Aaaaand we're back

I don't think I've stopped moving since I got back on the....wait when did I get back?  I don't know, sometime the second week of December.  I haven't posted anything new for a couple of reasons:

1.  Between the trip, work, and getting ready for the holidays, it seems like this has been the busiest December ever in the history of man.  An overstatement?  Perhaps.

2.  My new camera got broken mid-trip (still brings a tear to my eye).

Thank god I'm an over-packer and brought an extra camera.  Good news is that I was able to recover the images from the broken one, so new posts soon to come!  So that this post isn't boring, here's a picture from Gibraltar. 

European Voyage Part Sept: Paris

Alright, this is the homestretch! Stick with me. This is the last post on my trip to Europe, promise! We left Aix-en-Provence mid-morning, and took the TGV to Paris. The TGV is a high speed train (Train à Grande Vitesse if you want to get technical) that goes about 170 mph. God, I love train travel. It only took about 3 hours, and it's so relaxing. I love seeing all the different scenery too. Anyway, we arrived in Paris at Gare de Lyon. Good god, it was HUGE, busy, and crowded. Definitely a change of pace from A-e-P.

We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Saint Christophe located in the 5th arrondissement (the Latin Quarter I think), and then headed out. We attempted to take bus # 69, a public transportation bus that runs east-west and goes by a lot of the great sights, but it was the weekend bus schedule, so trying to find it proved to be a task. Eventually we just hopped on the metro and made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Not to be cheesy or touristy, but WOW.




Pictures don't even do it justice. Paris is a pretty low-rise city, no skyscrapers, so the Eiffel Tower stands out even more. After standing with our mouths open for a few minutes, we spotted a crêpe stand and decided to grab a late lunch. Again, crêpe complet for me, crêpe au sucre for my mom. Yummm.

My last crêpe of the trip : ... ( - that's a sad face with a tear running down if you can't tell.

Then we hopped on a bus to take a tour of the city. I won't inundate you with my many typical tourist pictures, but here are a couple of my favorites.







I will say, it was pretty chilly. My extremities were completely frozen by the time we got back to the hotel. The hotel was in a university area, so we just grabbed a quick bite to eat at a little Greek restaurant before completely passing out for the night.

I have to take a moment to give a big shout-out to Moleskin City Notebooks. They are hands down amazing!!!! My best friend got me one for Paris, and then I bought one for Florence. They are unbelievably handy. They have large maps, detailed maps of different neighborhoods, public transportation information, tracing paper to trace different routes, blank paper to make notes, and even a little pocket to store things in. They're small and easily fit in a purse or even a pocket, and for only about $15 each, they are absolutely worth it!


I completely regret not having more time in Paris. The next day was our only full day, and we jam-packed it. In the morning, we went to one of the big antique markets, Marché aux Puces. We could've easily spent our entire day there. It was deceiving at first because the outside of the market is lined with crappy clothing and junk stalls, but if you can find your way into the main building, it's amazing!

Cool floor made out of 2 x 4 slices

If I had had more room in my suitcase, I would've gotten a lot more, but I bought quite a few things as it was. I bought an antique bird print, a Rodin lithograph for my sister (my favorite purchase of the trip), and a first edition Babar poster.

We dragged ourselves away from shopping in order to make it to Versailles before it closed. It was an easy train ride and short walk, and my god was it worth it. Yet again, not to be cheesy tourist, but HOLY LORD. It was STUNNING. Easily the most beautiful part of our trip. Just the scale of the place is MASSIVE. Every direction you looked as far as the eye could see was Versailles. Of all the palaces and grand houses we visited in Europe, Versailles was easily the most liveable, if that were ever even possible.

Front entrance


Around the back towards the gardens.


Grand Canal



View of the palace from below


My favorite sculpture from the entire trip

The Grand Trianon


Gardens everywhere!


One of Louis XVI's coats which was TEENY TINY. I think my 5'2'' tiny skinny mother would've just fit into it.

We spent so much time outside and at the ancillary buildings, that we almost didn't make it back in time to tour the actual palace. We were actually the last ones allowed upstairs to the Hall of Mirrors (whew!).

Yet another surreal moment with all that's happened in that room.

Probably 50 people were crowded into Marie Antoinette's bedroom. It was honestly surreal seeing that much gold and grandeur.

It glowed gold, as you can tell.

Security started scooting everyone out by about 5:30, so reluctantly, we left. I will definitely we going back in the spring or summertime to see all the gardens in bloom.

We leisurely made our way back to our hotel to drop off our many purchases from earlier in the day. We were both starving from trekking all around Versailles, so we headed out for a hearty dinner at a cafe up a couple of blocks. Croque madames and giant Hoegaardens are exactly what the doctor called for.

Good, but nothing touched those from A-e-P.

Paris was a fantastic way to end a fantastic trip. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. You know there are some trips you take, and by the end, you can't wait to get home? Not this one; I wasn't ready to go back to reality. I think I could get used to jet-set (or train-set in my case) life.

European Voyage Part Six: Aix-en-Provence

The trip from Florence to Aix-en-Provence was A-MAZING. The Mediterranean coast is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately I didn't snap any pictures of the train ride, which I really regret. I'd love to do that trip again. It definitely was not short. We started in Florence, then changed trains in Milan and Cannes before arriving in A-e-P, around 12 hours later.

Getting to A-e-P from the train station was a little confusing. Not many signs, but we finally just followed the small crowd to a bus that dropped us off in the town center. Our hotel, Hotel Artea, was nice. It was on Boulevard République only a block or two down from La Rotonde. Very affordable, nothing fancy schmancy, but our room was huge!

Since we got in a bit on the late side, we ate at a bar/cafe just down the block from our hotel. They had a couple of glasses of Kriek and THE MOST delicious croque-madames everrrrrr. I tried ordering them at a few other places in a few different cities, and nothing touched this tiny bar's. Of course, I didn't get a picture of it....I know, I started slacking. Here's a good recipe from Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book:

• 8 slices white or whole-wheat sourdough bread
• 8 ounces Gruyère cheese, sliced into 24-32 1/16-inch-thick slices
• 12 ounces smoked ham, such as Black Forest, sliced into 12-16 1/16-inch-thick slices
• 4 extra-large eggs
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Fleur de sel or kosher salt, to taste
• Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

To assemble the sandwiches:
Set half of the slices of bread buttered side down, and cover them with the cheese slices, folding them back in toward the middle if they extend past the edges of the bread. Place 3 or 4 slices of the ham in an even layer over the cheese, and place the top slice of bread over the ham, buttered side up.

Grill the sandwiches in a two-sided grill or on a heavy-bottomed pan, using clarified butter and turning once. Place on serving plates.

To fry the eggs:
Crack two eggs into two separate bowls to check that the yolks aren’t broken. In 2 6-inch non-stick skillets, melt half of the butter over medium-high heat, until it starts to bubble. Pour 1 egg into each pan, being careful not to break the yolks. Add a teaspoon of water to each pan, sprinkle the eggs with fleur de sel, and cover the pans with lids. Cook the eggs for about 3 minutes for a soft-cooked egg and 5-6 minutes if you like your eggs firm. Wipe out the skillets, and fry the other 2 eggs in the remaining butter in the same manner. Center a fried egg over each of the grilled sandwiches and sprinkle with pepper.

We woke up the next morning, and headed to a little street cart for crêpes. Dear god...they were absolutely fantastic, so good that I had them again lunch. My favorite crêpe was the crêpe complet: egg, cheese, and ham. My mom's was crêpe au sucre: crêpe with granulated sugar. We also stopped and got a baguette. I don't think the Adkins diet exists in Europe....

A-e-P is very very walkable, so we spent the rest of our day exploring the city. It was a little rainy and brisk (to put it nicely), but all the more excuse to stop in at all the little shops. If I'm ever able to go back, I'd love to go during spring or summer to visit the lavender fields.

These little Cezanne tiles were all over the streets. I think they lead to the museum or some kind of path.

We came upon these old hot mineral baths. They were sooooo tempting after our damp chilly day. Had we stayed another day, I think spending time there definitely would have been on our agenda.

About 91 F

We made a stop at Les Deux Garcons for a couple of drinks on our way to the grocery store. Pretty expensive (a tourist trap, I'm sure), but the the decor is cool, and it was fun to go to a place that's been open since 1792. For dinner we decided to go to Monoprix to pick up some cheese for dinner. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I love cheese. Monoprix was a lot of fun to explore; it had everything from food to clothes to housewares to cosmetics to sporting goods. The rest of our night was spending warming up and watching the French versions of "Deal or No Deal" and "Wheel of Fortune." So weird how different they were!

The next morning, we woke up early and tried to go have those heavenly croque madames before we left for Paris, but the bar was out of eggs. It was very upsetting. I have to say that it was really nice to spend some time in a small town before heading off the Paris. After a couple of days though, I was ready to hop back on a train and keep on going.

European Voyage Part Cinque: Venezia

One of the perks of our Eurail pass was jumping on a train any given day for a spur-of-the-moment day trip. It was a little rainy in Florence, so my mom and I decided to hop on a train to Venice. We hadn't planned on making the trip over, but it was only a 4 hour ride and well worth it. It was a little drizzly in Venice too, but such a crazy, amazing place. The odor is indescribable. It's not terrible or fishy...it's just Venice I guess. We spent most of our day on the water buses tootling around the different islands. Man was it cold though. I was ready to get on the nice warm train by the end of the day.

I never quite got over seeing steps just leading into water.

Doge's Palace

Piazza San Marco

The one goal my mom and I had while we were in Venice was to have spritzes, a drink my sister Emily had raved and raved about having while she was in Venice with her husband. They had them at Campo Santa Margherita and said it was a really cute area. Well if we thought Siena was confusing, we had another thing coming when we got to Venice. Instead of venturing to Campo Santa Margherita, we decided to stay at Piazza San Marco for spritzes. They were sooooo good!

Here's the recipe:

• 1 1/2 ounces Aperol (rhubarb liqueur)
  
• 3 ounces Prosecco or sparkling wine, chilled
• Sparkling mineral water or club soda, chilled
• 1 orange slice
• 1 green olive

I personally like my spritz in a tumbler with crushed ice, but it's good any which way. It's really become the family favorite drink. Emily just moved back to Germany and said spritzes are all the rage. One restaurant here in Atlanta serves Aperol, but I haven't seen it anywhere else. We usually just order ours from the local liquor store, so it's easy enough to get.

There were so many dogs in Venice! They were everywhere: off leash, on leash, dressed, and not dressed.

We were only in Venice for lunch, so we just grabbed a quick snack at a bar.

They were okay, nothing to write home about, but not bad by any means. They were nice, hearty, and warm, all that mattered at that point.

We didn't want to venture too far from the train station since we were on the last train back to Florence, so we just wandered around to different shops. We came upon this really cute produce market.

I'm really glad that we got to spend some time in Venice. I would love to go back for longer, and maybe in the springtime when my fingers and toes won't freeze....