The Color of Venice

A confectioners window in Venice. One of the many vividly colorful sights you see in passing through the tight passages between the buildings.

Italian Food, Finally!

We eagerly crossed over the border from France today, more than ready for some good Italian cuisine. We were looking forward to a break from the rather heavy French cuisine from the last week (enough duck already!) and this restaurant did not disappoint. It was one of the few places still serving lunch after 2 pm when we pulled up to the Ligurian coastal town of Santa Margherita - one of the prettiest places in all of Italy, in my opinion. (We often seem to be running late for meals on this trip — I thought the Europeans were supposed to eat on the late side?) Lunch turned out great, even though it consisted of relatively standard dishes. Topped off with a massively oversized carafe of white wine, this afternoon turned out to be one of the most pleasant of the whole vacation.

Salade D"Avignon

Another hot day of siteseeing in France — the castle compound at Avignon. I guess one has to make the effort to check it out, but I much preferred the cool, crisp salad we had afterwards. A great way to recover from the heat and relax afterwards.

Pumped Up Tomato

An explosively ribbed tomato I bought from a village market in the Dordogne this morning.

Rural France

Driving through rural France we started wondering were we could find a decent restaurant for a late lunch. Stumbled across the Cheval Blanc (White Horse) and ended up having a spectacular meal. We didn't realize what a feast we were in for - a lot more food than we expecting.


They had a fixed menu that sounded rather good — to start we were each served a duck and bacon "salad" which was delicious but was so rich and filling to should have been a main course. The salads were followed up with excellent entrees that we had to really struggle to consume.


When we felt we were on the edge of bursting, the desserts arrived. Well we couldn't just leave them there, going to waste. FInally expresso coffees were served — a welcome stimulant. We staggered outside, and forced ourselves to walk about town for a stretch, hoping the huge feast would work it's way through the system. Maybe we skip dinner tonight!

Light lunch in the Château de Chantilly

After an wonderful tour of the grounds and galleries of this elaborate palace a short distance outside Paris, we descending to the lower floor and had a pleasantly simple fixed menu lunch. Such fresh simple flavors — Another one of our best meals ever in France.

Continental Breakfast

We've always had a bit of a hit-or-miss experience with dining in France — odd, mediocre ingredients, overpowering sauces, sloppy preparation. Maybe we're just too spoiled with great restaurants back home in the Bay Area. But you can't go wrong with a croissant breakfast and cafe au lait — the bread and rolls in France really do live up to their world-class hype. Even though on this particular morning, the service was traditional Parisenne — slow, inattentive, and downright rude.

Dining in Paris

Finally, a decent meal in a Parisienne sidewalk cafe! I guess we've just had bad luck on our previous trips to the French capital — we seem to end up in mediocre tourist joints and generally bland restaurants about town. I chalked it up to the fact that we have some of the greatest restaurants in the world back home. But Carol and I struck gold with this sidewalk bistro up the street from out hotel — roast duck and buttery shrimp. It may look a little ordinary but proved to be a cut above in flavor and preparation. A very substantial late afternoon lunch.

Salmon Salad

My friend Carol ordered this tasty salad at a sidewalk restaurant nearby our hotel yesterday. We later figured out that it was a Jewish restaurant - pretty unusual experience for us Californians.

A quick breakfast across the street from our hotel right near the London Underground station. We were off to take the Chunnel train to Paris later that morning so we had to be quick - No Full English Breakfast this time!

Perspective

>Waiting for the delicious spagettini at Pizza Antiqua, couldn't help noticing their rather substantial flatware. The iPhone4 takes a pretty decent closeup photo when there's adequate light.