Its over

Hot and beautiful and sweaty eating last nite in Monaco, today cold and raining in Dublin, tomorrow the states. Its been fun. Major pc problems the last few days so have not been able to blog about Avignon, Marseilles, Nice, Provence, Riviera, etc.. but all was great. It was sad leaving France, but Dublin is grey and dark and cold so it is making it easier to say goodbye to Europe. Gotta go now. Ciao, au revior, goodbye!

Still alive

We rented a scooter in Avignon and rode up to Chateuneuf-du-Pape and it was scary. I haven't rode a scooter in a long time, but it is just like riding a bike and when I walked down to the rental agency i got the scooter and rode back to pick up CC. The ride was fine, I got completely lost in the walled town but I got more comfy with leaning in turns and riding i felt alright. Then i found CC and she got on back and you lose at least 40 percent of control with someone on your back if not more. And she fidgets alot. Also I drive better when i dont have to worry about anything and the last thing I worry about is myself, but protecting CC added a lot of stress. Ive broken and dislocated a few bones and cut myself and been in tons of bike wrecks but as much as i dont like it i would rather it happen to me and just me. Then to top it off we had to ride on a highway that went anywhere from 70 to 110 k which is like 45 to 66 mph and that is the minimum. Add a really strong crosswind and a lil moto that feels and swerves in any little breeze and it was scary. Finally we got to town and it was their festival of the year and we walked to the old papal ruins and got pork kebabs and sausages from a streetside grill. it was great! we went to 3 really cool, different wineries and we decided that grenache and syrah and their friends make great reds but grenache and roussanne makes really good underrated whites too. We made it back to avignon and once i dropped CC off at the hotel i was incredibly relieved. There are only 2 good things you come away with after taking crazy curvy fast french roads on a too slow and too light scooter with someone who has never been on one and that fidgets and shifts their weight on your back: one: thank god i didnt kill us. two: when you take the scooter back to the rental by yourself it is like you can do anything- the scooter is so easy again, it does exactly like you tell it to. that combined with the windless, walled city of avignon-after going thru all that i rode back to the renters like a professional. then we made the train to aix-en-provence. we're here now. a little bit out of town, but found the best (only) converted VW bus pizza stand ever. a wood stove cooks your pizza in the back of this VW and they have this little 6 yo girl that gets your wine for you and i'm pretty sure she eats all the pizza leftover from customers, she always has a cold piece hanging out of her mouth and we saw her grab some from a left over box. Took pics but cant find the camera loader and CC's sleeping on the cement terrace since the AC is broke and i dont wanna bother her.

Last day in Paris.

Well, this is it. No more of the citylife. No more wonderful food with horrific service! No more beggars, no more throngs of tourists. No more bahn mis and trips to versaille or hippodromes. Last nite we ate with CC's boss and her boyfriend. It was a wonderful way to end the trip- an invite into a real parisian's home with her attacking cat. She cooked a zucchini terrine and this stuffed veal thing that was really good, then a goatcheese tasting, and finished it off with her homemade jarred pears and apricot jam. They started it off with this walnut liqueur that was incredible, then we drank a sweet red, then a 1er cru burgundy during dinner, and then he invited me to taste almost all of his french liqueurs, a collection of about 100 bottles that he probably started over 20 years ago. We drank cherry pit brandy from 1903, chestnut liqueur, fig liqueur, well just about any liqueur from any thing you can think of. They treated us like royalty. It was great. Then they gave us a ride home and checked out our apartment and were amazed. It really is a great apartment for a city, I'm gonna miss it.

An inconvenient truth

A few days ago i went to see Obama arrive in Paris. I came upon the Elysees Palace and there were quite a few people there, but no where near as many as for Ingrid Betancourt. It was a pleasant day and i always like to see a good spectacle. I talked to this nice older LA couple who kept saying that "this beats going to any museum" and I just laughed and kept telling them how tough it must have been to be a fan of the Lakers (they were season ticket holders). The guy was really funny and kept the time passing. The crowds got a little bigger and right before my legs go numb from standing 2 buses pull up and one was the press following Obama and the other was Obama's team(without Obama). As Obama's team exit the bus there is this one tall black dude in his 40s that the people behind me start yelling at. "Thats Reggie! Reggie! Over here Reggie!" He hears and waves without even looking and I'm like who the hell is this dude? I guess he is a mastermind, some political know-it-all, the new Carville or Rove. The whole thing did have that kind of rockstar reception feel but i felt clueless. Anyway, after 15 minutes Obama is still not here and the rumor that he was gonna make this magical, triumphant walk from the US embassy to the palace seems less believable and I was thirsty so I left and went to get a drink around the block. Well he pulled in about 3 minutes after i left but i didnt care, i'm sure i didnt miss much. Anyway, a few days later I found out who Reggie is. Maybe most of yall know this but i didnt and it was a shock. The 40 year old tall dude is 26 yo Reggie Love! The dukie best known for being teabagged by freak's frat bros! And he's Obama's right hand man. The man has Obama's ear more than anyone. He literally loads Obama's Ipod. He plays basketball with Coach O everyday. I almost voted to put a Dukie into the White House. Thank god I found this out. Can you imagine what would happen if we put a Dukie in the White House. The president is a good teammate to have. Arkansas won with Clinton(Arkansas!), Texas football won for the first time in something like 50 years with Bush, it goes on and on. I mean Duke does not need anymore help. Only recently, because of years of fans uproar, have the refs and the media stopped being so completely embarrassingly pro-duke but both media and refs still have a long, long way to go. If Obama wins, it will reverse all of the work we have been putting in over the years. Can you imagine Duke stealing more titles like the one that was given them in 2001 with what was the worst reffed final 4 ever. Well my vote is settled, not that any presidential votes in NC ever matter anyway- it has been and will be a red state for a long time. Now that we know this, all of us UNC fans can stop wasting time on Coach O and focus on getting that other horrible Dukie Elizabeth Dole out of the senate.

Sastre arrives

The tour! Finally! Around 2 I went to the Arc and started my day there. It actually wasn't as crowded as I thought and I could have stayed with a decent view if i wanted to but i cant stay in one place for 15 minutes much less 3 hours. So I walked down the long gentle slope of Champs Elysees and checked out all of the Australian, Luxons (?), and Spaniards and any other fan. The australians were in full force, i think they are the most rabid sports fans in the world with the UK right after them (the french are the farthest thing from rabid), plus the australians drink more than any kind of people i know (maybe that has something to do with it). I finally made it to my destination which was right in front of the Louvre. My Parisian-American contact told me this was the best place to watch without obstructions. Once again she was right, I had a great view but again I couldnt sit still so I watched the first 2 out of the 7 laps from here and then walked across the Tuileries for another view. On Rue Rivoli, with a great view of Place Vendome I watched 2 more laps and then walked further up the park to watch the final laps. By the final lap I am right in front of the concorde. When they passed for the final time the sidewalks got so crowded we could barely move. I was like when are they going to open up the streets? Then I look to my left and the metro station is right there so i'm like why not? I run down and I'm on my train to the arc in less than 30 seconds, and its only 4 stops away! Im thinking its possible by a long shot that i can see the end of the race and even if i dont i can see all the podium stuff which is better than standing on the sidewalk. I get off and run up to the arc and run to the front where the champ elysees runs into it. Sweet! But not so. The race just ended and for some reason all the ceremony stuff is at the bottom of the hill. Oh well, not really disappointed I walked down and caught from the backside the presentation of the white roses or whatever flowers they give out. It still was awesome and now i know how to watch the race- from all over the tuileries, then when they pass for the last lap, get on the subway at concorde and pop up at Franklin D Roosevelt to catch the end, just make sure i get off at FDR and not 2 stops farther down at the Arc.

Sastre is the winner.

A little bit uneventful, i thought Evans would make him sweat it out. Oh well, will be there for the victory parade tomorrow. It was fun watching with a bunch of australians and english sense parisians are the worst sports fans of all.

Paris shutting down

The doors are closing everywhere with signs going up saying see you in September. My first taste of this was last week when I went to an oyster bar in the 2nd while the girls were at the Avedon show. I had read about it and it sounded cool with an old metal bar in the back of the restaurant were you go and stand and eat and drink like Felix's in New Orleans. I was excited but when I got there the bar was closed and so i sat in the dining area up front. I tried to order oysters but the waitress who didn't speak any english was trying to tell me something and we were at a standstill. Finally the nice guy who owns the place and was the oyster shucker came over and explained that it was the last nite and they were out of all but 2 kinds of oysters. He was a nice dude and sat me over by his shucking station in front and i ordered a fruits of the sea medley which he hooked up and told me the order that i was supposed to eat each bizarre sea creature. I jokingly asked him since he was closing could i take home a bunch of oysters for free and he said sure! I told him I couldn't really take them since i was meeting the girls at the Pompidou so he put a big plate of whelks in front of me for free. But it was sad thinking that I'll probably never go to this cool place again. And now walking around, places left and right are shutting it down, and my favorite restaurant L'Affriole is closing after tomorrow(we're going tonight). It's depressing but Sophie from La Rez is in town, we're meeting her tonite, that should be fun, while CC has 2 friends that just got here too. Oh yeah and they have converted the right bank to a beach with palms and bars and restaurants and stuff which is a lot of fun. And tomorrow is the Tour de France. Speaking of which I need to think about where I'm gonna watch it today since the entire race probably comes down to todays time trials(they say cadel could overtake sastre for the win). I never in my wildest dreams did i think i could stretch this trip this long to see the Tour in Paris. Which reminds me, I found some money and I will be coming back soon. I got a flight thru aere lingus the irish airline. It is the cheapest by far, but to make it really cheap I gotta get to Dublin and the cheapest date was Aug. 8, but we get to spend a day in Dublin which will be cool.

Yesterday Mad Arrived

Day before that the Glenns arrived. A couple days before I was cooking dinner for Van and Phoebe here and about a week ago Rosena and I were eating at the few vegetarian restaurants in Paris. Well it seems like a week anyway it all has gone so fast. Yesterday was a blah day, the girls laid on our roof and then Mad and I walked downtown to find an australian bar but they were closed so we settled on the ole reliable- Highlander(my scottish bar) . I watched The Open and Mad read english tabloids and Saveur while we chatted with the funny, energetic Yvonne our little scottish bartender and sipped Budvars. In the middle of the golf we left, despite protests from our bored Yvonne but we promised we would come back, and searched for food. In this part of the latin district every store front is a restaurant from some part of the world. Blocks of french, italian, greek, chinese, indian, japanese, middle eastern, portugese, latin american, irish, whatever you want it is in these blocks somewhere. Its full of tourists and some of the restaurants are cheesy but i love it. In all the restaurant guide books there are no restaurants recommended here. If you look at a map there are dots all around paris representing good restaurants and a huge hole of plain streets for this part of town. if you didnt know paris and looked at this map you would think that the latin district was some kind of government district or industrial wasteland. not so. every other storefront has suckling pigs roasting on a spit or an over the top display of oysters, clams, langoustines, and some of the biggest crabs ive ever seen or a huge, disgusting looking chicken gyro thing that the sandwich makers have to step on a stool and use what looks like a stihl saw to cut or people on the streets cooking their own meat in fondues. a vegetarians nightmare neighborhood, and any foodie or wannabe would never ever admit to eating here. but i like all the options and the spectacle and the prices. so we found a chinese counter that wasnt busy and made our own 4 course meal with the first course being curry chicken soup, then an assortment of dumplings, then some kinda beef and veggies, then dessert was some of the dumplings that we liked the best. then we went back to the Highlander and they were on the 16th and ole sharkie had inevitably sank and Padraig cruised. the bbc announcer is the best in the bigs, nice- the anti-johnny miller, and made every moment dramatic even though it was some of the worst golf i have ever, ever seen. well except for my own of course.

Goin to Scottish bar to watch golf and tour de france

Rest day for me: Sunday Day 4 of the British Open Shark ahead by 2! Sink or swim sharkie!

The belly of paris?

As we were trying to make it to this Spanish ham place in the 7th arr. we got on the 12 train but the wrong way. As we got on the train I spotted a french sports newspaper and was quickly engrossed into deciphering what was going on in the sports world, and of course Mad was clueless to where we were supposed to be going. I kinda noticed the train emptying out but didnt pay attention. Finally the sub stopped and Mad is like "wow where is everyone? I've never seen it so empty!" Well i look up and around and i say weird neither have i. then we realize that the last stop was Porte La Chappelle. The last stop on the rail! We are now in no mans land! The catacombs! Ive always wondered what happens after the trains reach their last stop. One time we saw a very old man asleep miss our last stop and we assumed he did it on purpose to venture into the underworld and say goodbye to daylite forever. The subways are already very hot and humid when they are moving, you can't imagine what it was like when we are trapped in a car around other empty cars and have no idea what is gonna happen. I tried to make light of the situation, but as Madeline tells me now she was "terrified. I didnt know what was happening," while we were waiting I got her to pose at the end of the empty car we were in, and maybe you can see that all the other cars were empty behind her too. So after about 10 minutes or so the door opens, scares the piss out of us! An older guy asks us where we are going, i say Madeleine(believe it or not we were going there to get some half off bootsy collins tickets that ended up being sold out) and he says stay here. He was the driver walking from what was the front of the metro to the new front(old back). After a few minutes the metro starts again and crosses tracks and opens up the doors at Porte La Chappelle to start his trip back downtown. No underground homeless villages, no round abouts, no alligators, no skulls lining the wall, just a 10 minute wait and then we were back on track. Disappointing but still was exciting.

Sorry, the bloggernaut has been busy.

Haven't been good at keeping this thing going, but i posted some pics. We have been busy, running around Paris and Versailles. Bastille eve and day were fun. Hung out with the Glenns, the nicest people in the world and they took us to some nice places. Chez R and L was better than the last time. We sat next to the fire where they cook all the meats and Mad and I split the prime rib for 2. It was huge but I managed to finish it off. Aux Lyonnaise was nice, but a small menu, very loud I couldnt hear a thing, and one of Mad's pieces of veal was tough and overdone. But mine was great and the company very nice. Mad and I went to a fondue place for the first time. Cheesy! We loved it. We were gonna watch the fireworks from the top of the Glenn's hotel but they shut down the place. So the Glenns went off on their own and us 3 went to the streets where people put off mortars right next to people and shoot roman candles into crowds. 30 year old men were doing this right next to us and laughing while people ducked and screamed. Versailles was great as usual. I didnt go in this time, just the saw the gardens which are free! The best deal in or near Paris. And the train is only 2.90 euro to get out there.

Happy Bastille Day!

We're gonna go to the river, eat, the girls wanna see the Avedon show, tool around, and watch the Eiffel Tower explode with fireworks from the rooftop of the Glenn's cool hotel.

Mad's here!

We walked around and i tried to take her to the worlds largest flea market which is right around the corner but it opens tomorrow. Now she's taking a nap so i uploaded some photos. I went to Spring yesterday, it was good, but not great. It's a tiny joint that holds 16. Supposedly they are booked till October but i guess not for the 2 days they do lunch, i was able to get a reso a week before. It is a one sitting and everyone gets the same courses. I read somewhere that Daniel who is the owner/chef figured a small place with this kind of sitting was the only way he could have absolute control over every little thing. I like that. He cooks right in the little open kitchen so you can see everything. The quality of the ingredients were incredible, but the portions were small. When i got there i was worried about eating too much bread while i waited. If i hadn't had eaten the bread i would have left hungry. Also all of the little shrimp on the sea bass need to be the kind with shells on for that extra snap and flavor. Without the shells the shrimp are pretty pointless. The wines he recommended were good crisp whites, excellent for when you only woke up an hour before. All in all it was good, and i'm sure it's out of this world on some days depending on what he uses that day. If you come alone, they sit you with other solos and i sat with 2 nice ladies that were from the U.S. who had been living in paris for quite some time. I usually like to eat alone but these ladies were nice and smart and knew a lot about good restaurants around and i shared mine with them. By the end we had our pens and notebooks out and were writing down restaurants and drawing maps. Later that nite CC and I had dinner at this neighborhood place we went to last year, M Comme Martine on rue Cardinet. Incredible and about half the price as Spring. It is an italian-french place that serves bowls of cheesy risotto that CC cant get enough of. I got the sea bass carpaccio and then veal liver. Both were out of this world. The veal liver is like in between chicken liver and duck liver, not as grainy as chicken liver but not as smooth as duck. Fairly mild too, at least for a liver. First time for me and i was really impressed. For dessert i had this extremely bitter chocolate pie that i liked a lot, but was way too bitter for CC. I googled the place later and could not find much on it. I was surprised. I think it is as good and good a deal as my other favorite restaurant L'Affriole. Tonite CC wants to take her parents to the Bourdain place, Chez Robert et Louisse.

Seeing Ingrid

Well it probably has died down now that the tour de france is going on but the last 2 weeks newswise were all about Ingrid Betancourt. Back in the states the name probably isnt even recognizable but here she was probably the closest thing to the iran hostages that reagan got "released" in the 80s. She was the covergirl of every paper for 2 weeks and i really think they might tear down the joan of arc statues everywhere and put hers up. Anyway i was kinda keeping up with the news cuz it is an impressive story, but i had no idea when she was coming home. So last week i was walking near champ elesses or whatever it is called/pronounced on my way to an irish bar to watch wimbledon i walk up to all these police and as i looked down the street there are hundreds waiting for some kinda arrival. i have nothing better to do than check it out. when i make it there thinking madonna or someone is gonna pull up i realize over french chatter that it is ingrid. the weather was really nice and so i thought it would be a good 20 minute break to see some history. plus i worked my way to the front row right in the middle. many fancy cars came up and famous french people got out and everyone ooohed and took pics (including me, even tho i didnt recognize a single person). after a half hour the sidewalk for the entire street was completely full and getting fuller. i really got bored and wanted to leave but i had the best view and i was afraid i might miss something and i knew getting out would be impossible. so i stayed. finally after close to an hour these 3 vans come up full of i guess columbians going crazy with banners and stuff and then a black mercedes pulls around and it is her. everyone freaks out. my heart rate races and i have real goose bumps and i dont even know why, i guess i just got caught up into the whole thing. the benz pulls into the palace and the gates close. you can kind of see her doing interviews but not really and after waiting 5 minutes or so everyone filters out to go on to whatever they were supposed to be doing in the first place. for me it's going to an irish bar to watch tennis and read crappy good english tabloids(my only source of readable news outside of the internet).

Beck and the search for Absinthe

CC got us 3 tickets to Beck. I dont know how she keeps doin it but she does. So Van, CC, and I saw Beck last nite at the Olympia. It was really a really cool, straight forward show in a cool old famous venue. He started around 9:30 and played for only about an hour and a half. There was no bells or whistles, no dancing, he just came out in long hair in a grungy baggy outfit with an odd, too small vest on that would flap around when he jumped. I guess he's in his Neil Young stage. The show was mostly his new stuff which was really good, and then he played his more popular stuff during the encore. He didnt seem too enthused about his old famous stuff, and there was definately no cool, funny, white boy dancing which sucked cause Beck is one of the best, funniest dancers in the world. The show was sweet and short. As we were leaving Van spotted the cute guitarist chick out front and he talked to her and we got our pics with her (my camera was dead so i have no pics). After the show we walked to Pigalle and Moulin Rouge and stuff and searched for this absinthe bar that Van had been to years before. We couldn't find it or we found it and it was closed or something. Who knows? The point is there are no stories of tripping on the green fairy in the lights of pigalle with the crossdressers and hustlers. Oh well, it was good, clean fun and this morning i woke up with a tiny wispy headache instead of a big green monster one.

Normandy

Saturday morning CC and i took the train to the airport to pick up our rental car to take out to the land of Normandy. the kia was manual which meant i had to drive, which i was not looking forward to driving the whole time, but actually it turned out to be a lot of fun to change gears on the streets of paris and normandy. and the ability to manually change gears comes in real handy when you gotta kick it around slower cars or cheesetrucks. plus the kia itself was extremely easy and fun to drive, i like those cars now. after getting thru nasty vacation traffic we made it to the beaches of dday, Omaha and Utah. If anyone has any tiny interest in WWII then i suggest these beaches are an absolute must. it was awesome climbing and playing and exploring the german bunkers that have holes in the walls from bullets and black walls from flame throwers. plus it's on the beach with beautiful cliffs. we drove more and tried to go to the american cemetary but it was closed so we drove thru all these little villages and went to a dday museum, then to our beautiful hotel in Bayeaux. Bayeaux is this ancient town with a big cathedral and the longest tapestry and it was putting on their medieval festival that was a lot of fun. people in this area take it very seriously and party as well. lots of sausage stands, meats cooking on spits, cassoulet tents, beer and cider. it went on all saturday and sunday into the nite. the parade was a lot of fun. we watched it right out side this patisserie where cc's grandmother "died and gone to heaven" in her words (she likes sweets a lot!) then we left after cc's uncle and i had had enough sausage dogs and after we saw the tapistry which for fabric is pretty cool its a long story about a war. At the lobby of the tapistry i saw a picture of Mont St. Michel and i asked cc if it was near and she said it was and that Van mentioned he wanted to go too. I said sweet lets go so we changed plans and didn't tell Phoebe or Van (ccs idea to surprise them). We just got in the car and started driving. Just outside the castle on the hill, Van figured it out and kept saying "CC I'm gonna hug your neck" must be a Charleston thing, but he was really excited. It was really cool. A castle on a big hill that pops out of nowhere. When the tide is in it is an island, when it's not there are miles and miles of sand that you can walk forever on as long as you dont die in the quicksand. At the bottom there are a mess of restaurants and tacky souvenier shops that curve around the hill. i actually liked them. Then we drove to Chartres to see the famous Cathedral. That was cool- there was a Russian quintet singing in the very dark cathedral and it made up for it not having the holy veil of Mary on display. Then we made it home to paris and after dropping the "kids" off at their hotel cc and i went to our local mc donalds for takeout.

Oh man I can't believe I missed it

Oh well I wouldn't trade this weekend trip for anything, even the best Wimbledon final ever. I was really hoping that it would be rained out, so i could watch on monday. When we got in i passed an empty bar were i could see they were showing the entire replay of the match. at home i told CC to look up who won the 1st set and then tell me if it went to more than 3 sets. That way i know it's worth my time to go to the bar and watch the last 3+ sets without knowing anything. So instead she says she's gonna read me the article, just not mention names. Before i could stop her she goes " So and so broke an unbelievable streak" it was over. Argh that sucks! i still dont believe it's a passing of the torch. RFs still got game. We'll see in NY.

Not off to a good start!

I dont know what it is with CCs relatives but they seem to be cursed on the way over here. Rosena had delays and lost luggage, CC had a terrible time with the venice airport, CCs parents took a flight to Genoa thru Rome and their luggage made it but they were stuck in Rome, and now Uncle Van and Granma Phoebe had an overnighter but had to make a quick landing in NYC because something was flapping off the plane. THEN Van gets his wallet picked on the subway from Charles de Gaulle to here! He sure was mad. Hopefully all the bad luck has run out and now we are ready for some serious fun.

The attack of the americans

CC's uncle and grandma just arrived, then it will be nonstop as Mad and CCs parents come next. Should be lots of fun though. CC has rented a car for Friday and we all are gonna go over to Normandy and see the DDay stuff and check out Brittany. Leg 2 of the Tour de France is in that area too on Sunday so hopefully we will check that out.

Whoa

My "sources" just told me about a UNC-UCLA all time greats game in 1987. It aired on abc with Keith Jackson and Dukie V announcing it. Dean vs. Wooden. Reggie v. Jordan. An overweight Phil bringing the ball down the court with Kenny Smith. Rosenbluth hitting a long hook shot. McAdoo and Charlie Scott?! How, after all my years debating(not really) the ultimate best team from a college did this never come up? Some dude has it on beta and says the heels were really treating the game seriously and the halftime combo medley of mj and michael jackson is awesome.

Oh man

I woke up today with a splitting headache. No it's not from the cheap wine we drank last nite, it's from me walking in to the corner of a concrete wall. Yesterday, after I watched Monfils for a while I went into the tunnel that leads from the court to the tunnels and stuff under the stadium. There after snooping around i found the restaurant that also leads outside. The restaurant was open and families from the tourneys outside were there. Well i really needed to go to the bathroom and the bathroom was to the right at the beginning of entering the restaurant. So while I'm walking I'm bouncing a tennis ball and my bladder, body, tennis ball are all taking a right to go to the bathroom, but as i'm turning i catch a TV to the left and snap my head to see who was playing. well it was a commercial or something so i turn my head to the right and all of sudden the lights go out and i hear, feel a snap around my eye. my bladder kept telling my body to go the bathroom(it obviously isnt a tennis fan). i snapped the side of my face right into the corner of the wall. After getting about 50% of my vision back i look at this kid who sees me and was probably laughing, i realize i gotta get to the bathroom quick before this becomes a gusher. I hurried to the bathroom, leaving my tennis ball i stole that monfils was playing with(i think i might have kicked it in my anger, i cant remember). i look in the mirror and it hadnt broke the skin but it was pretty painful and i felt around and there werent any loose bones so i dont think i broke anything either. the pain started to go away and i really didnt worry about it much for the rest of the day, it was just kinda sore. today i woke up and it is swollen and i got one of those black eyes where my top eyelid is puffy and purple not the bottom part. its getting in the way of my vision right now. i should have iced it last nite but i didnt think it was that bad. oh yeah and to top it off after leaving the bathroom and totally playing it off i walk thru the restaurant and that little kid was there staring at me wondering what my problem was. while bouncing MY tennis ball! of course i didn't demand for my ball back, i got out of there as quick as i could. little french brat.

Euro final in the basque

Well the trip turned out to be too perfect- we left paris friday nite and arrived in Biarritz Sat morning, the trip was an overniter and they accomidate well, they have the bar train turned into an all nite disco with a real dj. It was interesting but we wanted to make sure we were well rested so after a drink we went back to our cab and went to sleep. We woke up in Biarritz which is a surfer town but still a real town, not a stoner hippie commune, and a 1000 times cooler than any hippie or tourist town like the Jamaican beaches i went to last year. No poseurs here, even the surfers didnt have any kind of wannabee vibes like in socal. It was just absolutely laid back as anything can be outside of pawley's. The hotel was a steal and set us up right when we got there which was about 7 in the morning. All saturday we explored, went to the aquarium and sat out by the beach. For lunch we went to this section by the fishing ports where there are 3 restaurants which all serve the freshest seafood. I got the "fruits of the sea" which is a big iced platter of shellfish that would cost $70 in paris. The lil clams were great but not as good as the big clam. The snails were scary at first because they were cold and maybe still alive but they tasted great. The oysters were the same I get at my fish market- an immediate hit of metal that overwhelms but then the saltiness and fruitiness takes over. The crab was good, and the prawns not-they were served with the head on how i like, but the meat was insipid. Later that nite we went to a kebob place that hooked me up with a good skewer of duck: breast, heart, and gizzards. The gizzards were good, the breast and the heart were much better.
On Sunday we visited Bayonne which was very quiet, but it was Sunday. We ate on the river and i got a huge pot of Basquian style of mussels with squid and spices. It was really good, and after 40 minutes i looked down at the empty pot and there were still about 20 mussels left and i realized i ate close to 300 and i could have eaten 200 more(which really isnt that much for mussel eaters). If me or a guy like my bro or landy had to survive on eating mussels and we had allyoucaneatbuffet we would probably spend all day eating and still waste away.
Speaking of me and my bro, the frenchies in the country stink. I mean some of them stink so bad you can combine the stench of me, my bro, mike seese, and holler after 3 bball games and a graduation weekend shift- times that by 10 and then maybe you'll get the idea.
Anyway, then we went back to the beach at Biarritz and then we went to a pub to watch Spain v. Germany. We watched the 1st half there and then safe(!?) ell wanted to make sure we got back near the train station to watch the 2nd half. All the bars near the station were closed since it was Sunday. It was a bad call. CC went into the station and i wandered out to find a place i could watch the game. Total ghost town. The streets were absolutely desolate since everyone was watching the game. There was no one even to ask where a bar was except for some very mean Rotts that scared the piss out of me at every few 100 yards. Finally i found this dark driveway that led into some kind of compound and once i was in the middle of it i found a lobby and watched the last 10 mins of Spain's victory with these weird religious families. There was about 30 of us in a really pretty dark oak bar watching it on a 15 yo TV without cable. I truly wish i had my camera but i left it in my bag. Then i got lost on the way back to the station, but finally made it back to a very unhappy CC.
Today i thought it was the July 1 so i went down to this Richard Avedon expo that i wanted to be the first to visit. I was wrong, so i went to this Japanese noodle soup place that is so recommended and there is a line out the door. It sucked. If you want asian soup then get pho and if you want dumplings get dimsum. Vietnamese do the soups and the chinois do the dumplings and the japanese give you rubbery gyoza and glorified oodles of noodles. Plus it wasnt that cheap. $15! In Chapel Hill you can feed 5 lowly Americans for that.
Then since 90% of the museums were closed and wimbledon was supposed to be a big day I went over to the roland garros area to see if i could find a cool tennis bar. Well there wasnt so i walked over to rg and there was some old dudes tourney going on the smaller courts. So i went in and checked out the stomping grounds and as i was walking up the stairs to Suzanne Lenglen i realized there was some really big dude out there hammering the ball. It was Monfils! Just playin with this dude. I must have got there at the beginning because a few minutes later there were a bunch of people crowding around. I think i got some good pics. He withdrew from Wimbledon cuz of an arm injury so i guess he was rehabbing. He held his arm a few times, but he played thru it. When he served he absolutely annihilated the ball. The guy might be a total one hit wonder but it was still a kinda cool parisian moment.

It came down to Spain and Russia

Our plans for the weekend hinged on the Euro semifinal between Spain and Russia. If Spain lost we were gonna go to Strasbourg to check out the wine country and then watch Germany on Sunday. If Spain won we go to Basque country. Spain won, Bierritz it is for the weekend. A lot of people here said Russia was gonna whup em too and then Germany- but i get the feeling the French don't wanna see any of their neighbors win and a team like Russia is neutral to them.
The ultimate sandwich went under some modifications and ended up at the bottom of a very happy belly. After eating Ellwich I i realized that the ham and cheese part(jambon de paris, prosciutto, some purple smoked ham, french emmenthal, french mustard and mayo, toms, capers, onion, and french radishes) was missing something. At first i thought it was cornichon but then on my way to the market i passed by those fist sized figs i've been eating ever since i got here. Duh! Thin slices of fig worked perfectly. Also with ellwich I the 1st part is shredded braised beef cheeks. i thought i put too much onion so i elimated that and extended the mustard from the middle part down to front part with the beef cheeks. the beef cheeks are great but it still needed a little somethin. Raw egg! and since i'm in France i thought the little quail eggs would be perfect. the last part of Ellwich II was perfect from the beginning, thanks mostly to the amazing salamis i picked up at my local horse butcher and at Guilles Verot(which has the best meats and salamis in the world). They were very helpful, much more helpful than the meanies at Maison Pou which is supposed to be sort of famous or something. 3 problems with the Ellwich- one, i can't figure out how it would be split for 2 people. Two, it is impossible to not eat the whole thing, it is so good and the best part is when one part of the sandwich runs into the other- the beef cheeks marrying with the hams, then the saying goodbye to the beef part of the sammy but knowing you have another amazing sandwich after that, and another one after that! it is absolutely impossible to put it down. Three, the ellwich is impossible to reproduce in the states due to the ingredients, and as good as it is i will probably never make another one ever once the ingredients run out. It is just too hard to get all the good stuff. It took all day walking all over paris to 5 shops and 2 markets. I made Ellwich III this morning, which was a mini version, and I have enough to make Ellwich IV for my train trip and then the reign of the king is over.

Still working on my ultimate sandwich

After seeing the old bank account i realized i need to start living cheaply or i'm gonna have to hit up some people for a ticket back to the states. sooner than later. So after eating all the supposedly amazing baguettes across paris i realized i just cant live on bread. i know i shouldnt be saying this, but to me a baguette is just a bageutte and there aint no real big deal about it. just not a baguette person, sorry. maybe it all stems from the crunchy bread that i grew up on at la rez and crooks. it hurt the roof of my mouf. i really tried to figure out what the big deal is but i am an american idiot. and i am not a purist. or wasnt. anyway i heard of this dude that has won all these awards and just won the award for the best baguette in france. he is tunisian! they said its like germany having a brat contest and a turk winning. his shop is about a 5 minute walk away. a walk away into the ghetto. once you make yourself thru the ruffians you get to this bakerie that sells baguettes for 90 cent. u see the supposed bread genius in his kitchen and you realize what he is eating- bread! plain ole bread, just rippin it off like its nothin. i bought 2 baguettes and that is the beginning to what is gonna become the ultimate sandwich. i then went all around paris looking for the best ingredients to stuff into this famous baguette. the idea was to shove all my ingredients into the baguette and then shove it all into my fat face. after i shopped i realized i couldnt fit all my awesome ingredients into the bread so i had to rethink my whole idea. then i came up with a way i can have all the stuff i love...

Loire River Valley

CC and i spent the weekend biking around the Loire Valley. It was amazing. The pics dont do it justice. Saturday we biked 50 miles, and CC was great. I think she really only knows how to ride beach cruisers, but once she figured out how to use the gears she could almost keep up! I shouldnt be talking because i was sore as hell that night. We biked to Villandry then Azay de Rideau then Languois, then back to our hotel. The next day we biked through vouvray to ambois. all the chateaux we saw were like out of a book. i dont know what book, but some book probably has settings in big houses like these. All of the chateaux were awesome but i guess Villandry stands out because of the crazy art inside. Sunday, after being really sore, we went to Vouvray on our way to the spectacular chateau of Amblois. We figured on a sunday wineries would still be open since it is still the weekend. not so. so we knocked on some random houses anyway and these old ladies were nice enough to let us on a tour of their caves and give us tastings. Vouvray is built into the limestone cliffs and hills that over look the river valley. 99% of the houses in Vouvray have caves that are centuries old and probably over 50% of those are being used for wine. The places we went to on sunday were run by little old ladies and their families. They were really nice and did it all for free, we tried to pay, but they wouldnt let us even though we were bothering them on a sunday.
Monday she took the early 6am train back to paris so she could get to work. i decided to stay back and check out more wineries. glad i did. learned a lot and except for the rainstorm(i had to hole up in some vineyards' garage with their cats until they opened at 2) it was awesome. vouvray was deadsville monday. maybe because it was supposed to rain more than it did. I walked around all of the wineries (in vouvray all of the wineries are where their caves are, their vineyards are on top of the bluffs). I tasted some really good wines, in the u.s. the dry stills seem more well known, but here it is just as much about the sparklings and the nectars. all of the wine ladies made sure to let us know that their sparkling is just as good if not better than champagnes. my last stop was at Mark Brenif which was the only thing close to a big Napa or Sonoma winehouse than the other little houses. it was nice though, and they gave me an extensive tour of the caves with an english speaking girl who was doing an internship there. Then i took the city bus back and the front of it was full of all these down syndrome little french people. At first i thought they were on some kinda group tour but there was no one watching them and they were getting off at different stops by themselves. I guess they have some kinda workplace they go to during the day out in the country. they were all adults and all spoke french and they were loud and fun. it was cool.

Off to the Loire valley

Leaving town and taking the train to the Loire Valley for the weekend. I hope it is good weather because we rented bikes for our mode of transport around the valley. CC's leaving later than me and getting there sooner, when she bought my ticket she didn't check it and put me on the slow train! My trip is 2 1/2 hours while her high speed train is less than an hour. And i'm all out of tintins and asterix. sucks. Maybe there is a comic book store near the station.

Sports here and there

One of the major things i missed was seeing my beloved Celtics beat kobe and his lil' bitchkicks. No I'm not really celtics fan but anyone who plays against the royal a**hole are my favorite team. People really compare him to jordan?! From what i can tell over the hill in montmartre no one cares about anything except football and some horseracing as long as they are gambling at the otbs. But i have been keeping up with bball and i am so happy that that vain piece of shi* kobe lost. and i am ecstatic about the donaghy revelations even if they arent true at least someone besides me and nader will look into game 6, the worst thing i have ever seen outside of going to a wwe/nwo match at the deandome with deets and his girlfriend. which was fun especially seeing the jewish teen girls in love with goldberg. donaghy=canseco=jim bouton and i love it. its about time. kobe without shaq and the refs is 0fer in my book and i will never respect any of his titles just like i dont respect the dukies title in 2001 or whatever it was. the worst part of the donaghy stuff about game 6(kings-lakers) was on espn.com they only quoted coach phil! all he did was bitch about game 5! thats like asking coach k about how refs do their job. complete joke. why even ask? oh well, i dont lose sleep over it anymore now that it has become blown up so i guess thats a win for me. that being said for me i rate larry brown #1,jerry sloan #2 and rick adelman and popovich tied for #3 in the nba coaches in my last 20 years. then i would probably have daly and tomjonovic tied for 4th. then probably jackson and van gundy and doc rivers tied for 7th. i hope refs bavetta and crawford never ref a game again. in fact i would rather have donaghy than those two. i also missed the amazing tiger and making $ on holler, that wouldve been an awesome monday. and hopefully the heels beats lsu tonite to keep on bein badasses. i have traveled thru southern louisiana during the college ws years ago and they really take it seriously. at least in the way of putting banners out and stuff. i was like people really care about this stuff? and i heard they are in full force in omaha. on this side if anyone cares i spent 6 hours watching 3 of the most boringest soccer games ever(and thats pretty boring), i was giving it a chance and it seemed kinda cool until france played. it was like watching the pistons play 3 games a year ago. even i could tell they were better but they were just a mess. they played like crap and if i hadnt accidently seen some netherland matches i would've gave up on the sport completely, but those guys play some pretty ball. even a novice like me can respect that. they are and have been complete underdogs but hopefully they will steal the trophy from some boring ass eastern euro team. plus they never have been in a war against us.

Sneakin in to Roland Garros

Yesterday i went to Bois de Borlogne which is this huge park on the east side of paris. i went cuz it was a nice day and a double bonus is that there are 2 huge horsetracks in the park so if the weather turns ill just run over to the races and get my game on. that should give you an idea of how big the park is tho. not one but 2 horsetracks and one of them is Longchamps maybe the biggest horse arena in europe and absolutely beautiful. the other is a steeple track. the park also has lakes with islands and a restaurant on one of the islands that i guess you have to row to. all the books say when the sun sets this park is where some serious naughtiness happens (well the sun was still up when i was leaving, i see this black girl wearing a bra like top and having problems adjusting it, as i get nearer it wasnt a girl at all and her crossdressing friend that was standing next to her started catcalling in french). right outside the southern tip is roland garros. the park is so big it probably can hold 100 times the grounds of roland garros. to get to the park you take a subway that kinda drops you nearby roland garros, so i figured since i didnt get federer to sign a hat for holler, i'd steal some of the famous clay and bring it back to him. so i went over and these guys at the gates hassle me and i tell them i'm going to the museum. at the museum i ask the ticket lady if i can run over to centre court and take a picture and ill be right back, she said no but i persisted and said ill be back in less than a minute. the court was right next to the museum. she said ok and i was in! so i go around this corner and there are all these models and photographers and stuff. they were shooting an ad! just my luck. so i decide not to give up and i walk around and to suzanne lenghen court right next to chartrier. it's the other big court. sweet no one there except some kids playing! i scooped up some clay and even hit some balls that escaped their little net game. i got this nice kid to take my photo too. cute little french kid, real talkative- his favorite players were federer no.1 and then roddick and gasquet. he didnt like djocovik (who does) or monfils! how could he not like monfils? i love the guy. he plays tennis like mutombo plays basketball. then i went walking thru the park, saw a bunch of lakes, a waterfall, woods, bikers and bladers, 2 crossdressers, and there turned out not to be any races at either track anyway. then i went to the market and picked up groceries and cooked for my workin' girl.

Castles, horses, and sweetbreads

Sun i woke up at 9! for some wild reason i get up around 9 or 9:30 here. cc and rosena got up around 12. rosena is the queen of sleep. by the time we got out of the house it was probably 2. cc had told her boss about the fun she had at chantilly and her boss gave her tickets to a race at vincennes on sunday call the prix presidente. i was all for it of course- the bug has hit me again ever since that first race at chantilly. its like crack but i'm playing with very tiny rocks. so vincennes is a cool place anyway- there is a huge castle and a parc and a zoo all around this area and the metro takes us there. we go to the castle which was cool and then we go to this park where there is a jazz fest and lots of cool landscaping. then we decide to go to the track to catch this one race. well the track is actually over a mile away and cc has some serious issues with her sandals and the lil dirt path we have to take. i told her to relax at least its not raining, while actually worrying a little myself because if it did then the path would turn to mud and then cc would really have some issues. finally we made it to the track. not a hat race. at chantilly you get all dressed up and the girls wear all the crazy hats. not here. not that i cared, not in the least, but i did want cc to have fun. i know she did anyway, and she was probably ecstatic that she didnt have to walk on that path anymore. anyway i managed to get in on the action for the main race and won. i took a favorite to win and took cc's recommendation to place and they came in 1-2! sweet. then i got a little action on the harness race next and then we off to some veggie restaurant in the 6th that rosena wanted to go to. it was good, beanie loved it, i was happy, and cc seemed to like her chevre on bread. then we walked to the pantheon, looked for the breakers that take up the sidewalk by st. michel and went home.

Belgian waffles and Mussels in Brussels

Sat morn we took a high speed train to brussels. We woke up late after staying out kinda late in the latin quarter and almost missed the train but luckily we were in brussels in no time. By the way there is nothing like just barely making a train in europe- running thru the subway station, thru the train station, thru the people and the pigeons-there are pigeons and other birds flying in every train station in europe- and jumping on the train right before it starts chuggin. all in probably less than 15 minutes since we left the house. no security to go thru, no lines, no ticket stamping(that happens when the ticket guy goes thru the train about 10 miles out). all you got to do is get on the nanosecond before the wheels start moving. in brussels cc and rosena immediately got chocolate while i went and got a belgian waffle with chantilly and choc on it. it was disgustingly sweet, after 2 bites i didnt like it at all but for some reason i ate it anyway. rosena tore thru her choc truffles until she got to the end and got one of those nasty cherry ones where instead of spitting it on the side of the road she spit it into her hand and then it was just drizzling down her face into her hands while she was laughing uncontrollably. that girl is a Trip. then we walked around, did museums and stuff. the weather was cold but it never rained. it's a pretty cool town esp the old town. good for a day trip, not much more. we went to a dive where i got mussels in brussels, they were good but not amazing. this place was highly recommended and we met a little italian girl that was traveling by herself and she said her belgian friend told her if she was gonna have mussels then this was the place. i think my mussels are better and all i do is get the bag of chesapekes or whatever they are from the ht. then more walking around, the comic museum is a huge rip, but the tintin store downtown wasnt. it was fun to see rosena and cc get into it like i had when i was a kid when the gualts had all the copies. then we were tired and went to this little cafe and sat outside where i drank the big brown beer called amfligen. it is a thousand times better than any of the beers belgium is known for like the chimays, duvels, and all that sweet highalcohol trappist crap. cc got a waffle that i am glad she got because it changed my perception of the belgian waffle. it had a crispiness to it and the chocolate was almost amazing. it was real, and not too sweet- it was an exact copy of how dad used to make chocolate sauce. i drank it straight from the little pourer. deja vu. then we made the train and while they slept i watched belgium countryside turn in to france countryside.

Rosena's in town

CC's sis got in town on thurs. I picked her up at the airport after long plane delays and what seemed like longer luggage delays she finally poked her head thru the security doors and into paris. We then took the rer train to the apt and went out to our local market where she bought a bunch of fresh produce and baguettes and promptly ate an entire baguette and drank a 2 liter of apple juice and we had to go out and get more later. then we went out walking and she was a very good walker, we went up and over the hill, by socre coeur, and down all the way to the river which is my walk everyday but i figured she would be tired. but she never quit. well until we got home that is and then she fell out completely, while cc and i went around the block to our little local restaurant where they call us by name and give us little perks like free wine. the food is pretty good too. actually they invited us to a little party they are throwing in our neighborhood park today. its not really a park but old railroad tracks right behind our house that people have kinda turned it into veggie gardens and stuff. the owner of the restaurant is gonna have openbar there too, could be cool.

Race day in Chantilly

Sunday we went to the Prix de Diane which is what i figure the 2nd crown of the french quadruple crown if there was one. anyway it's at Chantilly which is a beautiful little town north of paris. after taking a short train ride from our local train station where we were crowded in with all the other hat wearers and gamblers. we were in this purty little horse town. from the train station there is a wide path through these dark woods that everyone takes to the track. when the woods end there are miles and miles of green grass and in front of us is this huge palace that helicopters are flying in and out of and to the right there is the stadium. kind of like nascar but with family picnics with sandwiches, cheese, and of course wine everywhere instead of tailgatin with cheesepoofs and busch light. i wish it was a combo of both, sandwiches, cheese and some kinda american beer (i love wine, and the beer here is good but anymore than 2 drinks you wanna lie down and take a nap), but they are both parties and one is a party where you can gamble, which makes it little less of rager because you wanna be able to think a little bit. it was a lotta fun, i hadnt been to a live race since deets and i went up to maryland when we were like 18. the rush you get having your horse come down the stretch and win your bet is like no other. esp when the horse comes out of nowhere, thatll give you goose bumps. i went 3 for 5 on the day. i lost the first race, got on a hot streak, then lost the prix de diane. cc went 0 for 5 but she was just betting 2 euros on longshots. the prix race was a blow out- the horse was a monumental favorite and had such a lead that the jockey started blowing kisses to the crowd before even the crossing the finish line. i got a really good shot of this, i just need to figure out how to crop my photos. after the race we walked into town and ate at an italian place, where i had skate with a beurre blanc and capers and olives. i think it was the 1st time ive had skate, where have i been? it was really good.

Test post

It is tues, june 10. sunny and 75 in paris. about noon. i finally decided to do my own blog since cc is not allowed to include me in hers. so i said to hell with it i'm gonna do my own. screw hers. anyway i might see the city of lights in a different one. gonna go start my day and see what trouble i can get into. will try to put up some pix.