Quintessential France, here we come!

Today I am writing to you while sitting outside.  It is probably about 75 degrees F with a soft breeze.  There are a few clouds in the sky, and when the sun peeks out from behind them, the temperature warms up instantly.  The only sounds that I hear are that of birds, cows and an occasional confused rooster.  I am at a table in the shade of a large tree, and when I look up from the computer, I see the raspberry bushes, and the orchard of cherry, apple, pear and walnut trees.  I am not kidding.  It is unbelievably beautiful and serene here in Magnien.  We are about 30 kilometers from the city of Beaune.  That is probably the most well known city in Burgundy and we have not yet seen it.  There is apparently an amazing farmer’s market there on Saturday which we will venture out to, as well as a famous hospital.  If you google Beaune, Burgundy that is most likely the picture that you will see. 

Here in Magniun, there are more animals than people.  The landscape is rolling hills dotted with trees, surrounded by forests, and littered with white cows and sheep.  The village here looks just like you would picture.  Old medieval period homes, a few stores, two boulangeries, (bakeries) one very old church and a school for about 20 students.  The home that we are in is about 200 years old.  Across the street is a home with a large piece of property, white cows, and the confused rooster.  I guess that I have seen a few chickens running around there as well.  Life here is very quiet, peaceful and slow.  We went to the grocery store yesterday and although there were plenty of people in the store, you could barely hear a voice.  (Except of course for our family!  Which by the way for our normal standards, was actually very quiet, but here...???)

On the day that we arrived, we had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with the family that has loaned us this magnificent get away!  They could not have been nicer people or more gracious hosts.  When we arrived, they greeted us as if we were old friends.  They had us in, sat us in the living room and lavished us with food and drink while the kids all played football (soccer) or threw fruit from the trees at each other outside.  Nathalie has graduated chef’s school in Dijon, and Eric recently graduated wine school.  We heard all about wine, from the seed to the bottle while Nathalie continued to showcase some of her personal culinary specialties!  I have debated on whether or not to spend the time to tell you what she served us.  With many of you appreciating food as I do, I just have to.  To the rest of you…sorry!  Just skip ahead!

We started with hors d’oerves.  Quiche, stuffed tomatoes and zucchini, bread with ½ of a cherry tomato and cheese that looked like it came out of a little mold and bread with blue cheese, eggplant, zucchini and peppers.  She wanted to know which one was our favorite.  Mine was the bread with the tomato and cheese, and Jeff’s was the quiche.  Then she sat us down for lunch with a “hot dish.”  It was duck (I wish she had not told the kids that until they had eaten!  It was like my dad telling me I was eating Bambi while I was eating.  It was over.) with vegetables and covered in mashed potatoes.  I guess it looked kind of like a shepherds pie, but it was excellent!  By now I though that I would explode, and then she came out with dessert.  Well, you know how I feel about dessert.  Especially ice cream.  It just melts around everything!  It was home made ice cream with pieces of fruit and candied nuts covered with a cherry sauce made from the cherries in the orchard.  Hurt me.  Let me just finish by saying that each was presented beautifully!  All of this, on the day that they are to leave to go to the airport! 

After that they took us around the town and showed us where everything was.  10 minutes later we were back at the house and saying good bye to them!  Well, so we thought.  Eric couldn’t find his wallet.  Kind of important when you are leaving the country.  So, an hour later after they finally found it, whew, we said goodbye.  I kind of wish that they could have stayed and just cooked for us!  J

Well, we are all so happy to be here.  It is said that Burgundy is quintessential France.  So far, I agree.  It is exactly what we had all pictured.  And, this is going to be a very welcome reprieve to the hustle and bustle of Paris.  I think that we will mold quite comfortably into the French country life.

Paris - At a Glance

Bonjour from Jeff.  Paris - Wow, what a city.  I will say, it is an "on the go" city.  Lots of people hustling and bustling.  Little cars, mopeds, motorcycles, bicycles, Public transportation, RER, Metro, busses, boats, taxis, walkers, runners, you name it they got it.  However, I will say that people do seem to enjoy life along the way.  Parks everywhere have people enjoying long lunches, coffee breaks, conversation, reading,

fresh pain ( that's bread for you non Frenchies), and so on.  The French appear to really enjoy life.

Another amazing thing is the architecture in Paris.  Even the regular apartment buildings are beautiful.  You just walk down the street and everything is beautiful.  At first glance, I just thought all the buildings were old, but after seeing a few under construction, they actually make the effort to build with a certain ornateness that is pleasing to the eye.

  The gothic churches with all their grandeur.  Notre Dame and  St Chapelle to name a couple, offer such history and beauty.  Interesting that Notre Dame took 700 years to build...700.

Of course all of the Museums- The Louvre, the Orsay, the Rodin, and Versailles (castle) offer some great viewing of famous artwork.  Paintings and statues galore.

Then of course, the food.  Everything tastes good, the boulangeries (bakery), the creperies, the cafes, the La Glace (ice cream).  It is a good thing we walk everywhere or we would look like blimpies when we return.

All this food is great.  Its not even fattening.  When I step on a French scale, I seemed to have lost like....90 lbs since I've arrived.  I guess I'll keep eating.  I love French food...it makes me lose weight.  Hmmm.

Well Au revoir for now, Jeff

Paris Highlights - Picnics in parks, the Eiffel Tower, the Rodin museum, the exterior of the Notre Dame

What a drag... JK!!!

Yesterday we got to Burgundy, as you heard.  The house is amazing!  There is a pool, and a huge backyard!  I wish I could post a pic, but we have not downloaded them yet.  So, I will post a good pic of us!  Since I'm the only kid who is in with this whole blogging thingy, I am the only one with a kids point of view.  The back yard is the best hide-and-go-seek yard ever!  Not the best for hobo (Squires, Mortons, and Wennes,) but pretty much any other game!!!   Also the house has like 7 rooms or more!!!  See you soon!
    
                                         Rachel

Soren picks up Eiffel Tower !!!

Soren decided he did not really like the location of the Tower...so he picked it up and moved it over a few inches.  He is much happier with the new location.  He then proceeded to climb the 672 stairs with ease.

670, 671, 672!

Hello!  I am a few days behind, but the last 2 days went very fast and did not leave a lot of time to blog.

Our last day in Paris started just like all of the other days.  At about 11 am.  I am not kidding!  The nights are so late there, and we Browns need our beauty sleep.  We started out trying to do a little shopping...with every other Parisian and traveller.  We found an great jacket for Makenna, but they did not have her size, and this is not Nordstroms.  (We Americans do some things very well - Nordstrom)  So, no jacket.  Bummer.  I was already planning on borrowing it.  :(  After about an hour of feeling completely overwhelmed, we went to the Musee Rodin.  Seriously, the busiest of museums is a reprieve compared to shopping.  Not to mention that I am still sick of shopping.  Even in Paris.

At the Musee Rodin, we saw "The Thinker," "The Kiss" and "The Unfinished Gates of Hell."  The kids were ready to leave after seeing "The Thinker."  All of his original pieces were out, right there in front of us!  No ropes, no cases.  Just out!  It was amazing to us to be able to be that close, and actually get to touch the pieces that his very own hands worked on!  (I am not sure if we were supposed to touch them, and, and so we only touched a few so say that we did)  Rodin's works were very, well, ahem, erotic in nature.  So, after Soren took a few pictures of pieces that we will certainly have to delete, we left.  Much to do this day!

From here we went to see "Rue Cler."  One of Rick Steve's favorite streets.  We were not disappointed.  What a charming street, with wonderful food.  Again.  Good thing we are walking!  We wasted no time in getting a little "pick me up" as Makenna says.  Gelato for the kids (minus several licks for the parents) and cappacinno for the parents (minus a few sips from Makenna).  One of the things that we love about these cafe's is how all of the tables and chairs face out.  People still face eachother for lively conversation, but always seem to be open to the presence of all that is around them.

We then collected our dinner from the boulangerie, the fromagerie, and the other place that had meat.  Not sure what that was called.  It is easy to find the first two, as the boulangerie almost always has a line out the door, and you can smell the fromagerie from several blocks away!

We walked from there to the Eiffel Tower.  Wow.  We came down a street, looked up, and there it was! Amazing!  The park just before it was filled with people.  Once again, having picnics, drinking wine, playing football (soccer).  Enjoying life.  We feel that the French way is going to seep it's way into us.  In fact, we are inviting it in!  We just love this lifestyle!

We wanted to be on the Eiffel tower at sunset.  Here, that means 10:30 pm.  (See why we have been sleeping in?  And we had not even had dinner yet!)  So, we decided that we would have our picnic on the Eiffel tower.  As we approached this massive structure, we see two lines.  One to the gauche and one to the droit.  One was much much longer than the other.  Yep.  One was for the lift, and one was for the dreaded stairs.  672 of them.  Gulp.  Don't let Jeff know that there is a difference.  "I am going to go find out what the difference is in the lines."  Crud.  But of course we will take the stairs!  I just kept telling myself, "chocolate croissant, chocolate gelato, cheese, bread..."  The truth is that it wasn't bad, and the kids love that they get to say that the walked up.  (It was cheaper to do it this way too!  More croissants!)

We did have our picnic on the Eiffel tower, and watched the sunset.  It had been raining, pouring actually, on and off all day.  When we arrived at the Eiffel tower, the rain had stopped, and the clouds had cleared!  It was beautiful, and a perfect view of the entire city!  After the sunset, the entire structure came to life with light.  Awesome!  We climbed down and went across the street to the Trocadero to see if from afar and to take some great night pictures.  Just as we got there, the whole Eiffel tower started to twinkle.  Pinch me.  Is this real?

Now that it was 11:30, we decided to take a taxi for the first time, and not walk.  It was quite cold now, and the kids were understandably tired.  Ahem.  So were we!  We went by the Arc de Triomphe, and then back by the Musee D'Orsay and the Louvre.  Then home.  C'est complet.  We conquered all that we hoped to in Paris.  We loved it, but are now looking forward to relaxing in the country.  We will definately be back some day!

Hello!!! :)

Hello everybody!  It's Rachel here.  I've just figured out how to post a new blog so I'm trying it!  Our trip to France so far has been AMAZING!  I can't believe how beautiful the Eiffel Tower is at night!  I'm now in  Burgundy at a over 200 year old house with extremely nice people.  I can't wait to all of you, but no offense I am not done with France yet!!! :D

"It's Raining, It's Pouring..."

Yep.  The day that we had all been waiting for.  Versailles.  We planned it well.  We watched the weather and chose the one day that did not have any rain in the forecast.  In fact, we were so sure that the weather channel was right, that we even took out all of our umbrellas for the day.  (Except for mine which I snuck in my purse.)  The only reason that I had my black rain coat with me was because we were planning to be out late today, and Makenna told me that it looked very French.  I have to say, I did have 2 people talk to me in French today.  (O.K.  They were English, but they though that I was French!)

So we headed out this afternoon on the RER (the train) to Versailles.  We were not there 15 minutes when the first rain drop fell.  Uh oh.  While in the Hall of Mirrors, we looked out to a complete and full strength rain storm.

While we enjoyed the Chateau immensly (with the help of our Rick Steve Podcasts in our ears), we all knew that at some point the tour would pour us out into the elements.  That it did.

But, before I complain too much I would just like to say how much we enjoyed Versailles.  It was very easy to imagine living the courtly life while touring the various rooms!  It was also easy to imagine why the peasants of Paris were finally fed up with the lavish lifestyle that so few were enjoying, while the rest of France was in extreme poverty.  The grounds of Versailles are so incredibly vast!!!  I had no idea!  Now I know why they say that you can spend all day there.

As for us, we waited out the rain with some sandwiches, and then weathered what was left of the storm.  Granted, I can imagine that it might have been more enjoyable with beautiful weather, but we still got the idea!  Our kids were done before we made it out to Marie Antoinette's "village" on the grounds.  All the more reason to come back another time.

After we left the Chateau, we went to a creperie that we had read about on a little tiny quaint street.  I knew that it would be good when they had a dog curled up and asleep under the cash register!  The crepe selection was several pages long.  Can any of you imagine how long it took the Browns to decide on dinner crepes (Gallete) not to mention dessert crepes?  They were awesome!  My favorite was the dessert.  Dark chocolate with coconut, dark chocolate with walnuts, dark chocolate with bannans, and fresh rasperries with creme fraiche.  Good thing that we are walking everywhere!

Well, that put the Browns in a good mood better than anything else might have worked!  Back out to the rain and the train.  Now, they are all tucked into their cacoons and we have one more day left here in Paris.

Tomorrow it looks like more rain, but that will not stop us.  We are looking forward to the Rodin Musee, the Rue Cler district, and hoepefully the Eiffel Tower.  Oh yes, and another creperie, and drinking chocolate from Angelina Salon de The.  No skirts, shorts and sandals tomorrow though.