Paris: Le Café de Flore (Saint Germain)

  

Azi am avut o întâlnire de lucru în buricul târgului, la una dintre cele mai șic cafenele din Paris, Café de Flore, cu o tânără doamnă corporatistă, căreia am să îi spun Mitzi din motive obiective - pentru că aproape așa o cheamă.

Paris: Fête des Vendanges de Montmartre

În Montmartre, scot capul de la metrou, ca o turelă, la stația Anvers. Iar plouă în orașul ăsta. Asta e, îmi zic și-mi desfac umbrela, apoi o luăm pieptiș pe Rue de Steinkerque, către Sacre Coeur. 

  

Paris Bits: Montmartre in the Rain

 

Yeah, yeah, shabby, overrated Montmartre is one of my favorite places in Paris; even if it's packed with pickpockets, although you have to pay to use the restroom of the cafe where you spent your last dime on 2 milliliters of coffee or your wage per hour for a small bottle of beer, I can't help loving it. Why? Here is my top 5:

Paris Bits: Pont des Arts

   

It seems I've been growing fond of bridges lately. Especially pedestrian ones. After Charles Bridge in Prague, now it's Pont des Arts in Paris, crossing the Seine River and linking Institut de France and Palais du Louvre square.

Paris Bits: Les Galeries Lafayette on A Rainy Day

 
If you happen in the 8th or 9th arrondissement in Paris on a rainy day, Les Galeries Lafayette are the best place to go to. Even if you're overwhelmed by the prices or you're not a fashion enthusiast, there's still something for you to do...

Montreuil - Marché Croix de Chavaux

 
Yeahhh! One of my favorite places in Paris. The market in Montreuil: Croix de Chavaux. One of the most colorful, positive, cheap, crazy, awesome places ever. Enjoy! (or Yalla!)

Paris Bits: Arc de Triomphe et les Champs-Élysées

Our adventure in France starts at Place de l'Étoile, with stunning views of Arc de Triomphe. Quite triumphant, I would say. We circled the square and took pictures of this huge monument from all possible angles. On a sunny, warm day like this one, Paris looks absolutely stunning.

Paris Bits: Serious Wine Needs Serious Stuff

 

I mean serious corkscrews. It smells like it was made 200 years ago and works like magic on the wine bottles. No bottle can mess up with it. And God forbid you drop it on one of your toes.

Food Mood: Crème Brûlée

       

Crème Brûlée is a custard-based dessert with a caramel topping. The base is usually vanilla-flavored, but it can also be fruity. This 400-year dessert is also known as burnt cream (referring to its caramelized finish), crema catalana (after its Catalan counterpart), or crème caramel. 

Food Mood: Cheese Fondue

  
Melted cheese dip - a great way to bring friends and family together around the same pot. A wonderful reason for a communal table with lots of red wine and golden toast. Yumminess.

Food Mood: Galettes

  

Galettes are large savory buckwheat flour pancakes that are mostly associated with Britanny and Normandy in France, where they sometimes even replace bread as daily food. One of the most popular varieties (La complète) is covered with grated Emmental cheese, a slice of ham and an egg, cooked on the galette. The lacy galettes are made in a very similar manner to sweet crêpes, but the difference is that buckwheat crêpes are cooked only one one side.

Food Mood: Croque Monsieur vs. Croque Madame

If you visit Paris on a budget, the Croques are the most affordable food for you, except for the Turkish or Moroccan hole-in-the-walls. The average price is 6 euros. This basically very simple, popular food imbued with the French influence brought by the Bechamel sauce is a favorite among both locals and foreign tourists. But what's the difference between these two?

Croque Monsieur. (c) Premshree Pillai via Flickr.

10 Reasons Pro-Dining-Out-in-France

1. They call this a bistro, not a shack, because they know how to do it and they do it well.

Food Mood: Pain, Amour et Chocolat

  

Pain au chocolat. Thank God I will have finished my diet when I arrived in Paris. This sweet roll, similar in texture with puff pastry, has melted chocolate at the center and made it quickly in the top 5 on my To-Eat-until-You-Explode list. No wonder, Sherlock, you have buckets of love, now all you need is piles of pain au chocolat to justify the title of the post. Hope it is not going to take me weeks until I figure out the difference between a croissant and this. 

   

Food Mood: Macarons. Colored Macarons.

  

Fragile and precious, colorful and temperamental, macarons have been lately the queens of cookies. Had you asked me about them three months ago, I would have told you I would refuse to touch them, as I hate glitzy

Holidays in France: Courseulles-sur-Mer

In Normandy, on the Norman coast to be precise, lies this beautiful little coast village - Courseulles-sur-Mer. Located in North-Western France, in the commune of Calvados, it is the perfect starting point for those who want to visit the Normandy landing beaches. It is also well know for its wide sandy beach and for its port, which bustles with fishing boats and pleasure craft.

Holidays in France: La Maison des Roses (Calvados)

I have never imagined that the house in which I spent one of the most beautiful holidays with my family was going to be turned into a Bed&Breakfast. But it was and I almost didn't recognize it - well, the Romanian and French hospitality can work wonders.

Normandy - Conquest on A Medium Budget

There was a heavy roar outside L’Abbaye de Mondaye, in Lower Normandy. The steamy summer rains were upon us, soaking the bushy hydrangeas in the courtyard. In the church, the monks in girdled white robes were burning incense and praying for love and friendship.

It’s easy to be friendly and loving in Normandy. This special version of northern France welcomes you earnestly, scented by the dry smell of sun-splattered corn fields and the bittersweet flavor of the rosy geraniums hanging heavily on all window sills. Bursts of green unfold across the hills that drown into the English (or for that matter… French) Channel at Arromanches or the D-Day Omaha Beach. No minimalist cooking or drinking. Pungent bubbling apple cider and dusty bottles of wine untie your tongue during your first 4-course feast there.

A voiturette chortles uphill to a castle nestled behind a curtain of white birch trees. The car has only two seats, a huge trunk (with enough room for the potato sacks the locals traditionally carry home to cook these delicious patates au beurre), a shift stick for reverse, and two pedals. Renting a voiturette from a local keeps your budget low and your pride high: €150/week, 5 l/100 km, plus low-level CO₂ emissions.

The brave miniature stopped with a screech in front of the castle. ‘Soyez bien venue, madame. Welcome. Jollie microcar!’ This car made me friends with all the chamberlains in Normandy. A special caste: fine historians, delightful hosts, and gifted tour guides. I took the advice of Mr. Barbey, the chamberlain of Crèvecœur, and followed the trails of the most charming medieval castles in Calvados on my big-Norman-conquest-on-a-medium-budget trip. From the supposedly haunted Calvados Castle, an impressive 11^th-century fortress, to the museums and gardens of the typical countryside Vendeuvre, I finished many of my tours with a brunch or an early dinner in a French chamberlain’s family. The mules frites (fried mussels) and puffed pastries came with stories in my butchered French and in their trilled English on the side.

The castles in Lower Normandy are all listed monuments, some small and homey, others majestic, with all kinds of period add-ons. Le Château de Caen hosts Le Musée des Beaux Arts and Le Musée de Normandie; Balleroy, between Saint-Lô and Bayeux, boasts an impressive hot-air balloon museum, while the Castle of Falaise tells you how William the Conqueror changed the face of the Western world. The €5-€10 admission includes guided castle tours.

Courteously old-fashion yet welcoming and stylish accommodation is available in almost all Norman villages: self-catering gîtes (Cottage in Besneville, Manche, €350/4 people/week), manors (Manoir du Chene, in Nonant, €75/double room/night), high-end equipped castles (Château de Sully, Port en Bessin, €170/double room/night), historic hotels (Hôtel de Normandie, Arromanches-les-Bains, €70/double room/night), or monasteries (L’Abbaye Saint Martin de Mondaye, €45/double room/night).

I didn’t conquer it all. But the Bayeux tapestry, the home-made apple cider, and the cheerful flower pots in every courtyard still conjure the unique spirit of Normandy. Ever since, hydrangea scent has never faded.

[caption id="attachment_589" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="On the National Day of France"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_587" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Chateau Fontaine Henry"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_586" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Sorbet au Calvados"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_585" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Longue sur Mer"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_584" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Cabourg"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_583" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="La Maison de Barbey"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_582" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Courseulle"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_580" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Church of Chateau Balleroy"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_581" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Saint Lo"][/caption]

There was a heavy roar outside L’Abbaye de Mondaye, in Lower Normandy. The steamy summer rains were upon us, soaking the bushy hydrangeas in the courtyard. In the church, the monks in girdled white robes were burning incense and praying for love and friendship.

It’s easy to be friendly and loving in Normandy. This special version of northern France welcomes you earnestly, scented by the dry smell of sun-splattered corn fields and the bittersweet flavor of the rosy geraniums hanging heavily on all window sills. Bursts of green unfold across the hills that drown into the English (or for that matter… French) Channel at Arromanches or the D-Day Omaha Beach. No minimalist cooking or drinking. Pungent bubbling apple cider and dusty bottles of wine untie your tongue during your first 4-course feast there.

A voiturette chortles uphill to a castle nestled behind a curtain of white birch trees. The car has only two seats, a huge trunk (with enough room for the potato sacks the locals traditionally carry home to cook these delicious patates au beurre), a shift stick for reverse, and two pedals. Renting a voiturette from a local keeps your budget low and your pride high: €150/week, 5 l/100 km, plus low-level CO₂ emissions.

The brave miniature stopped with a screech in front of the castle. ‘Soyez bien venue, madame. Welcome. Jollie microcar!’ This car made me friends with all the chamberlains in Normandy. A special caste: fine historians, delightful hosts, and gifted tour guides. I took the advice of Mr. Barbey, the chamberlain of Crèvecœur, and followed the trails of the most charming medieval castles in Calvados on my big-Norman-conquest-on-a-medium-budget trip. From the supposedly haunted Calvados Castle, an impressive 11^th-century fortress, to the museums and gardens of the typical countryside Vendeuvre, I finished many of my tours with a brunch or an early dinner in a French chamberlain’s family. The mules frites (fried mussels) and puffed pastries came with stories in my butchered French and in their trilled English on the side.

The castles in Lower Normandy are all listed monuments, some small and homey, others majestic, with all kinds of period add-ons. Le Château de Caen hosts Le Musée des Beaux Arts and Le Musée de Normandie; Balleroy, between Saint-Lô and Bayeux, boasts an impressive hot-air balloon museum, while the Castle of Falaise tells you how William the Conqueror changed the face of the Western world. The €5-€10 admission includes guided castle tours.

Courteously old-fashion yet welcoming and stylish accommodation is available in almost all Norman villages: self-catering gîtes (Cottage in Besneville, Manche, €350/4 people/week), manors (Manoir du Chene, in Nonant, €75/double room/night), high-end equipped castles (Château de Sully, Port en Bessin, €170/double room/night), historic hotels (Hôtel de Normandie, Arromanches-les-Bains, €70/double room/night), or monasteries (L’Abbaye Saint Martin de Mondaye, €45/double room/night).

I didn’t conquer it all. But the Bayeux tapestry, the home-made apple cider, and the cheerful flower pots in every courtyard still conjure the unique spirit of Normandy. Ever since, hydrangea scent has never faded.