EUROPEAN BREAKFAST Part 1

I really like breakfast. To begin with the food you get: coffee, toast - the basics -  love them. The occasional egg, super crispy bacon or order of hash browns - yumz. I will eat this at any time of the day or night but it just wows me that this is not only acceptable, but encouraged, daily. What a world!
In Europe my love affair with petite dejeuner, as with all things, gets more intense, elegant and refined. 
 At Pans (in Barcelona) which is a very unassuming looking chain McDonaldesque in appearance, we ate this meal, pictured,  To the left is the toast (you can see just a sliver in the white paper wrap. Mid photo is the small jar of strawberry jam, above that are 2 packets of olive oil and on the right is the tomato jam, salt and pepper. Along with a cafe con leche these 2 slices of toast made a satisfying reward for leaving bed and a crunchy bridge toward lunchtime. A drizzle of olive oil on a pinched off corner of toast with a small spoon of rough cut tomato jam smoothed o top, munch, sip, repeat.....sitting in the cool morning sun...lovely.  The toast a good sturdy white bread, toasted warm and crispy. The olive oil and tomato jam fresh and perfectly delicious. We had extraordinary breakfasts in Belgium so they'll get their own post. xo

FRIDAY APRIL 17, 2015 - BARCELONA SUNNY AND 70 degrees

My daughter and husband know coffee is a must and they've planned a day of serious Spanish sightseeing so first up as we exit the Grand Hotel is Pans and Company, right across the street and next to the metro entrance. HIGHLY recommended for a inexpensive but incredibly elegant, breakfast. This place looks like a McDonalds, but that's all. Most of our mornings in Barcelona I had the same thing: coffee - creamy with steamed milk and toast - rustic pane, toasted, with olive oil, tomato jam and fruit jam - these 3 in small individual "to go" packets/jars. Unbelievably delicious. With a few swirls of olive oil and a spoon of tomato it was "breakfast bruschetta".  I plan a breakfast post on all our memorable European breakfasts - it'll be part of my breakdown/takeaways from Europe - so I'll save more and the photos on that for later.
After this divine nudge into the day we metro to Park Guell and spend a few hours walking up and down some severe landscape - hilly in spots there!! - dotted in dreamlike structures produced by Gaudi, a famous architect: buildings, benches, walls and stairs. Mosaic, colorful, mirrored, exhausting to walk and view (in my opinion it's very physical all around!). We need to escape and head underground to metro stop La Rambla. My favorite place to stroll is this wide pedestrian walkway, at one end my favorite European church,Santa Maria Del Mar, at the other my favorite European clothing chain, Zara. The Mercat de la Boqueria is in the middle - which is my favorite market. You must not miss this gorgeous food market where every item is displayed like a precious jewel. Every item. The fruit displays are intensely gorgeous, but that's too easy. How about art made from numerous grains arranged for sale in patchwork square boxes that make a pattern like dusty farmlands seen from an airplane. Amazing.  La Rambla is a win win for me!!  In between you walk and look. Or stop for a drink and look. Or smoke and look. We have an adventure in a British sports pub along the way: the adorable and friendly crew sing along with Bruno Mars Uptown Funk and we chat with some Irish folks.  Later, laden with Zara bags we return to our hotel. After we've rested up a bit (drinking and shopping = exhaustion), it's tapas at the Basque place around the corner and to bed. Digging Barcelona.

BARCELONA!!

Jake, Clementine and I slip out of Cynthia's condo at 5:30 am into a heavy fog. Waiting for us is Tonya, a British expat who will taxi us to the airport. She's a chatty cabbie and gets us capably thru the mist, the rest of leaving Rome is just as uncomplicated. Vueling airlines is based out of Barcelona and we had a pleasant, if short, flight with them. Before this trip I was only familiar with Ryanair - both of my older children traveled extensively in Europe on Ryanair while spending semesters abroad  - but Europe is full of small airlines so the cost and the convenience often can't be beat.
Our hotel is very nice - we really love our room which has a deep, large tub, great shower and eco constraints on the lights and electricity in the room: nothing works until you "park" your door keycard in your room's receptacle. This way all the lights etc are out whenever you leave. The immediate neighborhood, Santa Estacio, isn't really very picturesque. It's more industrial/commercial with the train/bus/metro station across the intersection, but that said, it's convenient to how you'll be getting where you're going. We did enjoy a Basque style resto around the corner, lunch once for me and Clementine; tapas one night for us all, but mostly we took the metro away from Estacio and walked. Lots of walking everywhere, the whole time, the entire trip.
After a picnic of baguette and cheese on a park bench waiting for our room to be ready we shower and nap. C and I go for Basque food, a late lunch. We relax in our room until evening and head to the Sagrada Familia, which is all scaffolded up and on to see 2 of Gaudi's most famous residences, apartment buildings that look like jazzed up Disney, done in colorful mosaic tiles, nary a straight line on the exterior. Fun house houses. Gaudi and Dali share some crazy Spanish aesthetic, I do believe.
Gaudi's stuff is all over Barcelona. We will go to his park, Guell, tomorrow by the way!
More to eat!! Tapas at the street end of a bar surrounded overhead by hanging ham, like in any good
european bar. More walking. Sleep is most welcome after this long day and the beds are good.

ROMA DAY 6: WEDNESDAY 15 APRIL

Last day in Italy and I'm working. Jake and the kids are gone to the Coliseum and Cynthia to work. So I do laundry and use my ipad to connect to my home laptop and work, alone, in the apartment. Outside the long windows  - where I'm hanging our clothes to dry - below on the piazza, there is a demonstration going on. I can't tell for what but everyone seems very happy, there are blue balloons floating about and occasionally, a group singalong. They will disperse promptly at 4 leaving a few sad balloons behind. 

We've booked Veuling Air to Barcelona in the morning. Time to 'arrivederci baby' our hosts Cynthia and Will with dinner (I have melon and ham, again) and superb lemoncello, she pesters the waiter/lemoncello maker into a bottle for herself although it's only for in house, after dinner as a general rule. My love affair with lemoncello while in Rome is one of it's great memories. Will and Cynthia the other 2 big ones. It's easy to say that I found Rome delightful and I, for some odd reason, wasn't sure I was going to love it there. But I do. 

ROME DAY 5 ~ TUESDAY 14 APRIL 2015 ROMA

Fun blog to remember today- heavy metal museum day. I'll explain later. The power Trio plus Will meet for breakfast at the corner near Clementine's hotel; same for all, Jake's "english" breakfast with eggs and bacon, still a modest portion by American standards but just perfect for him, eggs as orange as eggs can be while we gals, and Will, sipped and nibbled croissants. The Loyola gang will be ready to leave at 9:30 and, as usual since we've met up with our Daughter we are anticipating another "Catholic School" day as we head this time to the Capuchin museum. Rome is, obviously, perfect for a syllabus hearty in holiness and we're on that. Among other things! The Capuchin's were monks and the reason we care about them is that they saved one another's bones ultimately resulting in the weirdest display I've probably ever seen, of  various tableaux such as one featuring "whole bodies" (aka skeletons)in poses and some holding stuff (why can't I remember what right now?) or another utilizing only the femur bones of about a zillion men arranging them in decorative wall patterns or hanging candle holders!!?? What is this and what does it mean! LOL. I have to go right now and find a picture on line to add here. We weren't allowed to shoot, poor Will.
Pictures of the museum interior displays
After this we, as a group (we are with the Loyola contingent for the very last day) walk to Palazzo Berberini, a large, once private home, estate, now museum. The Snow Doctors and the kids, including Clementine enter for the last museum tour of this trip and you can feel the anticipation of the end as they stagger toward the massive entrance. Jake, Will and I wander the grounds, Will is always taking pictures, a Jimmy Stewart-ish looking young man, tall and toting a big camera; I end up with my shoes off, discreetly, in the sun near the fountain. I believe my feet were in pain to my defense. Jake is off somewhere. Finally free of the Loyola yoke (as much as we've really enjoyed getting to know and hang out with them) we head with a new swagger for, what else, a large, longish Roman lunch.
The rest of the day is anticlimactic: work for me and also some for Will back at the condo; Jake did his solo exploring and Clementine had a date to meet up with a dear friend living nearby. Kate is here, also from Loyola Baltimore, for semester abroad, but Rome is Kate's 4 month base while Clementine's been spending her entire junior year in Belgium so Rome this week is "just" a field trip. It's exciting to meet your girlfriend, casually almost, at the Trevi Fountain. And be able to walk there, easily, alone. Next time you see her it'll be on your beautiful Maryland campus, at home. That's cool.

Later Cynthia fusses, but loves it you can tell, making us burritos for dinner. Clementine's in heaven, how did C know it's her favorite stuff? The last night of a now familiar routine of walking Clementine back to her hotel, she'll check out in the a.m. and returning to our room at Cynthia's central Rome condo.
Oh yes - heavy metal museum day: Jake's inside joke resulting from a conversation with a friend who tried describing the Capuchin museum saying it's something like the artwork on a heavy metal album!! Yes, it is.
Night Darling.

The Elmwood Experience. Introducing: "Little Parisian Home on the Prairie"

What do you get when you fall back into a gorgeous pillow sky of blue and mature trees deep into the heart of Elmwood? A second chance to develop your cocoon, and your aesthetic, to embrace and nurture your loves. We know and are charmed by every inch of this property. The gardens and the yard, the exterior living areas - the quiet privacy of the back, the dark, cool north side and the sunny hot lawn reaching down front to the western road.

 The house. Wood when you enter. It envelopes you. The floors are oak, immense long streams shored up by an elegant fireplace and white painted woodwork, quiet walls.Large old barn shutters cover most of one wall, blue flecked green and worn, they open to the sunny front. Almost directly opposite in this T shaped expanse, are double white French doors that open to the wood deck. The floors - the wood - are our first question: to sand, sure. But to stain dark walnut? Important - -  remember the wood is what it's all about here. Changing the base, working from the bottom up, setting the foundation. I feel it'll be more elegant, more mature and help us frame and redefine and push forward on the changes that we want to make, easiest to do now while she's empty.
A small but totally useable kitchen. Returning to the large gas (!) range is thrilling - the temperatures I know and can trust - the gassy interior capable of crisping my Pugliese perfectly! We have decided to replace the original cabinets, install new countertops and flooring. Perhaps new appliances.
She needs 5 replacement windows that we never got around to replacing last time we lived here.
The bottom line, right now. is that: flooring, kitchen, front garden, windows and interior layout need to be devised and implemented so we can return to our dream home. This time we're making it even better.

Introducing a new feature on this blog: Little Parisian Home on the Prairie. We here at Paris on the Cuyahoga are restyling our darling manor and it's taking on the importance of a lifestyle change. After a hiatus of almost 2 years we've been fortunate to be able to return to our home, Elmwood, soon. We have the opportunity to create, decorate and delight in designing our old home, one we already know and love very well, into an even more inviting space in which to develop our lives. We intend a space of simple luxury with areas for all of our interests. It's beyond exciting.

I will keep plugging away at the Europe 2015 series as well as I must finish altho I can tell you now it does have a happy ending :)
blowing kisses, La

ROME DAY 4

This day, Monday April 13, 2015, is sunny and warm in Rome. We are walking with a group of 10  toward St Peters to tour the Necropolis of St Peter. Heavy stuff. We (our immediate trio Jake, Clementine and I) have prepared with our italian staple breakfast at the cafe on the corner from her hotel in Campo Di Fiori.  3 small tables and spare chairs attached to an equally small interior cafe by an awning at the very corner of the square, the cafe delights with small, delicious milky coffee. Croissant with butter and jelly. Jake with some eggs and juice. Both the color of an orange sunrise. Sitting, sipping, observing the life on the square; sharing glances and ideas, food, sometimes.  Now, sated, we can attempt this exclusive tour and in retrospect its a good thing we charged up for the adventures ahead.

Walking in shade and sun, over and along the Tiber, thru some piazzas, we morph along as largish groups do. We get to know the professors Snow - the Snow Doctors - better on the walk. He's heavily inked, she's very intellectual and as a married couple they teach/head things up at the at the International House at Katholic University in Leuven Belgium where our daughter is taking her Junior year (home base: Loyola Maryland). This is a mandatory class trip for the group that we are now walking with: Jim and Dale Snow and 8 students including our daughter.

At 200 participants a day the tour we are heading to take is difficult to book in the theater of the Vatican box office (!) but Jake and I are in the right place at the right time to understudy - going on for 2 girls from Loyola who did not make this class trip. In other words, we're using their tickets, bought well over a year ago, for entry.The entry we seek is at a quieter side station, we pass through large crowds to get there even at this early-ish time of day, and fill up a small room to be instructed on what we are about to experience. Turns out to be very highly regarded artifacts of the Roman catholic variety that are buried under the current St Peters Bascilica in an archeological-horizontal pattern that, viewed up close can be somewhat disconcerting and nauseating.  As thousands of "regular" tourists stream overhead, we follow a very tightly controlled Italian woman with good English but a heavy accent and a regimented script, through this ancient, weird, underworld. I have a good "ear" but still have to pay close attention to understand Maria; the stilted rhythms of her descriptions makes her spiel even denser. We are going down thick uneven stone steps and the air is changing and Maria sounds just a bit too regulated. Tombs, colors on remenents of wood or fabric that still sizzle; smooth small crypts, babies, sigh; the grand finale is the tomb of St Peter - his actual bones!! which are taken on faith here, cause I really saw nothing - they point several meters away, in a darkish corner - thru a small window!! - with a red laser light and say : there are the relics, the bones of St Peter.  It's a good half hour too long for me but fascinating in its claustraphobic way. I could totally skip the whole upstairs tour that followed - the inside of St Peters - but went along with the group. So crowded - so totally the opposite of what we had just seen - that it felt more like a decompress zone than a graceful tour of a peaceful place of worship. Frankly, with the selfie sticks and video taking tourists of all races; the trinkets for sale and the general lack of any air of gentility - I hated it.

Our power trio departs from the general group as we head back across the river to the neighborhoods of Rome where we are staying. Its late afternoon, lunchtime by now, so we gather up Will from Cynthia's condo - he's an 18 year old, she's his mother, our friend and mentor on this trip! - and the 4 of us - Jake, Clementine, Will and I - enjoy a long, civilized lunch. We top lunch with a visit to Zara which by now Jake has not only discovered but fallen for. We siesta at Cynthia's condo. This is my type of afternoon, and needless to point out - I enjoyed it much more than our morning mission.

After siesta we pick back up with a run, via taxi, to a chic secondhand store. Now our lunch crowd has increased with Mama (Cynthia) and she and I try on some things but we are too amazon built for some vintage and nothing wowed us anyway. Time for cocktails so we walk to the lobby of the hotel Cynthia lived in at first in Rome. Glam. A few rounds later we gailey make our way thru the streets, finally splitting up: Will and Cynthia to the condo, we 3 returning Clementine to Campo di Fiore to bunk with her student group for the night. On the way we buy her pizza and walk and eat and talk. Finally turning into the Campo is fantastic: gas heaters warming, framing and lighting up the night, a band playing House of the Rising Sun, a lovely life - this is where we had our cafe this morning, how different it is right now!! We take a turn through the square, drop Clementine at the hotel and stroll the now getting familiar 15 minutes back to the heavy green doors of Piazza dei SS Apostoli, number 49 and the slightly lumpy beds at Cynthia's!!

SUNDAY IN ROME - DAY 3

Cynthia is off today and suggests a leisurely shopping visit to the other side of the Tiber river to Trastevere. Rome is bisected by the Tiber and this neighborhood is less frequented by tourists and C is a regular at the flea market - the linen lady yells "Mama" to her as we approach. I love feeling less a tourist and hanging with C certainly helps! Cynthia and I start to dig thru the linens: jackets, table runners, nightgowns and more (rugs, not linen of course) - we fill a trash bag each - I got a sleeveless top that I've worn constantly this summer, some linen jackets and old pinafore-looking aprons to use as night gowns;  the proprietress even throws in some small table runners gratis. At the next stall I find a huge green stoned ring - quite the statement piece - and I get complements on it always. It never turned my finger green (my jeweler says its aluminum) and it's just the best souvenir ever - 20 euros and I love it! I'm posting a picture of it on my hand for this post.

We head to a neighborhood resto for lunch: caprese salad, artichokes and vegetable pizza. Wine, of course and we take our delicious time - the resto even closed for a few hours - fiesta- but they told us to take our time and finish at our leisure. So civilized.

Back at Cynthia's condo Clementine and Will are waiting for us. We hang out and talk about the day and drink lemoncello and pick at small appetizers (mostly so the kids can eat!). Jake and I walk Clementine back to her hotel then stroll back to C's condo for a sound night's sleep.

Arrivederci Baby!

Interesting Women with Jobs I'd Love!!

Taking (another) break from my European vacation series to post about 2 articles from this past Sunday's New York Times (08/30/2015). We get the Sunday Times delivered and it's a wonderful pleasure that lasts all week - we keep in in the kitchen and read it with our breakfast; just today (Wednesday) over my cafe au lait I finally got to the Business section and, as usual, found several articles of interest to me.
First there is an interview with Michelle DeFeo, president of Laurent-Perrier U.S. She's a francophile born in Pennsylvania (just like me!) who now heads the champagne house. The U.S. branch recently moved from California to Queens, NY and is housed in an old, renovated loft style space. Charming!

Second is an article about a former model, Frederique van der Wal, who started a flower delivery company in Europe in 2008, lives in Manhattan and the Hudson Valley and is introducing her business to the U.S. I share many of her interests and aesthetics as well and found this quick read to be a nice breakfast companion.

Flowers and champagne - everyday!! Live it up.

xxoo,
La

Rome Day 2

Today we wake to walk to our daughter's hotel (she's on spring break with a group of international students from Loyola, we planned to meet in Rome at the end of the break and travel as a family until she had to get back for classes). Her hotel is a pleasant 15 minutes walk from our condo. She will be surprised as she's not expecting us for 2 more days (as you've read the air traffic controllers strike in France altered our plans; it's a good idea to plan to be a flexible traveler!). She is surprised to see us and Jake lavishes her with hugs and  kisses - he even cries a bit - a very sympa man :) We go to the corner cafe for delicious cappuccino and croissants (they sprinkle them with sugar here, different than France), Jake opts for fried eggs - gorgeous orange yolks! Clementine's got to go with her professors to St Peters and the Vatican so we part ways and plan to meet for dinner.
Jake and I spend the day wandering around the area: Coliseum and Circus Maximus area mainly. Get some corny touristy photos with 2 guys dressed as centurians; overpaid for these masterpieces!!
In the evening we walk to get C at her hotel near Campo di Fiore and take her to see our condo. On the way we get some wine and beer and have cocktails at "our" place before meeting Cynthia for dinner out. We have wonderful conversation and food: roman artichokes, gnocchi, ravioli with gorgonzola and pear and my new favorite: lemoncello. We walk Clementine back to the Auberge de Soleil. A great day.
xo La

Baltimore - The Charm City

Once again veering off the prescribed course (which is, of course,detailing our European adventures from April of this year), but it's August and I should be taking the entire month off! Not gonna happen but we did get to take our daughter back to school in Maryland and, as we do, we made a petite vacation out of it. It's an easy drive in our opinion, just about 6 hours, to get from here to there. Typically we take a break when necessary and change drivers. This time Jake drove the whole way while Clementine and I slept and read. Instead of heading straight to our hotel on the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore we head to: Destination Ikea for a few back to school items (and I've been lusting over small coffee spoons since April;see Europe entries, I am going to do one on breakfast alone - it was so good over there!) - and Ikea has 'em! We love to cruise through Ikea - making mental notes on our upcoming kitchen renovation and ideas that we see and love. Then we fill our bags with photo frames, kitchen goodies (egg slicer to replace broken one, small spoons - yay I am so happy, vases, etc) and, boo to Ikea - they no longer have our favorite candle scent: ligonberry. What is up with that??? We do load up on ligonberry jam and concentrate (makes the best juice) and swedish fish (which are not as chewy as they used to be and therefore a waste of money). Then: Lunch. We like to eat here: meatballs with ligonberry jam, salmon with vegetable puffs (incredible!!), great coffee. Very reasonable and with the Ikea card (a rewards card, not a credit card) we get free coffee!! and discounts on our candles (settled for orange and lilac scents).
Now to the Inner Harbor and our favorite Hampton Inn. Check in and go to walk the harbor front. We have a cocktail at the Rusty Scupper (looks like a really good deal for happy hour and we may go next time we're in town) and then hit the Visionary Arts Museum - a really strange collection of art from, mostly, untrained artists who use a variety of mediums and, to my eye, have a wildly varying degree of talent LOL. Not my favorite, but we have the Cleveland Museum of Art and I can indulge in the Impressionists here at home. Point goes to: Paris on the Cuyahoga.
For dinner: Joe Squared. We'd seen it on previous trips here (Clementines a senior) but never stopped. I saw it featured on the Food Network and said hey we gotta go. Crazy busy, fabulous waitstaff and really good food. Concentration is pizza - we tried bacon and clam, yum, but they have wonderful looking chicken wings, vegan options and great salads: we did the avacado shrimp. I love that everything in Baltimore smells of Old Bay Seasoning. Side note, I grew up in the 'burbs of Washington DC so it's like coming home. Get some Old Bay and cook some shrimp in beer with some of that gold dust. Heaven.
Next day we take the trolley tour. It originates from the Visitor's Center in the Inner Harbor. Our guide "Doc" Bob was the best! He had a wardrobe of hats (King Charles's bejeweled beret, Uncle Sam's top hat etc) and was informative and entertaining. We saw a lot of things we've already visited in the past 3 years but it was great to hear his commentary and learn some new stuff. We also congratulated ourselves on how much we'd actually done and seen on our own.
For dinner we go to Hampden a gentrified area of shops, residences, restaurants etc for dinner at the Corner Charcuterie - and it did remind us of Paris. Cocktails with olives, roasted (in duck fat) fingerlings and then on to wine and a wonderful cheese plate hand selected by the chef. The waitress took our likes to him and then he came out with 2 gorgeous plates of cheese with accoutrements: jams, figs, nuts, pickled things and toasts. I love to sample and take my time and it was a wonderful way to relax en famille.
Saturday was move in. She's got a nice townhouse and is the first one to move in so we quickly get her stuff out of the van and into her new "home" so we can hit Miss Shirley's for brunch before Jake and I have to hightail it home (I have a gig Saturday night that I cannot miss). We've always loved Miss Shirley's and, even tho this time was a bit of a disappointment for me - my poached eggs were just too runny and not hot enough), I'd recommend you try her out if you are ever in B'more. She's an institution and has some wonderful, unusual breakfast/brunch/lunch menu items.
La

Book Review!

I've read most of  the "french inspired" lifestyle books that have been released over the years. Periodically I've reviewed a few on the blog. I just finished reading 2 - one is a new release "My Paris Dream" by Kate Betts and the other other was published in 2013 (but is new to me!) "French Women Don't Get Facelifts" by Mireille Guiliano. 

I had high hopes for "My Paris Dream" and they weren't fulfilled. Perhaps they were too high?! Maybe I'm a bit jealous that I didn't hightail it to Paris after school and make living there a reality?!

Not sure of the answer to that, but I was disappointed with this memoir. Kate Betts, who ultimately became the editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar, came from a background of privilege: she was the 4th generation of her family to graduate from Princeton University. She paints herself as a fairly regular girl who bucked the system and followed her dream of living in Paris instead of becoming a New York money making machine like many of her fellow graduates. It seems a bit of a stretch (to me anyway) that she ended up working for Fairchild's Women's Wear Daily without any use of her familial connections. Fairchild himself was a Princeton grad. If I had enjoyed her writing style and her exposition more that would not be an issue, but I felt that something was missing from this retelling of her story: more detail, more honesty, more explanation of the slang words used and more juicy, insider details about, for example, Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld, both of whom she worked with. Some writers have made me drool when evoking Paris or Italy, this memoir did not.

On a brighter note, I enjoyed Mireille Guiliano's latest instructional manual much more and I can definitely tell you why. First, she is of the less is more school, very no nonsense and practical. Secondly her information is spot on! She discusses, for instance, estrogen and Vitamin C and her recommendations are the latest, most scientifically supported! I know this because, just this week, I met with the Cleveland Clinic's Holly Thacker who is one of the preeminent women's health doctors in the world and her recommendations to me were exactly the same!! 

Here's to one of my favorite things: reading. Cheers, La