Thanksgiving in France

George and I try to hold onto some American traditions in our lives even though our life has changed so much since living in France. But from time to time we just throw up our hands, because there is not much else you can do.

In our area, buying greeting cards, shopping on Saturday nights or Sundays, not to mention shopping over the lunch period (I say period instead of "lunch hour" because lunch breaks can be 1 to 2 hours where stores close) and receiving good customer service almost doesn't exist.

The French aren't greeting card senders like us, so it is a challenge if not impossible to find the appropriate card for the appropriate occasion. Oh Hallmark, where are you when I need you. The stores close on Saturday night at 7:00, 8:00 if you are extremely lucky. We have experienced this last minute shopping frenzy akin to the day before Christmas (no exaggeration here) when everyone is trying to get what they need before that final hour on Saturday! On Sundays 99.9% of the stores are closed, except, of course, the bread stores. And if you are without a receipt when returning a purchase, you will not get a refund or store credit. These simple things are frustrating to us, but we have adjusted.

I have never seen whole turkeys in the supermarket, plenty of other foul; duck, chicken, coq, pigeon, etc. So when it came time to search for a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, my American friend Michele who has lived in France for a long time said, you will have to order it. And so a week before our dinner I did just that. Consulting my French tutor on how to order the the whole turkey instead of the parts was my next step. In fact, I have never seen anything but turkey breast in the supermarket, so it is a mystery where the other parts of the turkey go.

George and I headed to the supermarket on Saturday to pickup the said bird but to our disappointment, there was no bird to pickup. We were told through a broken translation that the bird would be available on Sunday (it never dawned on us that the store is not open on Sunday). Our plea that we have 7 persons coming for dinner in six hours prompted them to tell us they would call the farmer and perhaps the farmer could deliver said bird to our house. George and I left the supermarket and waited patiently for a ring at the door, a phone call, or email letting us know where-is-the-frick'n bird! At this point can you tell that our patience is beginning to run thin!

During this waiting time, we were wondering several things: 1) is the turkey the farmer's bringing, going to be alive. Picture us chasing a bird around our fenced in yard, George with machete in hand, me helping to corner the darn thing, 2) is the turkey the farmer's bringing, going to be dead, but with feathers and insides intact. Uh, okay what do we do now? Get the hot water boiling! Sue, here's the knife, you have experience with hunting, right...uh, yeah, thanks George 3) the turkey the farmer's bringing, is going to be the freshest we have every had!

As it turned out we received no phone call, no email, and no farmer with bird in hand at our door.

So back to the supermarket I go, George staying home in case there was the slimmest of chances that the farmer was still coming.

But as it turned out I was told upon my return to the supermarket that whole turkeys are not available until mid-December, the girl who took my original order did not know this. Whole turkeys are only sold and cooked nearer to Christmas, at least in our area of France. So we ended up with roasted chicken and turkey breast. So next Thanksgiving, we will be throwing the traditional turkey idea to the wind and who knows what will be cooking in the Strohmaier kitchen.

Florence, Italy

We seized the opportunity with another French holiday on November 1 and 2, and since we were already in Paris, flew to Bologna, and caught a 35 minute train to Florence for the weekend.

Firenze as the Italians call the city, is known as the cradle of the Renaissance. The museums and architecture reflect this at every turn. Florence has many museums, too many to visit in a long weekend, but we were able to visit two. Top on our list was the Accademia Gallery where Michelangelo's David has been since 1873. Formerly placed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1504, a replica is there now. Michelangelo carved David from one piece of marble which stands 17 feet high. We were forbidden to take photos of the original but it is quite something to see the original, all 360 degrees of him.

Replica of Michelangelo's David located
in the Piazza della Signoria

Michelangelo and Galileo's tombs can be found at the Basilica of Santa Croce. Florence is also the home of the Galileo Museum.

 Tomb of  Michelangelo

Tomb of  Galileo

The Uffizi Gallery was recommended as a must see and we were not disappointed. We were able to purchase tickets in advance to enter at a certain time period, rather than stand in line which made it nice. Besides the great art it also offered nice views of the city on the second floor.

You can discover many excellent restaurants serving up true Italian specialties, open markets, street vendors and this time of year, roasted chestnuts. There's also great shopping where you can find fine Italian leather goods -shoes, jackets, purses, wallet, belts and ceramics hand painted by local artisans. We found some ceramics and luck be with us, the shop owner will be traveling to Nancy, France in February and offered to deliver them for us. Something unique are the retail stores located on the Ponte (bridge) Vecchio that crosses the River Arno.

Ponte Vecchio

For the size of Florence you wouldn't guess it's a walking city, but it is. The streets are narrow and cars, let alone buses, have a difficult time navigating the streets. If we had brought a car, we would have been charged 30 euro a day to park it, yikes! The majority of the people either walk, ride bicycles, or motorcycles, but from time to time a car does make it through. It makes for a quieter city and cleaner air.

A perfect vehicle to navigate Florence's narrow streets

We arrived after dark for the weekend and was hoping to see some of the Tuscan countryside on our departure, but our train ride was a 90% tunnel ride through the mountains, what a surprise!

Here's more photos at this link:
http://flic.kr/ps/285kjt

Barcelona, Spain + other sites

I had the unexpected opportunity to join two of my high school friends in Barcelona recently. We knew that they were coming to visit us in France for quite some time, but when they said join us in Barcelona, I couldn't say no. And so on October 21, I hopped a train from Nimes to Barcelona. I met Sue and Sandra at the apartment they rented in the Old City Centre of Barcelona, an excellent location. If you ever want to visit Barcelona and prefer an apartment vs a hotel, I'd highly recommend this apartment that sleeps 4, website www.bcngotic.com

I asked a local friend who recently visited Barcelona what to see. Her answer was the architecture. I was perplexed by her answer thinking that, sure the architecture, but what else. But I totally understand her answer now. The architecture is quite exceptional throughout the city.

Architect Antoni Gaudi's work can be seen throughout Barcelona. His unusual trademark is influenced by forms of nature, curved lines, and organic shapes. He also used mosaic pattens to adorn the outside of buildings.

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia is an extraordinarily, beautiful chapel, like none I have ever seen. We stood in line for over one hour, but without a shadow of doubt, well worth the wait. Similar to many large churches in Europe which took hundreds of years to build, this church has been under construction since 1882 and it has, depending upon who you ask, a couple more decades to go. When completed it will be the tallest builidng in Barcelona. It is interesting to see the modern transformations of the chapel on both the inside and outside versus the gothic outer facade.

Sagrada Familia Chapel 

Sagrada Familia Chapel inside

Two other unusual buildings Gaudi designed are the Casa Batllo and Casa Mila, completed in 1906 and 1912 respectively. Time was not on our side for visiting the interior of these structures but it was remarkable to just see the outer design of the two buildings and marvel at Gaudi's thinking and design.

Casa Batllo

Casa Mila

We took an open air bus tour, a good choice to see the city with a limited time frame. The best seats on the bus are on the top level especially on a warm, beautiful, sunny day. Unfortunately the top was full when we got on. Never fear, Sandra is here. Us three girls were silently competing for seats on the top with two young German boys. Once someone came down the steps, people aggressively go for the steps to get up top. But these boys were not going to get past Sandra, if she could help it. With an out stretched arm toward those boy's chests she asserted her female authority and told them to WAIT--WAIT--WAIT. She kindly motioned Sue to go up the steps. I am sitting close by watching all this transpire. The boys looked in bewilderment at Sandra and I could see under their breath say--wait (it appeared they did not know English)! Sandy turned and proceeded up the steps to join Sue at her seat. I wish I could have videoed the whole process, it was hilariously to watch, you go girl!

Sue demonstrating Sandra's assertiveness

The 1992 Summer Olympics hosted by Barcelona generated a transformation of several parts of the city including recovery of the beach front and the installation of a large marina. Frank Gehry's fish sculpture commissioned for the Olympics can be seen on the ocean front. It is made of stone, steel, and glass and measures 114 by 117 feet.

Frank Gehry fish sculpture

We toured the Picasso Museum but photographs were prohibited. The Museum is comprised of Picasso's early works including his teenager years that were interesting to me; he was so talented at an early age. And it also includes paintings from his blue period, but lacked the cubism that I love so much about Picasso.

From Barcelona we took the train back to Nimes and took in the sights there, then further north to Lyon.

During the 16th and 17th century, Lyon was known throughout Europe for their high quality silk. At its peak, there were 15,000 silk looms in operation and before the French Revolution of 1789 more than half of the people of Lyon where sustained by the silk industry. But because of the French Revolution the silk industry was almost completely destroyed. Today you can tour the Silk Museum and visit a small scale silk workshop. We visited the silk workshop where silk is still being produced and sold. We watched an artist color the silk and saw some of the processes of placing patterns onto the silk.

Lyon, France - applying color to silk

Lyon, France - silk paint shop

Lyon, France - patterns

Lyon, France - silk workshop

Paris, the city of lights was next on the agenda. I warned Sue and Sandra that the lines for the Eiffel Tower were very long all summer. But we got there late, around 8:30 and and was pleasantly surprised to see only a 10 minute wait, what luck! The Louvre, Museum d'Orsay, Chateau de Versailles, Arc de Triomphe were also our stops. It was great spending some time with Sue and Sandra and catching up, we had a lot of fun and some good memories were made.

Practicing our French - Quelle heure est-il (what time is it?)

Here's some more photos of our trip at this link:

http://flic.kr/ps/285kjt

Aix-En-Provence, France

George and I took the opportunity to visit Aix-En-Provence several weeks ago in preparation for my travels further south. Located in the heart of Provence, Aix-En-Provence is best known as the birth place of Paul Cezanne, the post-impressionist painter.

George with statue of Paul Cezanne

His painting can be found all over the world, however the Museum d'Orsay (one of my favorites) in Paris holds a fair amount of his work.

Aix-En-Provence has created a Cezanne walk that leads you throughout the city to important locations related to the artist. By following the brass C on the sidewalk you can see and learn all things Cezanne. Descriptions of each location can be obtained from the Office of Tourism.

Birthplace of Paul Cezanne

School attended by Paul Cezanne

Unfortunately, time did now allow us to visit Cezanne's workshop, I would have enjoyed that, but that will be for our next visit. We were able to find his final resting place on the edge of town.

Paul Cezanne's grave site

For a late October day, the weather could not have been nicer, in fact the city boasts 300 days of sun per year, we cannot come close to that where we live. Aix-En-Provence has wide boulevards with large sycamore trees (I think the French call them plane trees) and

contrasting narrow "Old Town" streets.

Aix-En-Provence is a university town which adds to its vibrancy and is a great city for shopping. The city reminded me of the quintessential France, the kind of city you see in all the travel brochures or books. And from these photos, you can see why: