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.

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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.