French Culture vs. Gym Culture

It's official: The French do not like using gyms to stay fit.  Recent news reports have highlighted lagging gym membership numbers in France despite the best efforts of large companies like Club Med Gym and Fitness First. 

Am I surprised?  Non.  Running on a treadmill or lifting weights or partaking in a group pilates class are simply not activities I associate with the French.  But I love going to the gym, and was constantly frustrated by the lack of modern, affordable facilities in France.  Working up a sweat helps me reduce stress, stay healthy, and sleep better at night. 

Then again, so does a glass of red wine. 

My Grandparents Visit Paris

A lot of the travel advice out there is aimed at the young.  We hear that should travel when we're young because that's when we have enough energy, when we don’t yet have responsibilities, when we're still in good health.  It won't be the same when you're older, they say.  Tell that to my 70-something grandparents.

I met up with Grams and Gramps recently when they were passing through the DC area after a trip to Paris.  They told me about getting caught up in French protests, learning the Métro by heart, day trips to Normandy and Versailles, and their conversations with retired French soldiers using the only common language they had: gesturing.  When they visited the Arc de Triomphe, a man asked “Madame” if she would like to use the elevator to get to the top.  Non, merci!  They climbed the arc's nearly 300 steps instead.

As I wrap up a decade of traveling in my 20s, I hope I’ll still be going strong in my 70s.  Welcome back, Grandma and Grandpa!  Where are you off to next?

Eau Potable

Free sparkling water, anyone?  That's what you'll now find flowing out of a public drinking fountain in Paris' Jardin de Reuilly.  Eau de Paris, the city's water company installed a machine that takes regular eau from the tap, makes it "gazeuse," and then dispenses it to the bubbly-loving public.  It's just the most recent in a long line of attempts to get Parisians to give up their cherished bottled water and start reaching for the tap instead.  Bottoms up!

Paris in Florida

I just got back from a long weekend in Orlando, Florida where I spent two days gleefully running around Walt Disney World.   It was my sister’s idea, which she got from the numerous happy family vacations we took to WDW starting when she and I were just two and five years old, respectively.  She reserved a cabin at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, I booked a surprisingly cheap flight from Washington, DC, two others joined us, and we set out to discover what it’s like to visit Disney as adults.  Answer:  Just as much fun as when you’re a kid, except with alcohol.

One of our must-sees at the resort is Epcot's World Showcase.  Here you can visit 11 countries in the time it takes you to walk around the small lake each themed pavilion surrounds. In just a few short hours you can eat bratwurst in "Germany," watch belly dancers perform in "Morocco," and relax amongst ponds and bamboo groves in "China."  Disney even hires foreigners from each of the countries represented to work for them, which I took full advantage of by chatting up some of the Frenchmen and Frenchwomen in “France.”  Ahhh, it felt so good to order my glass of rosé en français…

Here is a photo of Disney's faux Paris.  What do you think?

The New York Baguette Search: Results

I had high hopes for my New York City baguette search.  Armed with Internet research and recommendations from seasoned New Yorkers I hoped to test a solid half-dozen or so loaves in an attempt to find an acceptable stateside version of France's daily bread.  But as so often happens when I move to a new city, I thought I had all the time in the world to explore everything, only to remember, much too late, that time flies.  Especially when you’re having fun.  Before I knew it, moving had begun and my exploring had come to an end.  I did, however, manage to sneak in a taste-test of two baguettes.

Baguette # 1 - The Greenmarket Baguette

Who says France has all the best outdoor markets?  New York City’s Greenmarket organization has put together an impressive multi-borough schedule of farm fresh produce, humanely-raised meat, and all manner of locally-sourced/crafted/raised products.  The best Greenmarket of all is at Union Square, where the Saturday morning selection (and crowd) is impressive.  One stand promised “French-style baguettes,” so I swung by to make a purchase. But the minute I felt that dense-yet-soft stick of bread I knew they were imposters.  Sure enough, a tasting back at home revealed a total lack of flavor, an overly chewy interior, and absolutely none of that satisfying crunch you find with a true French baguette.  I didn’t eat more than a couple of bites before tossing this faux French bread into the trash where it belonged.  Beurk!


Baguette #2 - The Murray's Cheese Shop Baguette

Murray’s Cheese Shop is a swanky fromagerie located in the heart of the West Village.  I headed over there after work one evening with a mad craving for a simple dinner of charcuterie and cheese on a baguette.  It didn’t disappoint: The salami and Cremeux de Bourgogne were expensive but delicious.  The baguette?  It was good.  Not airy-and-light good, but rather airy-and-heavy (yes, that’s possible) good.  In fact, I wouldn’t call this “baguette” a baguette at all. It’s more like a “tradition,” which is one of the many varieties of long sticks of bread one finds in a French boulangerie.  A “ficelle” is another example.  When I lived in Paris I used to order “une tradi” on a regular basis to go with dinner, so I enjoyed sampling a version of this bread in New York City.  But I wasn’t able to find a true French baguette in the Big Apple.  Any suggestions for next time?

If you go:

Union Square Greenmarket
Runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday
Union Square West, New York City
Subway: Union Square 14th Street

Murray’s Cheese
254 Bleecker St., second location at 43rd and Lexington
Blissfully un-French in that it's open seven days a week!

Sharing Bikes in Minneapolis

Vélib-style biking has come to the City of Lakes!  It's called Nice Ride (a play on "Minnesota Nice?") and it will get you from Uptown to Downtown to Dinkytown for the price of a $5 day pass or a $60 annual pass.  This bike share is seasonal, operating from April to November, so don't expect to be able to bike around town in a blizzard.  Then again, we're talking about Minnesota, where snowstorms can strike at any time (The epic Halloween blizzard of '91 comes to mind).  In other words, don't leave home without your scarf...and boots, and hat, and hand-warmers, and...

Pommes Frites

I recently blogged about Belgian waffles.  Today I'm blogging about Belgian fried potatoes, otherwise known as pommes frites and/or a Flemish name I can't remember.  More specifically, it's about a tiny take-out joint in New York City called Pommes Frites that sells nothing but pommes frites.  In short, heaven.

Or so I thought.

First, a little background:  Six months of living in Brussels taught me that Belgian food (and drink) is good.  The waffles!  The chocolate!  The beer!  But for my money the best of all were the frites.  The hot, crispy, served-in-a-cone, dipped-in-a-sauce frites.  I've always been a fan of salty food, especially fries, and the Belgians take this delicious treat to a whole new level.  I went to Brussels' famous Maison Antoine more times than I care to admit.

Needless to say, I was beyond excited to try New York City's own frites shop, conveniently located one block from my former apartment.  I ordered a regular sized cone with ketchup and Irish curry sauce for dipping, and tucked in for what I hoped would be a delicious afternoon snack.  Instead, I got "blah."  The frites didn't taste Belgian at all.  They were too dense, too large, and not nearly crispy enough.  I would call them "steak fries," which can be tasty, but are most definitely not what you find at a Belgian friterie. 

Three months of living in New York City taught me that Belgian food abroad is hit and miss.

Crêpes at the Fair

Last week's road from New York City to Washington, DC traveled through Minnesota and included a stop at the Minnesota State Fair.  All of my favorite fair foods were there: Corn dogs, cheese curds, french fries, and...crêpes?

Yes, crêpes.  The Great Minnesota Get-Together has been home to a crêpe stand for 16 years, but I've never paid it much attention.  It's not that I don't like crêpes - I do! -  it's just that I was never interested in eating them at a Midwestern state fair.  This year, however, I finally paid a visit to La Crêperie.  All the classic toppings are available, which you can enjoy wrapped up in a piping hot crêpe while lounging on the establishment's sizable patio listening to live music and sipping wine from their wine bar.  Vive l'été! 

Au Revoir, New York City

Surprise! I’m moving. If you’ve been following along you’ll know this is my fifth move in little more than a year (DC to Brussels, Brussels to DC, DC to Brooklyn, Brooklyn to Manhattan, Manhattan to DC), and no, it doesn’t get any easier. I have a pretty good system in place - I know how to pack light and to avoid sentimentality when purging my possessions – but the process still inspires both physical and mental stress.

I’ll miss New York. We’ve had our ups and our downs, but overall I’m leaving with a positive feeling about this city, my experiences here, and any future opportunities I might have to return. What can you say about the Big Apple? There really is nothing else like it. New Yorkers like to boast that they live in the greatest city in the world, and I’m now inclined to believe them.

The journey to DC begins today, detours in Minnesota, and ends with a flight to Reagan National Airport on September 1st. As I try to reorganize my life in the apartment I’ve rented for four years but lived in for less than two, I’m indulging in a short, end-of-summer break from blogging. After all, what self-respecting French blog doesn’t take its congés payés in August?

See you after Labor Day!

Belgian Food Truck: Wafels & Dinges

It's been tempting me for weeks: That bright, canary yellow food truck promising "Good Things Belgian" and appearing in places around the city where I'm sure to get a whiff of its wares. I had to try it before leaving New York, so when a quick Thursday call to their Waffle Hotline told me the truck was in the environs of my office building (Midtown) and that if I gave the truck operators the stink eye I could get a discount on my order, I made a beeline for Wafels & Dinges. Or, in English, Waffles & Thingamajigs.

Torn between the "brussels wafel" (light and crispy) and the "liège wafel" (soft and chewy) I opted instead for the special "throwdown wafel." A winner from the Food Network's "Throwdown with Bobby Flay," the throwdown wafel is a liège topped with speculoos spread and whipped cream.  Merci beaucoup.  With my $1 stink eye discount, that tray of sweet Belgian deliciousness was mine for only $5. And, sorry Belgium, it was better than any waffle I ever ate in Brussels.

If you go:

Wafel & Dinges
Everywhere, New York City
Truck Location Hotline: 1-866-429-7329
Twitter: @waffletruck

Top of the Rock

One of my favorite things to do while traveling is to get a bird's eye view of my surroundings.  I've climbed monuments, cathedrals, and endless flights of escalators in Paris' now-shuttered Samaritaine shopping center, all in the name of gaining a new perspective.  There's just something about taking in a city from above that always gives me a thrill.  I got that thrill today at the Top of the Rock observation deck, which is located on Rockefeller Center's soaring GE Building. 

Top of the Rock is sort of like the Arc de Triomphe in that both are overshadowed by other nearby climbable landmarks.  But what good is it to climb the Eiffel Tower only to take panoramic pictures of Paris that don't include it's most famous structure?  The same could be said for climbing the Empire State Building. It's iconic, but wouldn't you rather have it behind you in a photo than under your feet?  I would.  Here are a few shots from today's climb...including a fleur de lis!

NYC French Resto Review: A.O.C

According to this restaurant's menu, A.O.C stands for "l'Aile ou la cuisse" (The wing or the thigh).  French wine drinkers, Roquefort eaters, and Dijon mustard spreaders, however, will recognize the three initials as meaning "appellation d’origine contrôlée" (controlled designation of origin), which is a certification handed out by the French government that ensures, among other things, a product's terroir.  Details.  All you really need to know is that if you ever find yourself hungry in the West Village you should eat at A.O.C.

Hungry and in the West Village is exactly where a DC-based friend and I found ourselves yesterday afternoon.  The menu looked good and the prices looked reasonable, so we decided to give this corner bistro a try.  We opted to sit in their garden patio out back, which was a excellent decision considering NYC weather has finally gone from miserably hot to pleasantly summer.  I ordered the merguez frites for $13.50 and she had the soupe du jour and 1/2 sandwich for $11.50.  Both meals were delicious, not to mention excellent values considering the amount of food we received for what we paid in an expensive part of town.

A.O.C's interior looks like it was flown in from Paris, while the garden patio lets you soak in this beautiful New York City neighborhood.  Other menu items that I wanted to try were the demi poulet, the salade de chèvre chaud, and the croque monsieur.  And while A.O.C offers many of the French classics - coq au vin, and entrecôte, par exemple - not to mention American favorites like les burgers, they unfortunately don't prepare my favorite French dish: boeuf bourgiugnon.  Nevertheless, a stellar find in one of my favorite areas of the city.  I'll be back. 

Greensburg, Kansas

I was just in Kansas on a two-day work trip, specifically to visit the town of Greensburg, population 900.  While I was at a loss to find a French connection there, I thoroughly enjoyed the charm, warmth, and friendliness that one finds in rural America.  But maybe that's the connection: Some would argue that in both the United States and France it's the small towns and villages that have the most welcoming citizens.  In any case, this was one small town (with a compelling story) that I won't soon forget.

Seeing Paris in New York City

The sight of this building stopped me dead in my tracks.  How did such a typically Parisian entrance find its way to 82nd and Park? And when can I move in?

If You Must Go to France in August...

Would most Francophones, Francophiles, and other French partisans out there agree with me that August is the worst month for a trip to France?  You know the drill:  Paris empties of Parisians, the Côte d'Azur overflows with tourists, hotels raise their prices, and stores take their full month of "fermeture annuelle."  I once came across an ice cream shop in the St.-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood that announced it would be closing for the month of August.  An ice cream shop.  Closed in August.  If that's not a sign to turn back now, I don't know what is.

But if you must go to France in August, it's possible you can avoid much of the month's nonsense by steering clear of some of the more traditional end-of-summer locales (i.e. Paris and beaches).  In August 2008 I spent a weekend in the Champagne region touring caves and drinking lots of bubbly.  Absent were the hordes of tourists that plague cities like Nice and Cannes this time of year.  Instead of fighting for a little scrap of sand, we played tennis on wide open courts, signed up for a private tasting at Moët and Chandon, and dined alongside locals. 

If you must go to France in August, try breaking away from the pack.  Nearly all of France is a tourist destination, but some areas are more crowded at certain times of the year (example: Strasbourg and its famous Christmas market in December). Why not look at August as the time to explore outside of Paris?   And why not save your beach vacation for a more tranquil time?  August could be the perfect time to eat and drink your way through Burgundy, hike the Pyrennes, or sample French beers in Lille.

Or maybe it's the perfect time to plan your September trip to France.