Some Paris Pictures

This is a fascinating city. You could spend a year photographing it and not really have scratched the surface. Here are some obligatory photos…we’ll do some less well known stuff soon.

This is I’lsle Saint-Louis where our hotel is located (Which you can’t see because it’s behind this row of buildings)

Notre Dame – Front, back and at night (from our picnic spot mentioned in a previous post)

This is a bridge off our “home” island. It’s mostly unremarkable except for this little story: My dad was in Paris shortly after its liberation from Germany (WWII). There’s a picture of him standing on a bridge with a buddy (they were on the rail hanging onto the lamp posts). I’m not 100% positive (and won’t be until we find the picture) but I swear this is the bridge he was on. I remember the lamp posts and vaguely a statue in the background. Just to be safe I’m taking pictures of myself on every bridge with lamp posts in Paris.

For Divinci Code Fans: This is the Louvre and the giant glass pyramid.

More Louvre – This place is huge.

And of course the space needle.

Paris Plan

Yesterday we – toured Notre Dame, strolled along the Seine, had lunch at a café here on I’lsle Saint Louis, walked through the Louvre grounds (kind of humbling), and had a picnic dinner on the Seine (on the south side of I’lsle Saint Louis).

Today’s plan is: Do a walk of the old Paris (Rick Steve’s has an audio podcast we’re using to guide us), grab a bite to eat at Henry IV, and visit the Orsay this evening.

Tomorrow: Eiffel tower, arch de triumph, and an afternoon/evening walk through the Marais.  Having lunch at L’As du Falafel.  Perhaps an evening boat ride on the seine

Saturday: Louvre (It’s closed for some reason on Friday and we won’t be here when it’s open late) and Luxembourg gardens.

Sunday: Canal St. Martin boat tour.  More town walks

We’ll see I always make more ambitious plans than I can execute.  Thanks to John Z for his Paris Guide – It really helped shape what we want to do.

Still in Paris

In Paris

Made it here without incident. More soon.

Hate it when that happens…

I can laugh at this because this is probably what my French sounds like to the people around here.  I hate it when my pork knuckle gets burned out on anything let alone sauerkraut.

Colmar at Night

One of the things I really like are European cities at night.  There’s a sense of mystery and anticipation behind each door and around every corner.  Here are a few photos we took tonight (our last night in Colmar).

 

Repack

One of the mundane things you just gotta do every week or so is repack stuff.  You start to loose things between dirty cloths, old hotel receipts and souvenirs stuffed in the corners of your bags.

 

Some Colmar Meals

I put these together – you’re probably tired of reading about our meals (I’m tired of writing about them).  I will say the seafood we had last night (bottom pictures) rivaled the seafood we had in Santa Margherita.

 

Above: Wine (Pinot Gris), Onion Tart, and Quiche Lorraine

Above: Wine (Pinot Gris), Scallops in a mushroom sauce, Perch and Potatoes,  A chocolate cake with Kir – Ice Cream – Fruit, Some kind of egg whites in cream desert (OK so not everything can be a winner).  Missing Picture: Fish Soup (which was excellent).

Elliot: Problem Resolved

The Alsatians are efficient.  They helped us deal with the issue:

 

In case you don’t recognize it, it’s third from the front (we think).

Chez Mono Prix

Seems like about 20 to 25 days into a trip we hit a wall.  You get tired of museums, cute little towns, and fancy restaurants.  I know I can hear the worlds smallest violin playing for us. But none the less it happens.

We’ve found there are two cures for this:

1. Find something totally different to do – like downhill mountain bike or go paragliding; or
2. Try and live a little more like the locals do.

As it’s a ways to the alps from here and some adventure we opted for #2 this trip.  We went off to the Mono Prix (the European version of Fred Meyer), bought water, fruit, cheese, chips and some baguettes for a picnic lunch, wandered around the city until we found a place and had lunch.  We then walked another 3 or 4 miles exploring the less touristy parts of the town.  We stumbled on a couple of wonderful parks and some cool old buildings.  No museums or restaurants.  We’re going in for a nap now and I know from experience we’ll be ready for the tourist thing again tomorrow when we hit Paris.

Oh and lunch at “Chez Mono Prix” was 7 Euros for both of us.  Another benefit.

More travel luck.

Tomorrow we are on our way to Paris. Here's the weather forecast for our time there. Looks like our travel luck holds.

Alsatian Delicacies

Eat all the quiche and drink all the pinot gris you want but we found and fell in love with this unique Alsatian delicacy – its worth a trip over to try.

You Can Always Go…Downtown (Colmar)

OK an obscure Petula Clark reference…I’ll knock that off.

 

Elliot: It’s here in Colmar

We’re going and talking to the authorities immediately – it’s stalking us.

Made it to Colmar

Made it here and had a Rosti for lunch – this looks more like a German village than French.  They do speak French though…more soon.

 

Fairest Frittes in France?

We’ve been to four cities/towns in France now.  We’ve had frittes in each (it’s a bit of a mission like Porchetta – mmmmm Porchetta).  Our favorite so far have been in Nice.  These frittes are cut in a “V” shape lengthwise.  They are all crisp on the outside but with a thin puff of potato on the inside.  Will Paris displace these paragons of Pomme Frittes (In the upper right hand corner)?  Stay tuned….

 

Saturday Market in Beaune

Forgot to post this – The Beaune Saturday market was a bit like being in a “Men without Hat’s” video.

Elliot it was in Beaune too

Here he is again – but we think we have a solution.  Hopefully in Colmar….

On the way to Colmar

Our original tickets gave us eight minutes to transfer trains in Besancon (to Colmar). I hated the thought of running between trains or worse missing our train (it's reservcation only from Besancon). Luckily we were able to catch an earlier train to Dijon and are now waiting for an earlier train to B-con. On the road

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay

We hired a guide yesterday to take us through the Burgundy wine country. Best money I’ve spent on education in a long time. Not to sound too snooty but I now understand French wine labeling and the whole AOC thing. It also helps explain why all the wines we find here (and in Italy) are pretty good quality and why back home it’s hit or miss with any wine regardless of price or vineyard reputation. I won’t go into details right now but here are a few pictures.

This vineyard produces a red (Pinot Noir) that sells for about $25 a bottle.

This vineyard is 20 yards away from the previous one and sells Pinot Noir that sells for $8000 a bottle. It’s the AOC rating based on micro climate and soil.

Here’s Bruno (our guide) and I tasting in the cellar

Bruno was kind enough to take our picture together in the cellar.

Around Beaune

Took us a while to get it but it’s pronounced “Bone”.    We arrived without incident after a long day of travel (we literally doubled back on ourselves on the train).

Beaune is what I pictured smaller French towns looking like.  France seems a bit like Italy in that the further north you go the better restored things seem to be.