Correcting the Saints

It isn't that the Saints made any mistakes, it was the blogger who erred. I confused Saint Denis with Saint Martin,  and mislabeled the canal photographs. Corrections have been made. The neighborhood we visited in Paris is known as Canal Saint Martin. Saint Denis may have lost his head, but The Urban Flaneur temporarily lost his memory. 
That's all I'm Saying !

How could I have...

... forgotten the beautiful Marc Chagall designed windows at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Reims. I have added six new photographs from Reims to the Paris set, right before the grand finale view of the Tour Eiffel. Reims was our day trip from Paris, via the TGV, or high speed train; the same high speed train where we waited in the slowest ticket line and so aptly described by Frank in his post. <<<<< Click to read.
It was a very chilly day in Reims, which seems to be a pattern for us. Ten years earlier, when we visited Chartres Cathedral, we had the chilliest day of that trip. We toured the lovely cathedral then headed to a warm and cozy Italian restaurant in Chartres. 
But back to Reims...the Cathedral, according to the entry in Wikipedia, has the second largest number of sculpted figures on its exterior in all of Europe, only exceeded by the number at Chartres. The beautiful stained glass windows of the Cathedral are from the 13th to the 20th century. The highlight for us was the Marc Chagall designed windows - simply wonderful. 


Click on the Tour Eiffel to view the Paris photographs. (Now including Reims)

Paris

Let's Go to Paris

We returned from Paris on January 5. Since then I have been sorting through the 500+ photographs from the trip to edit them down to a reasonable number for on-line viewing. I posted the London collection a few days ago, and today (ta-da) I am posting the Paris collection. Ah, the Paris Collection (with a capital C) sounds like Fashion Week in Paris; not quite, but fun none the less. I enjoy culling though all the pictures as it brings back great memories from the trip. 
The Paris set starts with a panoramic of the Louvre museum across the Seine. We then take a walk through the Left Bank, on to the Pompidou Center and the modern art museum. Next stop is the Place de Vosges, a delightful small square just a block from our Right Bank hotel. We then take a stroll through Ile de St. Louis, to Ile de la Cite and Notre Dame and the Memorial to the Deportees. As we wander the street of Paris, we visit a district we have not visited on previous trips, Canal St. Denis (he of lost head fame - see Notre Dame).  After a quick night shot of the Christmas decorations in Rue Cler, we see some of Paris in Black & White. For the grand finale we return to the Champ de Mars for a final look at the Eiffel Tower at night. Here we stood on New Years Eve, 2009, as we had on New Years Eve 1999. Ooh-la-la. (Links provided for further reading)


Climb (or click) the Tour Eiffel to view the Paris Collection

Paris

London Calling - Cool Britannia

Finally, I have posted photographs from the London portion of our recent trip. Hey, it takes time to pare down from the original 519 images to a more reasonable number like the 34 in the London collection. I am still working on the Paris and Reims photographs - so stay tuned.


The London collection includes sights around London, our boat trip to Greenwich, a  few night shots (check out Carnaby Street, which is still stuck in the trendy 60's) and finishes with a series from The British Museum. 
For those of you who follow my "self-portraits", I only managed one during the stay in London, and it is only of the toes of my shoes straddling the Prime Meridian in Greenwich. 2009 was a special year for Frank and me - we visited the Eastern and Western Hemisphere in Greenwich, and made our first trip south of the Equator last June. So, does that mean we were in four hemispheres in one year? I like the sound of that. 
We had a great time in London, and I think we gained a better appreciation of what London has to offer. 

Enjoy the photographs of LONDON. (Click on the Lion)

London

Another Teaser

More on the way, stay tuned.

Sunday Dinner

We have only been back from London and Paris for 6 days and already Frank and I were craving another French meal. So, out came Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells, an old standby that falls open automatically to some favorite recipes. This time it was Poulet Basquaise or Basque Style Chicken. This is great Bistro fare, with multi-layers of flavor from the variety of ingredients. (I promise I will post the exact recipe later). For now, here is a brief review: The chicken is sautéed until golden, then diced prosciutto, garlic, sliced red bell peppers and red pepper flakes (or minced green chilies) are added to the chicken. This simmers for 45 to 60 minutes until the chicken is done. In another pan, onions are sautéed until soft, and fresh (or canned) tomatoes added. This simmers for 30 minutes. The onion/tomato sauce is spread over the plate, and the chicken is served on top. OMG was it good.
However, in our world, one dish is not enough to bring back the memories of the trip to Paris. So, we started the afternoon with a lunch of duck pate on slices of French Baguette. The baguette came from Fresh Market, which I must say was one of the best grocery store baguettes I have had. Mid-afternoon we enjoyed an aperitif of Campari and soda with olives marinated in olive oil and Herbs de Provence. Finally we reached the appetizer of tuna tartare, I tried to duplicate the one we had at La Mediterranee in Paris; I came close. After the chicken dish, we finished the evening with a Cherry Clafoutis, a variation of Patricia Wells' Pear Clafoutis. This meal was fun, and brought back great memories of a great trip. C'est Bon.

New Art

I have recently been redecoration my study by replacing much of my older furniture with more contemporary pieces from my new favorite furniture stores - IKEA and American Signature. The new look is more in keeping with the style of the rest of the loft and it also provides better guest accommodations. No longer will guest have to endure the Aero Bed; they now have a real sleeper sofa. My good friend Paul (of Paul and Libby's World of Travel fame - link in left sidebar, check it out), created a wonderful contemporary painting for the room, picking up on the red accent colors. It looks great as you can see in this picture. Paul, thanks so much. And would you care to enlighten my readers on the artist whose style inspired you for this piece.

A Teaser

I am working on the photographs from the trip - here is a teaser.

The Joy of Travel - A Rant

 I am typing this and the prior post at 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, on our flight from Paris to Miami. I am reminded of how the logistics of travel is no longer fun, and hasn't been for a long time. Our world has changed and it has impacted travel as well as other facets of our lives. It is something we must endure to get to the places we want to go. So allow me to rant a moment. We arrived at the airport 2 ½ hours before our scheduled departure, after an expensive 7 AM taxi ride from our hotel, as we opted to avoid the schlepping of our luggage up and down metro station stairs. That was the easy part. We managed to get through the initial security check with little difficulty (you know the questions like, “Who packed your bag?”, “Did anyone give you anything to carry on the flight?”, etc), but when we went to get our boarding passes, we were told that our “carry-on” sized luggage was not permitted and we had to check our luggage. We pack light so we don't have to check luggage, so this was a disappointment although we figured it wasn't about the size of the luggage as much as the heightened security measures resulting from the Mr. Pants-on-Fire Detroit passenger from a couple of weeks ago. Check our bags we did, and received our boarding passes with instructions to proceed to the security screening without delay as it would be a slow process. Wrong! Ms. American Airlines. To our amazement, we breezed through the security checkpoint, laptop out, shoes removed and all. There was virtually no line which made us wonder why? The departure board, and our boarding passes indicated that our flight would be delayed 45 minutes. So we stopped for a light breakfast at a cafe, checked out some of the gift shops, before proceeding to our gate area. In the gate area we noticed some passengers with carry-on luggage the same size as ours, but why were they allowed their bag, and we were not? Eh? We were there about 30 minutes, with another 15 minutes or more before our revised boarding time, when our boarding group was called to proceed to the plane (or so we thought). Not so fast weary traveler. In small groups of four or five people, we were led to another security checkpoint on the jetway to the plane, which was much more thorough than the first. While no x-ray screening, we had to remove everything from our pockets, remove our shoes again, get scanned by a wand, and be patted down. Any carry-on was thoroughly searched. Obviously, this was a slow time-consuming process, but I guess necessary, although a definite annoyance. Finally all passengers on our flight were frisked, and herded (yes, the reference to the mass movement of animals is intentional) onto the plane, where we now sit with only inches between us and the seat in front. We pulled away from the gate only two hours after our originally scheduled departure time. I don't have a solution to the security issues, but it seems like there must be a better way. Then again, I have to remind myself, that it is not about the “getting there”, it is about the “being there”. I would go through all of this inconvenience again to travel to a destination of my choosing.

That's All I'm Saying

Au Bascou

We finished our wonderful trip to London and Paris with a great meal at Au Bascou, a Basque restaurant in the 3^rd  Arrondissement. While not a typical Basque menu, it was definitely influenced by that region of France. This small restaurant was warm and inviting, and the staff was very friendly. We even had to opportunity to meet the chef/owner. We both rated this as our second best meal of the trip after La Mediteranee and a fitting finish to a series of fine food. After aperitifs of Kir Royale (Frank) and Campari with Soda (me), we enjoyed delicious and unusual appetizers of Piperade with ham, served over scrambled eggs (Frank) and Fricassee of Escargot for me. For the main plate Frank ordered Chicken and Foie Gras served with cabbage and ham, while I enjoyed the best lamb dish of the trip (more on that in a minute). It was braised shoulder of lamb, cut-with-a-fork tender, and loaded with a rich deep flavor. It was served with roasted eggplant and tomatoes, and couscous with raisins. For dessert Frank enjoyed a chocolate ganache while I had a Beret Basque (which I ordered not knowing what I was going to get). It was a rich chocolate mouse on top of a thin chocolate cake, topped with chocolate ice cream and a thin chocolate wafer. Needless to say, I enjoyed it.

Back to the hold-that-thought lamb; I don't know how it happened, and it definitely was not intentional, but of the nine dinners we had on this trip, I had lamb for four of them, mostly in England. After the third lamb dish in London, I said, “no more lamb for me”. Well, I am happy I tossed that pledge out the window for the lamb at Au Bascou.