Experiencing Art

We were able to go to some great museums and some not so great while in France. One of which of course was the Louvre. I must say it was quite the disappointment. The outside was great, the lobby was promising, but as we followed the signs to the Mona Lisa things got progressively worse. Once we finally arrived to the top floor all the lighting was harsh and florescent which made it hard to see the artwork and really hard for me to concentrate at all. Basically we saw 2 things and left spending no more than 1 hour.





Of course it didn't help that we had a very long day leading up to the Louvre. Our feet were so tired!



So, after that let down, I was excited that we were able to go to Versailles and see some unexpected and fun art. Of course when you think of Versailles you think of the hall of mirrors and some old paintings on walls. Well, I was surprised and so pleased to find an exhibit there of modern sculptures by Jeff Koons mixed in and around the old and ornate rooms. I loved it!







I also really enjoyed the brightly colored walls in each of the rooms.




The Rodin gardens were also one of my favorite spots we visited.







While we were in Nice we went to the Matisse Museum. I really enjoyed this, probably so much because Nice had been such a disappointment so far. The town was so touristy it was nice to take the bus away from the main chaos and immerse ourselves in art.






Another of my favorites had to be the Picasso Museum in Antibes. I loved the outdoor sculptures the most.







For as disappointing as Monaco was they did have a good art moment. Outside one of the casinos was a piece by Anish Kapoor who I'm a big fan of.



I also found art on the streets which is one of my favorite things about Europe.

The Food of France

I love taking pictures of the fabulous meals I'm able to enjoy as we travel. Take a look at some of my favorite bites.

This is our first meal in our Paris apartment.



At the Rodin Museum. That's a yummy piece of citron cake that was eaten with that cute tiny spoon.



Other goodness.





Okay the next two are not "food" but they are related :)




This is Socca the Nice specialty. Basically it is a Chickpea pancake with olive oil and salt and pepper. It may look gross, but it's really good.



See. Kelly likes it.



(And no, those of you that are freaked out by the Day 1, Day 2 posts, we will not be giving a blow by blow account of what we did. From now on, consider these the highlights!)

Euro Fashion Blunders

Here are some strategic shots of some of the worst European fashion I've EVER seen. Complete with "Ronald McDonald's Wife, Crazy Orange Pant Lady, Homemade Capri Market Shopper," and so forth to name a few...! We laughed HYSTERICALLY, all trying to take covert shots with our cameras. Some of these people I'm sure knew exactly what we were doing. Oh, I can't forget about "Freaky Handlebar Moo-Stash Yodeler Dude!"

See Two Seattle Mathletes Blog for additional pics.


Lemonade anyone? I have lemons.


Don't mind my ferns, these are in! This is PRADA! Or is this PRADO? :)


Ronald McDonald's Wife! In France we say Ronny McDonny's Wife!


Crazy Orange Pant Lady!


Homemade Capri Market Shopper! LOVE those SAS brand comfort shoes and athletic socks!


Bubblegum Brenda! My tights, purse and scarf are all made out of the same material. I will be making a hat, briefcase and overcoat out of Homer and Marge Simpson themed material this upcoming weekend!

France Vacation, Day 2

We landed at CDG airport around 8:45am. By the time we got through customs and baggage claim, that proceeded to eat a good portion of the morning. Roots Travel was suppose to meet us at baggage claim with a driver. No one was there so we wandered around the airport and found a help desk to call. Holly was going to call, while I waited by the luggage. As she was almost ready to be assisted in what would be her first of many language barrier conversations, the driver eventually showed up.

I felt like we went on the most random circular round about way from the airport to our apartment and made our way to the 6th Arr., where we were staying. I know the CDG airport is only 20 miles from central Paris, yet the drive and traffic was "HAWR-UH-BULL...!" It took forever, nearly two hours, and I could feel my blood pressure boiling. I thought, "at least this a price fix fare. If this was a cab, we'd be hundreds of Euros out the door."




We FINALLY got to our apartment and the four of us were completely disoriented as to which direction was N, S E or W. Not to mention the walk up of six flights of stairs to our apartment with heavy luggage.



Super Fun Times! I have calves of steel now. After we all climbed the stairs, profusely sweating and panting up a storm, we all eventually crashed and took a nap for a few hours before we started exploring our neighborhood and familiarizing ourselves with where things were located. Keep in mind Steve had to do double duty since Kelly is preggers. Throughout the trip, he did anywhere from 1.5x to 2x the amount of stairs the rest of us did when luggage came into play.

After naps, we went and got crepes from a street side vendor. Much to my dismay, we got heckled to death by an overly assertive and insistent vendor, who later ended up calling us bitches and other things in "Franglais," a mix of French and English. The more I giggled, the more he got irritated. I am useless when the giggles start, and had to just walk away laughing. Holly, Steve and Kelly followed. The French version of Bitch sound like "Beesh." Funny! :)

We walked down to the Notre Dame Cathedral and took in the views, sunset, people watched and ate our crepes and made our way over to the famous "Pont Neuf" bridge over the River Siene.






I'm sure Holly has more details of this second day, but for now that is all I can think of with out whipping out my travel journal.

Dang, that crepe was excellent. I want one right now!

France Vacation, Day 1

The first day of vacation was spent flying. After our trip to Africa last year which consisted of 21.5 hours not including airport layovers, we knew the flight to Paris would be a cake walk compared to Johannesburg. We vowed to find a non-stop flight and Air France started non-stop service from Seattle to Paris. We left at 2:00pm in the afternoon and flew way north up into northern Canada, north of Hudson Bay. Continuing over Greenland, Iceland, British Isles and down into Paris. I had always heard of the Northern Lights and had seen pictures of them before. We were able to witness and view the lights outside our airplane. It was amazing. I could see whites, yellows and pinks. With the time changes we got to Paris the next morning. So first day, was chalked up to natures amazing light show while we flew.

Laduree Paris

Laduree Tea Salon in Paris was one of the highlights of our trip. I LOVED THIS PLACE, and have made an oath to learn how to make and recreate these French Macaroons. These are much, MUCH different that the American Macaroon equivalent.


My favorite by far, were the mocha, caramel, pistachio and lemon curd ones. They were highly addictive. The flag ship location was just a few streets away from our Paris "Flat" that we rented.

Back From France

The past two weeks in France have been amazing. More details and photos will be forthcoming, but I did want to provide a quick highlight of things I plan to discuss once I get through my myriad of emails, piles, and voice messages at work. Nothing like being back to the grind I suppose.

1) Being electrocuted multiple times by an ungrounded washing machine in our rented flat. All of us ended up getting shocked by the "machine," until we learned where the circuit breaker was to cut power to the whole flat.

2) Renting golf carts at Chateau Versailles and tolling around in the gardens. Beep and Steve took turns driving, while Kelly and I photo documented the entire experience.

3) Amazing meals and not so amazing meals chocking down local fois gras. Some hunk of red, raw duck meat had me a little perplexed but I ate it. The waitress asked me, "did you not like this?" To which I responded, "I ate half of it!" She just laughed.

4) Parisian Macaroons from the famous Laduree Tea Salon.

5) Eiffel Tower late night light shows.

6) A seriously "rank" meal in Antibes on the French Riviera. This rank meal caused the bowels of mercy to be unleashed upon Kelly. She had some SERIOUS food poisoning. As the pregnant one, that is the LAST thing she needed to go through.

7) Seeing more at the beaches [topless], than I wanted to see. It takes a certain body type to go without clothes. Some people should JUST not take their shirts and bras off...! Yucky banana boobs.