teaser...

cassis, france

well, knox and i are just back from a week in the south of france with some of our favorite people, some of the only people who could tolerate us trying to navigate the backroads of france for a week... people who use empty wine bottles as late-nite microphones and encourage impromptu dance parties in 100-year-old provençal farm houses... bref, our kind of people.

we're seriously bummed to be back (though i'm really the only one who's back - knox is off to croatia tomorrow morning! lucky dog).

i promise to hurry up through this abcédaire and get to "V is for vacances" so you can see all the gorgeous pictures. in the meantime, i offer a shot from the hike out to the calanques of cassis.

love.

I is for "i like top 10 lists"

pierre loti by henri rousseau

this was a tough one: immigration? impressionisme? (knox says, "most of your photos are blurry... it could work!") idiotie? idéologie? nothing has spoken to me, so i've decided to go a different route with "I"...

knox and i still do not know where we will be living come august 1, and we've been a wee stressed of late (as many of you know, we are both hopeless over-planners, and this sort of uncertainty does NOT sit well.) so, in order to distract myself, i've come up with a list of my top 10 favorites for may 2009:

1. exotic literature in french, preferably about Indochinese pirates and con gáis
2. arugula with lemon and parmesan
3. tubs of spreadable goat cheese
4. dreaming about buying a new camera
5. vacation planning!
6. sunday night bike rides around paris
7. tina fey and '30 rock'
8. counting down the days till we get bob back
9. light, chilled red wine
10. stopping to visit with the medium schnauzer who lives at the record shop on rue daguerre

H is for huîtres

huîtres = oysters

technically, we were late for oyster season. the french prefer them in the months ending in "re" - octobre, novembre, décembre - but they're still good as long as it's cold outside. or so i understand. we went in march for a belated birthday outing and were very pleased. the guys at the huîterie régis, aside from being remarkably friendly, really know their stuff. coming from texas, i naturally assumed there would be cocktail sauce (quelle horreur!) but was assured by régis himself that they are best au naturel. he was right - even the lemon was overpowering.

and get a load of the floral arrangement... the whole experience was a study in simple beauty. two texan thumbs up!!

huîterie régis
3, rue montfaçon, in the 6th

a blurry mess of oysters and malagasy shrimp

a nice, minerally white, a pinch of red wine vinegar, and a lemon were fine complements

knox's sea urchin
i was determined not to like it, but it was buttery and ocean-y and marvelous!

knox and his beard (no, not me)

to help our newly-minted-phd get through the final stretch of dissertation writing, we decided to set up a two-part incentive program:

1. schedule party for the weekend after self-imposed deadline complete with mojitos, macaroons, and plenty of homemade apps
2. forbid him to shave

i'm still not sure what motivated him more... no pics from the party, but i diligently documented the hair growth. by the end, he could hold a pencil in it! impressive (though not as impressive as the dissertation itself)!!

january

february

march

april

may

artist's rendition
this is all that remains of the dissertation beard 2009 (unless you count the hair that i'm still sweeping off the bathroom floor and the little bit left on his face)

G is for graffiti

...and other street art.

the marais

bastille area

sidewalk, latin quarter

outside the fish guy, 14th

taken from the train to versailles

montmartre

st. germain

this is what i had in mind when i encouraged "the dissertation beard" (foto forthcoming!)

storefront, the fish guy

F is still for 'en famille'

mom and frank at versailles

she climbed to the top of the arc de triomphe (and begged us to leave her there), she read the story of jesus in the windows at sainte chapelle, she pictured herself playing the peasant girl at marie antoinette's english gardens, she groaned every time i took out my camera, she ate mayo with her fries at the falafel joint, she narrowly avoided ordering veal kidney for dinner, she mastered a cheerful "merci"... for her first trip to paris, my mom did it up right! while knox was busy cranking out the final pages of his dissertation, mom, frank, and i hit the town, soaking in as much of it as we could in the week they were here. by the time they left, my mom was rocking the messy french bun and tying her scarf like a local, and frank was perfecting his pronunciation à la parisienne (knox and i were so impressed with his french!!). i knew they'd dig it here.

a few highlights...

the newly renovated hall of mirrors

pigeons snacking and locals playing boule

sainte chapelle

la cimetière montparnasse

happy to see my momma!

F is for 'en famille'

en famille :: with the family

a few weeks ago, the pedens were here on their annual european adventure. this year they hit barcelona, bordeaux, and paris (we've already planted the seed for ireland 2010 - if we're still here, which sadly is still up in the air (will keep you posted). the logic is thus: enough with wine already - let's drink some beer! plus, i'm irish, and i've never seen me roots!).

anyway, they were here for 4 nights, which meant knox and i each put on 5 pounds! we came home one night with enough leftover steak to feast on steak salad, steak and eggs, and two nights' worth of steak, tomato, and spinach stew! i love that!! and speaking of steak, we discovered the best piece of meat in town (maybe any town, it was that good): restaurant severo. turns out, the owner, a celebrated parisian butcher (did you even know that butchers were celebrated?? this one is!) is our neighbor, and his restaurant is on the corner. for a very pretty little penny (try 36E), you can have yourself the purest, happiest, most glorious filet you'll ever sink your teeth into. now i know why rare is best. i cannot recommend this place enough. make reservations though - it's tiny.

but we had fun, even when we weren't eating red meat....

falafel en famille

fine art en famille

fizzy drinks en famille

betty crocker, i am not

a few weeks ago, knox discovered kiri, the french version of philadelphia cream cheese, and in a fit of unchecked domesticity, i decided to make a carrot cake upon which we might spread our new treat...



a couple of things i learned and/or have surmised:
1) cutting the sugar by more than half really makes a difference, and maybe not a good one
2) chinese ginger and the other ginger aren't quite the same
3) this might seem obvious, but a casserole dish is NOT a cake pan
4) apple sauce is a pretty fine substitution for canola oil

anyway, knox ate it and called it "interesting," which given his enthusiasm for food means it was borderline inedible. oh well... baking just isn't my thing. c'est pas mon truc, as the frenchies say. lesson learned.

E is for église

une église :: a church

the fabulously old catholic church is almost as ubiquitous as the bakery in this country, and though i do most of my worshipping in the latter (i know, heathen!!), the majesty of these places is not at all lost on me. missing in this already very incomplete list is la sainte chapelle, which is known for its stained glass. if we ever make it over there to visit, and if any of the photos are worth a hoot, perhaps i'll revisit E a little later...

notre dame de paris

the quintessential parisian gothic church 

construction begun in 1163

the architectural hodge podge that is sacré cœur in montmartre 

(great views of paris from here!)

construction begun in 1875

st. etienne du mont at dusk

around the corner from our old pad in the 5th (and across the street from a pub we liked - hence the dusk shot)

built between 1492 and 1626

interior of notre dame de lorette in the 9th

this one gets shadowed by the basilica of sacré cœur behind it, which is too bad. 

it's wonderful inside. 

interior 2

mont st. michel, normandy coast

i dreamt about this place from 1990, when i first saw a poster of it in monty holamon's classroom at WWHS, till april 2007, when knox, leigh (and sam and harry), chris, and i made the trip.

it was worth the wait.

the spire of the abbey

interior of the chapel

l'au-delà

i miss fall

and i want a ride on that groovy green bus. quick question: do we think it is inappropriate for a woman in her (still) early thirties to ride a merry-go-round? keep in mind, it's vintage. i mean, it's almost inappropriate for me NOT to... hmm... someone bring their kids to paris so i can justify this!