Best of Food in Italy and France

We blew our budget on food last month. We figured we might as well since there won’t be anything nearly as enticing in Scandinavia, where we are headed next.

Generally, everything was delicious in France and Italy. Food is such an important part of their culture that, other than tourist traps, restaurants just don’t serve bad food. We tried to find authentic local eateries whenever possible, and I don’t think we went wrong once. Plus, wine was great and cheap. Most restaurants had great-value house wines by the glass or carafe.

Here are our favorite meals from the month:

Risotto in tomato sauce with prawns, in Saint Paul de Vence, France 

Artichoke gnocchi in Venice, Italy

Squid in squid ink sauce with polenta in Venice, Italy

 Ten-course family-style feast in Panzano in Chianti. We ate every part of the cow. 

And here are some of our favorite quick eats in France and Italy:

Focaccia in Camogli, Italy

Gelato, which is always just around the corner in Italy. This is a gelateria in Nice, France

Fresh produce from markets in France 

And, of course, baguettes and croissants in France. 

Au Revoir, France!

ALL the photos from Paris and Giverny:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/103620108216329120374/albums/5899458681943720433

After a quick detour to Luxembourg and Belgium, we spent our last few days in France near Paris. Paris is beautiful in the summer! We spent a day and a half walking around to our favorite sites (both of us have been to Paris before), concluding with a picnic under the Eiffel Tower with a bottle of wine we had picked up in Burgundy.

We have become experts on picnicking in France. Delicious baguettes are everywhere - just stop by any boulangerie. We also learned to go to local markets for meats and cheeses. The selection is always great and prices unbeatable. Parks, benches, and lawns are abundant. We had two large baguettes for our last picnic in Paris, since I’m sure we will be missing delicious bread very shortly.

La Basilique du Sacre Coeur de Montmartre

The Louvre at dusk

Carnival near the Jardin des Tuileries

Heading to our picnic under the Eiffel Tower

On our last day, just before our flight to Oslo, we took a quick side trip to Giverny to visit the home of Claude Monet. I was afraid that it would be a tourist trap, but it was everything I had hoped for and more. The house is perfectly maintained in it’s original condition, with all the artwork Monet had collected (including a lot of Japanese art). The gardens are huge and filled with beautiful flowers and plants. I felt like I had stepped into a painting. What a great conclusion to France!

Monet's house

Just like the paintings!

A quick note on Belgium: Brugge is on the top of my cute-small-cities list. Unlike a lot of small cities that have a couple of blocks of Old Town, Brugge’s historical area is quite large. We spent several hours just wandering its streets, most of which lead to the main town square (Market Square). Also, Brugge is a paradise for chocolate lovers. Every other store in town center was a chocolatier. I probably spent half of my time just browsing these shops.

Main square in Brugge - it's so lively on a beautiful summer day!

Traditional architecture in Brugge

Burgundy and Alsace

ALL the photos from Burgandy and Alsace!
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/103620108216329120374/albums/5897572077970828481

We spent the last few days driving through the wine routes of Burgundy and Alsace.

I didn’t really like Burgundy - it was cold and the wineries weren’t very accessible. They were either boring tasting rooms or exclusive estates. The town of Beaune (major town along the wine route) was not very lively. We entertained ourselves by visiting the old hospital in Beaune and touring the Chateau Meursault, along with a few smaller estates. My favorite part was seeing the underground cellars of these wineries. We walked through rooms after rooms filled with bottles arranged by vintage, most of them covered in a thick layer of dust. Wine from the region is fantastic.

The Hospices de Beaune

Wine cellar at Chateau Meursault

Alsace, just a couple of hours northeast of Burgundy, was fun. Although I have to admit, I liked it more for its cute German-style towns and pretty hills rather than its wine. Starting from Colmar, we drove through at least half a dozen picturesque villages, each only a few kilometers apart. Most of these villages look like they have not changed for hundreds of years. They were wonderful for quick strolls or as starting points for walks through surrounding vineyards. We walked a couple of short trails up to castle ruins, with great views of the vineyards and villages.

Enjoying a bretzel in Colmar, France

View from a vineyard walk

One of the more lively towns on the Alsace Wine Route

French Riviera

UPDATE 6/14: If you want to see ALL the photos from this leg of our trip, check them out here!:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/103620108216329120374/albums/5888688713035047841

What a great start to the trip! Over the last 4 days in the French Riviera, we saw many cities (Nice, Cannes, Monaco), small towns (St-Paul de Vence, Eze, Castellane), and beautiful scenery everywhere. The entire region is lined with the shimmering Mediterranean on one side, and mountains on the other. It has great food everywhere since the area is dotted with towns everywhere. Plus, the weather is absolutely gorgeous. Sun dresses (or t-shirt and shorts, if you prefer) during the day, plus a light sweater at night.

It did rain once since we got here. There was an afternoon thunderstorm in Monaco yesterday afternoon. Timing worked out for us since we had seen most of Monaco in by that time. It was a little nerve wracking though, when we had to run back to the car in the middle of the storm, in the middle of which Dave thought he lost his car keys. Just a small mishap to prepare us for bigger ones that I’m sure will come.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip so far:

Beautiful view from Parc in Nice. We walked to up to a waterfall in the part, just east of Old Town.

Le Suquet (old town) in Cannes

Hiking in Le Massif d’esterel, west of Cannes

Dinner in St Paul de Vence, a cute hilltop town overlooking the Mediterranean and the surrounding hills

Driving and hiking Le Gorge du Verdon

Birdseye view of the gorge

The harbor at Monaco

It’s 7AM on Monday morning now, and we are about to leave our campsite in Antibes for Cinque Terre. I’m sure there will be lots of stops along the way. See you in Italy!