French Fridays with Dorie - my go-to beef daube

This is Dorie's go-to beef daube...and it will forever more be mine too!  This is one fabulous dish.  When we were in France this summer, friends had us over for our last night at the farm house and made Boeuf Bourguignon, which is similar to a daube.  The bourguigon is a fairly simple dish to make (unless you're following Julia's recipe) and the daube really is too.  Get a good cut of meat, season it with lovely winter vegetables and a bouquet garni, add lots of red wine and then braise for a couple of hours.  What you end up with is a little bit of heaven.

Gather your ingredients

Admire the lovely produce

Admire a little more

You have to admire the meat too, you don't want it to feel left out, after all it is the star of this show!

Put your herbs together in a bouquet garni (that's just fancy talk for wrapping up the fresh herbs in cheesecloth)

All tied up!

Everything is better when you start with bacon

Browning the meat in bacon fat...yum, yum

Onions and shallots get to sweat

Carrots and parsnips join the fun (don't leave out the parsnips, they're important!)

Almost forgot the garlic

Every thing's ready to cook for a couple of hours

When it's all done, here's what you get

Up close and personal...too personal?

I made Dorie's herbed spaetzle to go with and it was fabulous!

The spaetzle was so yummy!

The daube had layers and layers of flavor.  The smoky bacon was underneath everything, the herbs added just the right amount of perfume and the wine tied everything together.  I used Dorie's suggestion of a coastal syrah (from Kendall Jackson) and it was perfect!  I'm going back to the store and buy a case...this is the wine to use for stews.

If you are looking for the perfect way to show your family some wintertime love, this is the meal for you!  If you'd like the recipe, buy Dorie's book (don't worry, I don't make a commission...I just want to make sure Dorie sells enough books so she can write another one!).  If you'd like to see what everyone else at FFwD made this week, check it out.  If you are feeling inspired to join the club, do it.  It's so much fun and we are cooking so many great things...the more the merrier!  Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Thanksgiving Recap

Thanksgiving dinner was a big hit!  We had 17 people (including ourselves), with my sisters and their kids coming up from San Diego (my brother and his family couldn't make it because of work), and then two families from up here joined us too.  It was a lively day!  The company was great, the conversation was engaging and the hike after dinner was much needed!

I managed to take a few shots of our desserts...but not one shot of the entire meal.  Oh well, some things are better left to memory anyway!

Here's the main table...before eating.  One of my sisters made the wonderful centerpieces for all the tables.  They were quite beautiful!

We had this amazing Bordeaux with dinner...a gift from our French friends that we brought back from France.  It was earthy and deep and beautiful and when I closed my eyes, I felt like I was right back in the French countryside.  Thank you Johanna and Laurent for this wonderful bottle!

And now for the desserts!

Caramel Pumpkin Pie (with "Good for almost anything" pie crust), both from Dorie Greenspan's Baking, From my home to yours.  This pie had a deep caramel flavor that worked so well with the pumpkin.  And the crust??? Don't get me started.  It is an amazing pie crust and I may never use another pie crust recipe again...ever!

Pumpkin Cream Pie with a graham cracker crust.  You can get the recipe right here from The Pioneer Woman.  This is an unbaked pie, creamy, light & fluffy...with just a hint of whiskey.  

Can you say YUM!

Then we had this incredible Dreamy Apple Pie, also from The Pioneer Woman (but with Dorie's crust).  St. James gave this pie two big thumbs up!

Our final dessert (because you can just never have enough dessert) was an incredible Heath Bar Crunch Trifle with white cake, chocolate pudding, whip cream, Kahlua, and crumbled heath bars.  Cynthia made this delightful dish and it really is an amazing experience in your mouth!

I have to say, dinner was so darn good that folks didn't have a lot of room left for dessert.  I have some amazing leftovers that we are trying to work our way through.  Pie for breakfast is not a bad thing.  I hope everyone had a great holiday and here's to a fabulous December!

PS...no pictures of people...when I was taking pictures, everyone was complaining saying that the photos were going to end up on my blog and that I really needed to get permission from people (ie...they wanted to review and approve the photos) before I post them...so...rather than go through an entire process of obtaining each person's blessing on any photo that they happened to be in (which you know I'd never be able to get)...I decided...no people pictures (unless you count the person's arm next to the wine bottle)!!!!

PPS...I completely forgot to mention the oven mishap!  Three weeks ago, my lower oven went out.  St. James called a repair person who came out and said that the circuit board had gone bad.  So he ordered it and said it would take 5 - 10 business days.  I had St. James call and make sure it would be in and installed before Thanksgiving.  Finally, the part came on Monday and the service guy came out on Tuesday (yes, cutting it close)!  When I walked in from doing errands, the service guy and St. James were shaking their head.  Now, not only was there a bad circuit board...but there was a bad clock too.  We needed another part that was going to take many days to come.

I was not amused....I was so not amused that St. James told the service guy he'd better leave and St. James would handle me...and boy did I need handling.  Many curse words left my lips...but since my nieces and nephews (oh, yeah and my son) read this blog...I won't share them with you.

Interestingly, as I had been doing my errands that morning, I'd heard a couple of people on the Martha Stewart radio channel talking about doing their turkeys in an electric roasting pan.  The first time I heard this, I thought...gee what loser would do their turkey in an electric roasting pan?  Of course, this was before I knew about my loser oven.  I was at Target and had seen these pans, but walked right by them.  After finding out about my oven, I then heard another person talking about this roasting pan, and the chef who was answering questions on the radio said he uses one all the time and explained how to do it.  Aha...I thought....I'm going to go get an electric roaster pan.  And, I did.  It was on sale for $22 and it was perfect!  The turkey came out great and the it was really no fuss.  I recommend it to all you other losers out there who can't get their broken ovens fixed in time for the holidays!!!!

French Fridays with Dorie - pommes dauphinois

While in France this summer (yes, I like to drop that at factoid anytime I can...mainly because it reminds me that I actually did spend two months in France this summer and often wish I was right back there, at any given moment), we had pommes dauphinois several times.  Each time we had them, they were incredible.  One time, my sister was expecting them with her dinner and she didn't get them and was quite upset.  (You can even read about that dinner in Chablis, if you like, where I had the most fabulous Oeufs en Meurette.)

I was thrilled to see that this recipe had been selected for one of the November choices.  I had high expectations of this dish.  I've made scalloped potatoes a gazillion times (ok, maybe only 100 times...but who's counting).  I don't use a recipe...I just slice up my potatoes, make a bechamel sauce that I add cheese to (more commonly known as a cheese sauce) and layer everything together.  My scalloped potatoes are pretty darn tasty, if I do say so myself.  However, the pommes dauphinois that we had in France were sublime.  Really, they were incredibly delicious, delicate, creamy and a little cheesy.  But they were subtle, they didn't hit you over the head with cheese.  Comfort food at it's best.  I was very hopeful that Dorie's recipe would give me the same result.

I'm so happy to report that her recipe lived up to and surpassed my expectations.  It is simple, elegant and truly delicious.  Each bite is a joy.  In fact, my taste buds were so happy, I thought they were never going to stop singing!

For me, the star of the show is the garlic infused cream.  While it was simmering on the stove, the house smelled heavenly.  I could not resist taking a few spoonfuls straight from the pan.  As it was cooking, I knew the final dish was going to be terrific.

Alas, I have no process photos for this recipe, as I made it with the chicken from last week, when I had company and no time for photos.  Only a couple of shots of the final dish before it was devoured!  And devoured it was.  Our company loved it, as did my boys!  To see what everyone else at French Fridays with Dorie made, take a peak here.  Also, if you'd like to purchase Dorie's cookbook and cook along with us, go to Dorie's website.

On a side note, I got to use my v-slicer (mandolin) on the potatoes, which made beautiful, uniform 1/8" slices.  I was very careful with it, so I wouldn't slice anything other than the potatoes.  I used my food processor to grate the Gruyere (to save a little time).  I, of course, sliced my thumb something awful cleaning the food processor blade.  You, lucky reader, are spared the gory pictures (just joking, there are no pictures...too much blood, didn't want to get it on the camera).  After I cut it, I still had to finish dinner (since I had company), so St. James just super glued the cut together.  After a week of it not really healing, I realized it probably should have had a few stitches...but at that point it was too late!  Ah, the things I do to ensure a great meal!

My Adventures in France...by Megan Iverson

My niece, Megan, wrote an essay for her English class about her trip to France.  I thought it was wonderful and wanted to share her perspective.  Here it is...verbatim.

Adventures in France

By Megan Iverson

It was the day before I was going to have the best month ever; I packed in, then back out, then back in, about twenty times just to make sure that I packed everything. My mom was stressing out, my dad was giving us so many hugs, and my brother, well he was just playing video games. My sister and I were finally prepared. We had to go to bed, but I had so much anxiety that I could not sleep. The next day I was going to go stay with my Aunts Uncle and cousins in France!

“BEEP. BEEP.” my alarm clock beeped.

I immediately got up, and my mom was right there watching me sleep. I was thinking in my head, what the heck are you doing. She told me to get up and get dressed. I slipped on my sweatpants and we were off. My mom drove us to LAX and there I could have sworn I saw Cameron Diaz, one of the best actresses ever! We checked through baggage and we were off. My sister and I met up with my Aunts friends and we flew to Paris, France. On the plane it was really fun because we were allowed to watch movies and there was a lot of space.

“Hi Auntie!” I said with excitement

“Hey sweetie” my aunt said.

We continued with our boring “how are you doing” good what about you” kind of conversation, after that we got into a car, and the car had “a lot of character.” My aunt drove us to our little town called Burgundy, we were on the outskirts of town. My cousins greeted us at the door and showed us the house. The house was very rustic, there were no screens on the window, and it was very open. The house on the outside was beautiful, but on the inside I was thinking, how someone can even begin to fathom living in this house. The catch phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover applies to this situation.

We had many great adventures in France, but this one was one of the ones that stood out the most. We went zip lining in France! It was a lot of fun, many people did not speak English, so we had to get out our guide book and try understanding what they were saying and what we were going to say to them. It was a challenge, but eventually we figured it out. We learned what to do and we were on our way. My cousins and I were up about 200 feet up in the air…trying to figure out the hard obstacles…without any help. We struggled to get the challenges, and we were very determined. We finally made it through everything but the red level (the hardest, my aunt wouldn’t let us do it). After we got done un-gearing ourselves we went out for pizza at our favorite pizza place in France. It was delicious.

Have you ever wondered where all of the kings, princesses, princes, etc.? People have always lived in France or Italy, or Spain, but they never say if they lived in a house or chaetae, or even a barn. Well I went to a chaetae that ALL the high in power went. People way back when made sure to get every royal highness to sleep in that chaetae even if it was just for a night. It was ignoramus, and we got to tour it! It had very high class living suppliences. They had everything in the chaetae from balconies, to churches, to even thinking rooms. We saw at least 24 rooms. It was insane!

The very last thing we did is the very best thing. We went to the very top of the Eiffel Tower! It was the very best thing about the whole entire trip. I was very nervous and excited at the same time. As we were in line to go up on the elevator onto the Eiffel Tower a man walked up to me and said, “Buy! Buy! From me!” I got a little freaked out and my aunt said to just stay away from them, that they were just trying to sell me some junk.

“Next!” the woman running the elevators said.

Oh Geez. It was our turn to go up. All seven of us got onto the elevator, we were very squished. DING. DING. DING. Off we go. We got onto a whole different elevator to the very top.

“Oh my goodness!!” I said.

We walked around got good look of our surroundings, took a few pictures, and we just enjoyed being able to be that lucky. I mean, how many people can say that they have been to the top of the Eiffel tower!

My summer was the best summer ever! Not only was it fun, but it also changed my life forever. I learned a new way of living, new surroundings, and even a new language! Well as the French say it, “Au Revoir!”

Last night in Paris and our trip home.

It's Wednesday and we are all home, safe and sound.  But, I wanted to share pictures from our last night in Paris and stories of our trip home.  Leaving Paris, we have a 9:25 am flight on Monday.  We had decided it would be impossible to get to the airport from our country house by 6:30 am (3 hours required before an international flight), since some of us were going to have to take the train, while James drove the rental car with all of our luggage.  So, we made hotel reservations at a Holiday Inn near the airport for Sunday night and planned to spend the day and evening in Paris on Sunday.  We hadn't seen the lights of Paris yet, since we always left before 10 to catch the last train back to Joigny (and it wasn't getting dark until 10:30 or so).

The plan was to cram (and I do mean cram) all of our luggage and carry ons into our mini-rental car and have James drive it to the hotel, while the rest of us took the train into Paris.  James was going to have to drive all 8 of us to the train station in our host's car (5 seater) and then come back to the house and get the rental.  Man, this seems ludicrous as I write it!  And guess what????  It was!  Thank goodness, James had the thought to email our host and see if he wanted his car dropped at the airport (since he was arriving the morning after we were leaving.)  As it turned out, he did want his car at the airport, which turned out to be a life safer for us.  There was no way we would have gotten all the luggage and carry ons into the mini car.  As it was, we barely got everything into the two cars (with all the people too!)  But, we did...so we drove into Paris.

Everything was going smoothly, we were following Garmin and TomTom, thinking we were right on track.  Oops...all of a sudden, we are in some neighborhood in Paris, 25 kms from the airport.  We had reached our checkered flag...but there was no hotel to be seen.  Turns out, the Garmin programmer (who shall remain nameless, because this could have happened to any one of us), programmed the address for Paris, rather than Roilly (which was the little town outside of the airport where our hotel was).  Unfortunately, every town seems to have the same street names.  So, we ended up in Paris instead of at our hotel.  After a few frantic calls to the hotel (by a very nice gas station attendant because I couldn't understand what the French recording was telling me when I tried to call the hotel...it was telling me that I was dialing the number incorrectly...calling as if my phone were in the US, instead of France), we got everything straightened out, Garmin and TomTom reprogrammed and 45 minutes later we were at the hotel (lots of nasty traffic on the way!) 

After settling in, we got directions on how to get back to Paris.  Here's what we had to do:
1.  Catch Black shuttle bus in front of hotel to airport,
2.  Get off at Terminal 2 and catch the airport tram to Terminal 3,
3.  At Terminal 3, find the RER train station and catch the RER B train into Paris,
4.  In Paris, get off at the Notre Dame metro station, change to the Yellow line on the metro and head to the Eiffel Tower.

Makes me delirious just writing this out.  If it had been just James and me, I would have said let's go to the bar and drink champagne!  But, I had others with me, 3 of whom hadn't been up the Eiffel Tower yet.  So, we gallantly took off.  It only took about an hour and we were able to figure it all out and get ourselves into Paris.  Where, we tried to do a little shopping, but everything was closed because it was 5:30 pm on a Sunday.  Oh well...souvenir shops were still open and the girls managed to do a little damage there!  We had dinner at a place that I'm not going to tell you about because I'm embarrassed that this is where we ate our last night in Paris.

Oh well, I'd better tell you or you'll be thinking it was McDonalds!  It wasn't McDonalds...it was a place called the Indiana Grill, an American style grill with burgers and ribs and onion rings and an adorable waitress who spoke wonderful English and spoke French to those of us who wanted to speak French.  We had a terrific non-French dinner.  And actually, it was perfect, since we'd had the perfect farewell French dinner the night before cooked by our wonderful friend Johanna...anything French would not have lived up to Johanna's dinner!

We had reservations at the Eiffel Tower for 9 pm, and since it was 7:30, we decided to walk from the Louvre to the Tower along the Seine.  A perfect way to end our time in France.  About 3/4's of the way there, the wind started to blow...HARD!  There were sand storms created by the wind blowing along the dirt paths above the Seine and we thought we were going to have to surrender and take a bus or the metro or a cab.  But, we persevered...even after it started to rain!

We arrived at the Eiffel Tower and saw this amazing sight:

 

It was cold and rainy at the top, but it was perfect.  The view was amazing and I'm so glad that this was how we spent our last night in France.

Blurry because I was shooting without a flash and had to hold the camera for a long exposure.

We returned to the hotel, following the directions in backwards order (almost, I had us a take a little detour, that almost caused us to miss the last shuttle to the hotel...but it turned out alright in the end).  We got to the hotel about 12:30 am and crashed, having to leave the hotel at 6 am.

In the morning, we needed to find a gas station to fill up the two cars.  I'd gotten directions from the front desk, that seemed pretty straight forward...alas no directions in France are straight forward.  After 2 loops around the entire CDG airport (including all three terminals), I stumbled upon a gas station and then managed to find our way back to Terminal 1 to park and start the journey home.  For the record...I HATE THE CDG AIRPORT!!!!!  With a passion.  Not once you're inside, it's fine inside.  But the design for getting to the terminals and the parking is AWFUL!!!  AWFUL!!!  AWFUL!!!  That's how I really feel and I had to share.

When we checked in for our flight, turns out it was going to be delayed an hour.  We were flying to Houston and we had just one hour to make our connection.  What I didn't know when I booked the flights was that we were going to have to go through customs in Houston.  This meant, collecting all our checked baggage, going through customs and then rechecking the baggage and then getting to the plane.  Liza and sent me an email after she got home telling me it was pretty tight to make it in an hour (although she had managed...but she was by herself, not with 8 people and 500 lbs of carry on luggage and 500 lbs of checked baggage...yep I weighed it!)  Now that our flight was delayed, it seemed impossible that we would make this connection.  The airline folks said if our flight landed too late, they would automatically move us to the next flight.  I decided to just trust it...I knew we'd get home eventually.

Our flight did leave about an hour late, but with good head winds...we actually landed at our original time.  We raced through the airport and went through immigration, then to baggage claim, claimed our baggage, took 8 baggage carts, loaded everything up and headed for customs.  On the plane, we had filled out our customs forms, disclosing that the Irey family had 12 bottles of wine and the Silveria family had 7 bottles.  The limit is two bottles per family.  However, the duty was suppose to only be a couple of dollars a bottle, so I thought we'd have no problems, just pay the duty and be on our way. 

The custom forms also asked if we had been on a farm or in contact with any livestock.  I thought we should be honest (we had been on lots of farms and had petted numerous cows and horses), but I checked with a stewardess who said "I didn't say this...but say NO! You will definitely have all your bags completely searched if you say yes."  Good thing I asked.  Since we had no products from any of our farm adventures, I felt ok answering no, plus, it had been a few weeks since we'd last been touching livestock...well, except for Eva, the horse on our second to last night.)  Ok, so I'm a criminal and I feel guilty, but I wanted to make our connection.  So, I told all the kids to answer no if they were asked if they had been on a farm.  (I felt bad about that too!)

At customs, there was a guy in training who decided, against the advice of the guy training him, that we needed to go to the room where they search your bags.  Bummer!  In we march...eight people, eight push carts filled to the top with luggage.  The guys in this room looked at us with a lot of amusement!  (Except one...who wasn't amused at all.)  After a lot of dialogue and being admonished that none of the kids could be pushing or pulling any luggage that contained alcohol (which caused us to rearrange all the bags on the carts), they finally said...you can go through.  Without opening our bags.  It was a miracle!!!  It was 2:05 pm, our flight was at 2:20...so we still had a chance to make it, we dropped our checked bags at the check in place, and thought we were home free, until we rounded the corner and saw that we had to go through security again.  OMG...it took a while to get through security, with on of Megan's bags getting searched twice...discovering a small snow globe and having it confiscated by a very anal TSA person.  The boys headed off to the gate while the girls finished up at security.  Now it's 2:15 and I'm thinking we probably don't have a chance, as we still have to run to our gate and don't they close the gates 10 minutes before the flight???

A guy with a shuttle car for folks in need drove by...it was empty and we were in need so we begged him to let us have a ride.  He agreed and when we arrived at the gate, they hadn't started boarding the flight yet.  It was about 10 minutes late...so we made it...with a few minutes to spare.  Unbelievable!!  The rest of the trip home was uneventful, except one of our bags didn't make the connection, but it came 45 minutes later.  So all in all, a great trip home, with just one or two stories!!!

Parting is such sweet sorrow

We are leaving the farm house in about two hours, headed to Paris to spend the afternoon shopping and the evening going up to the top of the Eiffel Tower to see Paris at night.  We are then staying at a hotel close to the airport and catching our 9:25 am flight tomorrow morning.  We are scheduled to land about 4:00 pm in LA, after a change in Houston.  Our connection in Houston is very short (about an hour) and I didn't realize that we had to go through customs in Houston (meaning we have to get our luggage, go through customs, recheck our luggage and make our flight), so there's a good chance we're going to miss our original flight from Houston to LA.  The pre-France Steph would have been frantic.  She has NEVER missed a flight.  Never, ever!   The post-France Steph says c'est la vie, whatever happens, happens.  (It could also have something to do with the fact that I'm not really ready to come home, so any little delay is ok with me!)

Last night, our friends the Mopins, had us over for dinner.  It was a fabulous dinner and a great night!  We can truly say that these folks are now our friends.  They are sending their oldest daughter to spend a month with us next summer and we're hoping they'll come visit for a couple of weeks next year too.  We are also looking at spending another month in France next year (perhaps in Strasbourg) and they've invited us to stay with them for a bit.  We are so lucky to have met them!

Here are a few photos from last night.

Here's Eva, their beautiful Percheron draft horse.

Here's Mona, Juliet & Laurent, plus most of us.

Juliet will be visiting us next summer.

Part of their lovely country home.

Appetizers....lovely, yummy grougeres that Juliet made (best we had in France!)

Sitting down for dinner.

Absolutely fabulous beef bourguigon...best meal we had in France....everyone swiped their plates clean (with bread of course!!!)  Mona made an incredible tiramisu for dessert, which I didn't get a photo of...c'est tres bon!

And, of course, wonderful wine!

Our delightful hosts...Laurent & Johanna!

This might be my last post from France.  I don't know if we'll have wifi at the hotel and if we do, whether I'll be too tired to write.  This won't be my last post though.  I've found writing my blog to be very cathartic.  Both what I actually write and what I just say in my head, but choose not to share with the world.  That's the stuff that's probably been most helpful for me.  So, I'm going to keep writing.  We'll see if I have anything interesting to say once I get home.

I did want to write about the sunflowers.  The sunflowers here are an absolute metaphor for our time in France.  When we landed and drove to our new home, we saw fields of beautiful green, next to the golden fields of hay and wheat.  We didn't know what they were.  Even after we got out and looked at the plants, we couldn't quite tell what they were...they were still new....still a mystery, just like our new home.

And then, the sunflowers decided to reveal themselves...just as we were discovering France and starting to understand her ways a little bit.  Her beauty, her mystery, her great food, her wonderful people.

And now it's time to leave...we're sad to leave.  We've had a wonderful adventure...one that we will never forget.  And we feel a little like the sunflowers, who are at the end of their season, waiting to be harvested.

Still beautiful, in their own special way.

Au revoir...bonne journee!

Exploring the Louvre with 50,000 other people!

Waiting for the train to Paris.

Yesterday we took the train to Paris and went to the Louvre.  I was concerned after the kids' lackluster interest in Fontainebleau that they were not going to be very interested in the Louvre.  After a month for three of them and two months for two of them of looking at cathedrals and castles and paintings and sculptures...some of the shine was definitely wearing off the apple.

I thought some sort of scavenger hunt might make the experience a little more fun.  We decided that the kids would each buy 3 postcards when we went into the Louvre and then they would search for the actual art that was depicted on their postcards.

In theory, this was a good idea.  We had planned on turning the kids loose for two hours and letting them find their art, while the adults did their own thing.  Like I said...a good idea in theory.  We purchased our tickets at the Carrousel entrance because we had heard there would be no line.  We had heard correctly...no line!  We then made our way to the Galerie du Carrousel entrance and encountered a very long line...I figured this was for folks who didn't have tickets, so I made my way to then front of the line to see where we could slip by.  Oops...nope this was the security line...for everyone!  We waited about 30 minutes to get through security.  We then spotted a book store and stopped to let the kids pick out their postcards.

A portion of the Louvre, through the Pyramid.

As a little aside, I have been struggling with letting go of control.  I feel like we need a plan.  If we don't have a plan, we seem to wander aimlessly.  There are days when aimless wandering is exactly what we want and need, but when we come into Paris, we definitely get more out of each trip when we have a plan.  However, since I'm trying to not be in charge all of the time...I'm trying to not always be the one making the plan.

This isn't working!  If I don't make a plan, it seems like no one else makes a plan either.  The other night, over a couple of glasses of wine, my sister informed me that I am scary and intimidating (but not in a bad way!)  What she was saying is that I'm such a type A personality, that folks have just learned to let me do my thing and they go along for the ride.  She's actually thanked me several times during the trip for being a type A person.  We don't miss our trains, we know where we are going (usually) and we've explored a lot of the French countryside.  She likes that I'm in charge and trusts that I'll get us where we need to be. That's a good thing, usually.  But, as I've mentioned, I'd like to be the one just going along for the ride sometimes.

So, with respect to our trip to the Louvre, while I suggested the scavenger hunt...I didn't do any real planning around it, other than the 3 postcard idea and wanting to the kids explore on their own.  This lack of planning was a mistake.  First, when we got into the security line, it was clear that we would be sharing our experience at the Louvre with 50,000 of our closest friends.  The museum was PACKED!  I immediately realized that I was uncomfortable letting the kids explore alone in this mob.  I told James and Kerry and I'd shadow the kids, just to make sure they stayed together and they could go see what they wanted to see.  James said, no, he'd stay with the kids and Kerry and I could go off on our own.  Kerry then said, no, she'd stay with the kids.  Of course, we all ended up staying with the kids (which turned out to be the best thing, actually).

The kids picked their postcards.  Here's where a little planning on my part would have been helpful.  Did you know that the Louvre has about 35,000 pieces of art and more than 645,000 square feet of exhibition space?  Add to that 50,000 tourists and you've got a major ZOO!  If I had been thinking (ok, if I had been planning the way I normally do), I would have told the kids to limit their scavenger hunt selections to a certain period or artist or something that would put their selections at least within one wing of the Louvre.  A scavenger hunt that takes you all over the Louvre is not practical!  When the kids actually found one of their art works...it was absolutely pure luck!!!  Oh well, the kids had fun trying to find their works of art and we had some interesting discussions about walking into a room, looking at some of the pieces of art and figuring out if there was a possibility that their piece might be in the room, based on style, color, types of people represented in the works, etc.  I don't feel like they got as much out of the experience as I would have liked them to, but they were probably happier than if I had had a detailed plan of what we were going to see and what was what and why it was important, etc.   I guess I even drive myself crazy sometimes with my planning and obsessing!

Lukas and Ethan were the first to find one of their pieces of art!

We started off my visiting the Egyptian Antiquities.  We saw this Sphinx:

Photos are allowed, with no flash (which means the pictures are not as good as they could be, because of low lighting and my shaky hands!)

A sarcophagus.

After exploring lots of Egyptian relics, we decided to find Ms. Mona.   That's Mona Lisa to you and me. On our way we stumbled across this:

The Winged Victory of Samothrace (around 190 BC)

Discovered on the Greek island of Samothrace in 1863 by a French archaeologist who sent the pieces to be reassembled at the Louvre.  Her right hand was discovered in 1950.

The most famous painting in the world, La Gioconda (La Joconde in French) is tougher than she looks: the canvas was stolen from the Louvre by an Italian nationalist in 1911, recovered from a Florentine hotel, and survived an acid attack in 1956.  She is believed to be the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a Florentine millionaire, and was probably 24 when she sat for the portrait.  Some historians believe the portrait was actually painted after her death.  Either way, she has become immortal through da Vinci's ingenious "sfumato" technique, which combines glowing detail with soft, depth-filled brushwork.  My photo isn't that great, mainly because she's behind a thick layer of glass and I had to shoot this over the heads of the adoring crowd (thank goodness for my telephoto lens)!

  

The Death of Cleopatra...ouch!!!

This is interesting because it is on loan from the Norton Simon!

People, lots of people!

Venus de Milo, approx. 120 BC

My guide says: After countless photographs and bad reproductions, the original Aphrodite continues to fascinate those who gaze upon her.  The armless statue, one of the most reproduced and recognizable works of art in the world, is actually as beautiful as they say.  She was unearthed on the Greek island of Milos in the 19th century and sold for 6,000 francs to the French ambassador in Constantinople, who presented her to King Louis XVIII.  Guess this makes up for the Louisiana Purchase!

Love the pyramid from below!

We spent about 3 hours in the Louvre.  We could have spent three weeks and we still would not have seen it all.  We all agreed it was just too crowded and difficult to enjoy the art.  I guess we are all getting use to our small town where if we see 10 people in a day, that's a lot!

After the Louvre, we had an unremarkable lunch and then did some shopping.  The boys and I decided to rest at Starbucks for a bit.  I should start this story by saying that every where we have gone in France that has more than a few thousand people, we have been approached by Gypsies (or Romas).  They walk up to tourists, ask if you speak English and if you say yes, they had you a slip of paper that has some story on it about a child they are trying to get out of some country (the details are always a little different, but the story is relatively the same), they then ask you for money.  It only took a couple of times of being approached and asked "Do you speak English?" before we all learned to say "No, no parle pas Anglais."  Every once in awhile, I get fooled.  I'm not paying attention and someone innocent looking approaches and asks me if I speak English and I say yes...then they pull out the paper and I smack my head!  Tricked again!

At Starbucks, I was sitting at table by myself, James was sitting at a separate table and the boys were at another table.  The girls had just come in and we'd pulled some chairs around for them.  Kerry and one of the girls were in line.  Two guys walked up to me, and started talking (not in English or French).  One guy went around me and headed towards Ethan, pulling a piece of paper out, waving it at Ethan and speaking quite emphatically (leaning across Katie as he was doing this).  I had no idea what he was saying or what he wanted.  The other guy was approaching me from the other side, waving a piece of paper too.  I was trying to get the guy who was going after Ethan to leave him alone, when I see James jump up from his chair at another table and rush over to us...all the time yelling "No, No, No!"  and waving his hands.  He was definitely in the papa bear mode!  The guy who was approaching from my side, immediately grabs his piece of paper (which he had dropped on my table) and rushes out of Starbucks...as does the other guy who was trying to get to Ethan.

Turns out, the guy going after Ethan was trying to distract me so that I wouldn't notice his friend who had dropped his piece of paper on my table (on top of my iphone)...with the intent of scooping up by phone.  Thank goodness St. James had been paying attention!  I have to say, since we were sitting in Starbucks, my guard was completely down.  I wasn't expecting any harassment or problems, so when these guys approached, I was trying to figure out what they wanted, rather than assuming they were up to no good.  Anywhere else, when we're outside or on the metro, if anyone approaches us, I just say No and get between them and the kids (James does the same thing).  I learned a valuable lesson, no matter where you are, if it's anywhere near tourists (which is just about everywhere in Paris), you need to be on your guard!  It was nice to learn the lesson without actually having anything stolen.

After it was all over, we all laughed and thought it would make a good story!  After all, what would a trip into Paris be without at least one story!!!