Something always happens...

So if you know me well (this is Michael typing), you may be familiar with my history of travel mishaps and misadventures. You might know about the hurricane I was in (alone), the narrowly missing a flight home from Greece, and the cross-border hitchhike on an 18-wheeler. This time, things were supposed to be different—I'm traveling with Samantha, we stay in actual accomadations, and take our time getting around. So we decided to rent a car for our sidetrip to the Loire Valley. A sensible idea, since there are three traveling and we want to reach out-of-the-way places. So I went online and booked a car for the three days. Wanting to save money, I chose the cheapest option available—a three-door stick-shift hatchback that gets like 100km/gallon. Only one problem: I don't drive stick. (Actually, I owned a manual Civic a few years ago for four days before it got totaled, not my fault and a completely different story.)

Somehow, I figured it would all come back to me, and... it didn't. Here's what happened: After getting the keys, we went across the street where our car was parked. There was a taxi parked behind me, so we needed to back up—except I couldn't figure out how. People were coming by wanting to take our space, but I had to wave them off. And all this in the middle of Paris. Finally, I noticed a car waiting to take our spot, and guess who it was? A driving school car, with the student behind the wheel and the teacher in the passenger seat! I waved him over and explained our problem in English. He got out of his car ( a VW Golf just like ours!) and showed me the tricky way to engage reverse. All was well—almost. I kept stalling over and over trying to leave the parking spot, and finally we broke free and entered mid-day Paris traffic. Right away the GPS led us to one of those traffic circles (%^#$@%!!!) where we went around and around looking for the exit—and almost got smashed between a 911 and another VW. Yikes. Thankfully, we finally made it onto the highway and towards our destination. Five hours and countless traffic circles later I think I've got a handle on French traffic—for now anyway.

Check out the vid below, courtesy of my laughing bro Johnnie.


Michael

Bon Apétit

Yesterday was the much anticipated cooking class that I had signed up for. The menu was as follows:
Tartiflette with an arugula salad with vinaigrette
Magret du Canard with a soubisse, roasted figs and a wine reduction sauce
A cheese course
Crème Brulée and Chocolate Lava Cake...
I had so much fun making this meal and learned quite a bit. Even Michael used the kitchen torch to carmelize the sugar on his crème brulée.

The Tartiflette (scalloped potatoes layered with bacon then topped with cream and cheese and baked) Yes, you will see a pattern of cream and cheese and butter and cream and butter and cheese.... :)
Magret du Canard (Duck breast) with roasted figs, subisse (carmelized onions and aborio rice) and a wine reduction sauce. It sounds really fancy because they use the french names for everything. It was delicious if I don't say so myself.
After the main course we had a cheese course, as you can see. The cheeses ranged from soft and mild to one that had been aged for about 25 years. Michael said it was "a taste of the 80's".
Then, of course, we had dessert. This is my crème brulée. It was a lot of fun using the torch to brown the top. We finished making our meal early so we had time to make another dessert. This is it below.
I'm finishing up my crème brulée so that I can start on my chocolate lava cake! Besides all this lavish food we tasted about 4 wines. Such extravagance can only be justified in Paris :)
-Samantha

Some random interesting pics

Here are some random interesting pics. My brother Johnnie is arriving today from LAX so we should have some exciting adventures to write about in the next few days. For now, check these out...

Sammie and me in the Marais

Sammie looking lovely at the fruit stand

The Princess Bride—in French! There were four people in the theatre, two were us

Donald Dunk truck

Half a building (?!?!?)

Michael

Best drawing ever!

We recently visited the Marais, which is a very eclectic, fashionable, interesting neighborhood. Turns out it's also the traditional Jewish area, but the once-thriving quarter has now dwindled to just a few streets. We had the most amazing falafel ever—will have to go back and take pics.

Came across an interesting art gallery where they had this in the window. Hilarious!


Michael

Smallest car ever!

This has to be the smallest car ever. The pics don't do it justice because the other French cars in the shot are also tiny by comparison to American vehicles. But you could probably fit this in the passenger seat of most SUVs back home. Pretty much a covered moped!



Michael

Been a few days between posts...

We've been taking a break the last few days, mostly staying around the neighborhood. I worked remotely this week, which ended up going quite well. I would get up in the morning, get a croissant, and work until noon. Then we would go out and explore, go the market, etc. In the evening I would resume working until everything was done. Had some late nights this week but that's okay. Gonna make some more blog posts now...

Michael

Everything tastes better in Paris...

...and it's not just because of the wine. At least that's not the only reason. It's seems like food is just fresher here. You buy something at the supermarket or outdoor market and it's ready to be eaten right away. Must be because the french shop more often than we do...

So Samantha made our first home-made dinner a few nights ago. Our kitchen is small, but well-equipped with all the basic necessities. I just have to be careful not to get in the way. If one of us bends down in the kitchen, the other one falls down in the living room! Still, that hasn't stopped Sammie from cooking up a storm. We went to the outdoor market on Saturday and saw all kinds of fresh produce, meat, cheese, and other good stuff (promise to post some market pics in a few days). After walking down many aisles of tempting ingredients, we decided on fresh salmon with sauteed vegetables. The fishmonger chopped us a couple fillets, and we selected veggies from among the vendors. On the way home we picked up a nice bottle of Chateau La Grave Béchade, a dry white from the Côtes de Duras area.

Sammie baked the salmon using nothing more than lemon, olive oil, garlic, pepper and salt. It was truly amazing. The flavor was so... salmon-y. And the wine was a perfect match. For dessert we had fresh figs and two cheeses from the local market. Check it out...

Michael