Paris - Chapter 2

Deux Paris. There are two versions of Paris, the one during the day, then, there is Paris at night (ahhhh, amore')
Yesterday, it was the boat tour and ooh la la, the Eiffel Tower.
Today, the red bus tour and a celebration of my 40th 29th birthday! It is indeed, my last day in France and I am thrilled to spend it galavanting around Paris.

Madame and Monsieur, à droite (on your right) is the Arc De Triomphe.....the largest triumphal arch in the world, sitting about 161 ft high and 144 ft wide. Do NOT step foot on the street to get to the other side, you must take the underground passage. Why? because you would be engaging yourself in a no win game of chicken, with about 500 cars. It is the busiest traffic circle in Paris. The Arc de Triomphe sits at the western end of the Champs-Elysees. I don't remember what Champs-Elysees means but, to me, it translated perfectly into "SHOPPING BABY!". Miles of stuff to finagle into my suitcase.

Notre Dame sat for centuries, 6 to be exact, as the Gothic masterpiece of the Middle Ages. Notre Dame was far more interesting on the outside than on the inside, to me. I sat at a bar and looked at it from afar, with a beer in hand, very interesting! haha~ On one side of the building, there was a carving of a woman holding a baby, but the baby was decapitated (weird, I thought, why don't they fix that, gothic satanic freaks, isn't this a church for Christ's sake!)...then, I did some research and found out that the woman was a 13th century Virgin, a unique survivor that originally adorned the facade. I was unable to find out more about her story, if you know it, tell me, please!

Um, Pardon, Madame, q'est your toilette f...d up? I need un couvercle, a compart-e-mente? Oui? Comprendre? You know (and I say it louder) something to SIT ON...(the public toilets are weird in France, I'm sorry, no disrespect, but weird nonetheless). One place had a box with a drain, that's it. Like the basin for a shower, but without the doors or a shower head. Squat and piss? UM, LIKE, HELLO, I'M LIKE TOTALLY A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N and I need fluffy tissue paper, a door with a lock and a clean lid to sit my purty little tush on. After all, I am 29 and I am a princess in my own right.


I went all the way to Paris to try escargot. It's French and if I had to potty in a non lid toilet, I should certainly be ok with eating snails, right? I was a little nervous, but they were so good. Buttery with a garlic basil pesto, on bread, with a mouthful of vin, amazing! I mean, what wouldn't taste great with French wine in your mouth? don't answer that.

This was the celebration of my birthday in Paris. I look scared, not because I am turning 29, but because I was terrified that with all of the hair product I had saturating my head, coupled with the wind, that waiter was going to catch my curly q's on fire! AND, I did not want to come back home to the USA with spiked hair and have to pass it off as the most bad ass hairstyle fresh off of the Paris runways.

Paris

We arrived at our hotel, checked in and got to our room, which was the cutest hotel room I have ever seen. Complete with a Queen Bed and a single bed in the same room (it was as if they knew that we were coming, Mom & Kenny and myself were staying in the same room), a terrace with a table and chairs, a dressing area and closet, a bathroom with a BATH TUB (highly unusual), wood floors....and our room was built (literally) right above the Metro. So, every time a train would go through the station below, we could hear the train on the rail. It was cool, actually, an experience that I would, otherwise, never have encountered. The walls would vibrate and the floor sounded like it was humming. Unlike hotels in, say, New Orleans...you hear humming alright, but it ain't the Metro!

This was my first view of the Eiffel Tower from ground to tip. It was a sight, and I hate to be a cliche', that was unlike anything I had imagined it to be. A magnificent monument that you never get tired of staring at, being around or taking in.

We took a boat tour at dusk and one of the most romantic scenes, for me, was the dance lessons at riverside. They are teaching the tango and the salsa. More than the buildings, more than the intricate carvings of the architecture, the thousand year old bridges overhead, I was drawn in by the sound of music and the bodies that swayed along with it. SO incredibly romantic...seriously? dance lessons, on the river, in Paris......orgasmic actually! (no offense)

After I watched the dancing, as far as I could see them, until they were a tiny spec and the music was gone, I had my cigarette to wrap up the um, oooh, ahhh, yes! yes! yes! experience and went on to enjoy a view of the sunset via boat tour, at around 10:00 PM.

To wrap up a perfect evening, we sat at a bar, on the water, looking up at the Eiffel Tower in all of its glory, while drinking champagne. Vendors on the street were selling their wares (lighters, mini Eiffel Towers, paintings, key chains) and most of these street salespeople are from Africa. brain does not compute. I perched myself on the edge of this magnificent experience and did my best to absorb each sound, the smell, the air and the romance of it all so that I could bottle it up and sell it to you here, on My Sassy Pants blog.

When the Eiffel Tower lit up and the lights began to dance, with the beam of light shooting out of the top of the tower, the moon approaching in the distance, as if to see what all of the fuss was about, I realized that this experience would change me. In all its intricate details, and yet simply, sitting on a red leather chair, on the deck of a restaurant floating on the water, sipping champagne with my family, I would walk away knowing that in my heart I would have a fullness that will nestle in to my memory forever. Maybe the same or similar way that Stephane felt when he came to the USA for the first time? Oui?

So, I encourage you to take that trip you have always wanted to take, go, now. Life is full of twists and turns, you don't know what tomorrow holds, so go grab that experience, orgasmic or not, and relish it, let it sink into you and allow it to change you in a way that only you can understand....then, come back and tell us about it so that we can celebrate with you!

Emotional Farewell

After a glorious day in Bordeaux, we returned to have a casual dinner with Stephane's family. It is our last night in Sanguinet and we are digging our heels in hoping to soak up the Verdet family at maximum volume. When I tell you, we truly fell in love with this family, our French family. Alain is hysterical, a modest man with a fantastic sense of humor, a romantic beautiful love for his wife and an obvious passion for life. Sylvaine is a nurturing and angelic woman, creative, happy, kind and armed with her own sense of humor, along with a true and endearing love for her family. Arnaud was hesitant to jump right in, but seemed to ease his way into our hearts. He looked at us out of the corner of his eye and was relatively silent but would give an occasional dig into his brother, Stephane, which would make us laugh....sibling rivalry in another language is after all translated the same, rivalry. Haha.

Stephane, where to I begin? Stephane is smart, he is super funny, although he feels like he cannot translate his humorous side from French to English, he manages beautifully. He drives fast, so I think he has a thrill seeking side to him, he is a gracious and kind host. Literally giving me the shirt (sweater) off of his shoulders when I forgot my jacket. I am forever grateful that Stephane took my family around France. I believe that, in large, this trip was so meaningful and had a richness to it because Stephane was there with us. So, chin, salute', cheers to you Stephane for being a wonderful friend and brother, you are a treasure.

Tonight at dinner, we received gifts from the Verdet's. Mom and Kenny received a cheese cutter, called a Girolle that is from Switzerland. We had the most AMAZING cheese, called Tete De Moine (photographed above). My girls were given cookbooks, I received a vin necklace from Saint Emilion that was handcrafted and filled with red wine as a momento, along with a photo frame book that held pictures from the area of Sanguinet. It was a heartfelt and emotional evening...see below.

We waited 18 years to meet Stephane's family and now this Chapter of our trip was coming to a close. It was bittersweet. The time we spent with the Verdet family is time that we will all treasure and hopefully repeat many times over in this lifetime.

Pour la famille Verdet: nous vous aimons et nous nous réjouissons d'apporter notre famille de nouveau ensemble, afin que nous puissions célébrer la fusion de nos deux familles. Sylvaine, vous avez non seulement acquis une fille, mais deux petites-filles ainsi. Beaucoup d'amour à vous tous!

Bordeaux

In direct reflection of self, I believe that Bordeaux was the city that best mimicked my personal style. I really loved Bordeaux. The city, shopping, the architecture, chocolate shops, wine vineyards, shopping, festivals, shopping.....and the mirrored water fountain.

We went shopping (I know, shocking) down a street called "Rue Saint Catherine", where no vehicles are allowed except motorcycles. They actually block the road off so that you can shop freely, photographed above. The chocolate shops had the most amazing sculptures crafted from chocolate, hand painted with white chocolate.

The mirrored fountain was a personal favorite of mine. I imagined myself sitting on a blanket at the edge of the water, watching my girls run around and enjoying the mist, the water and the experience, while eating cheese, chocolate and drinking champagne. Along with my camera, because my FAVORITE picture from the entire trip is of Mom and Kenny in the mirrored fountain. I love the sky, the building in the background, their reflection and the love that is so apparent between them in this picture. Ahhhh, amore'!

Saint Emilion

This is Julien. He is syphoning the wine out of the barrel for us to taste.

These are the wines that are created at Chateau La Fleur Morange. It is really cute, the Mathilde is named after Julien's daughter. He said the wine is much like his daughter, young and sweet.

Some things I learned about wine...(the good, the exceptional and the ugly)
1. Drinking wine straight out of the barrel gives me a serious headache. The grapes are too ripe. Must drink wine from a bottle, got it!
2. It costs 700 Euro for ONE grape/wine barrel, which translates to about $940 USD. From that one barrel, you get about 600 bottles of wine.
3. To properly pick the wine grapes, you pull all grapes from the vine, EXCEPT the one closest to the leaf....when the time is right, you pick only the grapes closest to the leaves and that is the crop that you will work with. The juice of the grape, the skin and the meat all must be the right color to make the wine taste good.
4. Once the grapes are chosen and picked, they are put into large silver containers, that I couldn't translate the name of, kept at a specific temperature. The grapes will sink and the juice will rise in this container. Once this happens, the juice (wine) is moved into the aforementioned barrels, where the wine will ferment for 18 months. (The wine I tasted out of the barrel that caused my head to throb was only about 7 months old).
5. The older the grapes are when you pick them, the longer the wine can sit in a bottle and the better it becomes, for example....the wine that we tasted was from 100 year old grape vines. So, essentially, their wines could sit on a shelf in a bottle, unopened for up to 20 years and taste better with age. A younger grape would not last very long in a bottle, shelf life is much shorter and will sour as time progresses.
6. Some wine vineyards will use cheap barrels and throw a piece of wood into the wine as it ages to give it that "aged to perfection" taste, but Julien told us that the reason that many people get headaches (like myself) is because of this method. Your wine is supposed to age in a barrel, which is where the wine gets the oak undertone from, so, vineyards will cheat to get the same flavor quickly and turn their wines around faster....however, Julien says that in the end, it is not a good product. Wine is not supposed to happen quickly, it is supposed to take a while and that is what will make a wine's flavor exquisite.
7. Julien is the owner of the vineyard, Chateau La Fleur Morange Julien gave us a private tour of his winery. He was both entertaining and informative. He said that when he first began making wine about 10 years ago, he was very proud of his first batch of wine, so he tasted it from the barrel (too early, he said) and discovered that he would be named "Chef Vinegar". Ha. He said that he had to ask himself, what have I done? I have bought this vineyard, so I will make vinegar?
Saint Emilion is the top choice for locals and the French for wines. Everywhere we visited in France, we would say that we were going to Bordeaux to see the wine country and people would tell us that we must see Saint Emilion. In the US, 10 wines from Saint Emilion were listed in top wine magazines for being some of the top wines of 2010.
On a side note, many of the "vinters" (winemakers) or "viticulturist" put rose bushes at the end of their rows of vines. They say if there are bugs in the roses, there are bugs in the grapes. Interesting approach and the brilliant roses at the end of each row of crisp green leaves and grapes offers a beautiful contrasting landscape.

La Dune Des Pyla

La Dune Des Pyla is the largest Sand Dune in Europe, measuring 107 meters high, a mountain of wind carved sand. What began as an island in the sea slowly began to be carried by the wind onto shore and has become a monument. When you are standing on the top of this sand dune, there is the Arcachon bay on one side of you and the forest on the other. It is a very steep slope down to the sea, the same incline as an Olympic ski slope.It is extremely windy on the top of the dune, but a truly magnificent site that extends for miles. The sand dune moves 1 meter deeper into the shore PER year, covering private plots of property, approximately 20 per year.

La Teste

Shopping on the streets every Monday in any city in France, um, where do I sign up? I am told that almost every city in France has a market day every Monday, where vendors come and set up their goods, fresh produce, riz au lait (OMG! AMAZING), fresh cheeses, breads, wines, oh the shoes....ah, the clothes...ooh la la, amore'! What is not to love about an outdoor market in France? Nothing, unless when you ask for the price, they say "Dix Euro" so quickly that you think they are saying the the price is "zero". Free? OK, I'll have one in every color, thank you, MERCI!!!!!! Yeah, um, no, she was actually saying Ten Euro please, not ZERO. I like my translation better!

bonjour famille de verdet

What I should say is "hola familia de verdet" because for some odd reason, every now and again, when someone would speak to me in French (which rarely happens in France, I mean, seriously), I would panic and answer them in Spanish (another language that I don't really know, or thought I didn't, until I went to France).

By far, the warmth and hospitality of Alain and Sylvaine (Stephane's parents) was some of the most heart warming that I have experienced. The first day we arrived in Sinquinet, we were welcomed with a feast fit for Kings and Queens, and we rolled out of there like a bunch of peasants that had raided the food table.

The Menu:

Frois Gras appetizer stuffed inside of Duck Meat

4 tomato salad (red, green, yellow and orange)

Pan Seared Duck with green beans (Steak for me because I am a big chicken and won't try the duck. To be honest, the treasure was mine, that was one of the very best steaks I have ever had, if not THE BEST)

6 cheeses with delectable bread

Caramel Dessert with fresh strawberries

Champagne, Red Wine and Stephane's very sacred Armagnac

HA! Top that Prince Henry. The Verdet family is funny, charming, loving, kind, happy, talented and the most incredible chefs, the food was outstanding. Even though we were unable to fluently speak one another's languages, we managed to understand each other with elegance and ease. We all fell in love with one another, as if we had been childhood friends reuniting. In essence, we were reuniting. Stephane came to stay with our family 18 years ago in the USA....my Mom kind of stalked him until he responded and the rest is history (haha!). Actually, it wasn't always easy for her to find Stephane's whereabouts, but Nan-E managed to hone in on his location. Thankfully.

There is a special place in my heart for our French Family, I love them dearly and treasure their friendship immensely.

Le Pointe De Grouin

In all honesty, it is taking me f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to blog about France. I took 590 pictures (which is a modest amount for me) over 14 days and 9 cities...So, to narrow the pictures down to the bare minimum and tell a story behind only the minimal is quite the feat. I can completely understand why it is so challenging to be a screenplay writer if you are breaking down a story from a book or novel into a 1 1/2 to 2 hour film.

Anyhow, this place was one of my favorite finds along our travels. Simply, it is a park with one of the most dynamic views I have ever seen in my life. The rock erosion with the many colors of clay, the lighthouse off in the distance, the brilliant hues of the sea against the colorful chiseled rock was truly radiant and gorgeous. There were birds making a nesting ground for themselves on the island, so to hear the waves crashing on the shore and to watch the elegance of the birds swaying about in the crisp blue sky was serene and almost unreal. The sun was setting as we rounded the corner and uncovered this beautiful hidden site, so the colors were all so much more intensified as the sun rays bounced it's light onto them.

I could go on and on about this place. Le Pointe De Grouin is, for me, that little happy place that you tuck away in your back pocket and pull out on a rainy day.