Mike Jutan's World

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Iceland/France/Italy Day 13: Florence

May 11, 2011
Italy Day 13: Florence

Our time in Paris was glorious, but alas it was time to move onto the next place: Florence! We got up early and cleaned up the apartment, had a quick coffee and took off on our usual route on the Metro from Censier-Daubenton to Chatelet... but this time with all of our luggage! Adventurous as always, we schlepped all of our stuff on the Metro to the RER and found a good 4-seat area to sit on the RER. It was fun. Arriving at the airport we then took a bus to the correct terminal and had a "Paul" pastry for lunch and a coffee. I caught up on my journal and then we boarded the plane for Florence.

Air France was pretty awesome and was quite fancy, fancier already than our International IcelandAir flight! We got a snack on the plane and after leaving fancy CDG airport we arrived quite quickly in Florence. We grabbed our bags and zoomed right into a cab. The cab driver navigated these incredibly tiny roads and dropped us off about 20 min later at the Academy Hostel, a place Norm stayed in a year or two before. It's rated one of the best hostels in Europe and it was amazing and an insanely good location... 1 minute from the Duomo!!!

We dropped off our stuff and ventured out to see the Duomo. It was beautiful but we didn't have time to go inside or up it, but it was great to see just from the outside too. From there we headed straight for Piazza Della Signoria to go meet my friend Kate from Central back in London, Ontario!! Another event that we can thank the good people at Facebook for - Kate had noticed I was going to be traveling in Italy about the same time as her and her family, we chatted on Facebook and it turned out that we'd be in Florence on exactly the same day. Absolutely insane coincidence!! It was really great to get together and chat after so long and catch up, and also to hear about the amazing trip she was on with her family. Such a great time. Kate's Dad very kindly treated us to gelato and it tasted like a dream come true.

We said goodbye to Kate and her family and continued on towards the Ponte Vecchio. We took the requisite photos and continued up the stairs at Piazzale Michelangelo. After a short hike we were rewarded with a huuuuuge panoramic view of Florence and man was it glorious. I got out my fancy new zoom lens and got to take it for a whirl, getting some close up shots of the outside of the Duomo and the big Synagogue in Florence. The cafe on the lower level was beckoning us, so we went to sit and enjoy some music, the view, and a Cafe Shakkerato. Those are SO good.

Back down the steps, we tried to get a seat at a restaurant called Vini e Vecchi Sapori rated quite simply, the #1 (yes, number ONE) out of a whopping 836 restaurants in Florence on TripAdvisor. This was a place not to miss, but we figured we would be way out of luck trying to book the same night. And we were. We had no luck on the reservation as they only have 16 chairs and maybe 5 tables! We secured a reservation for dinner on the way back through Florence next week.

We headed back to the hostel and had some of the hostel food, pizza at a small takeaway place and some more gelato. We wandered the streets and many open-air plazas and it had such a good evening vibe, I love that excitement and music in the air in Florence at night. We found a gorgeous Opera singer belting out some passionate music accompanied by an accordion player. A busker dressed as Charlie Chaplin walked up near to Dad and it was hilarious!! He looked at the girl who was singing so frickin' beautifully and sighed to himself and went sauntering off with a "I can never compete with that" expression in his face and walk!! So hilarious and unexpected.

Our walk continued and we ended up back in Piazza Della Signoria at the clock tower. A guitarist was playing some Simon and Garfunkel at the same exact spot I'd sat listening to the same musician with Crystine, Jess and Monique almost exactly 4 years earlier. It made me miss them a lot and the fun times we got to share together last time I was in Italy.

After a great night of walking and wandering the beautiful evening streets of Florence, we walked back to the hostel to send off a few emails and go to sleep.

Flying from Paris to Florence

Mom and Dad at the Duomo

Duomo, sick colours

Piazza Della Signoria

David Copy at Piazza Della Signoria

Hey!! It's Kate!!! Meeting up for glorious gelato in Florence, of all places :)

Jutan Clan with Kate and family and friends

Mom and Dad on Ponte Vecchio

View back across the river

Time to rock my new zoom lens :) Duomo from the top of Piazzale Michelangelo

Tempio Maggiore Israelitico, amazing synagogue in Florence

Clock tower 1

Clock tower 2

Having a break and a Cafe Shakkerato at the top of Piazzale Michelangelo

Duomo at Magic Hour

Wandering the streets of Florence in the evening

Beautiful (by all senses of the word) opera singer in the Florence streets :)

The open-air concert hall that is Florence

The view at the music square

People chillin' and watching the great music. This is the same place I chilled with the glorious Millers back in '07, also listening to the guitar player strumming some Simon and Garfunkel, and a hippie girl dancing in the streets.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Iceland/France/Italy Day 12: Shopping and Wrap-up

May 10, 2011
France Day 12: Shopping and Wrap-up

We got up early today and took off to the Ile-de-la-Cite. Starting with a walk inside Ste-Chappelle and a view of the glorious stained glass windows, we quickly remembered we were in Berthillion territory and got a quick gelato before lunch! Notre-Dame was awesome as always, and we took a short walk around inside before splitting off for the afternoon. Mom, Norm and Dad went on a cool boat ride around the city and I went off for a few hours of shopping.

I had Googled the famous Pull-In Underwear brand in advance, these were the pricey-but-amazing boxers that Ans and I couldn't afford last time when we were poor students. But now that I'm a real person, I figured it was about time to pick some up. Pull-In is a French brand and so I figured they would sell them in a lot of spots, but turns out there is actually a Pull-In concept store in Paris. Sweet. So my first stop was Étienne Marcel subway station and the store was just as epic as I expected. I guess it was the middle of a weekday so it wasn't very busy. I arrived at the store and the guy working there was so excited to have a customer, it's in a very busy boutique shopping area but I guess no one in France shops for cool underpants on a quiet Tuesday afternoon! They had some super awesome and weird and fantastic designs. I looked at a bunch of cool options and zeroed in on a Kiwi one and a "Twitter"-style Bird one. They are so super awesome. I wanted a pair sooooo bad in '07 but I was a poor student then, so it was good to come full circle now :)

I then took the Metro to Charles de Gaulle Etoile, right at the Arch de Trioumph. It was time for a nice wander along the Champs d'Elysees. There was a McDonalds there and anyone who knows me knows that I love visiting McDonald's in foreign countries and seeing how weird and strangely localized their menus are. Sadly, this Mc'D's wasn't weird AT ALL!!! Nothing out of the ordinary except for a boring Big Mac on whole wheat bread and Kronenbourg beer as a drink choice (seen that before). Aw. So that was not as exciting as usual so I moved on and had lunch at Brioche D'Oree, a "chain" restaurant of Parisian pastries, but man do they ever make a mean Tartlette Framboises!! It was soooooo good. I had that and an Espresso and then moved on to Celio, another favourite store than Ans and I really liked when we last visited Paris.

Celio was so badass as usual. They had such awesome stuff and I shopped around for a while. It's a bit like Zara was in Italy, about 10000 times better than Zara in the USA. So much cool stuff for guys and a lot of nice fancier business pants and suits too, some sharp ties and striped shirts as well as just really sharp and great casual clothes. Very cool. Kindof like the "Gap of France" or the "Uni Qlo of France". I got a cool turquoise shirt and a nice pair of jeans on sale. Further along the street there was a Zara there and I went to check it out. Not bad, but not as cool as Celio. So kept rolling and then took a Metro to Madeline to go pick up some more Maiie mustards as gifts for friends back home. After a lot of walking, I took a nice break and chilled out for a bit.

After a nice relax I kept rolling and took a Metro back to the apartment via a Nutella-Banana crepe place. Lots of walking again today so I had a good relax and then started packing up my stuff for our travel onwards to Italy tomorrow. Mom, Dad and Norm got back from their boat trip and we had salmon, potatoes, white asparagus and peaches for dinner. We took a nice evening walk and found ourselves at Amorino again for another ice cream. Hilariously, I ran into someone with a crazy connection to me! The guy in front of us used to run a Post-Production facility in LA and his son goes to Waterloo! He noticed my Lucasfilm Animation shirt and said that his son was currently at a game studio in New York. What a small world. We had a good chat and then said bye and continued our walk. Back at the apartment, I wrapped up my last minute things and prepared for our trip onward to Italy.

Stained glass at Ste. Chapelle

Ste. Chapelle main window

Don't sit down unless you've got something to confess

Quick stop by Notre-Dame

Cite, my favourite Subway station

Pull-In Underwear concept store

Arch de Trioumph

Lunch on the Champs d'Elysees

Love the design of Concorde station

The glorious new underpants I bought!! I was joking with a friend earlier on Facebook that the one with the little birds must have it's own Twitter feed :)

Sweet new shirt and jeans from Celio

Monday, June 13, 2011

Iceland/France/Italy Day 11: Video

Some great music on the steps of Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre, Paris, France

Iceland/France/Italy Day 11: Montmartre, Chocolate and Fancy Dinner

May 9, 2011
France Day 11: Montmartre, Chocolate and Fancy Dinner

This morning we got up and took the Subway train to Anvers, my "home" station when I was last in Paris with my buddy Ans! The plan was to spend a great day in Montmartre, and we certainly did! We started with the classic dodging-of-the-bracelet-guys at the bottom of the Sacre-Coeur hill as per advice from the locals and my experience last time in Paris! No worries though, they weren't as pushy as last time which was nice. We walked up the Montmartre hill and up to Sacre-Coeur, where there was a harp player. That was super amazing. It was a nice, clear day for a city view and we really enjoyed it. We looked around inside Sacre-Coeur for a bit and then saw a great Dispatch-style band outside.

From there it was off to the Artist's square, and a quick "Coca" (Coca-Cola) and coffee break near the artist's square but away from the crowds. In fact, this was the same corner as I saw the cat on the motorbike 4 years earlier... I saw some motorbikes parked in the same place and thought, "I wonder if the same cat is here?" Low and behold, there he was. Same exact cat, same exact corner!! He had the same markings as the cat I remember and came right up to us. Then I chased him to get a good photo and took lots of him. That was so cool.

We then spent some time wandering the Artist's square. We noticed some artists seemed to be just sitting there selling other people's work, and that seemed dodgy. So we headed back around to the area were artists were clearly working on their own paintings. Norm was really excited to get something and once looking at the paintings, I saw one I reaaaally liked too. I bought this little bike painting, with a door that looks just like the one on our street which our apartment is hidden behind!

From there we walked further down the Abesses area and had lunch on a bench. We saw the Moulin Rouge, got an apple strudel at a bakery that I remembered well, and spent ages trying to find an open bathroom for a pit stop. Then we arrived at "A L'Etoile d'Or", the famous chocolate shop that Heev recommended to me via the hilarious food blog post by David Lebowitz. His review (http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/07/the-sweetest-wo/) explains the shop well.

To quote David's blog:

The most photographed and revered woman in Paris is Denise Acabo. With her braided pig-tails, necktie, and crisply-pleated kilt, Denise is the sweetest woman in Paris...

...I give myself at least one hour to shop. Minimum. Words fly out of her mouth in rapid-fire French. She’ll often use the tu word, instead of the formal vous, which suggests immediately comradery. Don’t understand a word of French? That’s ok, Just nod. She’ll keep going.

The main reason to visit A l’Etoile d’Or is simply because it’s the only place outside of the original shop in Lyon that sells Bernachon chocolate... Bernachon is one of the handful of chocolate shops in the entire world that makes the chocolate they use from scratch. That’s right, folks. They buy sacks of cacao beans, then roast and grind them into pure, dark bittersweet chocolate. And what chocolate it is!

I took David and my buddy Matt's recommendation to heart and WOW this place was super epic.

I started off explaining in broken French that I had learned about her shop from the blog of "David Lebowitz" and instantly her eyes lit up. "Ahh yes, David Lebowitz!" she said, as she started to point at stuff. "David come here, buy many things. One hour after he leave, this shipment arrive!", she said, and then made running motions - I think she meant that David really liked this particular chocolate and came zooming back after the shipment arrived to buy some more. As David's blog mentioned, she talked in speedy French and I tried to keep up and nodded, attempting to understand. Soon she suggested I try lots of different things and opened up the cabinet and I picked lots of different kinds to try, loading up a tray. I also bought the Bernachon Milk Chocolate "Kalouga" bar by David's recommendation. It was so hilarious to follow Denise as she ran around the store, she wanted me to try lots of different truffles and kept saying "Mmm... Mmm..." haha. SO hilarious. I ended up with several truffles and some Henri LeRoux "C.B.S." (Caramel au Beurre Salé) caramels, and some Passion Mango caramels. Denise was such a character and kept showing us her photo in lots of different Japanese magazines. I'd read that she is essentially a celebrity in Japan. Haha, so awesome.

After the excitement we headed home for a bit to chill out and try all the chocolate. The caramels were INSANE. So smooth and tasty, and you could just tell there was no way you should eat these if you weren't walking all day like we have been in Paris, they must be sooooo full of butter! So tasty though. The Passion Mango caramels were an incredibly smart purchase. We should have bought WAY more, I think we only bought 3 of them. The truffles were insane too. We had a coffee one and a praline one, lots of different choices, and they were all Bernachon brand too which was very awesome. The Kalugua bar was no exception - it was the tastiest caramel I've probably ever had and the combination with the chocolate was life-changingly amazing.

We were then in need of some proper food, so I spent some time on my Yelp app to find a place for dinner. I tracked down a spot called "Boullion Racine", a really cool looking Art Nouveaux "Boullion" restaurant, built in 1906. From Boullion Racine's website:

The beginning of the twentieth century saw the birth of the Bouillon Racine as we currently know it. It was in the atmosphere of Art Nouveau where Parisian workers and then the upper-class city folk first met.

The first Bouillons appeared in 1855 thanks to an astute butcher, Pierre Louis Duval. He proposed a single dish of meat and a bouillon (soup/stock) to the workers of the Halles. In 1900, nearly two hundred and fifty Bouillons could be found in Paris. They became the first popular chain of restaurants.

Some other Bouillons, more "upper-class", offered a reading room or some entertainment.

So that sounded pretty amazing and we decided to go. We had a hilarious waiter who loved our compliments on his restaurant and fish-de-boning skills. The restaurant was right on the edge of the 5th and 6th arrondissements, in St. Germain du Pres, so we got a nice walk to and from the place as well. I got a steak dinner which was excellent and the Onion Soup was good too. We all had fun and the building was really cool and felt oh-so Parisian!

After a nice walk home, we had just enough room left for some more Loquats and Orange-Mango juice with fizzy water. What a great day.