Strike Two!

Since Katie is unable to get to work on days of the strike, she headed downtown to see what actually happens: when the French strike.

With a strike this big, groups from many different types of work coordinate to all go on strike at once including transportation, education, and many more - meaning that things just shut down or businesses/schools (like mine) that are open are empty and quiet.



If the pictures weren't good enough, below are some videos of what was going on.

If anyone asks where I was when...

...our first African-American president was inaugurated, I can say glued to the television in Bordeaux, France!

Truly a great day for America! We've come a long way.

Culinary Artistry à la BenKat

Moules Mariniere (Mussels in white wine sauce)

olive oil, shallots, white wine


mussels



C'etait très magnifique!

Magret de Carnard avec sauce myrtille et purée de patates douces = Breast of duck with a blueberry sauce and mashed sweet potatoes. (Beth, Derick and Da Jenn, this is a sneak preview of one of the dishes that we are planning on making for you!!)

An sinful American cuisine night: Homemade pizza, french fries, Ranch sauce (Thanks Lindsay!!!) and Coke Zero (at least the coke was diet, right!?!?)

Fête internationale de la truffe à Sarlat et plus!

For anyone that has read any of the Peter Mayle books (A Year In Provence, etc.), you cannot help but be curious about a black fungus that grows under ground on walnut tree roots and are found by a pig leading you around to sniff out where the fungus is hidden. I am talking of course about Black Truffles. In his book Peter Mayle tells of his adventure finding truffles and the olfactory pleasure of placing your napkin over your head, bending over a hot dish with black truffles and deeply inhaling through your nose to trap and breath in the scent and the culinary extasy of tasting black truffles in an omelet. I hope by now you are a little bit intrigued so that you can share the excitement that Katie and I had to go to the Fête internationale de la truffe à Sarlat (International Truffle Festival in Sarlat)

Katie and I had seen posters (like the one below) around Bordeaux and were trying to figure out how we would get there and back. We had dinner with our Belgium friends, Philipe and Cindy, and discovered that they were interested in going also. They have a car and offered that we could all go there together! So we got up early on the 17th and head out to Sarlat, which is about 2 hours East of Bordeaux (Click here to see Bordeaux to Sarlat).

-----------------------------------

When we got there, we headed to the guided tour of Sarlat. Little did we know that the tour was going to be a play acted out by these three characters that interwove a story with facts about the city. Sarlat is a well-preserved medievil town.

Here is statue looking out on the main street where the festival was talking place.

Here is a shot of the all of us tasting some scrambled eggs with truffle on a slice of baguette.

Not only were there stands with everything truffle-related, there were many others including some specialties of the region: Foie Gras, walnuts/walnut oil, pruneaux d’agneau (prunes). The man pictured above was by far the nicest and most genous (Katie thought he was too generous) of all the stands. Here is a list of all that he let us, and eventually, made us taste. Chocolate covered walnuts, candied (carmelized) walnuts, candied (carmelized)-chocolate-powdered sugared covered walnuts, walnut bread, biscuits with walnuts, an apertif of truffle (sounds gross but was really good), an apertif of chestnut, an apertif of peach, an apertif of strawberry, and more that we can remember. Needless to say, we gave him some business in return.

They had gourmet chefs of local restaurants giving cooking displays using truffles.

A closer look at the "Black Diamonds"

Assessing and an education about the black truffle

After the festival we walked aroung the town. This was the Jardin Public. I thought it looked eerily cool lined with these trees.

Foie gras is serious business around here. These geese are immortalized in bronze in one of the town squares.

Just cruel...serving Foie Gras (bad enough, the way it is made) then serve it on a plate with the birds head. Wish it didn't taste so good.

----------------------------------------

After the festival, we drove to a local village called La Roque Gageac along the Dordogne River. It has been labeled among the most beautiful villages in France.

To the left you can see the roof which is heavy stone laid on top of one another, a remanent of medievil times. The roofs can way several tons!

The church

Our picnic...

...with a great view.

-----------------------------------------------
That night we went out on the town for a belated birthday dinner celebration for Elodie (our flatmate). The place we went was pretty crazy. Dinner, live music of all sorts, people singing along, jumping up on tables and chairs, and more. It was a great time.

Pretty standard salad in Bordeaux, but some thing we don't eat back home: salade de gésiers (Gizzard salad) .

The accordian player and video below.

Can you name the French Film this song comes from?? (Answer at the end of the blog)

Up above the tables in the little arch, there was the guitar player.

Lock arms, sway side to side and sing along. If you don't know the words, just yogurt your way through the songs like we did.

Elvis or Johnny Hallyday?? Unfortunately, neither.

Us.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Philipe and Cindy, the Belgium couple.

Totally did not plan this shot but put it on the blog because Katie said it looked like a posed-model shot. Just need a little airbrush and it could be a 'Glamour Shot' portrait.

The flatmates.

Some of the craziness!! ;)

Answer to the question about the accordian player: The movie is Amélie, check it out if you haven't, it's a good one.

Happy year and a half!

Katie and I decided earlier in the month that we would go out on the town and celebrate our year and half wedding anniversary. We were married on July 14th, 2007 which coincidently is Bastille day in France (the French independence day). Life has been pretty great since then. With all that we have been able to do and see, I can't wait for what is to come and am excited to have the rest of my life with my wife. Most of those reading this blog, probably already know how we met and got engaged, but for any that don't and are interested in finding out - my wife did a fabulous job of telling the story: click here

--katie: my sweet husband suprised me these beautiful flowers and....tickets to go see Twilight which i was sooo excited to see after having already read the first two in the series at this point.-

Us.

If you check out the blog from September 28th 2008 , you will see a picture of the outside of this restaurant, L'Entrecôte, in the day with the beautiful black and yellow canopies with red flowers, then the December 14th 2008 blog, shows the huge line of people waiting outside. Katie and I got there early so the wait was not that bad, about a half hour.

The menu was really simple salad with a vinegarette, l'entrecôte et pomme frites (premium cut of beef used for steaks and french fries)

Not sure what was in the sauce but it was delicious.

Steak and red wine, nuff said.

Katie's obsession with the whole "Twilight" series started on our Britian vacation and she really wanted to see the movie after reading the book (or should I say all the books in the series). We headed for a late night showing of the movie in V.O. (Version Originale) - in English.

Some other random pictures from around Bordeaux

Katie and the Canelés Bordelais. This is a famous, sweet pastry/cake from Bordeaux that is made out of egg yolks, milk, flour, sugar, vanilla and a hint of rhum. The outside is crispy and camelized and the inside is soft, tender and custard like. Canelés are one of the many perfect solutions to using egg yolks left-over from winemaking. (After fermentation, wines can and are fined (clarified) using egg whites, leaving just the egg yolks.)
Huitres = Oysters. I know that you have seen these before on the blog but one Sunday, we did as the locals do: went down to the marché (market) by the riverside, had some oysters with a glass of white wine, soaked in the sun and enjoyed a Sunday afternoon.

Us by the river. What a great way to spend a day!

A Night out on the town

Here is just a random night out on the town in Bordeaux.

Us.

We started with a glass of red at the Maison de Vin, an ultra hip looking wine bar that showcases the wines of the Bordeaux region.

Next up, Café Brun. We had walked past this café/bar before and saw a sign that said they had live jazz. We thought we would give it a try. It looked like a cool place.

To our dismay, no live jazz this night but the décor was really cool.

We ended the night with an italian style pizza from La Mama.