Friday Part 2

evening in Corniglia...



we actually passed by this little enoteca (wine bar) when we first arrived but were too full from lunch to be tempted. after a day of wandering we were successfully lured in by some music coming from inside that we at first mistook for Tom Waits....until we realized they were singing in italian!

inside the bar...

glass of white, glass of red, and yummy munchies!

turns out the singer of the music playing was actually stopping by later to play a few tunes...but the owner, being a true italian, needed to close his bar so he could go home for dinner...so from 8-9:30 pm we hung out, watching a few italian trick-or-treaters go by as we ate a picnic dinner...

Folco Orselli from Milan, Italy

Friday Part 1

morning/afternoon...


this is just a portion of a very large mural depicting the yearly grape harvest



finally, what we're all curious about, the food! lunch on friday was almost life-changing...exactly what we wanted on our vacation at the sea....

sardines...a local specialty!

ben ordered lobster ravioli (a favorite of his at Nashville's Mama Mia Italian Restaurant) the main difference between the two dishes: this one came with a FULL lobster TAIL!! not to mention the sauce was amazing....

my seafood risotto came full of mussels, clams, shrimp, crawfish (we think) and octopus! sorry it's blurry, but we couldn't leave it out.

notice a trend with the cats here?!!? this one almost came home with us...

only 119 steps to go...

congrats! you've completed the 382 steps to the center of Corniglia!

Thursday...

...even with rain and wind closing many of the trails, our spirits could not be too dampened in this beyond-beautiful hiker's paradise...

although the trails were limited due to weather conditions, we were able to hike around all 5 of the cliff-side towns and take in their awe-inspiring views...

look closely at the cliffside....very closely:)

a little peek at the town

yay for gelato!! ben loves this pic...says i look like an excited little kid. but who wouldn't be excited for a tiramasu and raspberry gelato cone?!!?!? even if you had to share it.....

the waves were crashing continuously making for a gorgeous show with impressive sound effects.

i couldn't get enough of the colors there-between the flowers, buildings, citrus trees, grapevines and mural paintings, there was so much to see!

Que les vacances commencent!!!

Let the vacation begin!!!

after a tiring 3 1/2 weeks of 12 hour work weeks, we were excited to go on our first vacation to.....ITALY!! first stop: Cinque Terre...

...the Cinque Terre is a national park along the Ligurian Coast consisting of 5 beautiful villages connected by train, bus, and more importantly....HIKING TRAILS!!

Portes Ouvertes at the Fronsac wineries

ben and i spent the day visiting the Open Doors festival for many of the wineries in the Fronsac appellation in the Bordeaux region. we really enjoyed driving around in the country side and seeing all the beautiful colors of fall in the vineyards. we finished the day at a celebration dinner put on by a local small community which included 5 courses, table contests, and a magic show. we sat at a table with 3 local winemakers and were able to chat with them using our fabulous franglish (french/english).

gazebo in the vines. we had read about this estate in The Wine Bible and we definetly enjoyed their wines! the lady even said if we stayed around till the harvest and were interested in working it, to give her a call!

the cats are so friendly here!!!

wine comes out of that faucet into the hose and pumps back over the top of the tank to "punch down the cap" of skins and seeds to give the wine its color during the primary fermantation.

we got to drink some very early stage wine!

i actually got to be the magician's assistant for one of his tricks!! we sure fooled everyone :)

Jack Daniels and some other thoughts...

right outside our door...

IT'S NOT SCOTCH

IT'S NOT BOURBON

IT'S JACK

with a french translation appropriately placed in the lower left as well as describing what makes JD's so special...(the charcoal filtration method)

france has beautiful tomatos! ben and i can't get over it everytime we go to the store...even better than italy's, which we don't understand, since it's not like they'd have to travel very far to be beautiful there, too.

...bananas are expensive here...you know how they're like the cheapest fruit ever in the states? here, it's not unusual for them to be 2+ euros a kilo, which is like 1 euro a pound...so over $1.30/lb! but what do i know, with food prices rising, maybe they're no longer the 40-50cents/lb like i remember...

...the strawberries smell like candy, they are so sweet. and expensive, too...

...they really do eat baguettes all the time...we get one almost every night between the 4 of us and sometimes one is not enough...

...we make our coffee with a french press, and laurent (roomie) thought it was only for tea...we thought that was interesting...and it's not called a french press here, it's a "cafetière à piston..."

why does everything revolve around food?

(vegetarians-please skip this next section)

...we truely love foie gras, but ben's not real big on pâté....the difference, you may ask? foie gras is literally "fatty liver" made from force feeding usually geese or duck. when it's cooked up in a pan and served with meats ie steak, it's mouth-wateringly delicious. Pâté is a spread of finely chopped meat and fat-sometimes foie gras, sometimes other weird animal parts...tempting, i know, but ben prefers to raise his cholesteral other ways...

...we don't know why but fries really are better here!

...europeans don't seem to drink much water...probably cuz it's so dang hard to find a free, functioning bathroom...

...we eat late here...8pm at the earliest...we usually have to eat a late lunch or have a snack to make it that long! just adapting to the culture...

...anyways! life is great and i'm enjoying this go-round in france even more than last time thanks to my incredible, wonderful, loving husband and best friend.

Picnic in Saint-Émilion

sunday picnic in a medieval village-view overlooking the tops of the buildings

i love the rock buildings and contrasting colors!

happy us!

we picked fresh figs for dessert

we had a very persistant friend join us! he knew where to find some good food!

pass the pâté, please! (lower right corner) we are drinking "bourru" which is wine in its early stages of fermantation-when the yeast is eating the sugars and creating alcohol and carbonation-making it fizzy! yuuuummmmyyyy!

medieval monolithic church which we toured--a large portion of it was built from one huge piece of rock which they dug out of the ground, also creating the catacombs where the monk after whom the city was named used to live and pray and heal.

awhh, they're so cute! our roomies.

awhh, we're so cute :)

Le Bon Goût d'Aquitaine

On Saturday, Katie and I took the tram across the river to go to the Le Bon Goût d'Aquitaine (The Good Taste of the Aquitaine (Aquitaine is the southwest region of France)). This was a street fair that displayed all the local meat, stinky cheese, honey, wine and more.

Now that is some stank! Fromage d'chevre, I love it!

All the bread here is so fresh. You can't tell it this picture but the round bread in the background on the blue crate was as big as a car tire!

Cured meats and local cheeses. Note: the red baret.

Garlic knots. Surprisingly it looked better that it tasted. :(

Beaucoup de Miel (lots of honey), Katie and I bought some pollen to put in our yogurt in the morning for breakfast (try it, it's delicious. Thanks Becky for introducing us to this combo.)

Macarons de Bordeaux - a local sweet specialty, good but really expensive

Katie and I finished a long day with some Escargot in butter, herbs and garlic and a nice cool rosé wine to wash them down.

(Warning: the next image might disturb you)

Yummy right?

The after effects of too many escargots.