coming up and just finished

so last night we had a marvelous dinner at Goosefoot- yes you have heard (read) that name before-
I took the night off from photographing each course except one- the new farm egg and asparagus course shown under the menu below-

and coming up on Saturday the LCBC Competition Club will be preparing a meal Chez Victoria! Here is where we are with the menu - as of today and the wines - thanks to our friends who share their wines so generously...

 

1978 red burg, 1982 Bordeaux, 1996 red burg -

white burgundies from 2000, 2002, and 2008

and a bubbly of Winston Churchill (Pol Roger) thrown in for starters...

will of course report more on the dinner - complete with photos - LOL- once we have had the full experience!

PARIS Photo Book

http://victoriasterlingspics.shutterfly.com/4810

the above link will take you to the photo book of Paris pictures - sorry iPad users- you need Flash Player to view the pages turning ---

a day of museums

I had read an article about the Albert-Kahn Museum in a magazine (AFAR- I think) and had kept it as a reminder to check out the place-

the key thing to know is - he is famous for something known as the Archives of the Planet- (from wikipedia)

The Archives of the Planet was a photographic endeavour to document buildings and cultures.  In 1909, Kahn travelled with his chauffeur and photographer, Alfred Dutertre to Japan on business and returned with many photographs of the journey. This prompted him to begin a project collecting a photographic record of the entire Earth. He appointed Jean Brunhes as the project director, and sent photographers to every continent to record images of the planet using the first colour photography, autochrome plates, and early cinematography. Between 1909 and 1931 they collected 72,000 colour photographs and 183,000 meters of film. These form a unique historical record of 50 countries, known as The Archives of the Planet.  Kahn's photographers began documenting France in 1914, just days before the outbreak of World War I, and by liaising with the military managed to record both the devastation of war, and the struggle to continue everyday life and agricultural work.

here are a few of the photos which were reproduced in the magazine article-

I was so excited to visit this amazing collection-

 

I checked the website the night before to make sure I knew exactly how to get there and the opening times - so we headed out on the metro to the end of the line 10 by the Bois de Boulogne.  and here is what we found-

seriously - no notice whatsoever on their website- and they didn't even tell us when we bought the tickets! scumbags! they waited until we had paid and then informed us the photographs could not be seen AT ALL- however you could buy things in the gift shop! - so extremely disappointed we decided to walk through the garden and then have lunch nearby- sushi!

so the good news was that we made such quick work of the garden that we got to the sushi place before a mad lunch rush hit them and we had a very nice lunch out in the "burbs" of yesteryear - now just a part of metro Paris-

then we headed to the d'Orsay where we bought out two day pass at a kiosk by the metro stop rather than wait for an hour in the ticket line---

we toured through the d'Orsay and saw  an exhibit from an American collector that I loved but Phil was only tepid about-

then back to the hotel and then later to our fabulous dinner at Au Bon Accueil-

tomorrow is our last full day in Paris on this trip and we plan to do museums- and then have dinner with our friend Anna and her partner Aurelian.... but no more photos so I will wrap up with a brief recap of that day I went to the Orangerie for the exhibit of Italian Impressionists and Phil went to the Louvre to visit as many galleries as his feet would hold out for---

we met back at the hotel and then went to dinner with Anna - a wonderful evening and the following morning we were off to the airport for the horrors of security and waiting around-

we got home on Sunday afternoon and zipped right back into the work routines - because that was eight days ago and in a week we are headed south again for a new adventure!

the real montmartre

so here are some of the photos from the neighborhood once we stepped away from the tourist areas- and as you can see - the area is very hilly- not what one usually thinks of for Paris-

we stopped for lunch and then headed off to Notre Dame and the Ile de la Cite-

the cathedral is celebrating its 850 anniversary and so they have built a horrible semi-permanent set of bleachers across from the entrance where there used to be a nice park- one can only assume for some awful touristy sound and light show- somehow crass commercialism and an 850 year old cathedral don't belong together IMHO-

which actually brings us to a good point to discuss the issue of the deterioration of Paris- just like American cities it is clear that Paris is suffering from a lack of funding for infrastructure projects- broken and uneven sidewalks were never the norm in the city center but now exist with alarming regularity.  things are dirtier and less well maintained than they have been at any time in the last 15 years or more-

so while I am a huge believer in "GO NOW" this time I might say wait until the economy of the EU picks up a little and they can get back to the well maintained Paris of prior decades.  Memo to City Officials- in 2008 you were vying for the Olympics that London won the "right" to hold- and things looked marvelous- so let's use that as our benchmark!

back to Notre Dame- as I mentioned about the funicular to Sacre Coeur- a line - a line - a line (which we never saw in March- hint, hint!)

no those are not the same window - they are on opposite side of the church- LOL

after exiting we headed to the river to find a bus that would take us close to the d'Orsay and home to the hotel-

such a beautiful day- everyone wanted to be outside!

later that evening we stayed close to the hotel for dinner and ate right around the corner at a charming place (we sat outdoors) where the service was excellent - alas the food was nothing special- but they couldn't have been nicer-

next up - a day of museums- for which everyone in their right mind buys a museum pass and skips the incredible lines to get tickets at the entrances!