat like that all the time.

And here's a particularly unflattering picture of us before dinner.

Ouch!


We were so convinced it was going to rain, we forgot to put on sunscreen. We did however learn that 'farmer's tan' translates quite literally into 'bronzage de fermier'.

Compare and Contrast


Biking day one Germany, last summer


Biking, day one Dijon on Monday. Less rain, more maps, and more fun. Oh, and better bikes.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Visitors

Steve and Christy arrived in Paris, and we had a great weekend catching up, and enjoying the fantastic weather. We spent Saturday afternoon taking advantage of various patios, then on Sunday they came over for dinner.




The joys of Ve'lib. We ended up walking all the way home from Hotel de Ville because we couldn't find two bikes. We stopped at all the stations on our route home, finally returning my bike after our fifth stop. What a pain!

Hair Cut


Sometimes it's fun to pretend that I have straight hair.