Food in France

I know... I got a little carried away with the alliteration. I couldn't help it. Just bear with me.

If a weekend in London got an entire post dedicated to food, you can bet that a whole week in France deserves one, too. I ate really well while I was there. Mostly because I was staying with my mom's friends, and her friends ensured I got to experience France in my favorite way - by eating my way through it. Since I had a lot of food over the course of the week, rather than elaborate on every meal, here's a streamlined log of pretty much every meal I ate in France, with the occasional commentary thrown in.

Wednesday, 27 April:
Snack: (Nanterre) - Briochette and a petit palmier from a boulangerie; a bag of Carambar from Monoprix (Of course the first thing we did in France was go straight to a bakery.)

Lunch: (Nanterre) - Margarita pizza

Snack: (Paris) - Pain au lait and another brioche from Dalloyau (We needed sustenance after a long afternoon of walking around and buying train tickets.)

Dinner: (Nanterre) - Miso soup and salad and Sashimi with a Heineken at Antoine's house (Maik's son invited us to his place for dinner that first night, since Maik was held up at work and we actually didn't see her. We had to climb over her gate and use a hidden key to break into her house since she wasn't there when we arrived. Katie was too tired to eat with Antoine and his brother, but as soon as they told me they were ordering Japanese, I had to go eat sushi and practice my French! And oh it was so delicious... my first time having sushi in 4 months.)

Thursday, 28 April:
Breakfast: (Nanterre) - Yogurt and muesli (I discovered my love of muesli earlier in the semester in Ireland. They served it for breakfast in all the hotels we stayed at in the beginning.)

Lunch:(Nanterre) - Leftover pizza from Wednesday's lunch, reheated in the microwave (It unfortunately wasn't the best the next day... pizza is much better reheated in ovens.)

Snack: (Paris) - Berthillon! One scoop of Gianduja (which was great, except it had orange rinds in it, which I wasn't crazy about) and one scoop of Blood Orange sorbet

Dinner: (Nanterre) - Rosé, Braised chicken with onions, tomatoes, and fresh ginger with rice, baguette, and ice cream Popsicles (Maik was actually home that evening and made us quite the sumptuous meal. French chicken has so much flavor, and is so much more delicious than what you can get in the States.)

Friday, 29 April:
Breakfast: (Nanterre) - Yogurt and muesli

Snack: (Paris) - Granola bar and chocolate chip cookie (Jessie was sweet and bought me the cookie in the Gare de Lyon after she saw me crying - a dead giveaway that I was still upset about the train ticket business.)

Dinner: (Lancharre) - Quiche with bacon, steamed broccoli, red wine, baguette and cheese, and for dessert, poires au vin rouge with pain d'épice and a tisane (I warned my friends that we would eat well in Burgundy. They weren't disappointed. Jessie fell in love with the cheese course - I believe she is going to bring it back to the States and introduce it to her family - and who doesn't love eating desserts made from local Medieval recipes?)

Saturday, 30 April:
Breakfast: (Lancharre) - Black tea, toasted pain d'épice, and tartines with homemade confiture - pumpkin with lemon; blackberry; and peach (Oh my god I love their homemade jams. I really want to try making some this summer. If I do, I'll be sure to report how it comes out.)

Lunch: (Lancharre) - Stew of veal and vegetables with a light cream sauce, radishes with butter, salt and pepper, salad, baguette and cheese, red wine, and fresh strawberries and sorbet - mango and passion fruit. (I haven't ever really eaten veal, so I wasn't super crazy about the meat, but everything else was delightful.)

Dinner: (Lancharre) - Angel hair pasta with different sauces - Cream sauce from the stew at lunch, pesto, tomato with eggplant, and tomato with basil - salad, bread and cheese, red wine, and plain yogurt with the homemade peach jam for dessert

Sunday, 1 May:
Breakfast: (Lancharre) - Black tea, toasted pain d'épice, and tartines with homemade confiture

Snack: (Chapaize) - Croissant aux amandes from a boulangerie (We had taken my friends to a Sunday church service, and on the drive back to the house, Bernard needed to stop to pick up some baguette. He wound up also picking up some pastries for us to have later, as well as the almond croissants to have right then and there outside the bakery. So yummy; it tasted like the galette we have for King's Day/The Epiphany.)

Lunch: (Lancharre) - Greek salad (tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, olives, and feta cheese), radishes, fish cake (like a bread loaf with a mix of several different kinds of fish), bread and cheese, red wine, and a chocolate cake with a gilded sun on it and Greek coffee for dessert (Salonge was sweet and made the Greek-inspired meal since she knew my friends were planning to continue on to Greece after France and she wanted to prepare them for the food they could expect.)

Snack: (Lancharre) - Verveine and a slice of the gilded chocolate cake

Dinner: (Lancharre) - Pumpkin soup, salad, bread and cheese, red wine, and Millefeuille and tisane for dessert

Monday 2 May:
Breakfast:(Lancharre) - Tartine (pain complet instead of baguette) with confiture, yogurt, and black tea

Lunch:(Lancharre) - Sauteed chicken with a light curry sauce, steamed potatoes and fennel with Cancoillotte, bread and cheese, salad, red wine, and strawberries and yogurt for dessert

Dinner: (Nanterre) - Sushi (Salmon and avocado rolls) and sashimi (tuna and salmon), salad, miso soup and rosé (Maik remembered how much I love Japanese food. Ahhhh, I was a happy one.)

Tuesday 3 May:
Breakfast: (Nanterre) - Yogurt and muesli

Snack: (Paris) - myberry I stumbled upon a Pinkberry knock-off in Paris! Original with blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries (Not quite as good as the real Pinkberry... but I was still giddy with excitement at finding it.)

Lunch: (Paris) - Café in Montmartre with my mom's friend Cecile: Salade norvegienne - lettuce, tomatoes, avocadoes, lemon slices, shrimp, smoked salmon, with a cocktail sauce.

Snack: (Paris) - Gérard Mulot with Cecile: They gave me a Cherry macaroon that was slightly damaged and then we each had a tarte au citron out in the Luxembourg gardens (She told me that she and my mom often went to that bakery after school and that my mom always got an orange or a lemon tart.)

Dinner: (Nanterre) - Suze (aperitif), Tagliatelle with sauteed turkey and mushrooms in a creamy garlic and pepper sauce, rosé, and a tomato and mozzarella salad with a traditional baguette and fresh basil and olive oil from Portugal (A hearty and delicious last meal in France.)

Om nom nom.

Bliss in Burgundy

I received a complaint that my blog posts have been too long... so I'll just be brief with this one.

Salonge's favorite château

I said already that the last time I was in France, I just fell in love with Burgundy. I wasn't at all disappointed when I went back there on this trip. The world there feels different; it's calmer, and the air tastes deliciously clean and fresh. There's just something so grounding and comforting about being in a place full of reminders of the Middle Ages. Everywhere we went, we saw another medieval church, or another medieval castle, or medieval roads or houses or wells or communal laundry spaces ("lavoires")... We spent our time in the excellent company of old family friends, and they kept us busy - we hiked through the forest and went to one of their son's concerts and visited many of the nearby medieval towns. My mother had always told me that Lancharre is the most beautiful place in the world, and I completely agree. I was so happy to still be able to make it out to Burgundy after losing the train tickets and having to buy new ones.

Jessie and Katie at Cluny

Walking through the forest

Problems in Paris

During my week in France with Katie and Jessie, I spent about half my time in Paris and the other half in Burgundy. The last time I had been in France (three years ago), I also split my time between the two places and decided that I had way more fun in Burgundy than in Paris. I was expecting to feel the same way during this return trip, but I wound up enjoying myself in both places. My experiences were radically different, but both a lot of fun... That is, except for a memorably unfortunate mistake I made in Paris regarding train tickets.

It started at the Gare de Lyon. I had purchased a two-day pass for the metro and then managed to drop it inside the little ticket machine. After some difficulty trying to explain what happened in French to someone who worked at the station, they finally sent a woman over to take apart the machine and retrieve my ticket. I should have known that the little drama was a bad omen.. since two days after that, I realized I had lost two other, far more important tickets: not only my, but also Katie's [rather pricey] TGV tickets from Paris to Burgundy. I woke up early on the day we were supposed to take the train, only to find that the tickets were no where in my bags, or on the nightstand, or in the bed... you can imagine that I was freaking out. I had been so careful about keeping the contents of my bag safe from pickpockets and I could've sworn I had them in the house where we were staying. But alas, they were nowhere to be found. In the end, Katie and I wound up going back to Gare de Lyon and I had to buy both tickets again. I was freaking out about all the money, and I was an absolute wreck for the rest of the afternoon, until we actually made it to Burgundy. As my mom and all of her French friends told me, it could have been a lot worse - I could have lost my passport or my wallet or someone could have gotten sick. All true, but it was still pretty upsetting. It certainly made me cranky, but at least it didn't ruin the whole trip for me. Despite my mishap, I wound up liking Paris a lot more than I had the last time I was in the city.

I believe I talked about this in the London posts, but I'll mention it again: I have no interest in going to toursity sites, whereas for my friends, the formal site-seeing can make or break their trip. So, for their sake, we waited on the lines and went to the very top of the Eiffel Tower on a very grey and blustery day (ahem, it was freeeeezing). I did like the view of the city though - it's designed so beautifully.

On another day, one of my mom's childhood friends offered to take me on a personal walking tour around Paris. I was able to experience it in a very anti-touristy way. She took me up to Sacre Coeur so I could get another almost birds-eye view of the city and then we went strolling up and down all the little side streets in Montmartre. Sacre Coeur is a huge tourist attraction, but none of the visitors ever think to explore the lovely little side streets. It felt entirely different from the rest of Paris; it was like we were transported to a little village where it was just so calm and quiet. As we moved through other neighborhoods, she pointed out all of her favorite buildings and tranquil gardens and all the spots she used to frequent with my mother when they were younger. We spent over four hours together, and by the end of the afternoon, I finally felt like I had really experienced Paris... and I finally really enjoyed it.

Liminal Dublin

Like many people I've talked to, I realize that I much prefer Galway to Dublin as far as Irish cities go. I had fun in Dublin and all, but it just feels sort of like this awkward liminal space for me. Like a big, temporary waiting room for when I leave and enter Ireland. When I first arrived in Ireland back at the beginning of January we spent a couple days in Dublin for orientation before moving on to Galway and I did the same thing before leaving Ireland to go spend a week in France. Jane and I bused out to Dublin together and I stayed with Katie and her mom at The Westin hotel for the two nights before moving on across the pond. I know this makes me sound a little pathetic, but I really didn't have much interest in going to do or see anything in the city for the little time we were there; I just wanted to take a hot shower in the hotel (since we didn't really have hot water all semester in our apartment in Galway) and then take naps because I was rather sleep-deprived (Jane and I had spent the past few nights staying up until 3am hanging out with Pam and Ian before saying good-bye for the semester). As long as I had food, I didn't feel the need to try to conquer Dublin. Like I said, the city just felt like a waiting room.

Well, we did eat (and I had some pretty yummy meals as well as some pretty "meh" ones) and we did end up seeing a little bit (since Jane and Katie's mom didn't feel my same sense of anti-enthusiasm for Dublin). Our first night there, Jane, Katie, and I wandered around rather restaurant/pub-dense Temple Bar District to find somewhere to eat. We decided to stop in a place called Elephant and Castle since I thought I remembered seeing a restaurant with the same name in New York. Our waiter strongly encouraged us to try their famous spicy chicken wings, we caved and split some to start. It was the first time I remember ever really eating hot wings, but they were quite tasty. I spent the whole rest of the meal trying to figure out what all the flavors were in the sauce - I got something that tasted a little bit like vinegar, but I couldn't decide what else was in it. I followed up the appetizer with another first: a charcoal grilled burger with mozzarella and tomato with a pesto sauce and fries on the side (remember: they serve potatoes at practically every meal in Ireland). It wasn't my first time ever eating a burger, but it was my first time eating beef in Ireland. Everyone raves about how awesome Irish beef is, so I figured I should try it at least once before leaving the country. Now, I'm sure it was great quality and excellent tasting beef... but it just made me remember that I really don't like the taste of red meat. With each bite, I kept expecting chicken or a veggie burger, and I was disappointed when I tasted beef instead. I wound up taking out the beef after a while and just having the tomato and mozzarella and pesto on the bun. I ended it all with some mango sorbet - a pretty delightful way to end a meal.

We found a place near Trinity College for breakfast the next morning and I decided to go with yet another first: Irish porridge with fruit. I made myself a lot of oatmeal throughout the semester, but I hadn't ever eaten any real Irish porridge. The porridge itself was really good, but I was a little disappointed. When a menu lists a cereal-type thing with fruit for breakfast, I guess I usually assume fruit combinations of either apples-and-cinnamon or mixed berries of sorts. Instead, they gave me melon and pineapples and grapes, all of which tasted a little weird to me mixed with the creamy porridge. Oh well. Lunch was a bit better (although I can't seem to remember the name of the place). It was a cute little café, also in Temple Bar District, and I had an open-faced grilled chicken sandwich on ciabatta with mozzarella and peppers and salad on the side. Simple, but good. I took half of it back to the hotel with me and had it as a pre-dinner snack later... which proved to be a good idea, since I wasn't too crazy about dinner itself. I just wanted to find a place where I could just get a little soup, but of course the place we found didn't have any soup that sounded appetizing. I wound up just getting a Caesar salad, which usually isn't the best bet in Ireland; they always add bacon to their Caesar salads, and it was way overpriced for what it was. Again I say, oh well. We went to a pub for dessert and listened to some live music for a bit before turning in, so the night ended well, anyway.

As far as the "seeing a little bit" in Dublin goes, we really just went to see two exhibits: the Book of Kells at Trinity College and the Bog Bodies exhibit at the Archaeology museum. The Book of Kells was pretty sweet, especially since we had spent a fair amount of time examining medieval manuscripts in my Medieval Heroic Narratives class at Macalester last semester. The pages were all dizzying to look at, since all of the artwork and detail was so intricate and so tiny. Really though, seeing any remains from the medieval period is pretty awesome. Actually, add to that: seeing remains from the Iron Age is also pretty awesome, although really eerie. I've studied the Bog Bodies a fair amount over the past year, and I had seen pictures of the preserved bodies, but it's a totally different experience seeing them right in front of you in a museum. I couldn't get over how much hair the bodies still had, and the fact that you could still read expressions of fear and pain on their faces, centuries and centuries later. After the exhibit, I was a little creeped out and very much exhausted, so I just went back to the hotel and napped until dinner.

My last experience in Dublin was waking up at 4:00 in the morning to get dressed and catch a cab to the airport to make our 6:30 am flight off to Paris - something I will never recommend anyone ever do.

Galway Adventures with Jane

The only reason I was actually able to finish my castles paper and turn it in a week early was because Jane came to visit me from Scotland, and I needed to be free to spend time with her and show her a good time in Galway. I was really glad she was able to make it out to Ireland - of course because I hadn't seen her in a long while and I missed her, but also because I was the only one of my friend group in Ireland who didn't have a friend or family member come visit them during the semester. It was a little sad to a) not have the same little reminder of home and b) not have anyone to show the city to. I've been living here all semester, but there are still always things you don't really find time for until you have someone whom you want to impress (or at least ensure they enjoy themselves).

Wandering down by the bay

Jane and I did end up having a lot of fun wandering through all the cobbled, ankle-twisting streets and exploring down by the bay - something I hadn't done too much of on my own. We walked through some places I hadn't even seen before (I'm a little ashamed to admit). We strolled through Shop Street a bit, wandering in and out of a few souvenirs shops, and we stumbled upon a man sitting in the street, hand-carving slates with beautiful Celtic designs (which I believe all came from the Book of Kells). Later in the day, we wound up down by the Spanish Arch, but instead of just sitting somewhere at the little port (like I had always done throughout the semester), Jane wanted to continue further out to explore more of Galway Bay. After frollicking through fields and along a sort of cement boardwalk along the Bay, we found a lovely bed of rocks which we climbed over and sat on to eat some apples with that delightful aftertaste of salty air. On our walk back, she picked dandelions and proceeded to craft me a crown of flowers. (I wore it during the rest of the afternoon, but I did draw the line at her proposal to hold hands and skip.)

The next day, Jane and I planned a trip to the Aran Islands. Jane had been there once before six years prior, but she only saw one of the smaller islands and she was eager to visit Inis Mor with me. We woke up early (re: 7:00 am) to walk into town to catch the bus that would then drive us an hour away so we could catch the ferry to Inis Mor (another 40 minutes). Although it's the biggest of the Aran Islands (the name translates to "Big Island"); it is still fairly small - I think it's only around 12 square miles.

Soaking up the beautiful landscape

We had the option of either hopping in a sketchy tour van or renting a bike for the afternoon. Because it was absolutely gorgeous weather, we opted for the bikes. I warned Jane that I hadn't ridden a bike in years and wasn't sure I could safely handle biking 9 miles around the island, but she thought I'd be fine. Before venturing forth though, I insisted that we stop for lunch (of course), so we found an outdoor table at one of the little restaurants overlooking the docks. I sat down thinking I would have to order fish (being on such a little island and all), but I wasn't really feeling the heaviness of fish & chips and it was either that or a mixed fish chowder (I've had it before elsewhere in Ireland... and I must say, I'm really not a fan. It's too weird having so many different kinds of seafood all blended together). So I ended up going with a non-fish item off the menu: The marinated Cajun Irish chicken breast with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions on garlic-toasted ciabatta bread. It also came with a small mound of lemony couscous and it was absolutely delicious. Om nom nom. During the meal, the weather was so nice and warm that I could shed all my outer layers and roll up my jeans to maximize my sun exposure (something I haven't had much of all semester, as you might imagine). 

After eating, we hopped on our bikes and started exploring the island (and working off a little bit of the lunch). Like I said in my castles post though, I didn't end up taking too many photos because my camera hardly does justice to Ireland's beauty. Here are just a few to give an idea of what it was like:

                                            

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I'll feel a lot better about leaving Galway now that I can say I've really done and seen a lot in the city. Before Jane's visit, I was starting to feel slight pangs of remorse about not going into town more often and not experiencing enough new places. The pangs of remorse have now mostly diminished, I'm happy to report.