The streets of Marrakech

Marrakech was a total change of scenery from my little life in France.

The "door" to enter the city.  The city is surrounded by ramparts that are a gorgeous brick red color.

An old Fiat Uno taxi.  All the taxis are either Fiat Unos or Peugeot 205s.  They are old, and they are tanks.  Pan's dad has an old Uno '92, so we were very proud to see them everywhere.  One even had 885,000 kilometers.

The rug shop where we bought our rug.  Rugs are for sale EVERYWHERE in Morocco.  They are mostly made by hand and each one is unique.

One of the town squares where there is always an open air market.

A "herborist" where they sell herbs, lotions, oils, and other concoctions.  Similar to a pharmacy, but a little more earthy.

Baskets outside a shop.  The dried flowers are used as shampoo, potpourri, or for tea.

Avocado juice.  Weird.

The view from a cafe we went to near the Riad we stayed at.

Most of the vendors use donkeys to move their things.  They are EVERYWHERE.  Seriously.  Loads of tired, hot donkeys pulling wagons of stuff (herbs, cinder blocks, rice etc...)

The flower market.

An orange juice vendor.  They are all over the main square in Marrakech.  The best orange juice I've ever had.  And freshly squeezed in front of you.

Nuts and dried fruit.

Herbs, dried or fresh.

The view from a restaurant we ate at, a view of the orange juice vendors and further, you can see the roofs of the "souks."  The souks is a huge labyrinth jam packed with vendors selling you everything and anything.

unexpected

So, last weekend when Pan got home from Paris, we had an interesting conversation.  It went a little like this:

Pan: I have a surprise for you!

me:  You do?  What is it?

Pan: I can't tell you now...  (building up the moment...)

me:  Please!!!!  Tell me, tell me!! 

Pan: We're going on a trip to the sun for a week!

me:  Yay!!  Where are we going?  When do we leave?

Pan: I don't know yet, have fun planning the trip.  =)

Now you can just imagine how that made my day!  So, I spent the next 5 days trying to organize a last minute trip to the sun.  My choices were: Tunisia, a Cruise on the Nile, Turkey, or Morocco.  And after spending hours looking for the best options, I settled on Morocco, where at the moment it's about 90 degrees...  Instead of going for an all inclusive trip to a beach resort, I found a cute like riad in the heart of Marrakech that looks so charming and authentic.  I just couldn't resist!  It has a pool, and a spa (hammam, jacuzzi, sauna, scrubs, massages...)  And the best part is, we leave tomorrow!

welcome s p r i n g =)

Spring is finally here!  Or, at least, almost here.  This weekend we spent much time in the garden with the family preparing for the warm weather.

The Hyacinths I planted 3 years ago...  still going strong. 

Some pretty flowers peeking through in the flower beds.

Pretty.

Lots of sprouts!

A minefield of bulb sprouts.

The soon to be vegetable garden...  With a soon to be fence all around.

A fancy tree Pan planted.  Don't ask me what it is.

More sprouts...

A cherry tree we planted near the vegetable garden.  One of two.  We also planted an American maple tree, an apricot tree, a plum tree...  and another cherry tree, and two rosebushes, among others...

My iris sprouts.

Some daisies...

More sprouts.  =)

Some fresh branches...

Chateau de Villandry

yes, i have a passion for castles, so not only did we visit the chateau de st germain, but we also visited the chateau de villandry.  the chateau de villandry is a castle in the loire valley.  there are castles at almost every street corner in that area but we only had time to visit one! 

From wiki:

     The Château de Villandry is a castle-palace located in Villandry.   The lands where an ancient fortress once stood were known as Colombier until the 17th century. Acquired in the early 16th century by Jean Le Breton, France's Controller-General for War under King Francis I, a new chateau was constructed around the original 14th-century keep.   The château remained in the Le Breton family for more than two centuries until it was acquired by the Marquis de Castellane. During the French Revolution the property was confiscated and in the early 19th century Emperor Napoleon acquired it for his brother.

     In 1906, Joachim Carvallo purchased the property and poured an enormous amount of time, money and devotion into repairing it and creating what many consider to be the most beautiful gardens anywhere. Its famous Renaissance gardens include a water garden, ornamental flower gardens, and vegetable gardens. The gardens are laid out in formal patterns created with low box hedges.
     Still owned by the Carvallo family, the Château de Villandry is open to the public and is one of the most visited châteaux in France.

As we noticed, the family doesn't actually live in the castle itself, but in some buildings that were once for farming or servants.  We only visited the main castle.

 Le Chateau de Villandry

 

the castle facade

some "outbuildings" to the right of the castle where we think the family now lives.

a view of the right wing of the castle and the 14th century keep (in the back) and the moat surrounding the castle.

 

the kitchen, my favorite room.  the wonderful collection of copper pots and the gorgeous wooden furniture and old fashioned tiled floor.

the fireplace in the kitchen, which was the primary stove and oven.  i would love to have that in my kitchen to let simmer my soups!

 

the view from the top of the keep!

a view of the gardens from the masters bedroom.  what wonderful detail...  in the summer it is filled with color!

some other châteaux i would love to visit:

• Château de Chenonceau (we were supposed to go saturday, but we ran out of time...)
• Château de Val
• Château de Cordes (we actually went once, but it was closed...)
• Château d'Azay-le-Rideau
• Château d'Amboise
• Château de Sully-sur-Loire
• Château Royal de Blois
• Château d'Anet
• Château de Fontainebleau
• Château de Vaux le Vicomte
• many others...

Chateau de St Germain

Last week with my mom, we visited the Chateau de St German which is now an archeology museum.  here are some fun pictures.  but to think that i was once obsessed with archeology?  what was i thinking???

the castle from the gardens

  

the court yard, view of the chapel

a model of the castle from above.  the castle is aaaaaaall the way in the back.  with amazing gardens in the front.  imagine weeding...

a staircase..  i love the brick detail

a gigantic fireplace.  look how tall it is, compared to the chairs!

  

a cool doorknob and lock.  the F is for Francois I.

the jugs they used for wine and soup back in the day...

old school dice...  pretty original...

the needles they used to sew...  and some thimbles in the back.

 

some spoons.

well that was what i thought was the most interesting finds on my journey through the museum.  but the castle itself and the gardens are pretty amazing, not to mention the view!

Sancerre

My dear mother arrived in Paris a few days ago, and so far we have been busy busy bees!  shopping, museums, cafes, dinners, cheese, and...  wine!
yesterday we decided to go visit Sancerre.
from wiki:
Sancerre is a medieval hilltop town (ville), commune and canton in the Cher department of central France overlooking the Loire River.  It is noted for its wine.

I went to sancerre a few years ago with a friend.  she knows one of the winemakers very well, so we visit the vineyards and had a merry old time tasting wine.  of course i brought some bottles back to paris, but unfortunately there was no wine left after my first night home.  =(  so with me mother and aunt, we decided to take another trip to restock my cellar.  and it was awesome.  first we visited:

Chateau de Tracy

It's a beautiful chateau that has been in the family since before 1200.  The same family still lives there and they have been making wine since before 1396.  Here you can read about the history of the family and the vineyards.  The guardian was very pleasant, as they are closed on Sundays.  He was very nice and let us taste some wines, and we came away with two cases.  =)  Next on our trip was the:

Domaine Vincent Delaporte

(me, the father of the vineyard, my mum, my auntie)

We had an appointment so we were received very well.  We spent 3 or 4 hours with the vigneron.  He explained to us all different facets of the wine business and culture.  He took us on a tour of the cellar and it was fascinating.

the "pipette" to extract wine for the barrels.  its a barrel of white wine so you need to look closely to see the wine in the tube.

filling the glasses with the pipette.  red wine this time so u can see it better!

looking in the barrel of red wine. 

bottles and bottles of wine waiting to be packaged and shipped off. 

all in all, after our little trip we had 16 cases of wine.  hopefully theyll stay in our cellar a little longer than last time i brought back wine from sancerre...

our trunk jam packed with cartons of wine. 

in the garage....

my uncle putting his bottles away in his "bomb shelter" wine cellar.  (yes he did break one in the process, but shhhhh!)