Sunday, October 23, 2011

Sunday Brunch & Pieces of France

Here's our brunch this morning.



Very much inspired by what we had in Paris every morning, minus the sausages. French people don't eat a lot of meat for breakfast, do they? Allegedly, their traditional breakfast consists only of yogurt and bread with freshly squeezed orange juice. But at the hotel the selection was of continental, and they served egg and several forms of meat every day, thanks to the invasion of internationalism.

Notice the apple sauce?


I made it with apples that an artist that we bought two paintings from at Place du Tertre in Montmartre.

Here's the story. From the get-go, we wanted to buy a painting in Montmartre for our honeymoon, and there were just so many local artists that were great to choose from.

But there was this guy with really tranquil-looking, heart-warming, beautiful paintings of seasonal woods and trees and brooks and sunset. We talked to him for good half an hour, and found him really genuine and nice. He explained that all his paintings were of trees in his home town in Normandy. I fell in love with the one with white birches I'm holding (a lot of his paintings were of white birches, and I loved them all), and T liked the other one with apple trees blooming. The man even showed us three apples from which he picked off one of his trees painted in it.

We wanted both, but they are not exactly Monet paintings, but they weren't cheap together. So I made a negotiation AND asked him to throw the apples on top. He got my humor, and made an accord.


I didn't declare the apples in the trunk at the airport, so the Normandy apples from the artist's trees safely abided here in my apartment.

We are also having coffee that I bought at Galeries Lafayette. Dark and dense, full of aroma, and very French.


We miss Paris already.

Until next time,

Sak

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Eat, Eat, Love!

Highlights from honeymoon, food-wise.

Bon appetite!


























The last thing I ate in France.


Better shown than explained, right?

Until next time,

Sak

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Packing and In Panic!

I am off to the airport in ten hours, during which I am, planning at least, to pack, have a nice long bath, get 8 hours of beauty sleep and have a hearty breakfast. I will have to remember not to leave anything important behind, like wallet and glasses, like I did the last time I went to France.

Let me tell you a story. The last voyage to the country of my dreams, I miraculously managed to leave my wallet behind. It's a good thing no one tried to rob me in Paris because I would have been killed or at least done some serious damages to 'cause I had had literally nothing for him or her to hawk off me. Imagine a Japanese female tourist walking down St. German de pres sporting a Pucci bag and Manolo boots and be completely penny less. Ridiculous, right? Yet penniless I was, and without my sister's magic plastic card, I would have had to turn my miserable ass back home at Narita Airport on the day one.

I also miraculously left my glasses at the hotel on the day I visited Luvre to face Mona Lisa. It would have been the most anticipated, marvelous artsy moment for me too, outshining all the things I have artistically done and seen in the presumptuous little life of mine. It might as well have beeen the moment for me to see a unicorn. So I stood there, and then there she was. On the wall. In that ridiculously small frame of gold or brass or who-can-tell-what-the-fuck. Right in front of me. Except there was this 10 cubic square meters of space! Who the fuck knew Lisa was not to be viewd within a decent distance? And when I say decent distance I mean I-am-able-to-actually-see-the-painting distance. Anyone who wears glasses but not on an every-waking-moment-of-his-or-her-life basis should be warned at the entrance of Luvre or provided with binoculars. But no warning, or no binoculars, even a monocular. So I did what I could to catch a glance of the centuries-old lady the 21st century way: zoomed in on the painting with my Cybershot. Haha, take that, Da Vinci!

Wasn't about art anymore at this point.

So anyway, I can't leave anything important behind this time. Need to make my reunion with Lisa at Luvre, and I must apologize to her that I failed to make our first encounter properly.

Oh, and and I need to introduce her my husband, too. How can I do that without looking directly into her eyes, no matter the distance between us, right?

And I just spent 10 minutes of the 10 hours that I had left. Crap and a half! Gotta go!

Until next time,

Sak