Paris, the city of foodies

  "please leave box five open for my use." -Phantom of the Opera

We had quite a wonderful day yesterday.  Not quite according to plan, though.  I really like to plan our days out, but the enjoyment is not really dependent on whether we actually follow the plan.  We started out visiting the Enfant Rouges market near our hotel in the morning, but it was a little early and all the places were still pretty sleepy and closed (at 9:15!).  Wandered down to Place des Voges.  It was built by Henry IV as a square for the high-class and home for royalty, but fell into disrepair in the 19th century, when it was a working class area.  Victor Hugo lived here.  At 10, we went to the Carnavalet museum of Paris history.  They followed the entire span of history in art and artifacts.  The french revolution part was the coolest, though I have a hard time keeping track of all the republiques and reinstated monarchies.  We were one of the only groups visiting so early, so there were a lot of curators, which made us feel very hovered over.  We stopped afterwards for a huge meringue in a pastry shop.  It was amazingly fluffy and light and delicious.

After the museum, we took the metro down to the catacombs, but on arrival, the line was super long (everyone else seemed to give us the impression that the catacombs were little visited).  We opted to postpone to another day and walked through the Montparnasse cemetary instead.  We were close to the Montparnasse station, so we stopped in at Creperie Breton for a creppy lunch.  This station is where trains from Brittany come in, so the people from there just stayed in the area and opened up an absurd amount of crepe places.  Not that crepes are ever really absurd.

We strolled around luxembourg gardens for a bit watching the cute kids playing on the playgrounds.  Poliane, one of Paris's bread celebrities had a place nearby, so we stopped in and picked up a quarter of a miche (large loaf of bread) for a later picnic.  We then went to Christian Constant's tea room (recommended by Clothilde) for a mille-feuille (Napolean) and a pot of oozing rich hot chocolate.  I really think this stuff at room temperature could not be classified as a liquid.  It was so rich and thick and delicious. Like drinking ganache.  We were very full afterwards, but lumbered to the puppet theater in the gardens for the 4:00 show.  There were a lot of little kids that enjoyed chanting and reacted to all the stage happenings in very cute ways.  

We caught a metro up to the opera and met up with my friends at 6.  The Opera Garnier (as in phantom of the opera) was built by Napoleon III and is a huge building with endless hidden corners.  The lobby is a 5-story atrium with arching marble stairways, golden gilding, carved candelabra, and mirrors.  The theater itself is also about 6 stories and has numerous boxes (for the classy types) and a ceiling that is now painted by Marc Chagall.  And a chandelier of course.  We got rush tickets for the opera, La Fille Mal Gardee, which is a classic French pastoral opera.  It was pretty amazing seeing something there, and wandering the building during breaks.  The opera itself was really good, apparently the best company in France.  

Afterwards, we strolled along the seine a little before heading back to the hotel around 11PM.  It was a lovely day in all.  

Today we have big plans, but again, we'll take it as it comes. 

Paris day 2

I woke up again at 7:30 and somehow convinced Manda to get up early too.  The hotel was kind of sneaky and although they had no breakfast included when we booked it, now apparently it is.  Hopefully we don't get billed for it at the end.  Anyway, we had some really good croissant and some hot beverages from the machine in the lobby.  I actually enjoy machine coffee better than the real stuff, so I'm happy enough with it.  They also give you a little snack pack bag with a sammy and an apple.  

We left the building and took the metro to Madeline, which has a large church that looks like unnerringly like the parthenon.  It also is home to two of the famous gourmet epicerie food shops in Paris, Fauchon and Heidard.  Alas, both didn't open until 9, so we had to wait a bit, but eventually wandered them both.  We felt a little odd, as we were the only customers in both and they were very fancy.  Fauchon especially.  And pink.  

We walked by the Tuleries to the Musee d'Orsay, where we met my friend Henni.  We had 2.5 hours for the museum which was about perfect.  Impressionism is as amazing as always.  We especially liked some of the pastel works that you don't usually see.  And Renoir seascapes have a special place in my heart.  I hadn't seen much work of Auguste Rodin the sculptor (think the Thinker), but he is pretty fantastic too.  We plan to see his museum tomorrow.  I've always loved sculpture.  It seems so much more organic and expressive.  

After the museum, we met some other friends at Place St. Michel and picked up some lunch for a pique-nique on the Seine.  It was great to see everyone again, and they are as silly as always.  Benjamin, Maelle and Claire, the 3 Parisiens, were amused by my extensive lists of things to see and foods to eat.  

Afterwards we pondered the Luxembourg gardens, but the rain started coming down in earnest, so we went and got ice cream (how does that work?) from Berthillion on Ile St. Louis.  (Not the original store, which is closed in July, but from one down the street).  The hit flavor was cocktail exotique (passion fruit, mango, and papaya).  Another note:  a magic wand in French is baguette magique.  As in magic baguette.  

We walked North a bit to the Pompidou center.  It's the newish modern art museum, and all of the usual innards of a building are placed on the outside:  stairways, elevators, structural steel supports, heating/cooling ventilation, plumbing.  It looks pretty crazy.  We wandered that area near Les Halles, which has a lot of cute shops and ended up at St. Eustice church (apparently in the Da Vinci code (Dan Brown is a n00b)) and sat resting our feet in the square out front.  Afterwards, we passed by the legendary cooking good store, E. Dehillerin.  In an 1860's style, they have all sorts of copper pots, utensils, and cooking ware crammed into little dark aisles.  It was amazing.  It closed right as we got there, so we may have to try to go back.

As early-birds, we said goodbye to my friends and headed back to Au Pieds du Cochon, a classic french bistro with (supposedly) the best french onion soup in town.  We sat our tired little feeties down and supped on the soup, beef tartare, confit au canard with a red wine reduction (aka heaven on a plate), and a dessert called La Coupe Vie en Rose, which had rose and strawberry ice cream and rose jam.  The bread here also came with "confiture du cochon," which literally means "pig jam."  It was actually quite good, though it tasted vaguely like something Asians would put into bao.  We were very satiated and satisfied, but definitely had to sit and digest for a while.  

We made it back to the hotel, and I made our daily list of plans for the next few days (they change every day, so I can make a new list/plan every evening.  Yes I like lists way to much).  Amanda is conched out already at 9:45.  We are trying to get tickets to the Opera Garnier (as in Phantom of the Opera's opera) for later this week.  We also have most of our meals planned out until we leave.  

It's been another great day in the city of food (or is it love?).  We miss you all back at home and think of you a lot.  

bum-kicked by Paris

We totally got our pants kicked by Paris, today and it was awesome.  If I get my bum kicked by anything, it better be someplace as cool as this.  Foodie heaven.

Yesterday we got into Gare du Nord around 7:00 and took the metro a few stops to our hotel, Hotel le Marais in the 3eme arrondisement.  It's 80 Euros a night and very minimalist but very clean.  They don't provide soap, but they have free wi-fi.  It's pretty much exactly what you need in a hotel, so we're pretty excited.  There is also a boulangerie/patisserie literally right next to the door.  We took a little stroll through the Marais district to the Seine and walked by a lot of sidewalk cafes and charming shops.  After getting excited, we went back to the hotel and perused the guide books even more.

Today, we woke up around 7 (as per my usual) and walked to the Ile de la Cite for a little breakfast of hot chocolate and tartine (half baguette slices with butter) in the shadow of Notre Dame.  Afterwards, we wandered inside the church.  It was so cool and dark and gothic.  Full of stained glass windows and awe-inspiring.  We were going to climb the tower, but the line was super long just before it was going to open at 10 so we postponed for another day.  

We took a couple of recommended walks in the Rick Steve's book and saw the Latin Quarter.  It was pretty cute with lots of little cafes and old windy streets.  Shakespeare and Co is a really cozy bookstore that used to be frequented by James Joyce, Hemingway, and others.  They had books piled everywhere and an upstairs with a magnificent collection (not for sale).  We also dropped by Le Procope, frequented by the likes of Voltaire, Ben Franklin, and Robespierre. 

Wandering near St. Germain-de-pres we passed by a Eric Kuyser, a bakery mentioned in Clothilde's book, and bought a half-baugette for 60 cents.  I love how you can buy a half-baguette by the way.  And we ate it plain in the square.  Divine.  

We walked up the the Bon Marche department store's "Grand Epicerie de Paris" which took us about an hour to peruse through.  They had just about everything you could look for in groceries, falling just short of Harrod's food hall in magnificence.  We got some pate for later picnics.  

Up at the Louvre pyramid, we met some of my Tsinghua friends Claire and Henni, whom we wandered the Tulleries with.  We also saw Rue St. Honore and a square with all the really high-end fashion types.  At 3:30 we said goodbye planning to go get tea at this divine sounding place that we ended up not finding.  We tried to take the metro home, but got on the wrong direction.  We decided to go to a recommended crepe shop near our hotel, but its closed Monday and Tuesday, so we sat down in a cafe for a snack only to discover that they weren't serving food at 4:30 in the afternoon.  ah the dismay.  So we got a little snack at the supermarket and are currently recouperating at the hotel before going off for Falafels in the Jewish quarter later.

Goodbyes and Hello

The last week at eawag went pretty fast.  We did another step of the lab work we've been doing that involves large gels and UV light (which is why I have a 1 inch strip of sunburn on my wrist) that was pretty cool to finish off with.  

Wednesday was my official last day and Deb's too.  She's been post-docing for a year here, so we co-hosted a little apero after work to day our goodbyes.  I made tiramisu from an American recipe, which amused all of them, and Deb made cookies, which is very American too.  It was fun to just sit around and chat.  Afterwards, a lot of us went into town and sat by Lake Zurich for a few hours.  It was so lively there and was fun to just watch the characters passing by. 

Thursday I didn't leave until the evening, so I did my last long run, checked out of my room, and stopped by eawag for a lab meeting and lunch.  I said my real goodbyes and headed up to the Uetliberg with Aline for a last view of Zurich and a last Movenpick ice cream cone.  

I caught my night train at 8:42.  City Night Line trains are so plushplush.  The chairs lean back super far and are really comfortable.  I slept like a baby, and woke up in the Netherlands.  I met Amanda just fine as she was getting off her flight. 

We dropped our bags in a locker and trekked into Amsterdam for a little wander.  All the architecture is so difference and so quaint.  It's really fun to see what people carry around on their bikes.  Sunflowers is popular, but we've also seen hula-hoops, dogs, edibles, and small children.  The canals and sidewalk cafes are really nice.  

We were a little tired by mid-afternoon, so we headed for our next destination, Delft.  One of my friends from Beijing lives here, and its a cute smaller Dutch town with a lot of history.  (Antonie van Leuvwenhoek, the first person to see a bacteria for example).  Our bags are heavy, but we made it to our nice hotel and were informed that we were the first people to book through hotels.nl, so were upgraded to a suite!  So we have a kitchen, lots of closet space and lots of comfy seating for the cocktail party we could host.  Its quite nice.  We went for a little wander in town and found the fresh stroopwafel (cinammony caramel sandwiched between waffel wafers) stand.  Too bad.  It was pretty amazing.  We then watched all the cute children playing on the central square while listening to the nice church bells that seemed to go on forever. 

Today we meet my friend Matthijs at 10 for a little town tour and catching up.  Tomorrow we might try to rent a bike to get around Dutch style for a change.  And we catch a train tomorrow afternoon for Paris.  

We have two guidebooks for paris, Rick Steve's, and Clothilde's Edilble Adventures in Paris, written by a Parisian food-blogger and food enthusiast.  It's pretty great, and we are quite excited.  

                Doesn't Amanda look European?

Football, eawag style

Yesterday, some people at eawag organized a football tourney for the whole institute.  Some 13 teams got together and played football at a nearby pitch for about 5 hours (with short 12 minutes games).  Each team was required to have one girl, and I think we were the only one with more girls than guys.  That's ecology for you.  We didn't have much experience, but had a lot of energy, and it was fun.  We finally one a game for the 11th/12th place game (our 5th and last match).  I was amazed at how well a lot of people did on energy and momentum alone without having much ball handing or strat skills.  Just go.   It was a fun afternoon and a good excuse to get away from the lab bench/computer screen (though our 17 degree C analysis room actually felt good in yesterday's heat).  Naturally the event ended with wurst and beer in proper central European style.  And the winning teams got champagne. 

Three days left here.  Pantry cleaning time.

A Wilty Weekend

My ex-roomie Jamie and her brother came into town this weekend en-route to Southern Italy and Greece.  It was great to see her.  I showed them around the area, but I think they ended up looking at more chocolate chops and grocery stores than they bargained for because that's what I usually look at.  

On Thursday in preparation for their arrival, I visited the huge Glattzentrum mall and got some food and a nice bottle of spatlase riesling from a Zurich winery. Also, I had gone to a friend's place on Wednesday to pick up some air mattresses and a pillow so they could crash more comfortably in my little room here.  I picked them up from the airport around 7PM, and they were much less sleepy than I expected.  We enjoyed a dinner of pizza bread and riesling.  

Friday morning they were a little slow to wake up, but we made it into Zurich center and took a wander down Bahnhofstrasse, the huge shopping street.  Naturally we stopped in at all the big chocolatiers.  At the lakeshore, they were just closing up the morning farmers market, but we found some nice Italian ladies with bread, and snagged a nice brown loaf before they packed up.  They even threw in three little foccacias since they were done for the day.  Pretty good deal, I'd say.  We caught a bus down the lakeside to the Lindt and Sprungli chocolate factory, which according to various internet sites, was supposed to have a factory tour with free samples.  But alas, the tour deal had been gone for a few years, so all we got was a huge Lindt shop.  We did pick up a few 100g chocolate bars for a buck each (usually 2-3).  

On deciding that a boat ride back to town would be more exciting than a bus ride, we picnicked at the lakeside and caught a boat back into town.  We were a little tired by this point, so we stopped in at Cafe Schober in the old town so Jamie could try their fantabulously decadent hot chocolate.  Wandered a little more, climbed the Grossmunster, and stopped at the Coop for dinner supplies.  For dinner, we made homemade fondue with gruyere and bergkase.  And we dipped sausages.  It was pretty awesome.  

The Wilts needed to find a hostel for Rome, and Jamie wanted Andrew to learn to pick one.  It definitely took him/them about 3 hours to finally decide on one.  It's so hard making decisions. . .

Saturday, we got up a little earlier and hopped a train into Bern, the national capital.  The city

 burned down in the 15th century,

 so all the wood buildings were replaced with sandstone.  As a result, the city is really beautiful with matching buildings and wide streets.  There was a farmers market here too, which had good samples.  There was also a lady from Globos handing out amazing pralines.  We tried to ge

t in for a tour of the parliment building, but all the tour spots were gone for the day.  :(  We wandered down the main street which has cute statues on columns every 100m or so.  The buildings all hung over the sidewalk, which made for a nice walk, and there were little cellars along the street.  Some had shops, but many were bars, so it would have been fun to see the place at night.  

Bern is named after this guys who shot a bear on the site, and bear

s are the city's special symbol.  They have a bear pit with bears, but recently voted to make

a nicer bigger new one, so we didn't get to see the bears.  We walked up a hill to a lovely rose garden and an expansive city view.  Lunchtime was rolling around and our tummies were getting rolly too, so we walked back into town and stopped at the Markthalle, which has a lot of little food stalls, for lunch.  Afterwards, we visited the Swiss Alpine and Mountaineering Museum.  It was a little disappointing, but they had a model of the Val Roseg there, which was cool.  

We took the train back to Zurich, and had dinner and beer in a place in the trainstation recommended by the lonely planet.  It was not amazing, but the food was hearty, and the beer selection was vast.  

Sunday looked rainy, but we took a boat ride on the lake anyway.  It was a 2-hour ride to the other end of the lake, and we amused ourselves with 3-person pinochle.  Not nearly as cool as 4-person, but we made do.  On arriving at Rapperswil, we found a festival going on in the town with jazz and blues concerts and tons of food stands.  Mostly Asian ones, oddly enough.  The castle in the town was really pretty and the courtyard had a funny covering funnel thing.  There were vinyards, and Jamie got a baby bottle of riesling from the next town over.  The wander through the old town was quite charming.  For lunch, they got a cervalat and a wurst and we had brought some picnic stuff.  Andrew was really excited about the Miller beer (silly Americanisms) but they were out so had to settle with Heiniken.  After lunch, we watched the birds and listened to the music until the next boat came.  

They had a night train to catch at 8:30, so I made them some pasta (cleaning out the pantry already) and they packed up their things.  I dropped them off at the station and said goodbye for now.  Sounds like the rest of their trip will be a blast, and I'll even be gone and playing tourist in a few days.  

This is the last week at work.  Today the whole company has a soccer tournament in the afternoon, which should be quite amusing.  Thursday I catch my night train to Amsterdam.  I'm starting to pack and have a lot of chocolate to bring home.  

         My first macaroon experience.  Chocolate wins.

Spontaneous sampling trip

I went into work early today just because I was up early, and I caught a few people who were going up the Swiss national park for the day sampling.  And when they asked if I wanted to come, I just couldn't say no.  So I left a note on my lab-mates desk and hopped in the van for the 3-hour drive to the park.  It was rainy on this side of the mountains and very snowy up at the top of the pass (isn't it supposed to be summer now?) but the other side was pretty dry.  We parked right next to the border crossing to Italy, and hiked over a hill to the sampling site.  There were four of us for about 6 samples that took 30 minutes to take, but scenery was nice and we were having a good time.  On the way home, we had to stop at the inn nearby to try the Gerstensuppe (barley soup) under the new management, and after finding it satisfactory, we climbed back into the car for the ride home.  

For going across the alps in a car, there are two options.  You can drive your car onto a hollow train that goes straight under the mountains twice an hour (like a ferry, but on a train).  Or in the summer, you can drive over one of the passes.  If it was snowing today, I imagine it's pretty impassable in the winter.  There were some guys biking it today.  Hardcore.  

I made a beautiful braided yeast coffee cake filled with a mixture of almond paste and poppy seeds and brought it into work today. Since I wasn't around, I didn't get to hear the response, but it was all gone by the time we got back, so i guess it was enjoyed.  

I've been trying to do more writing the past few days, but feeling a little overwhelmed.  I searched yesterday for recent papers on the subject, and it came up with about 60 in the past 2 years, most of which I haven't read or heard about.  I feel like after each paper read, I feel like I know less and less of the big picture.  I guess I'll just keep plugging along.  In good news, I think our reactor materials are about 1/50th the cost of the standard materials used in the literature, so we should have some impact.  I hope.