Laduree

   

  While in Paris for New Years, we made, not 1, but 2 stops to Laduree for both their coveted macarons and some good old-fashioned, window drooling. I have come to realize that they are very smart to install sneeze guards and not for the obvious reason, but more for catching the drool hanging from men and women alike while in line gawking at their multiple confections. We discovered the Laduree on the Champs Elysees about 11 years ago (wow, writing that makes me feel old) and it has been a go-to for us ever since. We also always suggest it to anyone we know (or even strangers) who are visiting Paris as a must-taste and must-see. Since then (no correlation with us recommending it), we have seen the popularity of the macaron skyrocket with bloggers taking pictures of their jewelry inside Laduree boxes, multiple pins on Pinterest and even a store opening up in New York. Americans no longer mistake the french macaron with the coconut macaroon we have been familiar with for years. It has, for a lack of a better word, become mainstream. While there are many stores that sell macarons here in France, even the grocery store, I still think Laduree's macarons speak for themselves. Not to mention, the pastel colored decor gives it that certain, I don't know, je ne sais quoi. Since moving down to the south of France, I have resigned myself to thinking Laduree was only for when we visit Paris or if we ever get back to NYC (weird thinking that in order to eat a macaron from a French place we must go to NY) but on a little afternoon drive last week, I spotted with my 2 brown eyes a Laduree in Cannes!! So from now on, a macaron at Laduree is only a 10 minute drive away....ahhh, sweet sugar.

{The many flavors include Vanilla, Chocolate, Lemon, Coconut, Hazelnut, Praline, Coffee, Rose, Raspberry, Licorice, Almond, Red Velvet, and my two favorites, Caramel with Salted Butter and Pistachio}

Paris, Je 'taime

{Arc de triomphe and it's surrounding streets where I am convinced the original Frogger was set since 12 streets converge into 1 round point}

     With risk of sounding too cliche, "Paris, Je t'aime." I love your cobble-stoned streets, your haussmann architecture, your hot crepes on street corners, your endless cafes and brasseries, your fantastic monuments (I'm talking about you Tour Eiffel and Notre Dame), your holiday twinkle, your clear skies. Oh, wait did I go too far with that last comment? Yeah, I thought so. Well at least you had clear skies the last time I saw you so just like the sports phrase 'you are only as good as your last game', I will only remember you as clear and crisp..until the next time I visit and you will most likely prove otherwise. Instead of speaking I will just let pictures do you justice. After all, rumor has it, they are worth a thousand words.

Oh and little fun fact...I had Shaun's wedding ring engraved with 'Je t'aime' since France means so much to both of us. When it arrived, I checked it and it was indeed engraved. However, it said 'Je t,aime' instead of 'Je t'aime' which means 'I love t' and not 'I love you'. We never changed it, figured it gives it a little character.

{New Years Eve on the Champs Elysees} 

{Typical Parisian architecture}

{View of the Eiffel Tower from the Seine during a boat tour}

{The Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the background}

{Notre Dame}

{While it is impressive from the front, the sides and back of the Notre Dame are equally impressive}

{Inside the Notre Dame}

{Prayer candles}

{Chandeliers}

{My niece and nephew praying}

{My nephew Ty after lighting a candle}

{Bikes for rent}

{No matter what the age, 4 or 34, they all toe the line...}

Nice, you never disappoint

     Nice, France. Have I spoke of it's beauty before? Oh, I have. Well, sorry to be redundant but some things deserved to be ooohed and aaaahed over and over again and Nice is one of them. A few years ago we made the mistake of taking Shaun's father to a numerous amount of cities on the Riviera for his 8 day stay, which only left us an afternoon to discover Nice. We took kind of a quantity over quality approach. Later Shaun's father would say, 'I could of spent days in Nice, it was that beautiful'. Point taken. So we made sure we did not make that mistake again and dedicated an entire day to Nice and it's many offerings when our family was here for the holidays. And bonus for me, the Christmas markets were in full swing. ( I love me some churros, crepes, hot wine, hot cheese, sausages... basically anything at the market). Nice didn't disappoint. We had great weather and the most unbelievable sunset I've yet to see here. The Christmas market had all the things I love and the Ferris wheel was more than enough entertainment for Ty, my nephew, and Jacklyn, my niece. We capped the day off with dinner in the Cours Saleya with a teammate and some friends before heading back to Antibes. Once again Nice, you didn't disappoint.

{One of the cool things about Nice is that the airport is right on the water at the end of the Promenade}

{Family picture on the beach}

{One of the many colorful buildings in the Vieille Ville}

{Christmas lights}

{Ferris wheel that I braved as to not look like a wimp in front of my niece and nephew, white knuckled it all the way}

{View of the Christmas market from the top of the Ferris wheel}

{Christmas display in Place Massena}

New Years Resolutions

     I'm a little late at getting around to this. Chalk it up to fatigue or more probable, procrastination. For those of you who don't know me, procrastination is my middle name and no matter how hard I try to shake it, it sticks with me. I'm not really a big New Year's Resolutions list maker but this year I decided to give it a go and see how long they will last. I look at it as not as much trying to 'better' myself but as a little experiment I am conducting. So here are a few of my resolutions...

-Improve my/our French. We have seem to hit a point where conversations have come easy to us and we can get any point across but we are not as fluent as we could be. I am hoping that after our time here, we will be completely fluent. For those who are reading this and thinking we should be by now, it is no where as easy as you think especially when you have so many people who speak English in our area. So a friend has loaned us his Rosetta Stone and we plan to get going on that ASAP or I should say, à bientôt.

-Explore more. We normally are very good at this and compared to many others, we are still rock-stars but we have slowed a bit these last few months. Shaun's injury has definitely put a damper on it since walking was out of the question for the first 7 weeks but now that he is walking and driving again, sky is the limit. (I secretly think Shaun exaggerates his limp on Sundays coincidentally when football is on.) A few places on the list are Grasse, the French Alps, St. Paul de Vence, and a couple sleepy towns just over the Italian border. Oh and Corsica, but Shaun may need a little coaxing for that one and I can already envision the limp getting worse.

-Exercise more. In this department I am an 'all or nothing' kind of gal. Some weeks I run 30 miles and then poof, nothing for a month or two. I'm a little bi-polar with running, I'll admit it. But now that I got these bad boys for Christmas, there is no excuse.......

And the fact that this is 1 block from our house, again, no excuse.

-Organize all of our pictures. We have close to 3,000 pics on the computer in need of a little attention. Our friends Johanna and Fernando told us they make a photo book of the entire year and we liked the idea so much, we have decided to make one ourselves. It's a little tedious but I am really excited to 'sum up' 2012 in pictures because God knows we took enough.

-Speaking of photos, my next resolution is to learn how to use every function on my camera. Sure I can shoot in auto, but what is the point of getting a snazzy dslr and only using auto? Every once in a while I take a picture that is awesome on the manual function but when I try to do it again later, it never looks the same.

-Last but not least, I want to cook a lobster. I know, this is a weird one but I love cooking and am not intimidated by anything. I stuff things, fry things, bread things, make egg rolls, bake all sorts of stuff but cooking a lobster terrifies me and not in the 'its inhumane' way but in the 'I am afraid it will be rubbery' way.

So there you have it, a snapshot into my resolutions. Hope procrastination doesn't win out and I am not cooking a lobster with my running shoes on while listening to french c.d.s finishing up my photo book in December 2013. Here's to hoping....

3 meals, 3 countries, 1 day

{Monaco during the holidays}

     Over the holidays, we were fortunate to have family make the long trip to France to visit. And while we had plenty of exploring days, there was none more memorable than last Wednesday, or to which it will now be referred to it as, '1 day, 3 countries'. We started the day off in France with some fresh pastries for breakfast from our local boulangerie. You see, when we have visitors, we try to give them as much of a taste of the French life as possible as I could not look myself in the mirror after serving Honeynut Cherrios when our local boulangerie lies a mere block away. Disclaimer: we did buy a box of cereal for the kids just in case they shunned the French way and wanted some good old fashioned American breakfast. Happy to report though that they all did us proud and partook in devouring a few trusty croissants, some quiche lorraine and a couple chausson aux pommes (think croissants stuffed with apples/applesauce). So there you have breakfast..in France.

{Hot croissants, pain au chocolat, and chausson aux pommes, doesn't get much better than this}

     We headed to Eze, a medieval village perched atop of a hill overlooking the Med, for an hour or so of exploring and picture taking. We knew it would be difficult with Shaun and his injury since it is very 'hilly' so we headed up and Shaun took his time. Every once in a while, we would wind around a cobblestone path and run into him slowly crutching/walking his way towards the top. The views at the top were amazing and we took the time to enjoy a drink or two(and a much needed breather for Shaun). Then off we went to Monaco for lunch. 1 country down, 2 to go.

{View from Eze}

{Cobblestones pathways that wind all throughout Eze}

{Little drink break for Ty and Shaun}

{Jacklyn, Ty, Shaun and I enjoying some Cokes and coffee}

     Having been to Monaco multiple times before, I wasn't expecting to be as blown away as I was with the Christmas decor. But let me tell you, they did it up...and in typical Monegasque fashion, très chic. Monaco already oozes class with it's pristine streets, beautiful architecture and posh vehicles but add to that the Christmas lights and holiday decor, and it takes it to another level. We ate quickly then roamed the streets near the Casino taking in the luxury that I am hoping is contagious because I am all for adding a little bit of that to my life. There was an attempt to 'hit it big' while inside the casino which fell flat but I would like to think we are a little 'richer' in culture for having just the ability to experience all Monaco has to offer. Now I would like to think that, but realistically,  I would rather have lots o' euros padding my pocket. After eating and offering the 'Casino Gods' our money, we made the decision to head into Italy for dinner since we were only 15 minutes from the border. 2 countries down, 1 to go.

{Monte-Carlo Casino}

{The Hotel de Paris and it's luxury vehicles}

{Over looking the harbor}

{Shaun, Mickey (Shaun's brother) and Ty taking in the view}

{Little photog fun}

(Holiday decor in front of the Casino that changes color}

{Green}

{Silver}

{And my favorite, pink}

{The Rolex street clock, sums up the luxury in Monaco}

     We stopped at Ventimiglia in hopes that our favorite restaurant, Pasta e Basta, was open for dinner. Selfishly, I was craving it since we have yet to eat there this year. Unselfishly, I thought our family would love it. Sadly, it was closed. In hindsight, why would it be open? It was only just a Wednesday night. (FYI, things here close for reasons like...it's a Tuesday, it's raining, it's a Saturday night at 9pm, it's cold outside...get the sarcasm?) So we had to settle for an 'un-known' restaurant which turned out to be great also. With full bellies, sore feet and bags full (Lambrusco is only 2euros in Italy!!!!) we headed back home to little old France. Sometime on the ride home my niece Jacklyn was talking about the day and how beautiful Monaco was and how excited she was to tell her friends that she was able to see 3 countries during Christmas break. And just as I was marvelling at how mature she was, she says "Mom, just spending the day in Monaco makes me realize that I need to fly first class from now on...." Guess that luxury was contagious after all......