Europe Christmas 2009: Day Four in Strasbourg
December 30, 2009
This morning at 5:30 our alarm went off… that’s 8:30PM for all of you back home. We quickly finished packing up our bags and then checked out of our lovely hotel in Paris and headed for the metro. From the metro we went to Gare de L’est, which is one of the bigger train stations in Paris. Everything went smoothly and we got a little breakfast and hopped on board for our 7AM departure on the TGV.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
This train ride was on the luxurious side, as we got first class tickets! (sing it with me now “big pimpin’ we be spending cheese everybody go…”) Well actually, there wasn’t that much additional cheese involved in this first class excursion. The TGV releases a limited number of discounted tickets (prem and loisir) and we got the better of the two (prem) for first class. It pays to book ahead! We paid about 10 euro more for those seats and they were definitely worth it, especially on such an early ride.
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After we got off in Strasburg at around 9:30AM, we headed straight to our hotel to drop off our bags. Once again, we were staying at the high-ball Best Western – this time the Monopole Metropole. The German lady at the front desk was super helpful and took our bags and armed us with a map and little “isn’t Strasburg oh so cute” pamphlet.
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After that we basically just spent the morning looking around petite France (the uber cute section of the city that looks straight out of a fairytale) and then headed over to what is unquestionably the main attraction of the city, the cathedral (Notre Dame de Strasburg.)
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Unfortunately, with this being France and nobody actually ever working, the cathedral was closed at lunchtime when we made our way over there. And, since we knew lunchtime also meant all the little shops would be closed, we decided that meant it was time to get some lunch. When in Rome, my friends!
As for dining in Strasburg, we were in luck. Not only did I know someone from here (a fellow triathlon member back from my days at UCLA) but Chris has a friend from his old lab at Stanford, Laurent, who both loves food and is from Strasburg, too! Laurent, a self-confessed cheese lover (being French and all…), told us about a place called “La Cloche a Fromage” – a cheese-lovers paradise!
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And so, after getting only a little lost in the narrow cobblestone alleyways, we made our way there.
Oh.sweet.god. the smell upon entry was enough! Cheese – really good rich cheeeesssseee! I knew it was going to be a very good…and very expensive lunch.
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We got a Riesling (because I’m a big fan and it would be a sin not to in the Alsace region!) and for an appetizer we decided to go with the slightly strange sounding foie gras with gingerbread and honey – with just a little coarse salt on top.
Oh my god it was delicious. Trying not to gain 100 pounds on this trip, I gave Chris a big piece of my half but let me tell you – you should try it. The gingerbread was toasted, the foie gras was fried, and the honey was drizzled across the plate. And the salt really tied it all together. Perfect!
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For our main dish we got goat cheese fondue with white wine and kirsch. That cheese fondue was without question the best cheese fondue I’ve ever had. Whereas in California the cheese is sort of thinish (as in, you can’t stick your little fondue fork in the cheese sans bread or apple and really get any substantial amount of cheese out), the cheese here was somehow simultaneously thick (I could stick my fork in, twirl it, and get out a serious amount of cheese) and very fluid. And it smelled like heaven. The only downside was that here they don’t give you a bunch of stuff to put in the cheese – just bread… though it was some seriously good bread. And really in the end it didn’t matter – I basically just ate the cheese straight!
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For dessert (because no matter what, there’s going to be dessert at a restaurant like this!) we got two things. I got the chocolate fondue with fruit and Chris got the 3 scoops of cheese ice cream: one parmagiano reggiano, one goat, and one cottage.
Naturally we split both.
The cheese ice creams were weird but tasty. I think our favorite was the cottage cheese ice cream with blackberry cream. It was probably the closest to dessert flavors that we’re used to. The other two were both very good, too. The goat took a second to get used to but somehow the cold creamy goodness was quite good. And the parmagiano with a little of the ginger crumble spread over the plate made for a very tasty bite!
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As for the chocolate fondue, I mean, what’s there to say? How could it go wrong?! The chocolate was uber rich and we basically ended up just taking a spoon to it. The accompanying fruit was ok – though I was sad there were no strawberries and only a little banana, but it was amazing. So amazing.
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By the end of this meal I was pretty much in the best mood possible… tinged only slightly by the feeling that I ate way more food than I should have.
As we were about to leave our big fancy meal of the trip we stumbled upon what might be the best technological innovation France (I’m guessing) has ever been responsible for. There was this metal contraption with a hot stone in it that was basically a cheese luge – and by that I mean you stuck the cheese at the very top of this 45 degree stone slope and the super hot stone basically caused the cheese to melt and slowly drip down the stone onto the blessed food that sat at its base (on your plate). Does that make sense?
So basically as we walked by we saw a globs and globs of cheese dripping down onto potatoes and ham.
It took everything in my power not to sprout a third stomach, push the potatoes out of the way, and stick my mouth right under it!
After our indulgence we decided the gluttony wouldn’t be complete without a nap. So, we headed back to the hotel to find our bags in our room, and took a luxurious nap as (I’m sure) the cheese congealed around our arteries.
After the nap, we ended up spending the rest of the night strolling around the city – not doing anything in particular but looking at cute stuff and taking more pictures of the cathedral. Having mastered the art of dressing for cold weather (tights under the pants, two layers of socks, my northface fleece under my jacket, and my hat, scarf, and gloves!), it was a perfect night for doing nothing in particular.
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Tomorrow, though, it’s time for another mini-adventure – this time we go for a day trip to Triberg, Germany! Land of the cuckoo clock and a beautiful waterfall! I can’t wait! I’ve always wanted to go to Germany and it’s finally happening!
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
Europe Christmas 2009: Day Three at the D’Orsay
December 30, 2009
Today was our second full day in Paris and I have to say, it has been my favorite day so far (Chris’ too).
We learned our lesson about ridiculously priced hotel breakfasts, so we found a little café on our way to the metro for our petite dejeneur (breakfast, you American fool!) Feeling like something fancy for breakfast, I decided to order a “tartine.” Visions of tarts filled with berries and cream filled my mind as I waited for it and my chocolat chaud. Well, turns out “tartine” in France doesn’t really translate to the sort of “tartine” experience I’m used to in the Mission because “tartine” apparently means a piece of baguette. Lesson learned!
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| From Paris 2009 Day 3 |
After our less than totally inspiring breakfast (it was fine, just not fancy), we took the metro to the D’Orsay, the second big museum we wanted to hit in Paris.
Long story short: the D’Orsay is brilliant! We both agree that we much much much prefer it to the Louvre. Whereas the Louvre is just overwhelming and full of both art I’m really interested in and art I would rather just skip, the D’Orsay was 99% filled with stuff we loved. From Van Gough to Degas to Monet to Renoir, the D’Orsay is an Impressionist and Post-Impressionist wonderland. And, since the gods apparently favor me most of all, it turns out they were having a special exhibit on Art Nouveau, which is a favorite school of mine – especially where architecture is concerned.
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Interesting tidbit for you – did you know of the close relationship between the Art Nouveau movement and the hippy-dippy psychedelic movement of the 60’s? It seems that the Art Nouveau school sort of split between a naturalist look (which is what I most think of when I think “Art Nouveau”) and a more funky acid-trip look (think the cover of a Jimmy Hendrix album or one of those total 60’s women’s flower-power dresses.) Crazy, hey?!
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So anyway, we spent a good long time at the D’Orsay and it was great. And, unlike out marathon pace at the Louvre, we were smarter and took a nice mid-way break for a snack. (Though I will say their café is less than awesome, it gets the job done.)
After interviewing Chris I can report on our favorite pieces.
Chris’ favorite is between three:
Van Gogh’s self-portrait
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Renior’s “Bal au Moulin de la Galette”
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Monet’s “Essai de figure en plein air dit Femme a l’ombrelle tournee vers la gauche” (which means “a figure in plain air, a woman with an umbrella turned to the left”)
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And my favorites were:
Van Gogh’s self portrait again (the pictures here don’t do it justice, but one cool thing to note is how the swirls of the background are then continued in his clothing. It sort of made me think of those ads for antidepressants where they have the actor’s clothing the same color as the wallpaper. Very interesting…)
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Lucien Levy-Dhurmer’s “Le lac Leman” (though really all his pastels were absolutely fantastic – and it was cooler because I had never heard of him before today!)
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Jozsef Rippl-Ronai’s “Un Parc la nuit” (which, again, was really awesome in that I’d never heard of him before. And I’m partial to pastels myself!)
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And speaking of pastels, after we finished at the D’Orsay and were making our way to Saint Chapelle guess what we stumbled upon! The original Sennelier – founded in the 1800s! Sennelier, for those of you not in the know, is who makes the oil pastels I use to make my own paintings! The sad thing was that the damn place was closed! Hopefully when we go back to Paris in a few days it’ll be opened. I know I can get my oil pastels in California, but to get one or two (or three or ten…) in Paris would be, I think, super special!
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After that we decided to have lunch before heading to Saint Chapelle (it being already 3PM!) After much debate, we settled on a café in the Saint Germain with a nice people watching view. I of course sampled their French onion soup and have to say – ‘twas delicious! The cheese over here is just so friggin good!
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After that we tried to go to Saint Chapelle but, alas, it was closed for the evening (for a concert apparently.) So instead we decided to stroll around the Saint Germain for a while, window browsing and the like. Oh! But before that we had to pleasure of seeing about, oh, 30 police trucks and perhaps 50+ cops in riot gear circling around a group protesting about Palestine. Having not watched the news in awhile, I wasn’t sure if something new happened, but it wasn’t looking good!
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Since I’m decidedly against getting arrested in lovely France, we decided to make our way into the Saint Germain and away from the excitement… though we could hear stuff going on for a fair distance.
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After walking around that area for a while, and I must say you definitely should spend some time there wandering the picturesque alleyways full of shops and bistros, we decided to take the metro to see the Eiffel tower!
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While the tower was beautiful (especially at the hour when it does a little fancy light show) the area around the Eiffel Tower was probably the one area where we didn’t feel particularly comfortable. Basically there are a lot of aggressive vendors trying to sell stupid little trinkets right at the tower and otherwise it’s just very dark and isolated.
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We even walked over to the smallish Christmas market right there and it just seemed more like the after hours of a sketchy carnival than anything else. But either way, we had to see the tower! And we did eat a yummy nutella-filled crepe along the way!
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After that we hopped on the metro and make our way back to the hotel – where we once again drank sauternes and soaked our very tired feet!
And tomorrow we leave dear Paris for the slower life of Strasbourg!
A bientôt!
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Europe Christmas 2009: Day Two at the Louvre!
December 29, 2009
Today was our first full day in Paris (said “Pair-Reeee”) and boy golly did we do a lot! And, once again, I never knew my feetsies could hurt like that!
The first part of our day is tied together with the common theme of “oops!”
But let me explain…
In the morning we got up and went downstairs in our hotel for some breakfast. We weren’t 100% sure if breakfast was included in the cost of our room but we thought it was, so when we went downstairs and didn’t see anybody asking for money or room numbers we just figured it was included. Well, after we got our breakfast stuff (I got a bowl of cereal [very French of me, I know] and Chris got lots of croissant-y and meat-y stuff) and sat down a little woman came over and asked for our room number.
At that point we looked at each other with a little flash of fear in our eyes. How much was that breakfast per person you ask? 15 friggin euros!! So basically that was, and god willing will continue to be, the most expensive breakfast of our trip. (As I write this I’m shedding a baby tear)
But, we basically said there was nothing we could do, stole an extra pain au chocolat to make ourselves feel better, and headed towards the Louvre!
So breakfast was “oops” number one.
Oops number two happened right when we got going at the Louvre. Trying to be technologically savvy (and avoid long lines), we opted to use one of the machines to get our museum tickets. While getting them we decided we’d pay what we thought was a measly extra two euros to get into the special exhibit on Venetian masters (think Titian and the like.)
Well, we got our tickets, headed over to the special area, went through (sans problems), I realized I had to pee, headed back out of the special section, peed, decided we’d rather go in this other non-special section of the Louvre first, tried to go through, and the little ticket taker Frenchman said “no, no – the special exhibit is over there.”
Long story short we ended up spending all that money for just the special exhibit – not the regular Louvre admission plus the exhibit. At that point we headed back to talk to a real human and luckily we had to just pay a few more euros and we got the dual pass we were looking for.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
Oy-vey! For “oops” numero two.
After all that we spent the vast majority of our day trying to make our way through as much of the Louvre as possible. In reality, I really think you need at least two days dedicated to it. Three would be even better because then you wouldn’t have to do marathon museum-ing each day. But, for the amount of time we were there, we saw all the stuff on our big list.
Having now interviewed Chris in detail I can report that his favorite thing there were the Napoleon the Third apartments. Surprising isn’t it? But actually, they really were super awesome and ostentatious. And, since we weren’t really seeking them nor expecting them to be so amazing, I think it made the experience even better.
Basically you walk through different rooms that show how the beds were, how the study was, the formal dinning room, etc. and you just get a sense for how abso-freaking-lutley richer than god these people had to have been. I mean I cannot even begin to fathom it. And the stuff was just so remarkably beautiful. We were both totally into it.
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As for me, other than the apartments, I’d say I though the Vermeer paining was something very special. I’ve taken (and so has Chris) a lot of art history classes in my day and one of the things we agreed was missing from learning about art in the classroom was having a sense for the size of the painting and how being in the same room with it, given it’s size, really impacts your experience of it. For the Vermeer painting we saw this was especially true. By just seeing a photo of it I don’t think it seems all that amazing but, for some reason, when you see it in person and it’s so very small, surrounded by such a large frame, you feel like you are witnessing this very private moment and she doesn’t know you’re there. You feel movement not in the Degas/Impressionist let’s-paint-a-scene-that-really-happens-in-only-a-second (like a ballerina in a certain position) way, but in the real-life, looking through a crack in the wall and watching her weave way. Make any sense? Anyways, I was surprisingly into that painting. Oh, and the mermaids I spotted in one of the Rubens. (but of course!)
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After we spent forever walking around (you know it’s intense if I’m telling Chris he’s leading me on a death march!), we headed over to the Galeries Lafayette to see the window displays that everyone talks about.
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But first we stopped at a chocolate shop and picked up a bar of chocolate and a little box of macaroons!
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But back to the oh so famous Galeries Lafayette… Well, I thought the displays were neat and all (though the gingerbread men looked seriously evil) but holy god it was not worth the insane busyness. It took forever to wiggle through to see them and…I don’t know… they were cool but they weren’t that cool. Let’s just say Splash Mountain has better moving animals.
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By far the best part was the beautiful dome inside. It’s hard to believe a dome like that is inside of an overly-glorified department store and not some museum or something.
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After taking lots of pictures of the dome and giant tree we walked around the monsterous store for a while, hoping that with time we’d come to understand what the big deal was. But, to be honest, we never got it. Perhaps it’s because we live in the bay area and have access to as many malls and fancy-schmancy stores as we’d like, but I do not recommend wasting your time in Paris in a department store. No no no.
The only good that came out of it was we bought a bottle of Sauternes to drink later.
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After finishing up at the department store we decided to be a bit spontaneous – so we hoped on the Metro and headed to the Jewish district (the Marais) in hopes of finding some food and walking around somewhere new (and hopefully less crowded.)
Getting off the Metro I could already tell we’d come to a good area. Things were lit up and active but there weren’t a zillion people all over the place. The shops were super cute (I went into one and saw the cutest crystal hair thing) and there was even a row of art galleries we took a peak in.
Inevitably, though, I had to pee. And in Paris, that can be a bit of a problem. We walked around looking for one of those little bathrooms you pay for on the street but, alas, there were none. But then, like a beacon of light in the darkness, I spotted a McDonald’s. And sure enough, they had a bathroom! So advice for all you travelers out there – the big American chains (McDonald’s and Starbucks to be specific) have bathrooms you can use! Yay!
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After the peeing fiasco was over we thought we should eat dinner. Not being that hungry (the time difference has gotten our eating all out of whack), we weren’t in a particular rush so we decided we’d look in our Michelin guide and just walk to whichever sounded particularly delicious. We found one (L’A.O.C. is it’s name), headed over to it, and were denied. Why? Nobody knows. I’m guessing it’s just closed for the holidays (friggin’ French hippies).
After that we just ended up walking back home (which was probably another mile or two) and satisfying our hunger with our bottle of sauternes (chilled naturally with all the plein air walking!) and a granola bar.
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‘Tis the life!
Europe Christmas 2009: First Outing in Paris!
December 28, 2009
The video below gives a summary of what we did after making our way to our hotel, but for those of you who aren’t into videos, I’ll give a recap.
We ventured out of our hotel bundled up in furry hats, big scarves, and our most “no really, it is really cold” jackets (which, in our part of California are a bit hard to come by) and headed out towards the Notre Dame cathedral. We read that there was an organ performance happening there in honor of Christmas, so we figured we’d check it out. On our way we walked through parts of the Latin Quarter (home to artsy students and the like), saw the Sorbonne (one of the oldest universities in France), and even managed to make our way into a much lesser known church – which had some quiet, shadowy, lovely, and ultimately unexpected chapels inside.
In European cities it seems that at practically any turn you can come across a gorgeous and ancient building that’s just saturated in history – it’s part of what makes coming over here so special.
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After leaving the smaller church, we finally made our way to Notre Dame – right as the sun was setting. There were loads of people in and around it but I found that (at least for a little while) sort of exciting.
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Once we made our way through the quick line, we were inside. Thousands of people were sitting in the cathedral listening to the organ and watching one of the church leaders light candles. Around the perimeter of the seats were all of the little chapels, where you could make a small donation to the church (admission is free), and light a candle under different saints (I believe…not being Catholic myself!)
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Being inside of the cathedral reminded me of my trip to the Vatican in that, whereas I’m there as a spectator of the religious traditions, there are a lot of people who are there to take part in them. In other words, it’s not just like I’m seeing a piece of history - stuff is happening in these places right now!
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After Notre Dame, we walked across the river to a little area outside the Hotel de Ville, where an ice rink was set up and there was a small carousel you could ride for free. Chris and I seized the opportunity for a short break and got on our respective horses!
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After that we had our first bite to eat in France – a waffle of sorts baked fresh and drizzled with warm Nutella (which is everywhere over here). Delicious! The sugar reenergized us and we made our way to the Louvre and then all the way to what was to be our first Christmas market experience – on the Champs-Élysées.
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Christmas markets basically consist of a bunch of vendors setting up cute little chalet-looking mini shops on a walkway and selling stuff. There are food vendors, who sell stuff like crepes, vin chaud (warm spiced wine), sweets, and even (as at this one) sandwiches made with salmon that was fire smoked right there. Other than food it really seems to depend on where you’re at, but generally speaking, you get a lot of crip-crap cutsie stuff (little dolls, jewelry, toys for kids, etc.) The Christmas markets in Paris (as I look back now, having gone to a few) are sort of touristy/ filled with cheapish stuff. But I wasn’t really looking to buy anything so that was ok with me!
After that Chris and I slowly headed back to our hotel – and boy we were tired. My feet were killing me! Killing me! And my little baby hands were freezing. Apparently my jcrew gloves are not sufficient for Paris winters!
So day one in Paris was a success – we walked around and got a good sense of the city and where a lot of stuff was… and now we’re ready for our next big day!
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| From Paris 2009 Day 1 |
To see all the photos so far…
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| Paris 2009 Day 1 |
Europe Christmas 2009: Getting There!
December 28, 2009
After virtually an entire day of traveling, Chris and I successfully made it to Paris! But before we get into what we’ve done on our Christmas day in Paris, let’s spend a moment recapping the joy that was flying here.
At 5:30AM on Christmas Eve, Chris got up to shave and shower. I, not believing in the need for such things, got up at the slightly less obscene 6AM. After getting on our travel clothes (i.e. clothes we could bare to sit in for a day), we headed for Chris’ work. He wanted to stop by for a minute in the morning (good worker he is) and from there we could take a hotel shuttle to the airport (he works at a biotetch startup in South San Francisco which happens to be about a 1 minute walk away from a hotel.)
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Well, as we were driving up there we got a call on Chris’ phone. I picked it up and in a flurry of robot speak I deciphered that a flight going to Texas (was it Austin or Dallas?!) had been canceled. At first I told Chris the robot-girl said Austin, which would have been good (though confusing), since we were flying through Dallas. But then, I admitted I couldn’t remember what she said and decided to check online. The first site (like flighstats.com or something like that) said our flight was on time - but then I went to American Airlines and it said it was canceled! Canceled! I’ve never in the history of flying had a flight canceled! And it was my connecting flight to Paris!
So instead of taking the hotel shuttle we decided to cab it, with Chris on hold with American Airlines – trying to figure out what we’re supposed to do. But, since he was still on hold when we got the airport and some woman handed us a slip saying “your flight has been canceled, call this number” – he got off and we instantly got through on that other number.
Luckily, since we were there early enough, we got on to the early flight to Dallas – which was a huge relief! A couple we met while trying to get our seat assignment said they were scheduled to go out to Paris four days before, but it had been canceled and this was their second chance to make it to see their son and grandchild. I would suck so much to be paying for a hotel in Paris that you couldn’t use!
So we got on the plane, endured our fair share of turbulence and made our way to Dallas. At that point all I wanted to know was if our Paris flight was going to make it out. The snow was really starting to come down and I was trying to be optimistic – but with our first flight canceled I was becoming a bit paranoid.
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In the end, our flight did make it out but we had to sit on the runway for 3 ½ hours. Why you ask? Well two main things: first, because there was some cargo door malfunctioning issue (comforting, I know), and second, after that 30 minute escapade, we then had to get in a line to de-ice the plane (once again, the warm fuzzies were surrounding me.)
But in the end, I was just happy we got on our plane! And, about 8 ½ hours later (aka about 12:30PM on Christmas day), we landed in Paris!
From there we took the RER (train) to pretty much a ten-minute walk from our hotel (a Best Western in the Saint Germain).
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[As a side note: for those first time RER takers from the Paris airport – both the trains will take you to Paris. There are two tracks but the airport is at the end of the line for both, and only one line goes that far down. So just hop on either one. We had a guy yell at us when we came down “you guys, this one to Paris!” and we got on. After a second I started feeling uneasy thought to myself “ok…why would he be yelling at all these people that his BART-like train is the right one to get on?” Turns out he was just begging as the train started. In the end harmless, but as I learned on my last trip, just trust your gut and pretty much (and I hate to say this) 99% of the time, don’t do what some guy (who already looks a little sketchy) tells you to do. Even if he’s right, if you feel weird, the worst thing that will happen if you wait is you’ve got to sit for an extra 15 minutes for the next train. With Chris there the situation was different, but if I were alone I 100% absolutely would have not gotten on that train. Just keep it in mind fellow travelers! Look out for yourself so you can have fun!
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But now back to making it to the hotel…
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The hotel we’re staying at is quite the step up from my backpack-through-Europe adventure in the summer of 2008! Not that it’s fancy or anything, but we actually have our own room and it’s nice and clean! And I don’t have to worry that people are going to steal my stuff!
So there’s the story of how we finally made our way here!