Random post and getting back into the swing of things

June is our big month,as you know, if you have been following my blog from last year at this time. If there are no graduations, then it starts with our wedding anniversary followed by David's birthday. I don't have good pictures of the really nice place where we celebrated David's 50th birthday, but I do have a link....here. Once you check out the site, you will see what a nice time we had!
We had a little break from family celebrations to have a visit from our dear friends from college. I decided to make a cherry vanilla pie for dessert.
Haven't made a lattice top in a while, it was so much fun.
bubbling out of the oven. I used a recipe that was on Rebekka's site.
Later I'll do a post on the amazing store where I got these. The name is Berkeley Bowl. They opened up a new site,and I went crazy with the produce! Look at these amazing heirloom tomatoes!
Fruit is always so pretty on a platter.
Here is the whole feast.
Welcome to Nicole's 24th birthday. Table is set, it's time to eat!
Nicole requested her favorite pasta that I make. Salmon/leek and lemon over linguine.
Took me the better part of a day to make this cake. It was from Ina Garten's first cookbook. The frosting was time consuming,but so worth it. I haven't made a butter cream that you have to heat egg whites, then whip them until they are glossy followed by a whole pound of butter and two types of chocolate melted!!! Wowzers it was good.
We end June with a big wish and a very Happy Birthday to Nicole!!!

Paris and Monoprix /part 9

I just had to include one touristy picture of Paris right?! I didn't snap very many shots of Paris because three out of the four days we were there it rained, and I'm not talking showers. When David drove around the Arc de Triomphe it was pouring rain!! At the best of times, this is a very scary place to be,but I'm pleased to say he handled it like a seasoned Parisien! He took the above photo, mine didn't turn out as good as this one.
After the rain, you have a shinny Parisien street......


Next I take you to MONOPRIX
See this handy escalator?, Well, when you place your shopping cart on it, it latches on somehow and you can take your cart up and down with no problem. Let me back up a minute here. I use to shop in this store when we lived there,and it was by far my very favorite grocery store. Not only does it have food, it has all kinds of other goodies , like clothing and housewares. Think grocery store/Target. I really miss this place.......
Straight ahead, you have the very cute cafe chain called, "Paul." Nice quality pastries and bread. You can also eat lunch there. They have the best quiche,and salad combo. See the lady dressed in white with a white hat? She use to wait on us back when we lived there. I was happy to see her.
I just had to take a photo of this. The entire refrigerated case you see to the left is YOGURT!!!!! Don't you wish we had the same kind of selection??!!
Huge cheese case
Extremely darling children's clothing.
Caitlin found the kinder eggs
Back to Paris......My favorite tea shop

No words for this delectable place....Best Chocolate EVER!
I bought this insulated bag to haul our chocolate back, and I can use it to transport frozen goods later, or maybe more chocolate.

This is what we bought, along with a treat that we could eat right away......
Caitlin and David, eating their yummy treat.
The other heaven in Paris, is Laduree. I usually go to the one on Rue Royal, but I had never been to the one on the Champs de Elysse, so here it is in all it's glory. They don't let you take photos inside, so these are the best we could do.

Caitlin and I had one of these. It is called "St. Honore" named after the patron saint of bakers. YUM!
Bought this cute tote....
and these macarons, let's see if I can remember the flavors....Left stack, top to bottom. Cassis,bittersweet chocolate, caramel avec sel, plain chocolate. Right stack..Pistache,Rose, Vanilla, and last but not least Violette
The following photos are of books that we purchased in Le Bon Marche. Let me just say that I wished they had let me take photos in the store and the "Grand Epicerie," but alas they would not. If you google Le Bon Marche or Grand Epicerie, and hit images, you can see how cool this department store is. Here is a link.
The top book is so adorable,and I'm waiting for someone to have a baby or grandchildren to come along to use it. The one above is a nice cookbook, that has beautiful recipes in it.
After seeing the caravan, where Nicole and Pierre stayed, I found this neat book on them.
This one has some charming home projects,that would be fun to make.
Last but not least, this was my big prize!! I showed you all a while back, the other three that I have from this series. Now this beauty joins them.
It was a long trip, but we discovered new things as well as seeing a lot of changes in our old haunts. Hope you all enjoyed our trip to France and England.
I took a lot of pictures that didn't make the posts, that may crop up at a later time...

We are home for the summer now and celebrating all the June family celebrations. I'll do a post on that next.

Versailles/ part 8

Welcome to the Petit Trianon and the Grand Trianon. While living in France for two years, we were lucky to visit Versailles many times. Our house was about a ten minute drive. I have been to the main chateau at least four times, so this trip we decided to only visit the Petit and Grand Tianon. The Petit Trianon was Marie Antoinette's favorite hang out away from the main chateau,and I can see why. I really enjoyed the quaintness of the Petit Trianon versus the Grand Trianon. It has a warmer feel to it. These pictures were taken with my husbands camera,and so the quality is a bit different. The old Nikon was left on by accident and I had no juice for it when we arrived here.




Entrance to the Grand Trianon.
I thought the rooms were a bit cold feeling in comparison.



This picture should be up with the Petit Trianon,as it is in the garden in the back.
This is the Queen's Hamlet. Marie Antoinette wanted a place to amuse herself and her children, so she had this little farm built in the Norman style from 1783 to 1785. I was so sad I didn't have my camera for this part too! It was such a beautiful day and it had finally stopped raining , so we lucked out. Some of it looked familiar from the newer movie, "Marie Antoinette." They shot that film the summer we moved. The buildings and the gardens were simply beautiful!
We had hoped to get into the main chateau, just to see a special costume exhibition, but we ran out of time :(
Tomorrow I will post the last fun day we had in Paris,and some of the things we bought. I hope I haven't bored you all! Kind of like being held hostage at a friends house watching a slide show of a very long trip! I do hope it was enjoyable for some of you. See you all tomorrow.

Final destination/ Paris, part 7

Back in France, to the city of light. Going to Paris is bittersweet for me I must say. So many memories of our time there,and seeing some things that have changed and some that have not, is always tough. While it will always have a piece of my heart, I feel her slipping away a bit. Although I think we still know it very well, mostly because my dear husband LOVES to drive in that city! Most tourists that go to Paris, end up on the Metro or bus system. Not us, we get to zip around all parts of the city. You really get a unique perspective when you drive all over the city. While living there, it was always fun to get lost, because you always found interesting things to see and discover. We also have familiar routes throughout the city as well. Walking in this city is great too, but given that I have hip issues, Davids willingness and love of driving in this city, is a godsend! Anyway, getting back to the sites......The Louvre is like an old friend to me. I was a member of the museum when we lived there, and we would spend every Sunday getting to know her. This trip however, we went to a branch of it off to the side, to visit the "Les Arts Decoratifs." This was closed when we lived there,and when I went in 2006, it still wasn't ready for visitors. If you go, do not eat at the cafe there!!! One of the most disgusting lunches I've ever eaten in France! The museum is huge,and there is so much eye candy. I was sad that the textiles section was once again closed, but I did enjoy what I did get to see.
This is in front of the Arts Decoratif
Layers of loveliness!! I'll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves.

This whole room is filled with the possessions of the clothing designer "Lanvin," it was stunning!




Back outside, I was so excited to see this old woman, because when we lived there, we use to see her all over that area of Paris feeding the birds. We were so happy to see that she was still happily doing just that.
The hedges were covered in all kinds of birds as she was feeding them. They were so use to her, that I could get very close and snap a few pictures of the birds.
She was moving on to a different location,and they were all following her. Caitlin video taped it!



Tomorrow I'll show you our trip to Versailles......Stay tuned