Like Mr. Miyagi said....it's all about balance

Sure, you remember when he told Daniel "Better learn balance. Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home. Understand?"  Or when metaphorically telling Daniel that the balance lesson “not just karate only. Lesson for whole life. Whole life have a balance. Everything be better. Understand?” (btw, did he finish every sentence with the word understand? Somebody IMDB that for me) 

And then they cut out that part where he says this also applies to wine.  This they don’t tell you on IMDB but I’m pretty sure it’s true ‘cause we learned on our most recent adventure, the key to great wine is balance.  This according to Les, resident innkeeper and wine merchant in the town of Blaye in the heart of the Bordeaux wine region. 

But before we get that far down the rue de Chateau - May have mentioned before, but there seems to be significantly more interest from friends and family in visiting Paris than there was in Zurich.  Maybe it's because the first year went so quickly and people didn't have enough time to plan, maybe Zurich is not all that exciting (which is fair) or it could just be that Paris is Paris.  The latter being the most likely reason and don’t worry, none of these offend us.

Already having had a few visitors since our arrival in July, up next visiting us straight from the mean streets of Alamo, CA are the Lamson's!  Coming for a little over a week and bringing a new element in the form of their 2 year old son Ethan, were our friends Aaron and Kristine.  On tap - adventures around Paris, a few World Series games, and a trip to Bordeaux.  Oh, and Cleaver and I had to find time to work along the way as well, save for a National holiday here in France on November 1 plus a second "bonus day" that everyone gets here.  (They get a lot of these apparently.)

To start, arrival Friday by the Lamson's and a fairly casual first night out for dinner, kept it short because they were trying to adjust to the time change and Aaron and I had a little something called Game 2 of the World Series to watch that night.  Aaron being perhaps an even bigger fan than I, no way we miss this.  Watching the games here means watching the next day and trying to avoid the internet all day long at work so you don't find out who won.  It's not as fun as it sounds, but hey, when you love your team you do what you have to do. Game 2 =  Giants win!

Late start on Saturday and head out for some sightseeing, really did this for most of the weekend.  Paris is really walkable, things are not all that far apart which makes it easy to kill a day or a weekend just wandering the streets even with a 2 year old dans la stroller.  While wandering we gave them a taste or our normal life here, which consists of going to the market, fromagerie and boulangerie for the French tradition of Pain / Fromage / Vin (Bread / Cheese / Wine) - of which we eat and drink in copious amounts.  Especially cheese, oh is the cheese good.  All of the Lamson's including Ethan agree.  Happy hour was not just a weekend thing, this was the norm for the whole trip. And Sunday night Game 3 = Giants win!  

Go Giants!!!

Monday back to work, Cleaver off to Zurich for a one night work trip while the Lamson's venture out on their own.  Coming back together that night for a quick dinner and Game 4 of the World Series.  Trying so very hard to not find out the score all day proved a futile task as both my boss and another guy on my team who are Americans took it upon themselves to ruin the surprise.  So while thanks to these two clowns I knew the outcome, it still didn't diminish the fun.  Game 4 = Giants Sweep! Another World Series victory, just wow!  This also forced me to make "bad decisions" with Aaron after the victory whereby we head out on a school night to the local Scottish pub near our house to celebrate.  Let's just say good thing my calendar was clear Tuesday morning.  While I certainly missed the excitement of being in the city, glad to have Aaron and Ethan with me to watch and will always remember where I was given the unique situation.

Finally make it to Wednesday evening and a 4 day weekend (remember the holiday and bonus day) and head off to Bordeaux that evening via train.  Clearly this was very exciting for a 2 year old boy - and the adults of course enjoyed the ride with Pain / Fromage / Vin. I mean, what else are you going to do for 3 hours? Arriving late in the little town of Blaye we stayed at this excellent B&B type place where we were introduced to our hosts Clarissa and Les.  We had a large 3 bedroom apartment to stay in which was perfect for all of us.

Waking up on Thursday we had arranged a winery tour with Les which took us to Chateau Rousseau where we walked the vineyards, saw the operation complete with tanks named after the 7 dwarfs and a first taste of Bordeaux wine.  The few days in Blaye were quite nice, small village right on the Garonne river which is HUGE and has a really neat 17th century Citadel / Fortress overlooking the water.  We had a relaxing couple of days enjoying good food and of course good wine.  The weather left a little to be desired but didn't ruin our good time.

Back to Paris on Saturday afternoon and we planned a night out on the town.  We had a babysitter arranged which sort of worked out - eventually anyway - and enjoyed an evening out sans Ethan.  Last day was Sunday for more wandering and a trip to Jardin du Luxembourg which has a huge playground which Ethan seemed to really love.  Needed to get the boy out and run him a bit, spend some energy as opposed to running laps in our living room.

The week really felt like a vacation of sorts eventhough we did have to fit the work schedule in there.  Had a wonderful time with the Lamson's and had our first (but not our last) trip to Bordeaux.  As we have now seen a few different areas of France, starting to really appreciate the food, culture, and countryside.  Looking forward to the next adventure!

And Go Giants!