Kaysersbeg

Kaysersberg is beautiful and very small, but gives an authentic feel as a base for Alsace.

Street puppet theatre.

We purchased our supplies from a local supermarket, and discovered a salon de the, Peche mignon, right opposite to our apartment. We even left our son walking there for pastries as I could watch him through the window. And the center street is pedestrian.

Tarte au citron was incredible. Tarte au pommes was very good, but I personally prefer the croustade made in Quebec. They had so many delicious pastries.

I cooked sausages and potatoes we purchased for an Alsatian meal with beer. Our son discovered kouglof pastries.

To Colmar and Kaysersberg

In the morning we drove to Colmar, the town of Bartholdi.

We visited Colmar aboard a little white train. Old Colmar is really beautiful. We then walked back to Winstub Brenner for a lunch with a choucroute garnie for me served with sausages, ham and lard (bacon), steak and potatoes for our son, and tripes in Riesling wine. All with house wine pitcher and served in Hansel and Gretel plates. I was surprised as the choucroute is served hot in Alsace. I serve it hot only when I prepare it with tomato sauce and sausages and meat, but otherwise I serve it cold as is or in a salad.

Tripes in Riesling tasted more like tripe soup I prepare for my husband sometimes.

 After this rich lunch we walked back to our car through old Colmar where our son indulged himself with a huge ice cream.


We then drove to Kaysersberg to our apartment. We waited a bit for the owner at the table of their restaurant downstairs.

Off to Alsace

Next morning we left our hotel and took a taxi to Europcar in Bastille area. We were second in line to get our very nice and brand new hatchback Renault Laguna. My husband became very nervous at the idea of a brand new car. But the agency had to upgrade us since they didn't have a smaller compact car.

We spent some time setting our GPS which somehow couldn't locate us for a while. Fortunately there were a TomTomGPS on the car itself. We drove directly East to get out of Paris and reached relatively easily the highway on this Sunday morning.

We stopped for lunch on the road at a Burger King.

Our destination on that day was Nancy in Loraine region. We reached easily our Ibis hotel in the suburbs of Nancy and took the tram to downtown for a walk. This tram has hidden rails, the rails could only be seen at the stops.

The town was mostly dead on Sunday afternoon, but we found a lot of people at car races in the garden off the beautiful Stanislas place. We then walked around to buy some picnic, but everything was closed. A woman stopped me on the street and asked if she could help us. I asked for a supermarket, but she said all is closed, and we were better to buy something from an small ethnic place across the street.

The choice was good although not typical local food. I ordered half a chicken with potatoes which were delicious and my husband and son chose a pizza, which was very big  and good.

We later saw an open supermarket at the train station, but were too tired to get off. I just purchased some wine from our hotel restaurant bar.

Paris, continued 2

Next morning we walked to Eric Kayser bakery for the best croissant and espresso, and our son indulged himself with macarons.

We then took the Open tour bus and toured the Bastille and Marais areas. We then changed the bus to get to Eiffel tower, I had purchased advanced tickets online and we were lucky as the weather was very nice. We arrived in advance and had a picnic with my sandwiches on one of the benches at Trocadero gardens. We then walked to the separate entrance for people with pre-purchased tickets. The lines were huge, but we only waited 25 minutes to clear security and to get to the second level. The views were beautiful and we spent some time at this level. Our son has purchased an Eiffel tower candy.

We then took the Open tour bus to complete the tour back to our hotel where we had an appointment with our friends. This time I chose the restaurant and we were lucky enough to get the last big table at Chez Gladines on St Germain. Our friends were surprised people were queuing outside of the restaurant in hope to get a table.

We had a lot of fun eating there and the kids enjoyed as well. There are several potato plates, omelets, and huge salads, and the basque specialties. Everything was so good and the atmosphere very special, we even reordered more wine, beer, and even desert. It is an inexpensive place for central Paris and the service was good and very friendly.

Men went with huge 5 diamants salads, I chose a Complete salad and my friend she decided on Lardons and chevre salad. Kids went with potato plates and our son chose an omelet with mushrooms. He didn't like much the mushrooms for some reason but loved the omelet. While my salad was with cured ham, 5 diamants included gesiers, and chevre in addition to potatoes and salad.

We finished our meal after spending 3 hours there and walked around St Michel area where there were musicals with good music. This was our last night in Paris before taking a rental car of Bastille place next morning.

Paris, continued

Next morning we woke up and walked to St Michel area and had an espresso croissant breakfast a one of the bakeries with external sitting with the best croissants. We then walked to Notre Dame to take the Open tour bus.

We left the bus at the Printemps store stop and entered the store. There is a nice panoramic terrace on top of Printemps and we spent some time there enjoying the views before continuing to Passage des Princes for toy shopping. As we were close to Chez Papa, we decided to have our lunch there. They still had a few tables available at the outside terrace, but a few minutes later the restaurant became full.

My husband and I decided on huge salads and our son chose an omelet.

Their salads are delicious to the last layer with salad leaves with bleu de brebis cheese.

We then continued our visit of Paris.

Later that night we purchased a pizza to go from one of Balcan places in very touristy St Michel area, however the pizza was good. For the first time in our visits we walked to Pont Neuf at night and waited for the Eiffel tower to illuminate. We hopped to see it at 10PM, but there was still light on the streets. We waited there until 11PM when the magic occurred. It was very beautiful. On the streets there were a lot of atmosphere as people just left the bars and were honking and chanting in the streets because French won at the FIFA World cup that night.

Arriving in Paris

We arrived on time at 5AM. After picking up our luggage we we took the RER to our hotel in Quartier Latin. We had plenty of time before check in, but we were exhausted. At the airport CDG2 we were in a a queue to take the elevator to the train station, and all travelers around us were also exhausted. We all were waiting to the elevator for a while, when my husband woke up and decided to press the button. Everyone around were so happy he thought of it, so exhausted we all were.

Well there were strikes and we had to change our train at La Gare du Nord. Usually this is a direct RER to St Michel. There were stairs and we were loaded with bags. However, at the lower level there were people explaining exactly what we had to do, and we had no problem taking the second RER. I had researched in advance and so when we arrived to St Michel station we started looking for the exit with an elevator. It is a bit hidden and we had to walk along the quay, but the main advantage is it takes you up from the train directly to the street on our way to the hotel.

We finally found the elevator and good news there were people waiting for it. We walked little cobbled streets in St Michel neighborhood. Then to St Germain and to our hotel, Hotel du College de France, off St Germain on a quiet street. It was 9 and of course our room wasn't ready yet, but the person at the counter was very nice to us and took our bags to the storage room.

We decided to walk and went to Notre Dame through a bridge full of disgraceful love locks. Although 1 lock sounds cute, the bridge was literally loaded with them. We walked on that bridge in the past and it was transparent, and very nice to take pictures of the Seine behind Notre Dame. It is now vandalized and looks like a solid wall of metal and tacky love locks.

The weather was pretty cold and cloudy although the predictions were for a nice day. We sat for a while inside Notre Dame, where it was much warmer.

We then walked to Pompidou centre and Stravinski fountain. The weather became sunnier and warmer as we walked and we sat for a while in front of Hotel de Ville. We then walked back to our hotel vicinity and decided on a lunch just around the corner, at Reglait Boulangerie and Brasserie. I had spotted that inexpensive place on Internet, we needed it because it is open starting breakfast and non stop until 8PM. They have a very pleasant terrace, where we sat before lunch time. We quickly decided on a croque Monsieur/Madame and a half of rose wine. Their croques are bakery style, and served alone, however they were so welcomed as they were hot. All for only 26E including a can of coke which costs the same as the wine. We stayed there until 12h30 PM. Then we just walked a few meters to our hotel where our room was awaiting for us.

After a short siesta, we went for a walk in our neighborhood and purchased a roast chicken from the traiteur place Monge, and wine and water from a little supermarket on rue des Carmes for our hotel picnic. The big Franprix was under renovation and sparkling wine was in a non accessible section.

Bandol

In any case Bandol has never disapointed so far. This year they have a guy selling platters of seafood at the daily market from Llyly Coquillages. They are spectacular and good value. Mine was a 20E platter, but he also makes smaller ones. The mayonnaise was home made and incredible. There is a stall at the daily market selling charcuterie and smoked salmon which are simply spectacular. The traiteur next door sells all sorts of prepared foods but also terrines. The choice is incredible and quality very good to excellent. I bought fish soup from them for 9E, which made us 2 meals. It came with delicious rouille and croutons. Dona Patri pizzeria makes great pizzas to go or eat there. Our favorites so far were the pissaladiere and another one with tuna and anchovies. I tried paella from 4 different sellers, but the one at the big market from Spanish family is the best. Also, the stall with olives and tapenades at the daily market has incredible tapenades and achoiades. Even the hot sandwiches from kiosks behind the Tourist office are good and only cost 3-4E. As activities this year we had les joutes, grandiose fireworks for July 14, several concerts and defile de lampions. Bandol has 3-4 orchestras including 1 jazz, from firemen I believe. One of the free shows was Natasha St Pier, from Quebec, but living now in France. I have never seen her shows in Quebec, but in Bandol it was a very good music and evening with piano and then her songs. But that was only one of the few. One day they closed the Renecros beach because of something seemed a pollution, but we could try the Casino beach also close to our apartment. It is a good beach with access for people with mobility problems. In water there are stones however, but water itself was warmer as the beach is more exposed to sun.