Israel Take 2 - Day 2

So after our very late night out, we enjoyed a late morning. Being Shabbat and towards the end of Passover, we knew that our options would be fairly limited, but museums you can almost always count on. So we headed off to the Tel Aviv Modern Art Museum. We spent almost all of our time in the new wing where there were a series of rather cool exhibitions:

• Roger Ballen - Documentary Fiction
(photography)

• The Museum Presents Itself

• Fashioning the object: Bless, Boudicca & Buckland
 

• Cristobal Balenciaga

among others, but these were the ones where we spent most of our time. I was very surprised at the breadth and depth of the curation. It is definitely a top notch museum.

While taking a tea break, Stephen combed through the event listing and lighted upon an exhibit called Irises, Daffodils, Dragonflies and Butterflies which was being shown in the Helena Rubenstein Pavilion, which though part of the museum was a short walk away. Wanting to get back out in the sunshine for a little bit, we all decided this was a great plan. So over we went. Turned out that the intended exhibit was actually a side show to another exhibit featuring an Israeli-French artist called Absalon who was a sculptor/designer who was very much in the same line, albeit more radical, as the Bauhaus movement. The work was stunning.

The Irises and Daffodils, Dragonflies and Butterflies exhibit of the glassware of Emile Galle was a bit of a shock to the system after the minimalism in the Absalon exhibit, but it was beautiful in its own way - more classically so, but no less for that. A good reminder that "modern art" spans a huge time frame and an incredibly diverse body of work. I'm wondering how long it will be until some of the older work (turn of the century through the pre-WWI years) will get reclassified out of the "modern" genre, but for now it's always interesting to see what gets lumped in under that heading.

By now, it was well past lunch time and we were all rather hungry, so down the Sderot Rothschild to find ourselves some food. We landed on a little local burger chain called Moses and had some very good hamburgers indeed! 

A quick stop back to the hotel, ostensibly for my cardigan, I made the mistake of laying down and closing my eyes "just for a minute" while the boys checked on something and the next thing I knew it was 2 hours later. I was still exhausted so opted to stay in and finish catching up on my sleep while the boys took a walk. I felt a little bad, but I figured if I was going to crash, doing it at this end of the trip rather than later was probably the better option. This also allowed the boys to get some time to catch up just the two of them, which is good for their friendship.

No harm done in the end and a low key way to end the first phase of our trip. Next up, transitioning to our base in Galilee.

Israel Take 2 - Day 1

Our flight landed bang on time early Friday morning and Branson was there to waiting for us as we came out of immigration/customs. Big hugs and excitement all around. This time we took the train into Tel Aviv and a taxi to our hotel, The Embassy Hotel, about 2 blocks from the beach.

The day was already sunny and beautiful, despite the early hour. Our room wasn't quite ready yet (no surprise), so we dropped bags, changed clothes (swapping jumpers/sweaters and jeans for light linen trousers & t-shirts, yes!), and headed back out into town.

First on our agenda was the morning architecture tour run by the Bauhaus Centre (after a rather tasty breakfast across the street at the Landwers cafe). Unfortunately, I didn't catch the name of our lovely lady guide, but it was a really great tour. She clearly had a love of the city and a deep knowledge that she was all too happy to share with the group. It was a medium sized group - about 20 that dwindled as the tour went along to about 12 by the end. Although it didn't cover a lot of distance (just shy of a mile) the 2 hour walking tour took in some key highlights and let us compare and contrast the different stylistic elements. It was a really great introduction to the city and I would highly recommend others take it when in the area.

From there we took a meander over to the Carmel Market, where the preparations for Shabbat were well under way - cue jostling crowds, bargaining, and lots of tasty wares on sale. Since we didn't have any cooking space, we settled on a sole purchase of extremely tasty fresh dates. 

By then it was time to check into our hotel, so we meandered that way, got settled in and. . .took a nap. Considering the over night (short) flight and the plans for a late evening, it seemed wise to take it a bit easy during the heat of the afternoon. Also, we are on holiday after all! 

We woke up just in time to get ready for dinner at a little pub Branson knew called The Minzar. To get there, we walked through the Yemenite quarter. Very different than the part of Tel Aviv we explored that morning: winding streets, colourful buildings with small windows, and tons of trees in pots. As it was also sunset on a Friday evening, our walk also coincided with many in that quarter starting their Shabbat celebrations with song. Hauntingly beautiful and a great reminder that despite being in a very secular city, deep religious belief was just under the surface.

A traditional religious meal was not our destination, however. The Minzar is known mostly for it's pork dishes and we arrived smack dab in the middle of Happy Hour (oh darn). A very informal place and quite small, regardless, we found a table (after going on a bit of a scavenger hunt for chairs), ordered some beers and selected our dinner: Stephen had the veal sausages with mashed potatoes, Branson had roasted pork neck with sauerkraut and I had the ribs with cole slaw. The ribs still had chunks of pork belly attached and were super yum. Actually all of our food disappeared at a surprising rate. We hung around for another round of beers, content with people watching and catching up on all that has been going on in our lives.

From there we took a stroll and picked up a bottle of bubbly to take back to the hotel to get ready for our night out dancing. Branson had managed to get us onto the list for FFF Haoman's Passover themed evening. It had a been a long, long time since Stephen and I had been out clubbing, so it was fun to play the young kids again and also to have someone to actually dance with me!

While we didn't quite dance until dawn, it was a close run thing. We aren't 20 after all  anymore, but we considered seeing 4am a perfectly reasonable run. 

Not too shabby for our first day! And we certainly got to experience a good cross-section of the city. Needless to say the next day we would sleep in. . .

Next Trip: Israel Take 2

When planning our trip to Israel last year, we made a conscious decision to focus on the South and lesser travelled Negev Desert and leave to next time most of the more typical tourist spots.


Us at Masada with the Dead Sea behind us. Read all about our previous trip or see the pictures

Well, on Thursday night we leave for the second trip (gotta squeeze it in before Branson repatriates!) and as promised we're all set up for a slightly more traditional visit to the country.

Our current itinerary looks like this:

• Day 1 - arrive early AM for Tel-Aviv. Hoping to catch an architecture walking tour & maybe some beach time before putting on our dancing shoes for a night out.
• Day 2 - second day in Tel-Aviv. Maybe catch one of the museums (Museum of Art or Eretz Israel) or do some historical sightseeing near the old port.
• Day 3 - drive to the Galilee via Haifa (maybe a second chance to tour the Bahai Gardens?) planning on a chilled evening at the kibbutz
• Day 4 - visit Nazareth
• Day 5 - Hiking in the Golan Heights
• Day 6 - visit Safed and perhaps Capernaum along with the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves & Fishes
• Day 7 - A mini hike in the AM and then drive to Jerusalem in the afternoon, first evening in Jerusalem. We may stop somewhere on the way instead of doing a morning hike. Will see how we feel
• Day 8 - sightseeing in Jerusalem (probably focusing on the old city)
• Day 9 - sightseeing in Jerusalem (probably focusing on the new city & the east)
• Day 10 - visit Ramallah or Bethlehem depending on the security situation
• Day 11 - morning in Jerusalem and then to the airport for our late afternoon flight back to London

It's pretty full, but should give us a nice cross section of some of the better known parts of Israel. No doubt we'll make substitutions and changes as we go depending on our moods and the situation on the ground. This is particularly true for Day 10 when we're hoping to see "the other side". I'm keen in particular to visit the Quaker Centre in Ramallah, but as with much in this region we'll just have to play this by ear.

We are super excited to be going back, not only to get to see the other half of the country, but also for the weather! London's winter has been beyond miserable, so the sunny, warm forecast for Israel is like something out of a dream. Sunshine and an exciting destination? Yes please!

We're using the same guidebook from before - our trusty DK Eyewitness Guide for Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai and Branson has a pretty complete collection of maps for our hikes. No doubt we'll pick up other bits while we're there, but this should provide us with a more than sufficient starting point.

In preparation for the trip, I've read (or am in the process of readng) a few non-fiction books:
Jerusalem, The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiori (excellent - highly recommended)
A History of Modern Israel by Colin Schindler (fair to middling, not convinced there isn't a better option)
The Arab-Israeli Reader edited by Walter Laquer & Barry Rubin (an enlightening read, but not good on its own. Much better if read in conjunction with a more traditional narrative history)

Also recommended past reads for those interested in a good laymen's understanding of the broader historical context:
The Middle Sea by John Julius Norwich
A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin

I'll be aiming to live blog the trip again this year, so keep your eye peeled this weekend for the next installment!

Another Weekend in Paris - Day 2

Another slow morning, started off this time by breakfast in the hotel (quite a nice buffet, but very noisy)  before checking out (which took forever) leaving our bags, and then we decided a good long walk was in order. We didn't have any particular place in mind and the only plans we had pre-arranged were for later in the afternoon. So we walked where our feet took us. 


In this part of Paris, it seems like almost all roads lead to the Arc de Triomphe

From there, we took a stroll down the mostly empty Champs-Élysées and wandered through one of the little mini shopping galleries that had an art exhibition on.


Most of the work was pretty dull, but this one was quite cool. Later on we got to the art gallery that was sponsoring the little exhibit and realised that it was hardly a one off, which was kind of a shame, but it was still pretty cool in that space.

From there we wandered down a few side streets, ending up in the Carré Marigny, a little park*. At that point, we stopped to consider our options. We had a good three hours left before we needed to be on the south side of the river for our tour, so what to do? It was a little too chilly for me and I suggested something indoors. Stephen then remembered a video he had seen on youtube (as you do) featuring some cool** experiments with fire & electricity and that it was filmed at the Palais de la Découverte (Palace of Discovery). "I wonder" he said "if it's anywhere nearby". Little did we know, it was literally around the corner! It seemed like fate, so over we went. 


Spotting the first sign, Stephen started getting really excited. The building itself is very impressive and reminded me quite a lot of the Natural History and Science Museums in London - grand buildings that had been repurposed for even grander public purposes.

 

The foyer. Amazing, no? 

 

As a museum, the layout was kind of chaotic, but they do a pretty good job with the space available. Still, it can be a little bit difficult to navigate the various exhibits if you're looking for something specific. For those with a decent fluency in French, I would highly recommend getting there early enough in the day to check out many of the very interesting gallery talks. Unfortunately, these were too technical for me, so I let Stephen go off on his own, while I wandered around a little more aimlessly. Eventually ending up in the cafe for lunch. Stephen was like a little kid in a candy shop and enjoyed the museum immensely. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more had I been slightly more awake.

One of the interactive exhibits in the electricity section.

Pretty cool and we both committed to coming back when we would have a full day to spend wandering around.

 

From there we hopped on the metro and arrived in the Saint Germain district with a few extra minutes to spare before our afternoon chocolate & pastry tour with Paris by Mouth. We were expecting to be part of a small group, but when our lovely guides Meg & Diane arrived, we discovered the other part of our group had cancelled so it was now just us! While I'm sure the other people would have been lovely, having 2 dedicated private guides was a treat indeed and a very pleasant surprise. After a short introduction to the area, we were off to our first visit: Patrick Rogier. A Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF), Mr. Rogier is known as much for his chocolate sculptures as he is for his finely worked bonbons

 

The window of his shop dressed for Easter.

 

Like many of the finer London chocatiers that I've been sampling over the years, Mr. Rogier also works with unique flavours pushing the edges of what is perceived as being appropriate for chocolate. The lovely hostess let us sample a few of the treats on offer, including a really beautiful Jasmine tea infused chocolate. After much hemming and hawing, we took away several of his genache bonbons (oat infusion, lemon & lemongrass, Szechuan pepper, & praline) to try as well as a few of his speciality imported bars (3 continents bar, Tongo, & one other I can't quite remember). Before we left, Meg stopped to show us his most popular easter creation, eggs filled with praline

 

Aren't they adorable?

 

As she pointed out, these would make beautiful hostess gifts. Part of me is a little sad we didn't spring for these, but alas, it was only the start of our tour and we had the rest of the afternoon to go!

 

From there we stopped by another MOF, Arnaud Larher

Only Mr. Larher's speciality is pastries. And his window featured not only 2 towers of glorious looking macarons, but also a number of variations on other well known French pastries.

 

mmmm macarons. . .

 

This, Meg, explained, were two examples of St. Honoré pastries - the one on the left is the more classic chocolate, with the right is a caramel version.

 

We chose two desserts to take away with us, and unfortunately not only did I not get a picture, I didn't write them down! Oof! One was a delightful concotion of fig & cream with I think passionfruit coulis. Divine. 

 

One more stop before we would do our half way tasting and this time was one of Paris's most well known caramerlier, Henri Le Roux

 

Credited as being the man who brought caramels au beurre salé (CBS) back into fashion, it isn't by far his only flavour. While we were there they had everything from the classic CBS to winter spices to plum and they came in more colours than I ever could have envisioned caramels having.

 

a few of the examples of the beautiful caramels on offer.

 

Of course if that wasn't enough, we also picked up a few of his more unique chocolates (a buckwheat, pepper, and one other for contrast with Mr. Rogier's wares) and fruit jellies (lychee and grapefruit, and 2 types of plums!). . . because it's not enough to just make caramels. Many of his confections had a unique Asian twist, apparently due to his extensive travels in Japan and China.

 

From there it was across the street to a delightful little wine shop (caviste), The Last Drop, for our mid-point tasting and discussion.

Always a little skeptical of pairing wine with chocolate, I was really surprised at the Banyuls which although a dessert wine went very well with the chocolate bars from Mr. Rogier. The bonbons and pastries we tasted on their own. The other lovely surprise was being joined by Polly the shopkeeper and a brief appearance from the proprietor himself. Wonderful people, and great conversation while discovering some truly incredible sweets. Can an afternoon in Paris get much better than this?

 

After our tasting and buying a bottle or two of wine (they had a Côtes du Rhône!), we headed off to our last stop of the day, the rather upscale yet still playful Hugo & Victor

 

 

The flavours of their pastries change daily and when they're out, they're out for good. Each primary flavour has 2 variants - a "classic" and an "exotic" Arriving late in the day, we had three choices remaining to us: passion fruit, pineapple and lemon. We chose lemon "classic" (a cheesecake) and passionfruit "exotic" (a jelly/cream dome thing). The flavours of both were intense, but the passion fruit one was like an electric shock! I've never tasted anything so aggressively passionfruit ever. Amazing. 

 

It's hard to think back on the day and try to choose a favourite, because each and every one was amazing and interesting in their own way. I think that's one of the things that's so wonderful about tasting food at this level of expertise is that it's all so very good that it's just explorations in the marvellous. You can't really go wrong. 

 

So definitely all places that we are keen to go back and explore at more leisure - you never know perhaps we shall base our next trip to Paris in the St. Germain!

 

We owe a huge thanks to Meg & Diane who were not only knowledgeable, but passionate and fun. I couldn't imagine a better afternoon getting to know the sweeter side of Paris, comparing and contrasting with the different places we've known. Although definitely not a cheap option, I can highly recommend their tours. You can find the full listing here.

 

From there our visit was pretty much at an end. All that was left was for us to go back to the hotel, pick up our bags and head to the train station. Our return journey was a quiet and easy one. Enough to give us some space to think about all we saw and savour the memories.

 

Happiness truly is a weekend in Paris.

 

* I say little, it seemed like it at the time, in actuality it's rather big! Especially considering its location smack in central Paris.

**cool being a relative term

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

Read about the rest of the weekend. . .

Another Weekend in Paris - Day 1

Another Weekend in Paris - Dinner at L'Entredgeu

The rest of the pictures for our trip, as always, be found over on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oufoxy/sets/72157633014089503/

Another Weekend in Paris - Dinner at L'Entredgeu

One of the trickier aspects of staying a bit further out is that it becomes slightly more difficult to find a place to have dinner. And as anyone who has been following our Paris trips knows that dinner in Paris is one of the most important events. Stephen and I both love the French tradition of long, lingering dinners in a buzzy atmosphere filled with people who take delight in the food & wine on offer.

 

We started, as we almost always do, with  my very well annotated copy of Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris*. The pickings, unfortunately, were quite slim for nearby our hotel and while we could have gone further into town, now the search started to have an air of a challenge. After searching some of our other gotolistings for Paris restaurants, they all seemed to converge on a single place: L'Entredgeu. And no, it doesn't have a website. Yes, it's one of those**.

 

I had Stephen call and work his magic French (amazing what a good accent can accomplish) to obtain us a reservation. We duly turned up at our appointed seating (9pm***) and the restaurant was bursting to the seams, and it didn't look like anyone was going any time soon. Offering to go away and come back again, we were informed by the lovely waitress that "if you leave, no one will ever get up!" But she quite sweetly produced some snacks for us to munch on (as our tummies were properly rumbly) and the chalkboard menu**** for us to begin to think about our selections.

 

Not long after, a table finally cleared for us and we settled on our choices (£35 for 3 courses) and our wine. The wine list was impressive with a good mix of both regular and half bottles of wine. Nothing by the glass, unfortunately, but with the half bottles on offer it was easy for us to find something to match what we wanted to eat.  We ended up choosing 2 half bottles: a white Sancerre (2011 Paul Prieur et Fils) for our starters and a red Bordeaux (2010 Chateau La Grolet) for our mains.

 

For me:

1. scallops in the half sheet with a roasted tomato & squash puree with a deeply umami sauce
2. a filet of pork belly with wilted spinach and celeriac puree
3. a Mont Blanc with a glass of Armagnac

For Stephen:

1. chicken & fois gras pressé with a mustard vinegrette & salad
2. a ragou of beef layered with macaroni & some steamed veggies
3. a baba au rhum

My starter was definitely the highlight of the evening - the scallops were perfectly cooked and tender seared just enough that they had a good flavour to stand up to the sauce & puree. It was a really stunning complement to our wine - I could have eaten this three times over and still been coming back for more! The remaining dishes were perfectly executed and lovingly presented, but nothing outstanding. The service was swift, professional and only a little bit harried (considering they had a very full dining room, it was totally understandable). Since we were seated a little later, it meant that we were hurried away from our table and could linger, which suited us just fine.

While it wasn't the most impressive meal we've ever had in Paris, it was very good indeed and just what we were hungry for; very good value for money. Even better, it was walking distance to our hotel - a walk I was very glad to take at the end of the evening. I'm not sure that I would go out of my way to visit again, but it's clear that it's well loved by the locals and for good reason. If anyone ever finds themselves in the 16th, this is probably your best option, and you definitely won't regret it.


*highly recommended. If you are going to Paris, you absolutely must have this book

** and in Paris, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Usually, it means that they have a loyal enough following that they don't need to bother with maintaining a website.

*** for popular restaurants we've had much more success in booking rather late seatings.

**** hard to read, but totally worth it as it usually indicates the chef is cooking seasonally

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read about the rest of the weekend. . .

 

Another Weekend in Paris - Day 1

 

The pictures for our trip, as always, be found over on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oufoxy/sets/72157633014089503/

Another Weekend in Paris - Day 1

As I mentioned in my intro post , we were staying in a slightly different area than is usual for us and I must say were quite pleasantly surprised by it. We were on the edge of what most tourists would consider "central" Paris, but it was still very easy to get around - a metro stop literally at the end of the street or a very pleasant, if a little long, walk into the centre of town.

On the first day when we woke to beautifully sunny skies, we opted to take the walk. Stephen had already scoped out an exhibit at the Palais de Tokyo that he wanted to see, so we decided to take our time getting there.

And even though we were a bit off the beaten track, as you can see the beaten track wasn't that far away.


After another few minutes we came across this really lovely little church (Église Paroisse Saint-Honoré d'Eylau) and decided a short stop to look inside was in order.


It was a really stunning blend of neoclassical and modern Byzantine influenced architecture. I particularly liked the use of mosaics. One of those great little random moments of beauty. A reminder that no matter how many times you've been somewhere, there's always something else to discover & explore

A little further along we were already in well trodden territory.

All I can say is there's a reason that the Eiffel Tower is so frequently photographed - it's a truly elegant construction from almost every angle.


One of the things I love about Paris is that they very willingly give homage to other countries' leaders that they respect or who helped France. Gives me warm fuzzies to see so many great American leaders and thinkers given pride of place on the capital's streets.



And around the corner from there was a really colourful little market, selling mostly food, but some other bits and pieces. It was clearly a regular occurance and well frequented by locals. I love walking through markets to get a feel for what's in season or looking particuarly tasty. While I didn't manage to get a picture of it, the seafood was absolutely incredible. So much that later that evening, we both opted for fish for various courses based solely on what we had seen in the market. One of these days we really must take a longer trip and stay somewhere that we can do a bit of shopping & cooking.


And a French market couldn't be complete without cheese, like this enormous round of comté. I love French cheese. Yum. On this occasion, however, Stephen pointed out that as we were still in the early part of our day, it was probably best to refrain from purchasing said cheese as it would not be in the best condition after spending all day in my camera bag. *sigh*

From here all we had to do was cross the street to the Palais. We had a great discovery when the staff told us that due to our hotel being a current Corporate sponsor, our room keycards got us in for free! Woo hoo! From there we made a beeline for the Soliel Froid exhibit of works by the incredible Julio Le Parc that Stephen had identified earlier. Neither of us were familiar with Mr. Le Parc's work before this, and we enjoyed it immensely. It gives the phrase "painting with light" totally new meaning, and I couldn't help but think of the "chromalume" from Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George. We preferred the early parts of the exhibition much more than the later half, but still it was all fascinating.


A riff on the usual "hall of mirrors" - a small room where strips of shiny mirrors were hung and rotated freely as you walked through them. Fantastically fun and disorienting.

One of the things that I really liked about the exhibit was the interaction between light and movement - often your own (like the work above), though occasionally through "set pieces" like the one below.



Even his most beautiful pieces had a slightly industrial, haunted edge. This one was like something out of a steampunk nightmare.

Great play on light and shadow.

 

And many, many more. If you find yourself in Paris sometime between now and 20 May 2013, I highly recommend the exhibit.

We took a quick lunch in the museum cafe, and then couldn't resist being back outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. After the dismalness of a London winter, I needed the sunshine.


And apparently I wasn't alone! Tourists and Parisians basking in the sun on the terrace outside the Palais de Tokyo.




Another shot of the tower as we crossed the Passerelle Debilly bridge

As wonderful as it was to be walking along the rive gauche, we decided to head back to the 16-eme and take a meander through the Bois de Boulogne since we weren't sure when the next time would be we'd be staying in that corner of Paris.

A map of our (somewhat meandering) route. You can see where we got a little bit lost at the beginning (towards the bottom of the map) and ended up instead in the botanical garden before needing to backtrack. Ah well, it's not a true vacation if you never get a little lost right?

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyHike

We only really got to see a small proportion of the park and look forward very much to exploring the rest, perhaps by bike. A good excuse to finally try out Paris's bike share scheme, perhaps?


Roller blades & a stroller.

And it wasn't just people out and about, some of the local wildlife also decided to bask in the warmth

Bunny rabbit! Yes, little rabbit, we can indeed see you.

From there, we sat in a cafe for a while with hot drinks and perused one of the local newspapers (Stephen helped with some of the more complicated turns of phrase, but it was good practice for my French) while people watching (one of my favourite Paris past-times) Then back to the hotel for some down time before dinner. . .

Next post, dinner at L'Entredgeu.
As always, the above is just a smattering of the photos I took. You can see the full set of pictures from the trip over on my flickr page.

Next trip: Paris

There really is something phenomenal about Paris in spring. Cliche I know, but there is something about this time of year that I start to yearn to travel again, and where better to stretch our legs than Paris?

So tomorrow we're off for a quick weekend away. A little bit of fun to perk us up a bit. We'll be staying in a slightly different part of the city than usual, having found quite a good deal with Le Meridien Etoile located just to the north of the Bois de Boulogne, on the border between the 16th &17th arrondissements.

I've put Stephen in charge of sourcing dinner for Saturday night and I've booked us on a pastry & chocolate walking/tasting tour for Sunday afternoon (because, why not?). Otherwise, if it's rainy we'll check out a museum - there looks to be a cool modern art place not too far away or perhaps we'll head down to one of the museums in the Trocadero or, in a pinch, there's always the Louvre! - if it's sunny we'll probably wander around the Bois. There is always the chance that we'll get a wild hair and do something totally different! 

Unfortunately, it looks like our beloved Sunday organ concerts at Notre Dame are no more - they've moved them to Saturday evenings*. Not the end of the world, but the previous schedule made for the best way to round off our weekend. Paris is pretty quiet on a Sunday evening, so we'll see what we end up finding.

Stay tuned!


* a subsequent look at the Notre Dame website seems to indicate that the Sunday afternoon concerts might resume after Lent. That's great news and I sincerely hope it will be the case. Those concerts are always one of our trip highlights.

Belgium on a Whim - Day 2

So despite a rather shorter night of sleep than we intended, the next day we got a lazy start and headed off for breakfast. I'm used to the sleepy feel of Sunday morning streets in Europe, but this was really something else. Fortunately, by the time we ate and headed back out to see what our last day in Brussels held in store there was a little more life starting up:

The weather was already pretty inconsistant with periods of rain and periods of grey, gloom. So we decided to make it a museum day. The Magritte Museum was quite high on our list, unfortunately for Bobby & Erica it was timed entry and the next available slot was after they needed to head back to Germany. So Stephen and I got those tickets in advance (our train being later), and the group's second choice was the Chocolate Museum, or more formally the Museum of Cocoa & Chocolate, located around the corner from the main plaza.

It's quite a small, narrow space, filled with various tidbits & trinkets of the chocolate trade, both historical and more modern. While overall quite a fun space, many of the particular exhibits are somewhat dated; still there's plenty to wander around and poke your nose into.

An example of a traditional canoe from Africa used to transport cocoa beans. Inside are baskets of beans from different countries to showcase some of the differences even at the raw stage of the chocolate production process.

One level up from there was a room filled with various chocolate crafts including this display of chocolate clothing. Yes, clothing made from chocolate. Kind of cool, though for obvious reasons quite brittle.

On the wall heading back downstairs was a series of stock certificates in many old chocolate companies. This one in Imperial Russian caught my eye. Even then, the chocolate trade was global - the stuff of empires.

The highlight of our visit however, wasn't the exhibits, but rather the demonstration! Held in a kitchen at the back of the musuem, we were taken through how modern day chocolatiers practice their craft. On show for us, was the way that pralines are made. Pralines were invented in Brussels, so it was a very fitting choice. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the name of the truly charming young chocolate maker who gave the demonstration. Not only was he clearly skilled in his craft, but he also gave the talk in 4 languages! I was tucked back into the corner, so apologies for the rather awkward angle of the photographs (not to mention the bar of the glass cabinet to my left).

Showing us how most chocolatiers receive their chocolates - in large bars of about a kilo each, which then have to be melted in vats (such as the one on the bottom right of my photo) before being worked.

I didn't realise how simple the process for making pralines was! Basically, you take a mold - that can be anything from something that resembles an ice cube tray to children's masks (see in the background below)- fill it with chocolate. . .

Evening out any rough edges.

And then tip it over

A thin coating of chocolate sticks to the sides while the rest falls back into the vat, resulting in thin shells that can be filled pretty much with whatever you like. Fun! And he encouraged us to try them at home and let our imaginations run wild. Erica and I exchanged rather meaningful glances. I haven't had a chance to give it a go at home yet, and wonder if she has. Still it was quite a lot of fun and he had such a gentle and kind demeanour that we stayed chatting with him for quite a while after. Definitely the highlight of our trip.

And after all that, we couldn't really help, but go around the corner to Leonidas and pick up some yummy pralines for ourselves!

A truly mouth watering selection, no?

A quick bite to eat in a local pub, by which time, the sun had started setting on us again, and it was time to say good-bye to Bobby & Erica (it always seems to end too soon!) while Stephen and I headed off to finish our day at the Magritte Museum.

Approaching the Museum from the South.

Our tickets included an audio guide, which Stephen got in French and I took in English (sadly, my French isn't quite that good). We were both really impressed not just with the guides but with the over all curation of the permenant collection itself. It manages not just to cover Magritte's development as an artist, but to place that development within the overall historical context of the region. So the collection includes not just paintings and sketches, but family snapshots, letters, journals and other publications of the period. Very thoughtful and we walked away with a much richer understanding of this incredible artist but also a larger appreciation for his particular moment in art history. We literally stayed until they kicked us out, going back and forth between different works that we liked or didn't like and exploring some of the themes (body image, peace, social conciousness) in more detail.

We took a leisurely route back to the hotel, still thinking about Magritte and enjoying the late evening sunshine as it reflected off the buildings.

Golden sunlight

Overall, I must say I was much more charmed by Brussels than I expected to be. I expected a slightly dingy, industrial city that lacked soul. What I found was a relatively quite capital that had really interesting architectural features and history to match. A delightful weekend full of unexpected surprises - just what we needed!

---

A selection of my photos appear above, but if you want to see all of them, head over to my flickr page.

Brussels on a Whim - Day 1

Whew! Sorry for the long gap, everyone. It's been a pretty hectic six months or so at work, which has put me behind on the blog. Thanks for coming back and without further adieu here's a few catch-up posts.

---

After hurridly making plans the day before, we arrived into Brussels on Saturday lunchtime where we met up with Bobby & Erica, took a quick trip to the hotel, check-in and drop bags then out to explore a little and (most importantly) find lunch!

On the way into town, though, we took a bit of a detour past the Royal residence & nearby park. Despite being in the depths of winter, there was still a goodly bit of green about.

In the park, they had a few pieces of sculpture installed that focused on the culinary heritage of the city. At first we couldn't figure out what balloons had to do with Brussels, but on closer inspection we realised that it was decorated with mussel shells!

Moules!

Giant moule in bright orange (no I didn't get it either, but you certainly couldn't miss it for the colour!)

A recommendation from the hotel had us heading into the centre of town, threading through some wonderful old streets. Unfortunately, both of the places we had recommendations for had since closed, so finding ourselves on a random street corner in Brussels we decided to take a punt. Across the plaza was a fairly unassuming bistro called Brasserie du Jaloa. Why not? Over we went and sure enough they had a table for four. Win! Only once we were seated and I did a bit of googling did I realise that we had managed to plonk ourselves down into a Michelin starred bistro. Rather more indulgent than we were originally intended, but extremely tasty with good service and quiet enough the four of us could get caught up properly.

After words, we definitely needed a bit of a walk, and being November, the sun was already starting to set, giving the city a beautiful golden glow.

The bourse or stock exchange. One of Europe's oldest.

Sadly the city's Roman foundation museum was already closed. But we peeped through the glass doors down into the ruins. Will have to try to visit on our next trip


The grand plaza


Beautiful frescos on the side of one of the buildings


And coming into another square, a market was packing up where 2 horn players were playing around with some antique instruments.

More than a little cold and still pretty full from our epic lunch, we decided to take any easy night of it. Chatting away, with a light cold supper (cheese, crusty bread, pickles, charcuterie and plenty of wine) was a great way to spend time with old friends.

A minor hitch with our room (in the form of a smoke alarm that beeped incessantly and very loudly) meant that we didn't actually get settled in to sleep until gone midnight. Fortunately, the next day was to be a late start and somewhat flexible. . .to be continued

Alternate Plans

Earlier this week I had a post all ready to go announcing an impending trip to The Big Apple where I would get to catch up with a very dear old friend, get some face time in with colleagues and then dash down South to see my brother and sister-in-law who have two new dogs and a new house!

Needless to say a certain sub-tropical storm has put paid to those plans. Fortunately, everyone I know or had been planning to see in and around NYC is physically safe and sound though the challenges of cleaning up and getting back to normal are going to take some time to overcome (understandably). The last thing they need are extra people making that process more difficult, really. My thoughts go out to everyone still struggling and I wish that I had something more useful to do than send money to the American Red Cross.

So, yesterday there I was starting to remake plans for spending the next two weeks in London when I got a text from our friends in Germany (the same ones we went to Paris with back in March) asking us if we might randomly be free to go to Belgium this weekend for a chocolate festival. A quick call to Stephen and we decided "Why not?!". So, tomorrow morning we're off to Brussels to eat some chocolate, laugh with old friends and explore a new city. Not a bad consolation prize.

Watch this space for updates over the weekend!

One Day in Paris: Would we do it again?

After all of that lead up, the ultimate question comes down to: Is Paris "doable", in any meaningful sense of the word, as a day trip?

The answer is both yes and no.

Yes, in that it is physically possible and you can have a lovely day out (as we did!). 

But also. . .

No, in that, I definitely I would NOT recommend it for those who have never been before and are unsure when they are likely to go back. I'm not sure that I would make a habit of it either.

The downsides

• The day started way too early and honestly I don't think gained us much except being more tired than we otherwise would have been. Those of you who know me, know that mornings are not my best time of day and a 5am wake-up call on a Saturday is a killer. Not much in Paris is actually open before 10am anyway, and as we found out getting there right as things open doesn't really gain you much of an advantage on the weekend (weekdays might be different). On a similar note. . .
• The latest train back to London is around 8pm (9pm in summer). This means you need to be back at Gare du Nord no later than 7:15. No time at all for any evening activities, let alone dinner. Which brings me to food. . .
• I mentioned this in my opening post - you get a limited experience of eating in Paris. Yes, I know that food isn't everyone's "thing", but it is one of our things and not getting a proper, leisurely French meal was something we really missed. When you go for the day, time is *very* limited, and even though we got in some nice eating, we felt rushed to get off to the other things we wanted to do. If this is your first or possibly only trip to Paris, amplify this feeling times 100 and really, that's just no good. And speaking of time limits. . .
• Unless you're crazy, you'll have time for 2 real activities - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It was hard enough for us to pick 2 activities and this was hardly our first trip to Paris (nor our last!) - I would have no way of advising someone who's first and maybe only trip to Paris was one day on what 2 - 2! - things to see. How can you do a city like Paris justice with only 15 hours?

The upsides

• We didn't lose our whole weekend. Not that I begrudge our weekend jaunts, but I think everyone knows the feeling of coming back home from a great trip, starting to unpack and realising that you've not done the laundry for the week, dirty dishes are still in the sink, and when in the world are you going to go grocery shopping? So from that perspective, it was kind of nice to get back from a little day trip and still have time for all the various bits and pieces of life that need to be squeezed into our weekends.
• Not needing a hotel room. Hotels in Paris, like many big cities, are *expensive*. It was nice not to have to incur that expense, but this is a really small thing if you budget properly.

Would we do it again?
Maybe. I certainly won't make this the primary way we "do" Paris, but it would be something to consider if there was a specific thing that we really wanted to see and our schedules were too hectic (or train tickets/hotel rooms too expensive) to be able to make a whole weekend of it. So for the odd exhibition, afternoon concert (see the problems with evenings, above), or festival, then I think we'd consider another day trip. But I think our first preference would be to try and make it overnight to give us a little bit of breathing space.

An interesting experiment to be sure and just gives us more options for how we approach things. With luck, someone else out there will find my musings useful. 

Opening post is here: One Day in Paris - an experiment
Post on what we actually did is here: One Day in Paris - what we did

One Day in Paris - what we did

*dusts off travel notes*

So in the end what did we actually do with our one day in Paris?

After getting off the train, we headed straight to La Cinémathèque française for their Tim Burton exhibit. It was a beautiful sunny day and we arrived pretty much as the museum opened. 

Ta da! I was really impressed with the architecture of the building over all, some very cool lines. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to correspond at all to the inside layout. Still neat to look at though.


More architectural coolness



Despite this, we still had to stand in what was a remarkably long line for 10:30am on a Saturday. Turns out that we could have bought tickets in advance which would have let us skip said line, but live and learn I suppose.

Me playing around while waiting in line.

In the end, we didn't get into the exhibit until nearly 11, and I was really surprised by how packed it was - not only with people, but with stuff. The local curators had done their best to try and lay everything out in a coherent manner, but the extremely small nature of the museum itself (surprising considering the expansiveness of the outside architecture) meant that all it did was exacerbate the problem of people just milling around rather than moving through the exhibit at a reasonable pace.

Still, we enjoyed it and got a bit of a better insight into what is really a phenomenally twisted mind. Interesting stuff, but highly highly weird. It seemed to go down very well with the locals though.

The rest of the museum was part history, part technological explanations, part costume display and again, surprisingly small. But it was enjoyable to wander around. Not sure if I would come back again just for the museum itself, but if they were showing a unique film that I was super keen to see or something else brought us to this corner of Paris and we had an hour or so to kill, I might.

From there we were pretty hungry and tired of standing and decided to take lunch nearby to our next planned event. So back to the Right Bank we went and over to a charming little neighbourhood bistro called La Table de Claire. We had the lunch formule (simple fare, but extremely thoughtfully cooked, clearly the best of the day's market) with a glass of wine each and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. 

And also lost a little track of time, because we had to leg it over to the metro station to meet up with the Paris Walks guide for the tour of Père Lachaise Cemetery. As always with Paris Walks, the guide was extremely knowlegeable and not only took us by the usual popular gravesites, but also showed us some of the more obscure-to-English speakers sites. It was funny because we kept running across a French tour with a very animated guide who was clearly perturbed that we English speakers were deviating from the "usual" path. Our guide also did a great job of explaining the history of not only the people, of the cemetary itself and how it fits into Parisian life. I've included a few samples of some of the things we saw, but the full set of pictures as usual is over on my flickr page.

The gates leading into Père Lachaise


The entrance to the ossuary - where the bones of those whose graves have either had their leases expire and no family members come forward to claim the remains or those whose graves have fallen into disrepair.


One of the oldest (though rebuilt several times) grave sites - that for Abelard & Héloïse. United in death as they never could be in life.


Loved this grave for the "fantasmagorie" or phantasmagoria in English. Fab!


There were also some beautifully emotive sculptures - loved the way that this one caught the light through the trees.


A neoclassical monument to someone forgettable, but I really enjoyed the combination of "eloquence" alongside "justice". Very French.


Obligatory picture of Jim Morrison's grave - apparently the fact that he was allowed to be buried here makes the French rather grumpy. Lachaise is meant to be for residents of Paris only, and Morrison died while only visiting, you see. Judging from the tributes still left here (and the emotion of many young French school kids there), that seems to be a minority view.


Another stunning sculpture.


A monument redone for one of France's earliest suffragettes, Hubertine Auclert.


The crematorium - down below is where the ashes for Maria Callas were originally lain.


Kissing Oscar Wilde's grave


Another striking feature of the cemetery was the section dedicated to those who died in disasters or other acts of violence. There are several to the many WWII death camps - it's clear that the French national conscious still seems very troubled from their own complicity. As per usual, they've turned that discomfort into some beautiful and very moving tributes.


And finally heading out of the cemetary is the monument to all the dead. Our guide explained that it's intended to express the many conflicted emotions that people often experience as they contemplate and face their own mortality. I thought it was beautiful and extremely moving. We sat here for a while to think and reflect.

The tour was supposed to be 2 hours, but lasted nearly 3. Not complaining! But it did mean yet again that we were a little footsore and yet still had a few hours to kill before our train. We were also a little peckish (yet again) and so thought a bit of a nibble and some good french wine would do us good. Back into the centre of town we went, originally to Willi's, which unfortunately closed for refurbishment (a common practice during July in Paris), so we headed over to La Garde Robe as our second option - and was well worth being the first option. It was towards their closing time, so staffing was rather light (read: slow service), but we had time to kill so this wasn't an issue for us. We ordered a really delightful bottle of a light almost slightly fizzy red, served just a tiny bit chilled. It was *perfect* for a summer's day, and naturally I now can't find my notes as to what it was! Should have taken a picture of the label. We also had a lovely cheese & charcuterie plate along with a fantastic tomato salad. 

So we whiled away the last 2 hours or so over a bottle of wine and some very tasty food - just how a trip to Paris should end. Then it was back on the train home where we were sat across from another young (although younger than us) couple, who had just taken their first trip to Paris and gotten engaged. After a bit of oohing and aahing and congratulations-ing, we got to talking about Paris. What they liked, what they didn't and sharing our passion for the place. It was funny because the first thing they said was - the food was terrible. Then we asked them what they ate; they responded - pizza. Cue a look between Stephen and I, then I got out Clotilde's book and we talked about travel and food and our tips for finding good food in Paris and other cities. It was a lively and fun conversation, and I hope that we entertained them as well. It also brought back lots of memories about our early travel days and really brought into focus how much we've learned about each other and the world around us. A wonderfully thoughtful end to a pretty good day.

Next up: Would we do it again? Thoughts & reflections on Paris as a day trip.