Holy pumpkin it's fall in Provence!!!

Pumpkin time certainly eases the fact that summer is over, school is in full session, and the work has begun. Just as a side note, I am not completely side-stepping the fact that I have taken a bit of a hiatus from this blog. Soon enough I'll write about my tiny apartment, the city, and school

but right now I want to talk about pumpkins. I've been in a pumpkin/fall mood ever since

I saw my first pumpkin in the market three weeks ago. For my first pumpkin dish I started out simple. Just steamed and mashed with a bit of salt and pepper. Simple but delicious.

As the weeks went on, the pumpkins have gotten bigger and over the last few days my love for pumpkins has reached a whole new high! On the menu: pumpkin pie pudding, pumpkin chocolate chip bread (kudos to Amanda for inspiration), and sage and olive oil pumpkin seeds.

The pumpkin pie pudding stemmed from a craving for pumpkin pie and a general laziness as I had no motivation for making a pie crust at 11pm on a weeknight. While I do miss the buttery pie crust (I am a firm believer that pumpkin pie should have a pie, not a graham cracker crust) and the pudding somehow turned out a bit more like a delicious pumpkin mash, I would classify this as a relative success!

A gchat and in which Amanda and I talked about our mutual obsession for pumpkin and traded favorite fall

recipes inspired my pumpkin bread. What started out in my mind as steamed pumpkin buns with sticky caramel sauce morphed into pumpkin chocolate chip bread upon the realization that

my baby toaster oven (think the size of a baby's shoe box) could actually fit a regular size tarte pan thus giving me the ability to bake bread! The pumpkin bread turned out very, very well but now as I talk about my original idea I kind of want to make that... No fear, the market is tomorrow so maybe I'll just pick up another pumpkin :) ---I realize that the picture of this look like a giant cookie but I promise, it's bread.

Where there is a pumpkin there will be pumpkin

seeds. To me, this is arguably the best part of the pumpkin and when they are sauteed at a low temperature with olive oil, sage, salt, and pepper until they turn golden brown, puff, and pop they are perfect.

I hope you have enjoyed my ode to the pumpkin! I know I certainly have!

Nice

Nice was, well, nice! Yes, you all knew I would use that one, huh?

Anyways, after arriving in Nice from Lyon I spent the day wandering around the old portion of the city. Nothing too exciting until dinner when I had my first dish of Moules Frites for dinner followed by a dessert of cacao and Irish coffee gelato! As a side note, this post is about two weeks overdue but I can still give a pretty good rundown of everything I ate while here :)

Day two of my visit was a bit more exciting. Family, I have posted a picture so you actually believe that I went bike riding around the city and up to highest point in Nice for great views and a delicious picnic of bread, cheese, olives, sundried tomatoes, and strawberries. The rest of the day consisted of a pit stop for a bit more gelato (chocolate and coconut) and a few hours of relaxation at the Nice "beaches". I put this in quotations because when I picture a beach I think soft sand. Nice is just the opposite. The beach is made up of rather large smooth stones that get progressively smaller and more jagged as you get further towards the water. This made for some very pathetic looking entrances and exits into the water...

On day three, my hostel roommates and I decided to pack a picnic take a trip to Cannes in search of sandier beaches. Our trip was a great success as the crowded beaches of Cannes were much more conducive to sitting, walking, swimming, etc...

The Nice trip culminated with a dinner of linguine with pesto and sauteed vegetables that I threw together for our travel group and then a late night walk down to the beach.

Lyon and beyond

Our Lyon visit was broken up into a few parts with the main reason for first night there being to drop  Matthew off at the train station so he could make his way home. After leaving him we made our way to the Bejoulas area which is famous for their wine (similar to every other area in France, I'm beginning to find). We spent the day making our way to various small towns in the area before stopping for the night in Bourg en Bresse, France's chicken capital. This was displayed proudly by well decorated chicken statues displayed around the city. 

On our way back to Lyon we stopped at a cobblestone covered old town called Perouges.

That pretty much concluded our tour of small French towns so we made our way back to Lyon which has been proclaimed by our guide books as well as the owners of the previous hotel as the food capital of  France. That night for dinner I tried some of the Lyonisse specialties - Salad Lyonisse and Quenelles. Although I didn't actually know exactly what either of these were until they were set in front of me I definitely enjoyed both. The salad was pretty simple, served with a poached egg, bacon, and tomatoes and the quenelle turned out to be like a French version of gefilte fish served with a shellfish sauce and finished under a broiler. 

Our last two days in Lyon were spent exploring the city, a couple of museums, and a huge city park. The most interesting place we visited was the Miniture Museum. Think of the museum of an entire gallery of super fancy diorama. Remember, those scenes we constructed in a shoe box in elementary school? But as opposed to my fourth grade artistic ability (which hasn't improved much since then) these were very good and life-like. 

This morning the rest of the family left to go back home and I am currently on my way to Nice for a few days to explore the Riviera! 

Charmonix Mont-Blanc

In my opinion, the alps (French or Swiss) have some of the best scenery in Europe. After Dijon we spent two days in Charmonix-Mont Blanc. The town was clearly built for tourists but it was completely surrounded by mountains so that made up for it. Our first trek (cog-rail)  up the mountain was to visit ice caves cut into the side of a quickly receding glacier. 

My favorite trip up the mountain was to the Aguille Midi. Two rather long and extremely steep gondolas were one of two options to  reach this ~3450m high mountain. The other was climbing through the snow (yes, it snowed while we were up there). While I'm always down for a hike, having to bury my tent in snow to block high winds isn't really my idea of a good time so we chose the former option. Although bad weather had been predicted, we got a break in the clouds and snow allowing for some great views and very nice pictures. I promise, they're coming soon!

After our time at the peak we made a stop at the midpoint between the two lifts for a hike to a mountain lake. By the time we reached the lake the sun was out in full so even though we didn't get completely clear views from the top we got clear views of the top. 

Dijon Days

Pre-Dijon we stopped at an interesting little town called Langres. The town was initially built as a defensive fortress and was completely encircled by walls, gates, and towers. After eating a
slightly questionable kebab (this seemed to be a very food safety be damned kind of restaurant) spent a few hours walking around the area.

Going in, all I really knew about Dijon was that we were going to have a kitchen and there was a mustard museum I was already pretty excited. Sadly, we found out that the museum closed seven years ago. The kitchen (tiny as it was) and the Tuesday/Thursday market definitely made

up for the lack of the museum, however.

Other than the kitchen, the apartment that we stayed in was very nice. The only exception being the unusually low ceilings and wooden beams scattered about. The taller members of the family (including yours truly) had the bumps and bruises to prove that France is not built for those anywhere close to, or above, six feet.
Dijon is located in the Burgundy region and on our first full day we took a tour of the area from the owner of our apartment. It was a very interesting but long day of visiting wineries, castles, and canals. Our guide also took us to a restaurant which he swore made the best coq au vin in the world. Now this was my first time having it s

o I don't really have a reference point but this dish did set the bar pretty high for any future coq au vin experiences.

The plan for day two was to visit the mustard museum until the tourism office told us the bad news. Our consolation prize was (what was supposed to be) a food tour of the city including

tastings of some of the Dijon specialties. The tour turned out to be more of a historic walking tour which was not ideal but still interesting. Nonetheless, I was most excited to taste fresh mustard at the Maille mustard store. That was until I saw the double dip. Apparently the British aren't as couth as most Americans when it comes to eating from communal bowls because this was less a double dip and more a sucking of the sampling pretzel and then a re-dipping into the next sample. That sight did a pretty good job quelling my appetite for that bowl of fresh Dijon mustard... Anyways, the problem was solved by getting a few different mustards to sample with dinner. Our tastings have led me to the conclusion that Dijon mustard tastes better when in Dijon.

Now dinner. As I mentioned before the apartment we were staying had a kitchen. I think ecstatic is a decent way to describe my feelings towards cooking for the first time in

weeks. Matthew and I had gone shopping at the market the previous day with

the intent of making

dinner after our tour but we were so full from lunch that it was pushed off a day. Anyways, this market was big enough to (easily) keep me entertained for hours. Anyways, we finally settled on , a salad with poached shrimp, radishes, and cassis (black currants) with a lemon vinaigrette and leg of duck (chicken for the less exciting and adventurous parents) with a wild mushroom wine sauce, roasted potatoes and vegetables. Now because the kitchen was a touch less equipped than we were used to (the oven was a mini toaster, if that gives you any idea) we ended up having to sauté rather than roast. Even with the small kitchen we got dinner out in a relatively reasonable time which, as some

may know, can be quite the feat for me.

Ok, so I had promised myself after I caught up with the last set of posts that I would not let myself fall behind again. Well that didn't last long because I'm plying catch up again and, while I

remember what we made for dinner the next night very well, the only other part of the day I remember is looking at waterfalls in a pretty, rural town. So, I will (yet again) tell you about dinner. That morning we went to the market with an actual plan for what we were going to make for dinner. I know, it's impressive, right? Dinner was pesto

crusted fish sautéed and finished in the broiler and served with pesto ravioli, drunken tomato sauce (made with some quality 1.14 euro wine), and sautéed zucchini (see, we learn from our past cooking snafus). Everything actually went as planned! Our

only slight confusion, not knowing exactly what fish we were cooking, was solved by wiki. If anyone ever comes across a cheap fish called pollock you should know two things. One, it's quite good when cooked properly and two, it's traditional use is in cat food. Well that last story pretty much wraps up Dijon :)

Nancy

Nancy is a small city with not too much of interest so if you're coming to France I wouldn't recommend stopping there. While there weren't too many sites to see we did come across some good food! Snack time in Nancy consisted of gaufres avec glace (waffles! with ice cream). These waffles were nearly as good as good as Dame's but Christine, you can tell Kelly his are easily still number one in my (expert) opinion.

On the recommendation of a local we dined at a restaurant which looked into the main square. Dinner was very simple, roasted chicken with morels and mashed potatoes, but very well done. Our day of food was ended in perfect French fashion with a nutella crepe :)

Reims (also cannot properly pronounce)

Armed with a lunch of bread, cherve, beets, and mâché, we set out Friday morning for the train ride to Reims. Reims, which is located in the Champagne region, produces 80% of the world's champagne so naturally our first activity upon arrival was to tour some champagne caves. The ones we toured were chalk caves which dated back to Roman times. While the tour guide didn't appear to know as much about the champagne making process as I would have liked it was interesting to see the caves and wall carvings which were made so long ago.

The next morning we celebrated the arrival of Matthew and my Dad with a brioche loaf and a jar of nutella! Very fitting, right? Our second day in Reims was very similar to the first with a tour of another champagne cave and a bit of wandering the city. Pretty uneventful and sadly, no outstanding food to note...

Rouen

Thus begins the visiting of towns whose names I cannot pronounce.

We arrived in Rouen on Wednesday to find that our hotel was situated literally a stones throw away from the giant city cathedral. While this made for an amazing view, we found out early the next morning that this also meant a direct line from the church bells to our room. Luckily I didn't have much trouble sleeping through them!

Anyways, after our arrival we went out exploring the tourist heavy town where we (very quickly I might add) came across a highly recommended chocolatier/pâtisserie. There we had a chocolate caramel tarte which may rank as the best tarte I have ever had. It had a perfect buttery crust, melt in your mouth caramel, crispy wafers, and dark chocolate ganache. Note to all: I do plan on recreating this so if you want to try it mention it to me and chances are I'll make you one :)

Based on all of our wandering we found that the town of Rouen really wasn't all that interesting so I'm just going to go ahead and skip to dinner. Dinner was at Pascaline, a well established bistro which opened way back in 1880. The prix-fixe meal started with a salad bar which, as you will (eventually) see from the pictures, is a bit heavier than your typical American buffet. Following this was a dish of merguez frites. Or a spicy lamb sausage with fries and a green peppercorn sauce. The highlight of the meal was probably figuring out what the dessert ile flottante (floating island) was. This dessert had peaked my interest ever since Allie had pointed it out to me in Strasbourg. The concept of the dish is the island (a fluffy meringue) floating in a sea of creme anglaise and burnt caramel sauce. Despite my usual apathy towards meringues, this was surprisingly good!

On day two, we ventured out of Rouen to Giverney. Giverney was where Monet lived and did much of his painting. This ended up being one of my favorite places thus far as we got to see the gardens that some of the best recognized paintings in the world were based on. In addition we spent some time at an impressionist museum. As art museums go, that was one of the more interesting ones I've been to.

Clearly, the day would not have been complete without a food highlight! For lunch we had a chevre, beet, and arugala sandwich. Simple but delicious.

Paris (again)

Since getting to Strasbourg, one of my food goals was to get a soft pretzel, so the day began with just that. In case anyone was wondering, nutella goes just as well if not better with soft pretzels as it does hard. After taking the train into Paris I met up with my mother and we set out to explore Paris. As opposed to my first expedition in Paris, the second trip focused more on modern culture as opposed to historic. And yes, by modern culture I mean food. Our two days were spent looking in bakeries, pastry and chocolate shops, and grocery stores (gourmet or otherwise). Those are my kind of museums :) In addition we frequented a number of cafes for a daily dose of espresso and Bananagrams.

Now as I am playing a giant game of blog catch up the details have gotten a bit fuzzy. I can say for certain, though, that my second stop in Paris was a good start to the family vacation!

A Gastronomical Weekend

An early Friday morning train took me to Strasbourg to meet Allie for the weekend! We came into the weekend with an agenda that was based on consuming all of the Alsace specialties (as decided by wiki). Based on our *slight* obsession with food I'm sure none of you are surprised that all of our tasks were completed with ease ;)

Our first lunch was the ever famous tartes flambé. The original tartes flambé is like a wafer thin and crispy pizza with onion, cream sauce, and bacon. Both this and the apple based dessert tartes were delicious! Dinner was composed of a vegetable and a niçoise quiche and a dessert of chocolate and caramel flan, strawberries, and whipped cream -- hopefully this will be more interesting when there are some visuals to match the descriptions. Aside from our meals, the day was spent wandering around the town, seeing cathedral, and looking in every boulangerie and pâtisserie in the city. Allie taught me a very important French phrase: je regarde seulement - I'm just looking.

Day two in Strasbourg began with a breakfast of a nutella croissant and a capuccino at a pâtisserie. Following this was a tour of Kronenbourg Brasseries, a Strasbourg based beer. I learned some interesting European beer

history thanks to my designated translator. Lunch included an appetizer of fois gras (as rich and creamy as I imagined) and main course of choucroute. This is another traditional dish consisting of a mound of sauerkraut and lots and lots of meat. While it was good, the shear amount of meat would deter me from ever ordering it again.

After lunch we decided to take advantage of the fact that Strasborg is very close to Germany. We took a nice walk through Strasbourg University's ghost town of a campus to a beautiful bridge that led over the Rhine and into Germany. I may have put one toe (ok, maybe a bit more than that...) into Germany! There was an extreme lack of border control and I had no trouble returning to France :)

After venturing back to the "legal" side, we has an in hostel picnic before venturing out in the cold rain for ice cream sundaes.

Our Sunday actually included a bit of culture (other than food, that is) with a trip to the modern

art museum! This trip did only last about half the length of our lunch, though :) Our last lunch was made up of beef carpaccio and Baeckeoff, a triple meat, potato, and carrot stew. This was delicious and the perfect lunch for such a cold and rainy day.

Note - mid and northern France in the summer is cold. No one warned me about this and I am very jealous of the 100+ weather you guys are enjoying at home.

After a bit more wandering, Allie left to go back to Germany and I had a a quick donar kebob and

a McFlurry. Yes I did say McFlurry. They're actually suprisingly good outside the US! Tomorrow headed back to Paris to meet Mom and begin the family vacation!

Paris

After dropping my huge suitcase off at IAE (school in Aix) Wednesday morning I made my way to Paris! I like to think that my lunch of a baguette, Camembert, plums, and Nutella was pretty French, but all of the French families eating around me were munching on Pringles. Maybe my assumptions about French food were wrong?

Other than taking a solid two hours to find

my hostel the day was uneventful and was wrapped

up with a champignon and Comte crepe.

My full day in Paris was spent taking a trip to Versailles with my new Romanian friend I met at the hostel. The palace was more than grandiose and it was easy to see why the French Revolution occurred. The day was wrapped up with a night time picture session at and on the beautifully lit Eiffel Tower. Once I'm reunited with my computer I'll include some pictures!

Sara is actually in France!

I made it to France! To do this I had to overcome a 9 hour layover and no sleep on my 7 hour flight due to a brother-sister screaming duo. I have learned my lesson and next time will either have noise cancelling headphones or earplugs with me. Anyways, seeing as it's nearly midnight here and I'm still going I think that I'm doing pretty well!

I got a chance to walk around Aix during my jaunt out to find food and based on that short encounter I think I'm going to really like it here! It's got an old city vibe but still seems to have all the perks of an interesting city. I also passed five bakeries in a quarter mile walk so that's certainly not going to hurt my view of the city :)

Now for all of you who are eagerly waiting to hear what I had for my first meal in France.... I wanted something fast but good so I wandered down an alley and found a little pizza place where I had a fromage blanc pizza with olives, mushrooms, and ham.

Croissants in the morning :)

Hello!

So I've decided to start a blog for this trip in order to keep everyone updated with what is going on in my life for the next six months. Most likely this will also double as a way for me to catalog all of the food I eat while I'm there so don't be surprised (not that any of you would be) if 95% of this blog is pictures of food.

I also cannot promise that I will actually remember to update this. The kumquat4(5) can attest to this based on the shear number of food blogs we started that still remain empty -- Allie, apparently we started one called Sallie in 2009? Anyways, if I seem to be lagging behind please bug me and tell me to update this and to load the vast number of pictures hanging in limbo on my camera onto the internet.

Clearly I should be packing now. Why else would I have procrastinated this long to start a blog?