Iceland/France/Italy Day 10: Pompidou

May 8, 2011
France Day 10: Pompidou

Norm and I started off the day by heading to Bakery Kayser to get some pastries for breakfast based on a recommendation from a friend at work. We got some flowers for Mom for Mother's Day and brought them back to the apartment. It was nice to have a bit of a later start today after a few days in a row of mad schlepping!

We headed off a little later than usual and arrived at the Pompidou Center. There was a HUGE line outside, but it appeared to be for something other than the museum. We asked someone and it was a huge lineup for the library?! For some reason?! Anyway we proceeded to the non-existent line for the Modern Art Museum and were pretty happy that our line was way shorter. :) We went up the fancy escalator and started off with a light exhibit by François Morellet called "Réinstallations". It was fun, lots of interesting neon lights and I liked the ones where the audience could participate by pressing buttons or stepping on pedals to control the lights. There was a funny section called "Geometrees" which were drawings on the wall connected to real pieces of wood or tree branches on the floor in the gallery.

We then checked out the main exhibit and there was some awesome stuff by Picasso, Braque and Kandinsky. After some time on the main floor we checked out the restaurant on the roof but it was way overpriced. So we went down to the modern exhibit which was pretty great too, and I particularly liked the photography section. It was then definitely time for lunch so we headed down to the cafe area near the Stravinsky fountains and had an awesome classic French lunch of crepes, Kir, and I got a Croque au trois fromages.

After a tasty lunch, we headed to the Jewish Art Museum to check out the Chagall and the Bible exhibit. It was really interesting to see his artwork for other faiths too (eg stained glass windows for a church) and his Jewish themed artwork was excellent as always. Keeping on the Jewish note, we then headed towards Rue de Rosiers, the famous center of the Jewish district in Paris. We found a tasty bakery shop there and bought some cheesecake, a strudel and tons of other amazing food. There was a deli there too where Mom and I walked in and chatted with some locals about our trip and then bought some Kosher salami.

On the way out of the street, we noticed a crazy line at a place called L'As du Felafel, and some very impassioned salesmanship by the guy who worked there. He was carrying around an order pad, and excitedly pulling people passing by off the street to come and try a Felafel. "Come on, try it! We make the best Felafel! What can I get for you!" The poor competitor Felafel shop across the street was also trying to use some of the same tactics but you could see they were just copying the masters of salesmanship at L'As du Felafel, as they figured they had better adopt some more aggressive tactics to be able to compete with their intense neighbours. The guy was hilarious and I ordered one Felafel. Soon after, Mom, Dad and Norm walked over and he was about to pounce on them to try to sell them one too, when he noticed they were with me. "Oh, are you all together?" "Yes", I replied. "Well, if you decide you want anything else, you know who to talk to! You come see me and we'll make you another great Felafel!" Hahaha so awesome. And boy, he was definitely not kidding. Dad and I literally launched directly into the Felafel and just LOVED it. The sauce was excellent, and there must have been like 10 Felafels inside that one pita, maybe more. It was very garlicy and stuffed to the max with vegetables and amazing hummus. So good!!!!!!

On our walk back we saw the outside of an Art-Nouveaux Shul and then took the subway back home to the apartment. We had dinner and cheesecake and croissants and apple strudel!! I caught up on my journal and then we had those amazing tarts we bought at breakfast time for dessert!! What an amazing dinner. Later in the evening it was time for some news and chillin'. Off to bed with a good plan to go to Montmartre tomorrow.

Cool buildings along Rue Monge

Norm and I bought Mom flowers for Mother's Day, a lily and one of those purple puffball things!

Amazing pastries from Boulangerie Kayser

The view from our stairway

Our apartment from the outside

Pompidou Center

Love this design

Escalator at the Pompidou

Paris buildings

Tour Eiffel

Haha, exhibit called "Geometrees"

Cool neon tubes

Braque's "Woman with Guitar"

Loved this one

Mondrian painting that matched my shoes :)

Sweet Calder mobile

Norm and Le Nez

Wicked Cartier-Bresson photo of a boy on Rue Mouffetard, where our apartment is!

Another amazing Cartier-Bresson

Amazing!!!!

Mom and Dad with a blue square!

Awesome Kandinsky

This Kandinsky is one of my favourites

Modern Art self-portrait :) (See me taking the photo in the reflection of the metal ball)

Mom and Dad at lunch

Tasty vegetarian Croque Monsieur I got

Mom and Dad enjoying lunchtime

Alex, I didn't know you had a bakery in Paris!

Epic felafel that we bought at L'As Du Felafel on Rue de Rosiers

Haha this guy was SO crazy!!! He was such an intense and hilarious salesman! He was grabbing people left and right and convincing them to buy a felafel. Hilarious.

Apparently "The Hangover 2" needed a different English translation in France

Mmm, Poulet Tikka

Musicians on the subway

Iceland/France/Italy Day 9: Mother's Day at Monet's Garden

May 7, 2011
France Day 9: Mother's Day at Monet's Garden

Despite the truly insane amount of walking we did yesterday, I somehow managed to have a really bad sleep! Blergh! Anyway after tossing and turning all night I got up and had a shower and woke up a bit with some fresh air from a walk to the market to buy some breakfast. I wasn't feeling super great and felt a bit of a cold coming on, so I just took it easy on the rich food in the morning and had a small breakfast of just some yoghurt. There's no time for dilly-dallying on vacation, the show must go on!!!

So off we went to St-Lazare station and bought our tickets to Vernon, the train station nearest to Giverny, where Monet's House and Garden are. Mother's Day is tomorrow, but this is essentially our Mother's Day present to Mom. This is the place she wanted to visit the most and it was super awesome. We got to our train and there was a girl picking her nose somethin' fierce on the seat near us, like she was reaaaally diggin' for something. Rather than watch her, I fell asleep almost instantly and snored for the 45 min ride to Vernon. Good times. That was pretty sweet and after that morning nap I was more alive and ready to check out a ton of flowers.

I made the cardinal error of assuming that things would run on time in a small town with lots of tourists. Whoops. We had gotten onto the Vernon-Giverny bus and it must have taken about 30 min to leave the station. The return tickets we had were only going to give us 2 hrs at Giverny and time was ticking. After discussing with everyone, we did a "Recalculating route!" (GPS-style) on the day, deciding to stay longer at Giverny and take the later train home. Vernon also looked much more alive than I remember it when Ans and I went to visit there in 2007, so we planned to get some coffee there on the way back.

We made our way through the line at Monet's Garden and made friends with a lady from Japan who was traveling to a list of the "most beautiful cities in Europe" and was very excited to see the gardens. We got in and the gardens were super amazing and relaxing. I took a bunch of photos and relaxed on the bench with Dad for a bit while Mom and Norm wandered. There was a great bench right by the waterlillies which we sat on for ages and then watched some folks getting their wedding photos done on the bridge there. It was a great day and by lunchtime I was getting hungry and glad that we brought lots of baguette and cheese with us.

Off we went on the bus back to Vernon and it we much smoother on the return trip. It was a quick trip and we had a nice amount of extra time for a coffee at a very French-style cafe on the street in Vernon. We ordered a crepe to share and coffees and it was a nice spot to relax. On the way back, the train was super crazy!! I think because the bus took a long time to Giverny, there were a lot of extra people on the later train going back to Paris. It was super packed but we made it back fine and found a little corner of the train to stand in near the bathrooms which was a little less cramped. Some people even sat down with earplugs on in-between the train cars because it was so packed on the train!!

So that was pretty crazy but we got back pretty quickly and headed home to the apartment. I had a nice sleep on the couch and woke up to an amazing dinner that Mom had prepared, some fantastic salmon for dinner with some of the Maiie mustard we had bought. It was really excellent and everyone loved it. I got to bed early that night and had a nice long sleep after another busy day.

Haha I thought this was funny. "Eat Pray Love" in French, with the same graphic as the English novel.

Purple puffballs

Lots of purple

Arch

More Purple!

Dad laughing manically about us sitting on the bench. The lady on the left side of the photo was sprawled across the ENTIRE set of 2 benches, and we walked over to sit down and it was one of two choices of free areas to sit. Dad intentionally chose the seat where the lady had her stuff (and self) sprawled out everywhere so she'd have to figure out that other people exist in the world and would have to move. It was hilarious. Then we joked and laughed about the situation.

Mom and Dad enjoying the gardens

White flowers

Red flowers

Another Mom and Dad pose

One of my favourite pics of the trip. You can imagine Monet sitting in this garden, looking at this exact scene, and painting a glorious masterpiece!

Similar photo, a little brighter

Near the Waterlillies

Good times

Dinner: Steak and Veggies

In a new blog post series I'd like to entitle "I'm finally learning how to cook", or "Frank and Jess shamed me into this", or "Beyond Mac and Cheese", or "I should stop eating crappy stuff and learn how to make good things myself"... (name is still a work in progress), I'd like to present my tasty dinner of the evening.

Even though Safeway had an epic deal on Sirloin steaks (like 10 steaks for the price of these 2 Fillet Mignons!), I cautiously - yet confidently - picked the fancy one.

But even the fanciest of steaks needs some love, so I called up Mom and asked what I should use as a marinade. The Fillet Minion marinade worked out super well: Maple Syrup, Soy Sauce, Chianti wine, and Maiie Dijon Honey Mustard. Epic.

Since I figured I'd be posting this and my Mom and other dignitaries would read it, I knew I better put some vegetables in the mix for good measure/balanced diet/to fend off any concerned emails about lack of Vitamins. Rice is Basmati and and vegetable mix is a combo of a bunch of different things: water chestnuts, green beans, brocolli, mushrooms and shanghai boy choy. Yes, sliced with the new knife that Frank and Jess bought me! The encouragement worked, guys. Stir-Fry sauce is a light amount of Olive Oil and Soy Vey Hoisin sauce.

Wine is 2006 Santa Margherita Chianti Classico (it was good, but even better if you opened it up to the air a bit first). Good times!

I ate this tasty biz and then immediately fell asleep on the couch for an hour. Oh, weekends.

Preparing

Grilling on the BBQ

Dinner time!

McDonalds iPhone Billboard in Sweden

Wow this is really ingenious and awesome:

Iceland/France/Italy Day 8: Walking Paris

May 6, 2011
France Day 8: Walking Paris

What a huge day we had planned ahead of us! We got up early, excited to be in Paris and ready to try everything. We took advantage of the excellent Rue Mouffetard market that was literally at our front doorstep, and picked up some Croissants. At the Fromagerie across the road, we got some goat brie and emmentaler, and got some bread and rhubarb jam. What a glorious combination!

After getting some food in us, we took off quite early and hiked through St. Germain du Pres. We walked by one street corner and Mom was pretty sure the hotel on the corner was her and Dad's honeymoon hotel from 40 years ago!!! Amazing!!!!!!!!! We continued on to Musee D'Orsay. I was really excited to see it because I had missed it on my last trip to Paris. It was amazing, and the architecture inside was very interesting too - I loved the "beautification" of the metal framework to try to hide the metal structure. We went on a guided tour which was really fantastic. The tour guide was hilarious and had a funny accent and mannerisms. She was very knowledgeable and pointed out the trends in art from the early to the later paintings at the D'Orsay. The tour was awesome and it really gave me a good feel for the different art movements and the differences between them. The art itself was amazing, with some real classics like Renoir's Dance at Le moulin de la Galette and Van Gogh's self-portrait. What an awesome place to visit.

Based on a recommendation from a friend at work, we then headed to Dalloyau, a pastry shop. The iPhone was super helpful and I managed to figure out how to get GPS to work even though I didn't have data or WiFi signal. Awesome! So we found out that there was another Dalloyau location on our way and we tried it out. Everyone thought they didn't like French Macarons but we tried them there and they were so insanely good!!!

We had bought a double ticket to Musee D'Orsay and Musee Rodin, so we then headed to Musee Rodin to chill in the gardens there for a bit. It was nice to chill out a bit as we'd already been standing and walking for several hours and it was quite warm outside. After a little break there and taking lots of good photos, we headed off across the Seine and past Invalides and Petit Palais. There was a funny Police bus parked near the Champs-Élysées, I think because there was a marathon there or something.

The walking continued!! We headed to the Place de la Concorde, checked out the Obelisk and went to the Maiie mustard "boutique"! It was just as awesome as I remembered it, and they had even more flavours than last time I went. I bought some presents for people at home. We then went by Fauchon, the store that my German friends liked last time I was in Paris, but the staff was reaaaally into themselves and the eclairs were like 8 Euros :) So we peaced-outta there pretty quick!

Now would have been a good time to Metro back to the apartment but we were so crazy and wanted to get a nice view of Paris as the sun was going down so we kept walking. We took a little break in the Jardin de Tuilleries, and walked along the Seine back to Ile St. Louis with the intention of getting some Berthillion ice cream. We got it and it is SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Epic. The Passion Fruit flavour is so intense and tart and sooooo good. Amorino was great but I still think Berthillion is the winner of best gelato in Europe :)

And... more walking!! We were close now back to the apartment in the Latin Quarter. We got back to the apartment for dinner and went to bed early after a long, long, long day of exploring.

While walking through St. Germain du Pres, Mom recognized this hotel and figured it was quite likely the same place that she and my Dad stayed in 40 years ago on their honeymoon!!

Arrived at the Musee D'Orsay

Cool D'Orsay architecture

Macarons and Dalloyau for lunch :)

Other tasty things at Dalloyau

Scooter parking

Roses at the Musee Rodin

Mom, Dad and Norm at Musee Rodin

Awesome times

The Thinker

Thinkin'

Rodin hands sculpture

Another cool Rodin sculpture, reminds me of the Psyche awakened by Cupid's Kiss sculpture that I like so much at the Louvre.

People relaxing in the Musee Rodin gardens

Trees and lady

Norm posing for a photo

Dude and Musee Rodin building

Musee Rodin and fountains

People relaxing near the Invalides

Police... Bus?!??! Pretty random, I think there was a marathon or something so there were a lot of Police around.

Maille mustard boutique!!

Place de la Concorde

Walking home

And of course, time to try some Berthillion gelato!

Iceland/France/Italy Day 7: Iceland to Paris

May 5, 2011
France Day 7: Iceland to Paris

We got up suuuper early at 5:30am to get rollin' and ready for our cab at 6am :) Our flight to Paris was at 7:40 and we also had to find Mom and Dad at the gate as they were just coming in from Toronto. In December when I was planning the trip, we set up a sort of Inception-like staged release plan for the flights. :) Since the flight price to Paris via Reykjavik on IcelandAir was so good, I booked Mom and Dad through Reykjavik as well. So after Norm and my week in Iceland, we were heading off to the airport to meet Mom and Dad at the boarding gate.

We got to the airport and there was a huuuge line, it was moving a bit but the trick was to go over to the computer checkin machines. Those lines were only 5 or 6 people long and it would print out your boarding pass and luggage sticker, and off you went to the baggage dropoff only, pretty awesome. We did that and then went through security and bought some Skyr and Smoked Salmon for Mom and Dad for breakfast. Then we met Mom and Dad in the terminal!!!! Hilarious!!! This was such a good plan and was already working out well. We had food ready and Mom and Dad looked tired and ready for a coffee. We boarded the plane together and the flight attendant lady recognized Dad's Lucasfilm sweater and also noticed my shirt which was also from work. "You were on the flight last week from Seattle!", she said. Haha so funny that she recognized me. "I saw 2 Lucasfilm shirts and figured you must be related."

And a few hours later, we arrived in Paris. I bought a SIM card so we could use the Orange cell phone I had bought back in 2007. We called Mr. Denis, the property manager for the place we were staying in Paris. He said we should call again when we get closer, so I was thankful to have the cell phone sorted out. We took the RER B train to Luxembourg and walked to our place from there. It was a bit of a schlep with all our stuff (and we made a couple of wrong turns until I realized I could use the compass on my iPhone!) but we got there eventually and had a nice view of the area on the way.

We checked into the place and it was sooo cool. Soooo French. We are staying on Rue Mouffetard, a popular Paris market street. There is a big blue door and you walk into it, away from the hustle and bustle of the street, and towards our awesome hidden apartment. Very cool. After lots of checkin details, we were all set, washed our faces and went out to explore a bit. There is a Franprix market right beside us which is perfect. We walked to the Jardin de Plantes and had some pastries there while enjoying the sun and architecture. On the way back, we saw the Amorino ice cream store on our street, the new competition to the famous Berthillion ice cream place. So we tried it immediately :) The passionfruit gelato was really good, a bit smoother and less tangy than I remember Berthillion being, but excellent in it's own right. We'll have to plan several more taste tests.

We walked back along Rue Mouffetard, taking in all the Frenchisms and trying a nutella crepe as well. The dinner choice was pretty clear as there was a rotisserie chicken and potato stand on the street and we bought that and some fruit for dinner. We bought some cheap Rose wine from the grocery store (like 3 Euros!!) and had a great dinner at "our" Paris apartment!! We have a lot of exciting things planned and it's going to be awesome here.

Egil's Appelsin on the plane and funny napkins

The HUGE feast we brought on the plane - cheese, leftover bread from the hostel, and a huge pack of Lox

We're in Paris! Arrived and walked to the Jardin de Plantes and ate some pastries.

Dad checking out the pay-per-hour city bike rentals

Well, we're definitely in Paris

Trying out Amorino, the "new kid on the block" competitor for Berthillion. We decided to test immediately to start the ball rolling on the official Amorino vs. Berthillion race for the best passionfruit gelato 2011. :)

Back at our glorious rental apartment, we got some chicken, potatoes and fruit for dinner.

Sick video of base jumpers from Transformers 3

I don't know how this could possibly be more awesome.

Iceland/France/Italy Day 6: Video

A day at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland.