The Cote d’Azur – One last weekend of summer

As Nate mentioned in his previous post, this summer we decided to take a few different smaller trips as opposed to one longer two to three week vacation. We had been thinking of going to Dinard, a town in the Brittany region of France, around mid-September. We still haven’t been to that region and we figured this would be a perfect opportunity to head there. But Louis reached out saying he would be in Cannes for work during that very same time frame and so our plans changed and we decided to head south instead of west. As an added bonus, Keelin was able to join him as well.

We hopped on a plane (since that’s an hour and a half as opposed to 5 hours on a train) early on that Friday morning and were in Cannes having lunch with Keelin by 12:30. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect with warm temperatures. We walked around Cannes that day and did a little exploring. The city is very glitzy and you can tell that there’s lots of money rolling around there. Oh and there was a yacht show in town that weekend which only added to the amount of wealth in that city. We of course found the famous stairs and red carpet for the Cannes Film Festival which happened to be under construction. But they moved the red carpet to another set of stairs that looks just like the original ones so Josephine and I still got our chance to pose on the red carpet. Louis finished with his conference by 5:00 so we gathered some wine and cheese and headed back to our apartment to catch up.

Saturday was our beach day. After a leisurely morning and allowing Josephine to get her morning nap in, we met Keelin down at the private beach associated with their hotel. Josephine got a chance to wear her new swimsuit, touch (and try to eat) sand for the first time as well as dip her toes in the Mediterranean. She was very curious about the water in the beginning but quickly got over it. I don’t think she liked the waves coming in at her. Much different from her small little bathtub at home!

Sunday we decided to change up the scenery and took the short 15 minute train ride to Antibes, another town just along the coast. This had been recommended by one of Nate’s co-workers so we figured we’d check it out. It was a cute little town. We stumbled upon a market and then proceeded to find a perfect patio spot for a leisurely 2 hour lunch. After lunch we wandered closer to the coast, enjoyed the views and the walk and then made our way towards the train station to head back to Cannes for another evening of wine and cheese. Honestly, it never gets old.

There is just something about being at the ocean that makes me feel like we’re truly on vacation. Eventhough we were only there for a total of 2 and a half days, it felt like a true getaway. We didn’t do a beach vacation this year but have now sworn to make that happen for next year. Perhaps we’ll head back to the Cote d’Azur – or the French Riviera as is better known to us Americans.

Road Trip!

Sarlat-la-Canéda

30 minutes doesn’t sound like much.  Should be easy enough to find 30 minutes to sit down and write a quick blog entry, stick a few pictures in there and voila!  But as you may know when you have sub-1 year old rolling (crawling!) around your house and waking up in the middle of the night for unknown periods of time, a “free” 30 minutes can be a rare commodity.   And when one finds oneself with such freedom, often a nap takes precedence. Or even staring at the TV with an episode of Big Bang Theory dubbed in French is a lot less effort than doing anything requiring brain power.  Like writing a blog post.  So, sorry this entry is once again a bit late.

The church town view from the back patio

Donc.  Alors.  We’re finally getting around to it and sharing one of our small summer vacations in France.  Instead of taking a big 1 or 2 full week holiday this year, we chose to do a few smaller outings, Iceland being the first.  The second was a 5 night road trip to the Dordogne region of France!

The Dordogne region is in Southwest France about 350 miles from Paris.  Specifically we stayed in the medieval village of Sarlat-la-Canéda using the town as our base for the trip.  We rented a lovely apartment in the center of Sarlat from the absolute nicest French couple you could ever want to meet.  While they spoke almost no English and us with our limited French, we still had good conversation about what to do in the area, places to go and how much time we would need to get around.  And how quickly they made friends with Josephine, they seemed to just adore her and even gave her a little toy as a welcoming gift.

Château de Castelnaud

Sarlat market

First order of business in Sarlat was the market which takes place on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.  Filling up the old street we walked around and bought up some local cheese, meats, fruits and veggies for the rest of our stay.  What we also noticed while walking around was that there were lots of other families there as well, so we didn’t feel so bad going into restaurants and stores with a  baby.  We were not alone in that regard.

La Roque-Gageac, with the river behind

After exploring Sarlat for the first day, we then hit the road on the second day to see the sights in the area.  The region is known for its castles and in particular, 3 that are well known including the small villages surrounding them.  All of them line the Dordogne river which is a big attraction for many who want to rent canoes and float downstream for the day which looked like a lot of fun.  It really is a pretty area hitting up La Roque-Gageac, Castlenaud, and Château de Beynac which are lined up along the river about 10 minutes drive from each other.

After wine tasting in Pécharmant

Monbazillac getting ready for the Tour

After driving around and seeing the castles, we then went toward the town of Bergerac where we found two lesser known wine regions of France to visit, specifically Monbazillac and Pécharmant.  As we drove toward the small village of Monbazillac where the Tour de France would run through the following day, we saw all the decorations and people already out lining the side of the road in preparation.  It was pretty neat to see the excitement of the race in a rural area the day before. People went all out on the decoration and camping.

In the cave à vin

After tasting a few wines and spending the day in the car it felt good to get back to the apartment and get ready for the next day.  The plan for the next day was to drive to Saint-Émilion which is one of the very well known AOC’s of the Bordeaux region about 2 hours from Sarlat.  We were to spend time there, have lunch, try a few wines, then head back toward Sarlat stopping in the town of Bergerac to watch the finish of the Tour de France stage.  

Our car, ankle deep in water

What we did not expect was a torrential downpour of rain that afternoon.   We made it to Saint-Émilion and during lunch the sky opened up and basically did not stop for several hours.  The good news was that it forced us to choose the wine shop across the street from the place where we had lunch which turned out to be a really nice shop with an owner who spent some time with us.  After all, the town emptied out after the rain and we were basically the only ones there.  With some wine in tow, we just went straight back to Sarlat skipping the Tour de France that day.  The Bean had no interest in standing in the rain.

Chez McDo!

Allez! Allez! Allez!

Saturday was then our last day in town with no real plan.  So, since we missed the Tour the day before and the actual town of Bergerac, we decided to get back in the car to check it out since the sun was shining and the Tour was leaving that day from the center of town.  We had lunch then sat out watching rider after rider go before deciding we had enough sun and heat and went back home to enjoy our last evening of vacation.

Good way to travel...

With as much time as we spent in the car on this trip, we also discovered that petite Josephine is a good little traveler in the car for the most part.  It seems to put her to sleep pretty well and as long as she wasn’t hungry, the screaming was at a minimum.  Sometimes she even fell asleep with her little Sophie la Girafe in hand.  And given it was a road trip, she also got her first stop at Chez McDo!

A mighty wind and some warm water

On the plane to Iceland!

Summer has arrived and with the warm, sometimes very hot and humid temperatures in Paris, what better way to escape the heat then to take a few extra vacation days (I mean, in France we get more than we can use) and go to Iceland!  Bit of a random choice, but we have been interested in going for some time and have heard nothing but good things about it from others who have been.  Then the real catalyst to finally make it happen is that our good friends from DC Uncle Ehren and Julie, as well as Uncle Matty were going as well for a trip of their own.  So what better opportunity to go and meet up with friends and see a new country than now!

What is really nice is that Reykjavik is only a 3 hour direct flight from Paris with an easy 2 hour time change.  Much easier than coming from the US, especially when traveling with a 7 month old.  Petite Joséphine of course was very excited to add a new country to her passport being the good lil' traveller that she is.  So off we go for a quick 3 night trip.

Downtown chilly Reykjavik

Upon arriving we discovered quickly that Iceland is windy, and well, not warm.  Won't say cold, but not warm and the wind was aggressive at least for the first two days.  Also at this time of year it's never dark.  Seriously never dark.  At night the sun goes down below the horizon into a dusk type light that you could still very easily play catch in at 3:00 in the morning.  It's weird and would take some getting used to if you lived there.

We took our time on the first day to explore Reykjavik a bit, not a big city but the downtown had some life with lots of bars and some really fantastic restaurants.  Ducking in and out of the weather into various pubs was a great way to catch up and spend some time with everyone.  We rented an apartment for the trip so we could all stay in the same place and have a relaxing spot to hang out which worked out very well.  We also witnessed first hand that in Reykjavik, when you have a child / stroller, rather than take those two items inside (child and stroller) you just leave them parked outside the door.  Seriously.  We would see a stroller sitting just outside the door of a bar with a little person just sleeping away. We did not leave little JoJo Bean alone in this fashion, but apparently we had the option.

There goes the shooting water!

Second day was time to get in the car and explore.  From Reykjavik there is a well known route called the Golden Circle which hits a few key sites and takes a full day to travel.  Driving through the wilderness you get a good sense for how open and desolate Iceland is, very pretty to be sure.  First stop is "Geysir."  People stand around in a half circle waiting for this thing to shoot 150 degree water 30 feet in the sky, it is actually quite impressive and there are lots of other bubbling hot pots of water all around.  Oh and it was windy.  I mean real windy.  Like almost hurricane force to the point where we only lasted a few minutes before needing to find some shelter.  This new experience was not fun for Joséphine and she went out of her way to tell us just how mad she was.  At least the sun was out!

From there we went on to the Gullfoss waterfall. Picture is worth a thousand words on this one.

After the waterfall, we got back in the car to head back to town, but not before stopping at this random dairy farm off the road for some ice cream and stare at the cows through the window into the barn.

A little ice cream break with some cows

For our last full day in town, the other must see and experience site was the Blue Lagoon, famous as the large geothermal pool with the milky blue water.  The way they have it set up is a bit Disneyland and there is a swim up bar in the Lagoon, but most definitely a cool thing to see and do.  The water is basically hot tub temperature and all heated by the earth.  It sits in the midst of this vast lava field which is barren and rocky for miles all the way around.  The water is in fact very milky blue to the point where you can't see your hand once it is about 6 inches under the water, it was a very unique place.

Cleaver in the Blue Lagoon

Where is JoJo Bean?

After that we drove back to town, tried to go to dinner but Joséphine sped up that process as she was getting tired.  So after jamming food down our gullets we headed back to our apartment for one last night before an early flight home the next morning.  All too quick a trip, but Iceland lived up to the hype and would be an amazing place to go for a week if you wanted to do some camping and enjoy the outdoors.  Dress warm!

A Father's Day at the Races

Every year in Chantilly there is the famous Prix de Diane horse race and it’s quite the event. We had friends who went last year and had such a great time that they gathered a bunch of us to go back again this year. The horse track is in Chantilly on these beautiful grounds with a chateau in the background. You purchase a ticket and sit on a grassy area next to the track and picnic all day. Oh and everyone gets all dressed up with hats too which makes it even more fun. We had a group of about 10 of us (including Robin and Dave who happened to be back in Paris visiting!) that all headed to Chantilly for some picnicking in the sun while watching the horse races. It’s only about 25 minutes by train from Paris so not bad at all. Well in theory not bad but when there is a train strike in France it makes it a little more difficult (thanks France). It was touch and go there for a second but we made it to Chantilly and had such a great day.

And the race this year happened to be on Father’s Day so what better way to celebrate Nate’s first Father’s Day then doing what he loves…..drinking wine, eating cheese and hanging out in the sun.

Josephine was, as usual, a great traveler and enjoyed the festivities as well. What a fun experience!

Happy Father’s Day Nate! 6 months in and you're already rocking this father thing. Josephine and I are so lucky to have you!

Daddy and his girl

Leiden - Take 2!

Made it to Leiden!

Bonjour!  So I’m told that it has been quite some time since I last contributed to the blog.  So I’m told.  Well, what can I tell you, it’s been busy and as an artist and a writer if inspiration isn't there then you can’t force greatness.  But good news, I’ve found good subject matter and finally have the creative juices flowing!  And just like last year I'm here to talk about Leiden.

What is Leiden?  Well, Leiden as you recall is a cute little town in the Netherlands that hosts a marathon race each May.  Click here for Google map of the City. We discovered this town and race last year and had such a wonderful time we decided that we would just have to return.  And return we did to do it all over and see if our first impression was valid.

It was.

By one of the many canals

 A quick refresh in case you forgot and are too lazy to search this very blog for the previous post.  We both entered the half marathon for 2013 and had already booked the weekend when we discovered a bun had been placed into the proverbial oven.  So I ran the half marathon last year while a fan base of one cheered on and we discovered that Leiden was absolutely amazing, beautiful, and fun. 

Returning again in 2014 I entered the half marathon while Cleaver had her sights set on the 10K race.  The bun came out of the oven in a dish called Joséphine and now we were three making the trip.  We also again rented an apartment for the weekend which is our new favorite accommodation when traveling.  Especially with a 5 month old, the added space and comforts of home are a necessity.

View from the Burcht van Leiden Castle

Arriving on Friday afternoon, instantly our memory of last year and initial impressions were validated.  The canals, brick streets, and restaurants were all there just as we remembered.  And as a bonus, this year the weather was absolutely gorgeous sitting around 22 (we do things in Celsius here) and sunny all weekend. 

First order of business, a drink by the canal just down the street from our house.

We also discovered a food website related to Leiden called Leidenfoodie.com which was a great resource for the weekend.  The catch now with Miss JoJo Bean of course is that eating out is not always easy or fun, so take away dinner has become the needed norm.  First night sushi.  Amazingly good for a random spot.  And there is day 1.

Waking up Saturday were two key items on the agenda.  The Saturday market and the race packet pick up.  The Saturday market in particular is fabulous as they have all kinds of fruits, vegetables, Gouda cheese of course, this great dip place we discovered, and Kibbling stands.  Kibbling is basically Dutch fried white fish with a sort of tartar sauce.  All so good, too bad you have to behave with the race on the following day.

Yes, you get a beer when you finish.  Very Dutch

We also discovered this year (thanks internet!) that there is an old castle on top of a hill right in the middle of town with a fairly decent view, though I hear it’s much better in winter when the tree leaves do not block the view.  Literally, that is what I heard someone say when we were there so let’s just go with it.

Our little cheerleader waiting for Mommy

Saturday was a quiet night with the race upcoming on Sunday morning, so take away that night was gyros.  Giant chicken gyros made by sweaty Greek guys with knuckle hair.  It’s delicious, just trust me.

Sunday race day.  My race started at 10:30 for the half marathon, Cleaver had decided to change to the 5K given some initial running pain, which combined with the unusual heat wave was a very smart decision.  So she was starting at 1:30 which meant perfect timing for me to finish cheered on this time by a party of two, then I could take JoJo Bean and Cleaver could go to run her race.

Good run Cleaver!

The event is a very pretty run through the Dutch countryside and back into town past the canals and little villages along the way.  There were a lot of runners and it is a bit crowded but very well organized and a tremendous amount of fun once again.  Both of us completed our races, felt good while running and celebrated at the end with some cheese, dip, Dutch beer, and great weather.

  

Oh, and was great to have a new little cheerleader supporting us both along the way!

Josephine: The American Tour

We knew that we wanted to take Josephine back to the US to meet all of her friends and family back there.  And we figured that after she was a few months old and before I went back to work from maternity leave would be a good time to do that.  Therefore, at the end of March we packed up our things (it’s amazing how a tiny baby can add so much stuff to your suitcase) and boarded a plane headed for SFO.  We were a bit worried and anxious about how the flight would go and after talking to a few friends that had recently done the International flight with their infants, we decided that it shouldn’t be too bad. The worst she can do is cry but that won’t last forever.  From what I hear, it’s much easier to travel with a 3 month old than a baby who is crawling or walking.  And it turns out, Josephine did an amazing job on the flight there….which is about 11 hours.  I mean, as good as we could ask any little baby to do.  She slept for a few hours, ate, played, slept some more and really only started to get fussy towards the end.  But let’s be real, how many of us adults are fussy at the end of an 11 hour flight as well.  So yay Josephine for being so good!

We arrived at SFO, picked up our rental car and headed to my parents’ house in San Miguel.  Our American tour would start out with 5 nights in San Miguel visiting family.  We also baptized Josephine that weekend so it was a good excuse to have everyone gather together.  We had a great visit over several days to see Nate’s parents, my sister and her family, my brother and his family and many aunts and uncles and cousins.  Nate even managed to run the Paso Robles half marathon that weekend with my cousin Catherine.

Nate's mom made Josephine's dress

Congrats Nate and Catherine!

After that we headed up to the Bay Area where we split our time among a few friends’ houses staying in Morgan Hill, San Francisco and Alamo (thank you again Jenn & Casey, Christian and Kristine & Aaron!).  We had to spend at least one night in San Francisco since we never made it there during our last two trips to the US.  My how we have missed that city!!!  It didn’t hurt that we got to play around in the middle of a week day either.  We spent our time in the Bay Area catching up with friends and eating lots of good food.  It was so good to be back!

We then had one more stop to make before we headed back to Paris and that was to visit Nate’s Grandma in Arizona.  So we hopped on a flight to Phoenix to spend the last 3 nights with her.  Afterall, she had to meet her great-granddaughter.  And Grandma (or GG as she likes to be called) was thrilled to meet Josephine.  We had a wonderful visit with lots of cuddle time for GG with Josephine.  Nate even snuck in a Diamondbacks/Giants game on opening day.  Most likely his only Giants game for the season so you can imagine how excited he was to go to the game.

And after almost 2 weeks it was time to say goodbye to the US and head back home to Paris.  We had a great time and while we were indeed busy and moving around it felt like the perfect amount of time and itinerary.  And Josephine was an awesome trooper through it all.  She only had maybe 1-2 nights when we first arrived where she had to adjust to the jet lag but then slept wonderfully the rest of the time, no matter where we were.  She did so well meeting all sorts of new people too.  Returning home to Paris was a little bit more rough though.  As we always find, adjusting to the jet lag coming this way is much more difficult and it was no different with Josephine.  We had a pretty tough week with her but she finally slept a normal night one full week after returning.  Whew...what a trip!!!  

A Winter of Visitors

As we settled into the new year and our new routine we were able to look forward to a number of visitors coming our way in January and February.  It started with my friend April who was in London for work and decided to take the Eurostar over for a quick 24 hour visit before heading back to SF.  Her only request was for some cheese, bread, wine and croissants and we delivered on all of those (while getting out for a few walks in the neighborhood).

A week or so after April’s visit we had a visit from our friend Matt.  For as much as he’s traveled, and that’s quite a bit, he had never been to Paris.  So he spent a week with us and got out to discover Paris and get a good feel for the city and what it has to offer.  During that time, Louis was here again for work so we got in a couple of good dinners with him as well.  We tried this Moroccan place called 404 that’s just a block away from our apartment and it was delicious!  Josephine was a perfect angel and slept the entire time.  And the boys even made it out to a bar to watch the Super Bowl live (starting at 12:30am here).  It was the same place we all watched the Niners last year.  Josephine and I had our own girls night back at home.  it was a great visit and we're so glad Matt finally got to see a city we love so much!

Lastly, my cousin Nicole came to visit right after Matt left.  She wanted to of course see the new baby and get a chance to explore Paris a bit more.  Nate, Nicole and I had come here a few years back when she visited us in Zurich but that was just a quick weekend trip.  She now had a whole week to hang out with us and see more of Paris.  Josephine and I tagged along on a few of the things she did like going on the ferris wheel at Place de la Concorde for a great view of Paris, walking through the Tuilieres Garden and along the river near our house.  The Saturday that she was here, all of us took a day trip to Champagne.  This was the first time Josephine had been outside of Paris which means it was the first time we had taken her on a train for an all day trip.  We were kind of testing the waters on how it would be to travel with her.  And in the meantime, Nicole got to see a different part of France, taste some amazing champagne and we got to meet up with our friend Rachel and her boyfriend Alexis.  Josephine was again a perfect angel on the trip.  She slept on the train, when she was awake she happily sat in our laps and smiled at the French women that just adored her and then slept some more.  All in all a great day!  Nicole then had a few more days left before she too had to head back home.

Our winter has been quite fun with all of the friendly faces we got to see.  And now the weather is turning spring-like with temperatures in the 60s and we are crossing our fingers that it’s going to stick and winter is done.  Bring on spring and summer in Paris!!

View from ferris wheel at Place de la Concorde