It is now well and truly summer here in Pairs. The days are long and warm, and life is now meant to be lived outside. Last night, we ventured outside the city limits to visit les guinguettes, which we only learned about a few months ago when a friend sent us this article . The guinguettes (pronounced gan-GET) were once a mainstay of Parisian culture, especially during the Belle Epoque era of the late 1800s, when the lure of cheap booze and dancing brought people out of the city and onto the banks of the rivers for live music and dancing, fueled by simple food and cheap wine. What could possibly sound better than that? I was sold. Guinguettes were originally located outside of the city limits to avoid the hefty consumption tax that was imposed on wine entering Paris until the 1940s. Also, it's damn nice to have dinner under strings of colored lights on an island among the chestnut trees. This is what Renoir painted of the guinguette on a sunny summer afternoon over one hundred years ago. While the experience (and fashion) have changed a bit since then, it is still an absolutely fantastic experience to take a train out of the city and find an entirely different world in the guinguettes. The food wasn't anything to write home about, but it was indeed a good simple meal, accompanied with a good bottle of wine and great company. And as promised, live music urged the diners to the dance floor, leaving their inhibitions and worries behind in Paris, if only for the evening.
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Michael and I spent the last week of our summer vacation in Arles, which is a lovely little-ish city in the south of France. As a quick reference, Arles is at the western edge of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, which itself sits in the southeastern-most part of the country, with Italy bordering the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Back in the day, Arles was an important Roman city, complete with its own theater, amphitheater (aka coliseum), triumphal arch, and circus (of the chariot kind, not the dancing pony variety). Many of these monuments still stand today, and UNESCO has recognized them together as a world heritage site since 1981. So why did we chose to spend a week in Arles for the second year in a row? Well, it's a great base for exploring Provence, which is an absolutely magical land of sun-drenched lavender breezes overflowing with bottles of chilled rosé. Only slightly exaggerating. The south of France is where my soul craves to linger for longer than I am ever allowed to stay. The city of Arles is also home to two annual festivals that overlap for one artsy week every July. The more famous of the two is the Rencontres d'Arles, an annual international photography festival that has been going strong since 1970. Apparently, nearly 100,000 people visited the festival last year; and for a town with a population of around 50,000, it's kind of a big deal. The festival showcases work that has never been seen by the public, and displays the exhibits in historic sites around the city, such as a 12th century chapel, or the hospital where Vincent Van Gogh stayed for a few months, or a 19th century industrial building. The venues are really just as interesting as the art. The verdict? For us, it was so-so. Some of the photos were awesome, while others were meh. I'm not ever a fan of art that I could easily bang out myself, but it was still fun to explore. At one of the more memorable exhibits, we were handed flashlights to "discover" photos in rooms of an abandoned building that were dimly lit with a soft glow of red light. Creative. The real reason for our visit to Arles this year was to attend a music festival called Les Suds à Arles. Musicians from around the world take over the city squares and alcoves for free open-air concerts throughout the week, which are usually located strategically by a café, where aforementioned glass of rosé can be enjoyed. Every night, bigger acts perform in the open-air ancient Roman theater, which was built in the first century AD. The stones that make up the ancient seating area are still used by concert-goers, and while sitting where thousands of ancient Romans sat to watch comedies and tragedies is pretty cool, it's not exactly luxury seating. We usually have no idea what performers will be playing any given night, so it's always a bit of a new and surprising experience. These ladies (and token guy) were our favorite act. They just rocked it. The last festival that capped off our absurdly-long 2014 summer vacation was the Festival d'Avignon, which bills itself as a living art festival. While we didn't actually attend any events, you feel like you are part of the show just walking around the city. We are talking four weeks of performances every year, now into it's 68th year. This is drama nerd holy land - if you were a drama nerd in high school and enjoy massive amounts of people all up in your business, then you must put this festival on your bucket list and make the pilgrimage. In the few short hours we were there, we saw a gingerbread-man puppet, a trio of silent creepy lady dancers, a number of dudes on stilts, a large women wearing balloons promoting a burlesque show, a very large beast-man wearing a muzzle who would put a noose around unsuspecting bystanders only to be persuaded by his companions to "let them go", just to name a few. Here is a great article if you'd like to read more about the festival, and a tiny glimpse of the poster-clad ambiance in the square where we ate dinner. For more photos of our complete trip, and some new ones from Italy, check out the album.
We spent the last night of our great 2014 summer adventure with Casey in Nice, coming full circle back to France. It was a beautiful evening at the beach, and a great way to cap off an awesome two weeks.
For more photos from our entire trip, check out our album. After years of dreaming of Cinque Terre, I finally made it. From the second we stepped off the train in Monterosso al Mare (one of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre), the Mediterranean Sea was an all-encompassing force of beauty that surrounded us, and the village. When we were planning our trip earlier this year, we had decided that this leg of the trip would be the one that we splurged on.... and we were so glad we did. We stayed in one of the apartments in Villa Orizzonte in Monterosso, and can absolutely recommend it to anyone who wants to experience a little piece of heaven. In fact, from the moment we arrived, we started planning our trip back next summer ;) We only had two full days in Cinque Terre, the first of which Casey and I spent at the beach, and Michael spent exploring the town. We were pointed to a pretty fantastic beach bar called Il Gigante, which we patronized a few times for an afternoon spritz (or two). On our second day, we hiked the ocean trail from Monterosso to Vernazza, which was the only section of the famous trail that was open, due to damage from floods in 2011. As it turns out, the part of the trail we hiked is the most strenuous, with 700+ steps right out of the gate. But if you can make it, the views were totally worth it. We were also very lucky to dodge an incoming storm by taking refuge for lunch at the Restaurante Belforte in Vernazza, which is a fantastic restaurant in an old lighthouse overlooking the sea. It was agreed that the dessert Michael ordered here was perhaps the best that anyone had ever tasted - caramelized strawberries over vanilla gelato. Shane - time to get cracking on a recreation. When it came time to leave, we were all pretty much in denial that it was time to go. This guy in particular took it hard again. I think maybe he has a thing for Italy.
When Michael and I visited Italy last summer (not knowing we would be moving to Europe a few months later!), Florence was absolutely at the top of Michael's favorite cities. And for good reason. It's awesome. We just spent the past three days in the lovely capital city of the Tuscan region with Casey, and have a better appreciation of art, leather goods, food and wine to show for it. On our first night, we took a guided tour of the Uffizi Gallery with a wine tasting intro with Florence for Foodies, a tour company that I would HIGHLY recommend. Last year, we took their Nude and Food tour, which was perhaps the best tour either of us had ever been on. And this one did not disappoint either. Over the next two days, which were increasingly hot and humid, we paid a visit to Michelangelo's David at the Academia, hiked to the top of the Duomo, ate our weight in gelato and pasta, and were introduced to the Spritz, a fantastic summer summer cocktail which we plan to enjoy at least once a day for the rest of our vacay. We could have used a few more days in Florence to explore the side streets and maybe take a day trip out to a small town or two, but for now we move on to Cinque Terre, which I've been dreaming of for many years.
And although somebody was a bit reluctant to leave Florence, Casey and I can't fit any more leather purses in our luggage, so it was time to go. With the promise that we will definitely return. Over the next week and a half, we will be city hopping up Italy with Casey, landing back in France for a night in Nice. We have had a few great days so far in Rome, mostly eating and walking to go eat some more :) Somewhere in the middle of all that eating, we've managed to see a few old buildings that I hear are famous. I will post more photos when I get to an actual computer, but here are a few shots from our trip so far... Too tired to post anything yesterday, here's a quick recap and lots of pics from our last two days in Paris with Casey before heading to Italy. Yesterday, we got up early to make the trip out to Versailles to get there before the rest of the tourists arrived. Turns out, we could have slept in - Versailles is closed on Mondays. Here's a victory picture of us with the lone guard in front of the gates. Luckily the gardens were still open, but they weren't exactly a consolation. We had a more successful second half of the day, with a visit to the Notre Dame (and climb up to the top!), and a stop to see the beautiful stained glass windows in Sainte-Chapelle. After three full days of hitting the Parisian pavement, today we were tired. Casey and I managed to climb the Arc de Triomphe, swing by the Moulin Rouge, and enjoy a tasty bowl of onion soup in Montmartre. We toasted the end of Casey's visit to Paris with a bottle of champagne on the Champ de Mars at sunset.... and off we go tomorrow to Rome!
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AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
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