This is the Georges V, not some backpacker's hovel.

That's right. Paris has finally redeemed itself for me. I was there in 2000 and people were just mean, despite the fact that I was traveling with a quiet group of people who were mostly fluent in French and very polite. Didn't seem to matter. The city was beautiful, but the experience was miserable.

This time, however, was completely different. All I can figure is that A) I was traveling with Mike, and the stars just usually align for him; and B) the remnants of his high school French were just enough to charm people, and then to get whatever it was we were asking for. That, combined with the coincidental presence of one of our friends from Boulder and the positively relentless beauty of the city, made it downright enchanting. Cold, yes, but enchanting.

Day one: fly into Paris in the afternoon, then spend an interminable amount of time riding the train into the city. (That airport is NOT convenient, by any stretch of the imagination!) Checked into the hotel, then went to find Notre Dame. It's purty.

They happened to be installing the Christmas tree that day.

Interior.

Be still, my heart. Gargoyles!!

Those flying buttresses are insane.

Then went to Hotel Costas [disclaimer: I take no responsibility for whatever photos/video they use on their website...last time I looked it was some rather topless women...] to meet Mike's friend--also Mike--and his expat girlfriend, Carolyn, an American who's lived in Paris for 15 years, for dinner. We sat in this very cool outdoor courtyard that they cover with canvas awnings and keep pleasantly warm in the wintertime. The champagne and our dinners were not cheap, but what a neat place to grab a bite. (Mike had fancy schmancy chicken spring rolls and escargot--who knew it was so delicious??--and I had a creamy veggie curry that was delicious and actually a little spicy. Dessert was house-made vanilla bean ice cream with the most fantastic hot, liquid-chocolate-filled gateau. YUMMMMM.)

Other photos from that evening:

Faces on Pont Neuf.

View over the Seine to the Eiffel Tower.

Place Vendome, just around the corner from dinner. With Christmas lights. 

Day 2: Coffee at Cafeotheque, supposedly some of the best in Paris. Then a quick jaunt over to the Eiffel Tower (but not to the top...way too cloudy!), find some lunch, find the catacombs. Which, by the way, are NOT WELL MARKED. Turns out, they're directly across the street from the Metro entrance, but we didn't know that. So we promptly spent more time than necessary trying to find the entrance. But back to lunch, briefly: we ate at Cafe du Rendez-vous, right around the corner from the catacombs. Certainly nothing fancy, but solidly good food and a really nice waitress. Plus, one thing I love about Parisian cafes: they take the sidewalk portion of the cafe and throw some giant space heaters out there, and it's actually warm enough to eat outside in the winter! And so we did. Comfortably. We split some French onion soup, whereupon I learned that this may be one of man's greatest inventions--so cheesy! so delicious!--and I discovered the delights of the Croque Madame, a fancified open-faced ham sandwich topped with heaps of cheese and a fried egg. Yesssss. And Mike, due some previous advice from his friend Steve, opted for a cheeseburger, which did turn out to be truly exceptional. (I was skeptical, but it was really good. Good pommes frites, too.) We closed out the meal by splitting an order of profiteroles, which was RIDICULOUSLY HUGE (and consisted of puff pastry sandwiched around caramel ice cream and topped with loads of whipped cream, for those of you uninitiated into the profiterole club). (Which I was, prior to this.)

Anyway. The catacombs. In a nutshell, they were created in the late 18th century when the city's massive communal burial grounds began collapsing and the decomposing bodies therein created enough aboveground stench and underground pollution to cause illness and pollute the groundwater. The catacombs were constructed within the city's old limestone quarry, several stories underground, and contain the bones of roughly 6 million people and miles of underground walkways (of which only a tiny fraction are open to the public and contain bones). What's truly unique about it is the fact that the bones are all jumbled together and are arranged in rather decorative patterns (hearts, crosses, linear patterns). One does not encounter the bones upon first entering the catacombs: you have to walk a bit first. Past a couple of small rooms dedicated to the history of the place, an underground well, and these amazing and weird little scenes carved into the quarry walls by a laborer who'd been held prisoner by the English army.

He reproduced by memory buildings on the island where he'd been held prisoner (Port Mahon).

Another carving. 

And now...the ossuary. 

Skulls and femurs arranged around the sign containing the name of the cemetery from which the bones were moved. There were also stone signs scattered throughout containing quotes from the Bible and classical literature.

Lots of bones. It was really dimly lit and we weren't supposed to use a flash, so we don't have that many terrific photos. Suffice it to say, a ridiculously interesting--and slightly macabre--place to visit. 

Then, off to the hotel to clean up--the catacombs were fairly damp and puddle-y--and then to eat Thanksgiving dinner with a truly miscellaneous group of Parisian expats and visitors. Carolyn's friend Lila hosted the dinner and she cooked a LOT. It was a really nice evening and lovely to have some traditional Thanksgiving food, even if it was in a room full of people we didn't know. They all turned out to be really interesting and pleasant people, and I actually recognized one guy as a frequent customer from my Starbucks days. SMALL WORLD. Also, did I mention that both Carolyn and Lila live in a neighborhood from which you can see both Les Invalides and the Eiffel Tower...? It was seriously unreal.

Day 3: the Louvre! Sleep in late, eat lunch at the Brasserie du Louvre. French onion soup starter, followed by risotto with fresh peas and crawfish tails for me, and tiger prawns in curry coconut broth followed by entrecote with red wine sauce for Mike. Pricey, but tasty. We had bought museum tickets online and promptly skipped the line for the museum in its entirety (yes, there was a line at the Louvre in November: there are never not tourists in Paris). My highlights:

The pyramid. Still controversial, but iconic.

Botticelli frescoes! 

The Mona Lisa. Now in a gallery that can accommodate the crowds! Yes, I could get closer, but seriously. People were ridiculous.

Far more interesting to me was this painting: Veronese's Wedding of Cana (1562-3). The Louvre's largest painting, and really incredible.

Always liked Arcimboldo, the guy who painted faces composed of fruits, veggies, and/or plants.

Michelangelo's Rebellious Slave.

Corinthian helmet.

So most of my photos of the palace which actually contains the Louvre didn't come out that well...once again, dimly lit, no flash allowed, and we had no tripod...but the building itself is pretty outlandish and fantastic. This is just a stairwell.

How amazing is this: a lowrider in the Louvre. Right under the pyramid. I do love the color...

For having spent around three hours there--Mike and I both have a tendency to get museum-ed out, after that much time--we covered a lot of ground and saw plenty of incredible art (a 1937 Buick, the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, a Holbein or two, the entire Egyptian collection, the palace itself!). I guess there's a reason it's one of the world's foremost art collections.

Post-Louvre we went to check out the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees.

Yup, it's pretty impressive. But now they charge you just to go stand underneath it. Laaaaaaame.

Champs Elysees with Christmas lights.

Stopped for a quick aperitif at the brasserie Le President (around the corner from the Champs Elysees), then went dinner at Le Petit Pontoise, which came recommended for good and reasonably-priced food and did not disappoint. I started with the gratinated camembert, which was gigantic and came with a delicious little side salad, then had a whole bone-in fish (which Mike was kind enough to filet for me) with carrots, green beans, and pesto, and finished off with the world's fluffiest souffle (containing a splash of Grand Marnier). Mike had the pot of snails (I kid you not...this is what you call them when they've been removed from the shells!), followed by entrecote, and finally creme brulee. We washed it all down with some delicious, and surprisingly affordable, Medoc (a red wine from Bordeaux). That's one nice thing about visiting countries that produce good wines: they're WAY more affordable there than in Zürich.

Day 4: Took a quick jaunt past the Opera, then to Illy Cafe for coffee. It was quite good, and they had this ricotta-filled ravioli with fava beans and speck that I wanted to try, but we were on a mission to find crepes!  After a quick trip up to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur, anyway.

The Paris Opera. Wow.

Sacre Coeur. Also wow. (Sorry...no photos inside. Believe me when I say that that dome is way up there.)

Art market at Montmartre. Some really lovely stuff and some truly awful.

And then there were crepes. There is actually a street in Montparnasse that is lined with creperies. (I imagine there's also one of those streets in heaven.) The place we were planning to go had a huge line, so we went across the street to the adorable La Creperie Bretonne. We each had a savory crepe with ham, eggs, and cheese, but Mike's also had mushrooms and mine had caramelized onions. We split a bottle of house-made cider and finished up with a chocolate-and-banana crepe (which was delicious, but not what we'd ordered: we wanted one that had apples and was on fire).

Next, back to the Eiffel Tower, to hopefully ride to the top and meet up with Mike-from-Boulder again! Except that it was a sunny day and the lines were silly long, so we skipped the tower and went to the Musee du Quai Branly. Wanted to go to the Musee d'Orsee, but it was almost closing time, so we stayed in the neighborhood, and it paid off! Quai Branly is a gorgeous modern building with incredible permanent artifact collections from Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas, as well as fantastic visiting exhibits (like the one we didn't want to stand in line for: Samurai...!). Once again, 3 hours or less, but really a great museum and a pleasant surprise.

La Tour Eiffel after sunset.

Oceanian masks of some variety. I was far too overwhelmed by the immense coolness of this museum to actually note the details of where they came from, how old they are, etc., etc. 

Yeah...I don't remember where these guys came from, either, but they were MASSIVE, and the one on the left reminds me of Jack from the Muppets. (I wanna go to Hollywood!)

Probably the only moa I'll ever see in real life. Sigh.

One last dinner in Paris with Mike and Carolyn at Le Vauban, which is directly in front of Les Invalides (Napoleon's tomb). Fairly dramatic scenery, if you ask me! Despite the fact that we were eating dinner no earlier than 10:00 PM, Mike and I both decided to go with the full 3-course menu. Which started with a kir royale (something bubbly with a bit of cassis, YUM!!). I had the goat cheese-and-leek quiche (ALSO YUM!), followed by three fish fillets with curry sauce and noodles (which was decent, but I should have gone with my first instinct and gotten the salmon with lentils...oh well...), and the most fantastic apple tart (not too sour! not too sweet! perfect seasoning and texture!). We've both forgotten Mike's starter, but he tried out the duck confit and finished with creme brulee. It was a bit heavy for the time of night, but a perfectly nice meal with good company and a great way to finish out our last evening in Paris.

Day 5: quick return trip to Cafeotheque for a homemade cupcake (Mike's was raspberry, mine was lemon poppyseed) and a final cappuccino, then back to Charles de Gaulle on a much less crowded express train (thank goodness). The verdict: Paris, this time, was phenomenal and fantastic experience, and I can absolutely see why everyone loves it. I will only ever go there during cold weather, as the hordes of tourists seem to be smaller then...but being so close, WE ARE GOING BACK. FOR SURE. 

And on that note, this is my last post of the year: thanks for bearing with me. I'm having a good time with this, and I can only hope that you are too. Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and I'll be back in the new year.

who's up for round 2?

Happy December, everyone. Well. I'd been putting off this post for a while, seeing as how I've already treated you all to a description of our previous trip to Italy, and also how I've been unable to string together any remotely poetic turn of phrase for a while now, but I suppose I shouldn't procrastinate any longer, given the posts I have still to write in the 3 weeks remaining before we head back to the U.S. At the rate I'm going, I will absolutely not get them all finished, and frankly, I've already forgotten food details that I was convinced I'd remember in perpetuity. These are sad, sad times. But to Italy! Again!

We were fortunate enough to return to northern Italy a mere two weeks after our previous trip there, due to Mike's being invited to speak at the View Conference in Torino again. As per tradition, while he's giving talks and workshops, I roam the streets in search of photographic opportunities and chocolate (solid chocolate was invented in Torino! wooo!). They also have one of Europe's largest outdoor markets there, which is always worth a visit, especially to hear the fruit and veg vendors hollering about their prices and to see the gorgeous meats, cheeses, and breads. There's a little coffee shop in the meat/cheese hall that has tremendous espresso, and the guy behind the counter is just so nice. I always stop at the candy counter to pick up some goodies for my family, and for six years running, I've bought from the same lady. I think these are the reasons I love Torino: beautiful city, good food, nice people, and lots of familiarity.

There are lots of villas and palazzos in Turin: an open door usually leads to some sort of amazing courtyard.

Piazza San Carlo, one of the two central piazzas.

Another courtyard.

Piazza della Citta. Always has some sort of something stretched across it.

My favorite part of town. Narrow little streets with all kinds of fantastic little stores and good food.

This year is the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy: all kinds of exhibits and little celebratory touches, everywhere we go. 

Random lovely church. Have I mentioned before that I love the new wide-angle lens?

Duomo di San Giovanni, also known as the home of the Shroud of Turin, of which only a copy is on display. (Sorry, suckers. Apparently, we missed the real one in 2010.)

Piazza Castello, the main main square in Turin.

Back of Palazzo  Carignano (building started in 1679).

And its front. There is some seriously amazing brick work in this city.

After Mike's conference is finished, the director and her husband take the conference speakers and various luminaries on a field trip up into Piemonte wine country, which, as we all know, is ridiculously picturesque and full of gastronomic delights. This year, we visited a new winery, Fontanafredda; had lunch at Gemma's (of course! hooray!); and closed the day with a stroll around Alba.

Cask room 1 at Fontanafredda. We thought it was gorgeous until we saw the cellar cask room.

Cellar cask room. SO fantastic.

Love the brick arches!

Lunch at Gemma's: THAT'S A LOT OF TRUFFLE. For reference, when we bought ours in Alba, we had roughly one fifth this amount. For 11 people. And it wasn't cheap.

Mike on the roof at Gemma's.

House across the road from Gemma's. As we were leaving lunch, a little old man came out with his truffle hunting dogs (not kidding!) and invited a bunch of us in to see his truffle hunting photos. He spoke only Italian, was super nice to us, and gave the group a bottle of white wine. AMAZING.

And finally, back to Alba. Having been here only a few weeks prior, we made a mad dash to a wine store to pick up a barolo for a friend, accompanied by a man whom we later learned had won Oscars (multiple!) for his work in sound editing. Turns out, several people we'd been casually chatting with all day had won Oscars and/or had worked on such indie films as Apocalypse Now, the good Star Wars movies, Forest Gump, The Incredibles, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Twister, the Harry Potter movies, and a few others you may have heard of. Our little group also included video game and 3D animation pioneers and superstars, as well as a super interesting and nice guy who helps design the movie portions of theme parks around the world; a guy who creates and performs in giant interactive creature costumes; several Pixar artists and directors; and just a whole bunch of truly interesting, down-to-earth-but-talented-and-influential people. How we keep ending up in these kinds of groups, I don't know, but I'll take it.

Other things we've done recently: had an amazing, fantastic dinner for our friend Dave's birthday at what is reported to be the best restaurant in Zürich, Restaurant Spice. My first Michelin-starred restaurant, and BOY, was it a good time. Dave's girlfriend Jen managed to book the chef's table, so we ate in a little room just off the kitchen, and had maybe the best service ever. We went with the six-course surprise menu, which is always a good choice, but also always turns out to be more like eight or ten, including amuse bouches and multiple desserts. No one went home hungry. The lighting was weird, and I had only my phone as a camera, but nonetheless...a few highlights:

The frothy concoction in the glass on the left is this red curry soup that I could seriously eat every day. The other dish is quail over lentils. YUM.

The best truffle dish I've ever had: cheese-filled ravioli topped with truffle shavings and truffle foam. Yes, please. I firmly believe that white truffles are grossly overrated, but this was good.

Maybe my favorite dish of the night: venison with 4 types of pumpkin. Truly delicious.

The main dessert: chocolate and raspberry with toffee accents. (There were also petit fours and truffles following this. LOTS OF GOODNESS.)

There was also expovina, a multiple-week event in which they park six or so ferries and other small-ish boats at the north end of the lake and fill them with wine vendors and importers from all over Switzerland. Then you pay 20 francs and taste wines until they close. This is the cheapest entertainment we've had, to date, in this country, and we actually discovered some really nice new wines! (Spain...we thought your riojas were overrated, but we were wrong. We apologize.)

Interior of wine boat: somehow, they set up heaps and heaps of temporary bars inside the boats.

Boats at Bürkliplatz, daytime.

Boats at Bürkliplatz, night time.

So festive! So cold outside! Good thing they were serving cheese pies and bratwurst outside.

And then there was 11/11/11, the supposed international day of protest. Here was Zürich's contribution.

Occupy Paradeplatz! Staffed primarily by hippies playing bongos to--oddly enough--techno music. Ahhh, Europe.

Various bizarre marching bands throughout the city. This one was in the main train station. I would insert a video of them playing "Walking on Sunshine," by Katrina and the Waves, but it was just too loud, so the sound quality is no good. Sadly. Not really your traditional protest song, but whatever.

What I'm reading: Finished up David Crockett: Lion of the West, by Michael Wallis. Turns out, Davy Crockett (he didn't really like to be called Davy, though...) had a fantastically interesting life, and would have been a truly interesting person to have dinner with. I really enjoyed this book because while it's long, it's also a really fascinating and detailed portrait of an American icon about whom the majority of us know very little. Now I'm back to my pirates, or at least thought I was, with Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, by Edward Kritzler. I will say, thus far, I'm fairly disappointed in how little pirating is going on in this book, but it is a fairly intricate recounting of the Jewish diaspora throughout Europe and the New World during the years of the Spanish Inquisition. It has truly riveting moments, but for the most part, Mr. Kritzler's writing style is as dry as a salted rock in Death Valley. Which is to say, dry. I've contemplated quitting on this one a few times, but I feel like I should stick it out, at this point, because I'm probably almost finished. (It's hard to tell with these Kindle books, 'cause the nonfiction ones usually have at least the last quarter dedicated to end notes and bibliographies. Who knows how long it actually is...?)

And now, a new segment entitled "My Favorite Things." Maria had her bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, and I'll have this list of people, songs, restaurants, books, websites, or whatever I else strikes my fancy at the moment. Today, it's Jason Bateman. Mike was watching a little Arrested Development the other day, and while the entire ensemble of that show was just flawless, I was reminded of how much I truly adore Jason Bateman. The guy is hilarious and can say anything with a straight face. I'm always delighted when he pops up in a cameo, or in a truly ridiculous role, as in Dodgeball. Thank you, Mr. Bateman, for the hours--nay, years--of hilarity you've brought to us all.

Next up: PARIS. My triumphant return, after 11 years, to the City of Lights. It was way different from last time, and thank goodness.