Corndogs + Avocados

You may have noticed that I blog in starts and fits. I suppose this is a fit. We’ve paused the catching up on the France trip back in March to bring you the following catch-up goings on from early April, mostly because I just found the chord that connects our camera to the computer so I can download pix from the last three weeks!

First, a couple of weeks ago we went to Zingari Ristorante in San Francisco. The food and the ambiance were decent, but, for the price, I think we expected more.

Darin had the Filetto Gorgonzola (filet Mignon) without the Gorgonzola and really liked it. I had Granchio con Panzanella (crispy crab cakes with truffle scented couscous and chipotle lime alioli), pictured below; decent but not amazing. Darin thought this part of my meal was hilarious. I followed it with the Barabietole (red ruby & beet terrine, Napa Valley goat cheese, balsamic & shallot infused vinaigrette walnut oil); nice. Ended with white chocolate profiteroles; decent but not amazing.

Many of you may be unfamiliar with the finer points of commuting on public transportation. If you find yourself a new commuter on BART, we have provided a photographic lesson below on proper commuter posture. Our model for this effective lesson was Darin. If you can manage to eek out a little drool the folks around you will believe in an instant that you are a seasoned BART-er. But if you snooze through your stop instead of magically coming to when the train arrives at your station we will all know that you’re an interloper.

(Note - Darin actually posed for this photo. It was not an action shot!)

HIGHLIGHT: Darin and I love Thai food. Two weeks ago we met Christina & Nick at Karen & Craig’s place for a Thai food extravaganza. It was brilliant. Karen & Craig had taken a Thai food cooking course and knew exactly what they were doing. We all showed up with various ingredients and Craig met us with a list of chopping, frying, slicing, etc. chores to be done. We all picked one or two things to do and Craig kept making graceful rounds with a tasting spoon to keep us somewhat on task and the food just right. It was the most relaxed and fun cooking I’ve ever done. We chatted, cubed, bounced babies, played with kids, chopped, chatted some more and suddenly dinner was ready!

This is something I want to do again and again.

And hello, these two couples have the cutest kids. We would have taken more pictures but it was our first time to the inner sanctum of Thai cuisine and we didn’t want to behave too much like star-struck tourists.

I’m guessing moms only want pictures of their kids revealed when their faces are clean and they’re picking up their toys or hugging teddybears. Since I’m not a mom yet, however, I’m immune to such constraints. And I LOVE these two boys!

And the cout d-etat, Darin cooked. I have proof here. I knew I’d have to post the proof or none of you would believe it. Make sure your volume is turned on.

Finally, mom got a baby Mantis rototiller. She put it together and she and Darin braved the planter boxes out back together. When you pull the chord to get the motor going it sort of purrs/chugs like a little motorcycle engine. But the moment you squeeze the handles that little machine screams right into action! I’m not sure who was more excited, Mom to have the boxes rototilled or Darin to have played with a motorized thingamadoohicky.

Also big news was the Stockton Asparagus festival weekend with my fabulous sister and her phenomenal husband. But you’ll have to check back in a couple of days for shots of that. I have to go create a test for my high school students now. Yuck.

On day two we took a city tour in a chartered coach. Very pleasant way to see the city on a freezing cold day. Saw more buildings and monuments than I can remember. But I do know that this is the Louvre. (Luckily I had been inside on a previous trip. I loved “Winged Victory” and the Egypt room.)

I also remember that this is the Conciergerie, the palace turned prison, where Marie Antoinette spent her last days. Our tour guide at Versailles the day before defended every attack on the beheaded former queen. It was very interesting.

We did stop for a photo op at ye ol’ Eiffel Tower. Everyone shuffled off the bus, snapped a photo and shot back on. Brrrrr!

Next stop, Notre Dame.

I love this shot.

I love it for pigeon man in the background.

That night we motored up and down the River Seine in a Bateau-Mouche (boat designed to navigate in shallow waters). I don’t care how touristy the Bateaux-Mouches are, it was really cool. Actually, it was freezing. I didn’t budge from my seat.

The most striking sight had to be the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night. When we drove right up next to it I was on the far side of the boat and thought I’d have a great chance of getting a good shot on the return trip. Much to my chagrin the sparkles are only on for the first 10 minutes of every hour, so I lost my chance. Instead, I got this much lamer video of the sparkling tower from outer space when the lights went on again.

Click here for Liz’s lame video.

Luckily for you, you can go here and see better footage.

The next morning we barely made our reservation to go up to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower (there are three levels). It is a phenomenal view. Even on a nasty, windy, freezing day I highly recommend it!

While I absolutely recommend going as far up the Eiffel Tower as you can (you have to get a reservation long in advance if you are in a group of 3 million like we were), I’m afraid I can’t recommend the hot chocolate. At least not for any gastronomic merits. It did however warm me right up and it was good enough that I nearly bought a second cup.

I’m sure if I were a commuter on the train every day I wouldn’t have been as enamored, but I really loved these guys on the horns. Long live metro entertainment!

In the afternoon we had more free time just before dinner. Most everyone wanted to shop, but I wanted to return to one of the only places I remember vividly from my blurry trip through Europe in college. The Panthéon.

On the way there I walked past the Théâtre de l’Odéon where these skateboarders were getting their groove on.

The Panthéon, begun in 1758 as a church dedicated to Sainte-Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, by King Louis XV (because prayers to her resulted in his being cured), it is now a more secular building housing the remains of national heroes, authors, scientists, and philosophers.

Flowers were for sale to raise funds for cancer cure research.

A pendulum.

Victor Hugo is here, as is Voltaire, and Marie Curie.

But my favorite part of this building by far are the three murals depicting scenes from the life of Joan of Arc. I was so moved by them 11 years ago that I had to come back. I think that whenever I am in Paris in the future I will come here. There is just something about them and her. If I ever get to have teen-aged daughters I want to make sure we come here.

Next morning we headed for the train station to take the TGV, literally, the “very fast train.”

Now, if I ever find myself needing to be at that train station again, I’m going to plan enough time to eat here, just inside the front doors and up the stairs.

Regardez! Le fromage! (Look! Cheese!)

Regardez! Un chat! (Look! A cat!) Qu’est-ce qui se passe? (What’s going on here?)

View from restaurant.

Cafeteria on board the train. Pretty sleek, no?

I love this image. It’s called Earth’s City Lights, and it’s from a NASA project called Visible Earth. The image below is actually 1600 pixels wide x 800 pixels high, and if you right click on it you can download the large version. Various other sizes and views are also available at the Visible Earth website.

So I have one of the best jobs on the planet. I love teaching Spanish and my students are phenomenal. To top it all off, over Easter break I got to chaperon our school’s trip to France. Wahoo!

One of the chaperons who was originally slated to go couldn’t in the end and I was asked if I would be interested. I was going to say “Does the pope wear a funny hat?!”, but I work at a Catholic school and thought that might be in poor taste.

There were 27 students (none of them mine), two adults (parents of a student who wanted to tag along as a way of celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary), and four teachers. Only one of the teachers actually speaks/teaches French (she is Swiss), two teach Spanish and one teaches physics. We were pretty useless to our swiss colleague for everything except crowd control.

As you can imagine, I took many photos. Exactly 470. And 3 videos. I’ll not subject you to them all.

I used to be sort of a snob when it came to France. What I mean is that I thought it was waaaaaaay overrated, even though I had a wonderful time when I was there briefly in college. I don’t know what my problem was. But now that I’ve learned a little French and had the chance to go back and see it through students’ eyes it’s a whole different story. Better late than never, right?

We started in Paris with truly awful weather, cold cold cold! It hailed twice while we were there and the wind rarely stilled. But even so, Paris is wonderful.

Even Pizza Hut is pretty here.

We had some free time near the beautiful Place De L’Opera (pictured below). The Galeries Lafayette are also here, but I’m not much of a shopper.

The students were in groups of 3 or more and each group had a cell phone and an hour and a half to shop and site-see until we met again for dinner. The adults got to wander solo of course. It was awfully cold and I wanted some really good hot chocolate.

I strolled up Blvd Des Italiens looking at every cafe awning and menu sign for some signal that inside I would find the world’s best hot chocolate. Nothing stood out. A man stopped smoking long enough to ask me in French what I needed. “Je voudrais…” (I would like…). I suddenly realized that I had no idea how to say “hot chocolate.” I could say “the king and queen cook together” and “one two three four five…” and “Marie is not a good friend. She is a formidable adversary.” Frustratingly, none of these useful phrases was going to get me my cocoa fix. So I said, “Je voudrais… milk… chocolate… hot” and blushed a little I’m sure. How embarrassing.

The man dropped his cig and said “follow me” (in French). He sat me down and handed me a menu. 31 flavors of hot chocolate!! I ordered what you see below, one of the best cups I’ve had anywhere, orange and cinnamon hot chocolate. Judging by the mug it must have been the Italian Eraclea brand. Must have more…

The moment I was done I handed the nice man my euros and j-walked directly across the street to a book store where I bought a copy of “Instant French” much to the eternal amusement of our tour leader.

The next drippy, cold, wet, overcast day? Versailles.

Disturbingly, these peasants are being turned into frogs and turtles by Jupiter (according to Ovid’s “Metamorphoses“).

And dear Louis XIV, the Sun King, was a remarkable leader and really rather fond of himself. The palace is drenched in images of the king portrayed as a Roman hero, or a Greek philosopher, but mostly clad in tights and wearing that ridiculous wig. Sorry Louis!

Versailles is a sumptuous palace, almost exhausting in the busyness of its decor. I’ll only post a few pics here.

Well that’s enough for today. More France tomorrow.