Sweden in France? Yes!

För Sverige – I tiden ( For Sweden- With the Times)

I had my father's second cousin, E, so my second cousin once removed (got that right!), from Sweden come to visit this weekend. So cool! What a fantastic time we had together!

Cousin shot. See any family resemblance in the blue eyes?

This was the fourth time I've met her in my life and the first time for Mr. K. We decided to meet in Paris at the St. Michel fountain in the Latin Quarter, like so many people do. Very easy to spot her: blond hair, tan, and just an air about her that said "this is someone from my family".

After introductions we went off in search of lunch and had crêpes in a crêperie by the Pantheon and Jardin du Luxembourg. She had never had crêpes before and they had a nice menu (galette complète, crêpe au beurre et sucre, and a café).  She loved it!

After lunch we went back and walked by the Seine, saw the Notre Dame (which she had not seen the inside before), visited the Bird and Flower Market (minus the birds- they only make appearances on Sundays) on the Ile de la Cite and witnessed the most stunning orchids possible, bought dessert at Bertie's Cupcakery (she hadn't had cupcakes before) and then made our trip via RER back to Gif-sur-Yvette for a "true French experience" as she put it. That train was quite possibly the hottest train we have taken to date. We wilted if not melted into seats. Luckily we were able to have seats.

The weather held up beautifully during the day and we managed to even have dinner out on our balcony!

Enjoying the cooler weather off the train

Yummy! Fresh summer melon, taboule, North African spiced chicken and rosé wine.

I managed to even get a photo with Mr. K in it too!

Smile!

We had a blast and ended up chatting well into the evening outside laughing and sharing many many stories (thank you weather!). We retired inside to rest up for the next day where we were to go hiking to the Château de la Madeleine. 

However, sleep was not to be had after 5am. We all woke up to the WORST orage d’Été (summer storm) Mr. K and I had ever witnessed since coming to Gif. The lightning lit up the rooms so that it was almost as bright as day.  Galen! (Crazy!)

Thankfully, it was over around 6:30am and we could sleep another hour or so until we wanted to get up. Needless to say, after rescuing my poor basil plants from their fall, it was the main subject of talk over our "healthy" breakfast of croissants and pain au chocolat with tea and coffee.

Refreshed, we headed out to Chevreuse for that hike! The morning air was perfect, if just a bit hot. We had a nice breeze too so that helped. The hike up to the Chateau took us less time than we thought (apparently the last time Mr. K and I did it we were sorely out of shape...I say it was the difference between a morning hike versus an afternoon full sun hike). The Château was closed though; summer hours are very hard in the valley here. You never know when they start. 

So, after enjoying the view and a few pictures, we hiked back down through the forest and got a chance to walk along the "petits ponts" (little bridges) of the village of Chevreuse.

It's called "Little Venice" because of the bridges. You can even see the Château in the distance there!

We finished the hike with a stop at "La Ferme de Coubertin" where we got to see some chickens and rabbits and a calf. The cows had already been pastured. All in all a wonderful 10km hike to start your day off right!

Shortly after our return home, Cousin E had to leave to get to her hotel up in Beauvais Tille (an hour and a half north of Paris), but not before she shared with us some wonderful trinkets from Sweden!

So fun! We have a Dala horse in the family!

A close up of some Swedish gummies, "Sweden's most bought car" in licorice (left) and original (right)

Clockwise from top right: Dala horse, raspberry cookies, raspberry and multifruit gummies,
Swedish long matches, Swedish vodka with St. John's Wort, Swedish cocktail napkins, a
bracelet to remember Bible verses with a book in Swedish, and the delicious flatbread

Close up of a cheese "straightener" and pencil with collapsible ruler

Best of all, a SWEDISH FLAG BANNER!

She was so generous and sweet. We hope she enjoyed the French treats we gave her too. :-)

She gave us an open invitation to come and visit her in Sweden anytime, and we are happily planning on it for possibly next late spring, early summer. The snow should be melted by then, right?

Anyway, as a parting thought, enjoy the lovely tunes of the Swedish National Anthem: 
Dum gala, du fria
(if you click the above link, you'll hear the tune)

Du gamla, Du fria, Du fjällhöga nord
Du tysta, Du glädjerika sköna!
Jag hälsar Dig, vänaste land uppå jord, 
/: Din sol, Din himmel, Dina ängder gröna.:/

Du tronar på minnen från fornstora dar,
då ärat Ditt namn flög över jorden.
Jag vet att Du är och Du blir vad Du var. 
/:Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden.:/

Translation:
Thou ancient, thou free, thou mountainous North
Thou quiet, thou joyful [and] fair!
I greet thee, most beautiful land upon earth,
/:Thy sun, Thy sky, Thy meadows green.:/

Thou art enthroned upon memories of great olden days,
When honored thy name flew across the earth,
I know that thou art and wilt remain what thou wast,
/:Yes, I want to live I want to die in the North:/

Tills nästa gång, (pronounced: Tilz Nest-a Gong)
(Until next time,)

Många kramar! (pronounced: Mong-eh Crow-Mar)
(Many hugs!) 

Summer in France means one thing...picnics!

As the title above states, a picnic with friends is the best bit about summer.

We had the great opportunity to go for a picnic lunch in Paris last Saturday with some friends, S & J. It started off with meeting up at the Port Royal Metro stop to walk along the Port Royal market.

What lovely and tasty treats to behold! Melons and strawberries and groseille (red currant), tapanade and pitas and spices, cheese and sausages and honey, oh my!

Armed with cheese (a chevre with roasted shallots, a petit brebis, plus a little dried chevre thrown in for free), a Wild Boar dried sausage, grapes, olives, and tomatoes, we went off in search of bread. A picnic is not complete unless you have a baguette or two!
In the summer in France, bakeries will take month long vacations, so trying to find a bakery that is a) open and b) open on a Saturday was difficult to say the least. We tried three before finding the one to rule them all! Miammmm...."baguette tradition" is my favorite type of bread here.

S and J then took us to Luxembourg Gardens (which is really just a short walk away from Port Royal) where we looked for the "allowed lawn-sitting" sign to set up camp.
Note: Some lawns you are not allowed on. Just check for the signs.

Voila! Our smorgasbord!

Yummy!

And we were even allowed to borrow the cheese monger's knife, provided we returned it before she left at 2pm. We thought that was pretty awesome, considering she didn't even know us.

I managed to get one shot of the party before we all began the feast.

Smile!

After our delicious lunch, we returned the knife and walked around a bit. S and J live nearby so we got a chance to see their cosy home and adorable two kitties. Then they took us on a tour of their "village" neighborhood. Really a small town feel in the middle of Paris. Their neighborhood even had a honey store! How cool is that?

Of course, S and I had to go in and sample some great flavors. The choices were incredible. I had never seen so many different types! Mandarin, lemon, rosemary, eucalyptus, linden, chestnut, pine, rose, you name it!  I got a "lavande sauvage," or wild lavander honey with a couple others. It tasted just like you would think it would, sweet with a hint of lavander. I was happy.

We all stopped for a cup of coffee afterward as it was just very wam that day. (I know, I know. Coffee on a hot day? Am I crazy? And, the answer is, nope. It's what you do and it's good because you get to sit in a shady spot for as long as you like.) The server was so nice. He brought us a large carafe of cold water and glasses for everyone without us having to ask.

Sadly, it was time to go. But not before we were shown a great place to have Pays-Bas dinners served in large individual bowls. On the corner of Rue des Cinq Diamants and Rue Jonas, is a nice restaurant called Chez Gladines. It comes highly recommended from our friends. Plus it has cool wall art from a female artiste, who goes by the name of Misstic.

And thus ended our wonderful day out with friends.
Thank you, S and J, for being our guides!

Until next time,
Bisous!

Momma in France

Hi there friends!

Again, sorry about the MIA on the blog here. We were BUSY!

My Momma came to visit us in France for a few weeks.  And as this was her first time experiencing more than 6 hours in France, we had to show her everything we could think of!
We went to see Versailles (inside and out), had a guided tour in the magnificent Chartres Cathedral, went to the second story of the Eiffel Tower, took a Bateaux Mouches cruise on the Seine, walked through the Notre Dame and tasted the finery of Bertie's Cupcakery, meandered through St. Michel, waked under the Arc de Triomphe and shopped on the Champs Élysées, experienced Gif village life and typical French food, and best of all, we went to see the fireworks for Quatorze Juillet (Bastille Day), Gif-style, complete with a 70s and 80s cover band.

Seriously, it was fantastic!

So I'm including in this post a few choice pictures, my personal favorites from the stay.

First off, Momma in Paris with Mr. K:

Lock Bridge (Petit Pont) by Notre Dame

Minelli Shoes during Soldes in Paris!

Pantheon from the Latin Quarter

Now that's a lot of flavors from which to choose

Luxembourg Garden and Faun

St Geneviève, Patron Saint of Paris

After a wonderful time in Paris, it was time to see a place a bit closer to home...

Versailles Gardens to be exact!

 Lucky for us they have a bus that goes from St. Remy to Versailles so we could go to the Musical Gardens (Baroque music plays while you watch fountains).

Mirror Fountain, where the water was timed to the music.

Orangerie, a small taste of Florida in France here

Gorgeous gardens!

Momma and Daughter, classic shot in front of gates

Going further a field, we three headed to Chartres, home of the most beautiful stained glass cathedral.

Blue stained glass is unique to Chartres

This here is the Madonna and child on the left. So pretty, the picture doesn't do
it justice.  Love that "Chartres bleu".

Behind the altar is this large Baroque sculpture, which really irritated our guide.
"Why mix gothic and Baroque? It makes no sense to me."

Then we stopped for a some tea, hot chocolate, and pain au chocolat. Miammmm!

During Momma's visit, she got to experience the first Sunday of the month, when all the museums are free entry. She wanted to see the Louvre and so we went. We learned from our friends who lived here that to visit the Louvre on Free day, you go to the Porte de Lions (it's on the right side, looking at the pyramid as you come from the Jardin des Tuileries, and has two lions statues in front of it). No line to enter and it's painless, which is exactly what we did. You enter down in the scupltures and whatnot for ancient greece, but it's worth it.

Momma and Mr K in front of "The Last Supper"

This was a new sculpture mixed in with the old.
It's called "Venus aux chiffons" and is supposed to represent an irony.
We just thought it looked out of place.

Classic shot from our balcony lunch, at 2pm and the line is just endless. Porte de Lions, I'm telling you!

These are the three graces, sort of. I liked the middle one as she represents "Science"

They had an exhibition on Scandinavian Art, so of course, I had to go see it.

This is one my Mom liked, because she had a beautiful face and was with a dog. There is no title to this one, but it's done by Waldemuller.

And you can't see the Louvre without looking at the Mona Lisa, but all my pictures turned out terrible due to the mass of people looking at the little lady. So I got a better picture of a Vermeer. This is "Lady at the Window"

Classic Louvre day, we left exhausted. But the air-conditioned Carrousel and Pyramid revived us for the long trek home.

We had to rest up that night because we were back to Paris the next day: Eiffel Tower day!

Tip to the wise: buy your tickets online and you avoid the massive lines. 

A bust of the great man himself, Gustav Eiffel

We went to the second tier by elevator. I've walked it before, but it's a hike.

 Back on solid ground, we found a lovely bench to photograph the event.

And another tip, walk along the Seine on the other side and you can get great shots of the Eiffel Tower.

Our view from our picnic lunch

 After the Eiffel tower, we had to stop by the Champs Élysées. I had the famous song by Joe Dassin, "Champs Élysées", in my head the entire time. It's catchy!

This is just funny. Oh, Louis, you are a riot.

Avenue du Champs Élysées during Soldes. Of course we did some shopping!

Back to Versailles after a day of rest and chores. This time we visited inside, the Petit and Grand Trianons, the Queen's farm and her hamlet. So pretty. It had been about 6 years since I had done that. Loved it!

Another tip to see Versailles: buy your tickets online and get there at 9am. You'll get right in after only 10 minutes of waiting. Key if you want to actually move in line.

The front gate to Versailles.

The chapel

Hall of Mirrors for the Sun King, Louis XIV

Marie Antoinette's room

Delicious pause for macarons and the best chocolat chaud ever tasted at Angelina's!
We both agreed that the Apricot and the Vanilla macarons were the best.

Hameau de la Reine (Queen's hamlet)

Bunnies! This one's for you Liv!

Petit Trianon (where the Queen resided to escape the palace)

The Grand Trianon (where the King resided to escape the palace)

Looking royal, Momma!

Our feet were so tired after walking all the grounds, we took the Petit Train back to the palace to go home. It was so worth the 3,70 euros for a one way. Get on at the Grand Trianon and you get a nice long ride back.

We rested the next couple days, saving our energy for what was to come...Bateaux Mouches on the Seine and Notre Dame.

We were early to the boats, so we walked through the Notre Dame.

Have you had cupcakes in Paris? No? Well you should! It's to die for!
Clockwise from right: Strawberry Lemonade, Pistachio Vanilla, and Coffee.

How can you say no to such a cute little place? Next to the Notre Dame on a side street. Do it!

Walking through the Bird and Flower Market.

Me and Mr K on the boat.

Ta-da! Gorgeous as always.

And the carrousel was there too!

Momma has dreamed of getting her picture taken on the Bateaux Mouches since she was in 6th grade. Live it up, Mom!

But of course, the big treat we had was celebrating 14 Juillet (Bastille Day) with the Gif village- in 70s/80s style.

Everyone who was anyone was there.

 Oooh! Aaaah! We had 20 minutes of great fireworks to the music of Blondie, Claude Francois, and the Village People, and a female cover of "You're Just Too Good To Be True".

After the fireworks, the cover band came back on and played great hits, all in English, like Survivor's Eye of the Tiger, Police's Lonely, and many more.

Mom rocking out!

The band, Wanted Revival

The 14 Juillet "Bal" or Dance complete with disco balls.

We didn't get home until 1:30 am (we walked home as it was only 3km) happy and tired.

And thus a wonderful time with Momma came to an end. We loved having her here!

Until next time,

Bisous!