Ah, Pare-Eee..

So, without further adieu... the Paris update! At the bottom of this page you will find a link to both Galen and Matt's respective online photo albums, containing even more (and prettier, considering their fancy cameras!) pictures of Paris, plus some barn and Champagne photos as well. Above, the four of us stand at the top of Montmarte, right below (pictured, ahem, below) the Sacré-Coeur.
A note to our adoring fans: by clicking on the picture, it will make it nice and big for you to see. Then, just hit the "back" button on your browser to go back to your happy reading.

Quick! Drive-by tourism! Seeing as how we were foreigners, in a foreign car, about to drive around a foreign roundabout, we decided that car pictures would be best for the Arc de Triomphe. And hey, the picture turned out rather well all things considered, if I do say so myself!

After whizzing down the Champs Elysees, we rolled up to Père Lachaise, the largest cemetery in Paris and one of the most famous in the world.







Jim Morrison's grave.










(below left) Edith Piaf. below right (Oscar Wilde - complete with lipstick kisses from various adoring fans)

And, of course, the day wouldn't be complete without (insert trumpet fanfare here) THE EIFFEL TOWER!

(left) - waiting in line (which, surprisingly, wasn't that long... hooray for it be just a few days after new year's AND -4degrees C outside!)
(below) our attempt at taking a pic of ourselves at the top, hence the lack of view. But, thanks to Matt, we've got some better ones!


















(ATTN: THE TWO PICTURES BELOW CAME FROM MATT! MATT! MATT!)

(below) I took this one! See - even oldy moldy digital cameras come through in the hour of need...

After such an eventful day, alcohol, charcuterie, and cheese were very necessary to settle our stomachs and souls.














(above)Galen's huge Edelweiss, my huge Gewurztraminer, Owen's wussy something red, and Matt's huge Pelforth.















We meant to take a picture of the meat/cheese boards when they arrived, but apparently we were to hungry to remember.

Day 2: Onto one of the best meals of the trip! After much research and driving up and down seedy-looking alleys, we found Les Zygomates - former home to one of Owen's former bosses, the original (for those of you not in the know, there now exists a Les Zyg in Boston, and this is from where the name comes).
(below left) Owen's Jerusalem artichoke and foie gras soup (top), my cassoulet of crayfish and cheesy yum (bottom). (below right) Matt's grilled calamari and tomatoes (top) and Galen's venison terrine (bottom). Have I mentioned that typically, M & G are vegetarians? High five!






































(below left) Owen's 'special sausage' (top) - very offal-esque and my duck confit (bottom). (below right) Matt's veal kidneys (top) and Galen's melt-in-your-mouth lamb (bottom).




































Desserts - a pear and caramel baked thing that was so good, and the bottom plate - "Plate de Gourmande" - absolute genius: a sampling of all of their desserts: some kind of citrus tart (my fave), a chocolate terrine (Matt's fave), raspberry sorbet (Owen's fave), creme caramel/pumpkin (not really anyone's fave, but still tasty), a mini-pear/caramel baked thing, and a tiramisu (that's not an "N", it's a sideways "Z", you bimbo!) ... Galen's fave.



As the day progressed, things got colder and we headed to Notre Dame...





















(below... all credit to Matt as I am stealing this photo from him) Don't we look frozen? Or at least I do as my reaction = "How can you be taking pictures in weather like this?!"

That evening, we picked the BEST time to go to the Louvre... for those of you who might possibly be traveling through Paris some time soon - GO WEDNESDAY NIGHT! They stay open until 9:45pm on Wednesday and Friday. I imagine the Friday night crowd is a little more populous (am I using that word correctly?). Anyways, being the 'off season' definitely helped also, but we showed up right around dinner time and had absolutely no waits whatsoever. Score!

The moat: my favorite exhibition. Joseph Kosuth's "Neither Appearance or Illusion."

"Sentences written in French using neon tubing are suspended along the walls of the medieval Louvre. Joseph Kosuth, a major figure of the contemporary international art scene, temporarily lays claim to the excavated ancient Louvre, offering visitors a dense and luminous work.

He has thus chosen to work in the Louvre’s medieval moat and write on the old walls of the ramparts, the keep and Saint Louis Room, thereby inviting spectators into this mysterious, subterranean space." (-the Louvre website)

There she is (Venus de Milo), and there I am, awkwardly saying "cheeeese."
















The Wedding Feast

(duh) The Mona Lisa! I could hardly believe that there were only about twenty people to elbow my way through to get to this painting.

And what better way to end a blog with a couple of failures? Due to our decision to have a visit near-holiday, in January, with the majority of our time away from the farm being on 'awkward' days like Monday and Tuesday, we found that our options were limited when it came to some of the "off the beaten path"-type attractions. I shall only post pictures of two of our failures, so when we're old and re-reading this thing, we can chuckle, rather than raise our fists in the air and shout "Curse you, 17 failures in one week, curse you!).

(below, picture stolen from Matt, the castle at Chantilly. huge. beautiful. closed.)



Here, Galen and I stand in front of the "Lapin Agile," or - The Agile Rabbit - one of the city's oldest bars, known for its artist clientele (anybody heard of some dude named Picasso?). Apparently, it's totally sweet on the inside with old wooden tables that have been initialed by famous people and they play either live or recorded old-timey French caberet music. We attempted to get inside of this place all 3 nights we stayed in Paris. Night one - closed. Night two - approached bar as a gaggle of senior citizens were leaving and the bar was closing early. Night three - closed for some special reason that we couldn't translate, but don't worry, they'll be open tomorrow (after we've left). FAIL.

So. There you have it! Our last night was spent in our 'home-away-from-home' Strasbourg, in a very authentic Alsatian restaurant, eating very authentic Alsatian cuisine and drinking very authentic Alsatian wine and, over all, having a splendid last evening together. Big, huge, ginormous thank yous to Matt and Galen, not only for their pictures, but for their company: it was so great to have companions with which we could hold full conversations in English! Not to mention Galen's mad-crazy skillz driving and Matt's mad-crazy skillz at navigating. Merci beaucoup and Santé!


More pics! More pics! Everyone wants to see more pics!
Matt's Paris pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mixonic/sets/72157623204018586/
Matt's Champagne pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mixonic/sets/72157623080052843/
Galen's Everything-France pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28276999@N08/sets/72157623196548170/
(contains farm and cheese pictures as well!)

Dose of Cute

The Paris blog is going to take some serious efforts, so in the mean time, here is a daily dose of ADORABLE that should get you through until then...

BABY ANIMALS!!!

Bubbles

Tattinger. Moet & Chandon. Veuve Cliquot. Yup - big names when it comes to Champagne. But when it comes to touring the facilities, you would be herded along with all of the other visitors (some of which would be tourists referring to $3 Andre as champagne...) and have a half glass of something thrown at you towards the end.

O & I decided to take a different approach when we decided to road trip through Champagne on our way to Paris with his visiting sister and her boyfriend. Armed with Craigie on Main's wine list, we called/e-mailed about 6 different champagneries (not a word, I know, whatever). Unfortunately, being that it was the off-season as well as the week directly following Christmas/New Year's, it was tough to find a place that was open. But we found two such places, and now that it's over, we're glad we didn't book any more given our time restraint. Both champagne houses welcomed us with open arms and gave us private tours of their facilities. They were extremely different from one another and very awesome in their own ways.

My personal favorite out of the two: Gaston Chiquet, a small, privately owned estate located in Dizy, just about a 30-minute drive south of Rheims. Nicolas and Antoine Chiquet own and operate the family business, and we got a personal tour from Antoine himself.

The house of Gaston Chiquet. Antoine's great-great (maybe another great or two) grandfather planted the first Chardonnay grape in their region in 1746.

Inside the house, a display of the champagnes we were lucky enough to taste. I think there might have been a couple we tried that aren't shown here (special bottles, ooh!).

Antoine describes the different tanks and their purposes: how long the juice stays in tanks, when and how yeast is added, etc.

Showing us around the caves.

Describing the process of turning the bottle in order to collect/harden the sediment for easy removal. Also, how the color corresponds to the type of grape in the champagne - yellowish/green means it's mostly or all Chardonnay... a gold color indicates the addition of Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier.

He even set up a whole demonstration to show how the champagne is bottled and corked. They now use a special cork "Mystik Diamant" that does not emit any of the cork into the bottle.

The backyard - vines! No pesticides or yucky chemically things are used. It's a relatively small plot of land , but certainly gets the job done.

Mr. Chiquet was one of the most welcoming hosts we've met in France. His philosophy on wine related to his philosophy about life - relating to us and the restaurant O has in mind. We certainly hope that however many years from now that O's dream becomes a reality, we'll be able to call up Antoine and not only get his wine into our restaurant, but invite him to the opening!

Next, we headed to Ay, just outside of Dizy, to the new home of Gosset. They recently (last September) moved to a bigger and badass-er location. They still have their other property, so it was more like an expansion rather than a move.
Our guide, Phillip, is essentially a rep for Gosset. Unlike Gaston-Chiquet, Gosset is a "negotiant," meaning they buy the juice/must from the grapes from various vineyards in the region. Here, Phillip points out the various places they buy their stuff from, allowing them to mix and match for the best possible combinations.

The caves underneath the grounds were absolutely GINORMOUS, slightly younger than those at G-C (roughly 150yrs old), stretching for what seemed to be miles. They also go down much deeper than the ones at G-C, so much so that the walls are completely made up of chalk. Here, we check out the various "graffiti" on the walls - we even saw some scratches from a solider from Connecticut in the 1940s!

Each tour took over 2 hours to complete, hence our relief that we only scheduled two. Though after these experiences, I am definitely tempted to schedule a couple more perhaps when the weather warms up... the private tours were so fantastic and we learned so much!

We drove into Rheims for a quick dinner that night not worthy of a photograph. However, the Notre Dame in Rheims certainly was... even though we're pretty sure we were illegally driving up too close to the cathedral (hence the "from the car" photograph):

Thus concludes our lovely day surrounded by the bubbly. Next up will be a blog full-o-Paris! Which might end up needing two posts, as I will be gaining twice as many pictures from Galen and Matt once they are able to send them my way. Salut!