Chocolate croissants

Oh France I have attempted something that I have longed for since visiting Paris. And it's all thanks to Anita....and the duchess bakery. 

Let me elaborate. Anita, for my birthday, gave me the dear gift of the duchess bakery cookbook. And within that cookbook is highly delectable desserts from pies, cookies, macaroons, and what I attempted on Sunday and finished today....

The chocolate croissant. Mark and I have been vying after them since we had our first bite in Paris. And I have to say, my first attempt seems like a success.

It was quite a process though. Serious process of 6 to 24 hours to an additional hour after. And after all that I got only 7 of them. And really just three as we each inhaled two, right out of the oven. 

Winter can be so fun to just bake goodies, can't it?!

Love

the hike...

as we prep to go on one this upcoming mind i started to think of the past hike attempt we did this summer. this hike took a LOT of compromise and work to come about. mark loves loves loves hiking with all his heart. when we initially thought of going to europe our three week trip had a two week hike planted firmly in the middle. needless to say i wasn't very pleased, and made it quite known. in the end we figured it out, all was well and a week hike was planned.

i have to say, with all the hustle and bustle in paris, i (yes its true) was looking forward to a little escape into the mountains. seeing nature in its finest. what we soon realized was that canada is pretty fantastic and really just impossible to beat! way to go our country.

to play fair, our one attempt at hiking did not fair well. we went in pretty sick doing this climb. it was suppose to be a 5 hour hike that took us 8 hours to do. we had 1500mL between the two of us and ran out of water about 5 hours in. when we went to get the to the water source, unfortunately they had closed up for the day, leaving us significantly parched. we did find water, but not in the most hiker responsible way. AND to top it off. the pass between the swiss/france border that we worked so hard to cross. many took the gondala to do the same. leaving us a lttle weary and defeated.

but we came out with plenty of stories, wonderful pictures and (still some) spectacular sights. AND i did get to do my running in the mountains once in the swiss alps. in addition we saw plenty of olympics in between our sleep deprived sickness. that was the one motivator that brought us to london to continue our wonderful european getaway.

love

A lot of churches can be a lot of fun

It has come. The un-motivating force of being sick of school. He he. And by that I mean papers and assignments. I loathe you. So instead of thinking of that I have been baking, scrapbooking and thinking a bit about travels that have been.

That travels means churches. We saw lots of churches. You would think after being in the fifth one we would have been sick of it but they just seemed to be more intricate, have a more fascinating story and hold a magnificent mystique. Not to mention holding some pretty famous people from kings, queens, philosophers and artists (even if those said people never wanted to be there in the first place).

Two of my favs were Westminster abbey and an extravagant one in Sienna. So many wonderful stories, beautiful architecture and my love for stained glass came out. ahhhh. Heart. I have said it before, but one must do an audio tour where ever they tour!

Mark, enjoyed them too. Churches hold all the history he loves and with that many things to look and examine. Again something fun to watch in him as he enjoyed so much of it!

Well off to procrastinate some more!
love

museums i heart you!

i have an over fondness of museums. and in particular art museums. i don't know if i grew up with this taste. i know we visited quite a few when i was young, from the space museum, to a medical one in manitoba, to of course the provincial one where i live today. i think the one that impacted me the most was when i went to the beaverbrook gallery in new brunswick and saw "santiago el grande" by salvador dali. it was huge and magnifcent. it seemed like my dad and i stood there for quite sometime taking it all in. that was when i felt i loved art.

after that i took off. a high school trip to italy we traveled to florence and saw the "madonna della seggiola" by raphael and the "birth of venus" by sandro botticelli and the work of michelangelo's in the sistine chapel at the vatican. then jeaninne and i continued to hit hot spots in new york where i fell in love with the guggenheim, "starry night" by van gogh in the moma, and toured as much as we could in the met.

when the honeymoon trip came up i did have a few dreams of seeing other pieces of work. the real david in florence (something truly magnificent), was one. but the absolute, the one place that i wanted to spend a vast amount of my time and one of the MAIN reasons for going to paris was to visit the louvre and see the mona lisa.

luckily i married the right man as he also has a fondness for museums like myself. he tends to spend most of his time in the antiquities section, being immersed in the ancient histories and cultures. i humor him there, as he examines the walls with writings, the sculptures with intimidating beasts attached and the armor used in battle. AND he humors me in the art section. listening to the artists motivations, watching me as i piece out the detail of a painting and analyze the brushstrokes.

we did not take this louvre tour lightly. suiting up with our audio tours around our neck we ventured off to discover all we could. after that we got another tour this time with someone that specialized in art who could explain all the masterpeices in the museum and show us where they were. AND just a side note about that tourguide, we enjoyed him thoroughly as he had a combination of humor, passion for art and he looked like elvis!

after that (because certainly that is not enough time to spend), we ventured off again on our own private tour to catch more of da vinci's work, and see more french history.

a definite highlight and renewed love was found again.
love

let her eat cake!

one of my favourite places that we visited was one that i had never considered even going to. this was all mark's doing as he was interested in taking a trip down to see versailles. i was even more inclined to say let's not do it as it was quite a debacle getting there in the first place.

that morning we were suppose to get up early to catch the metro that would take us to a train station that would get us to versailles. alas, with the late nights in paris we may have slept in a little. that mistake would cost us later on.

presently we got dressed and headed down to the metro from our place. that was when we found out the metro wasn't working in that area. signs posted said to take the bus. when we stopped at a bus stop it looked like it wasn't in service on the day we wanted. alas. by then we had acquired some friends from montana who were there for a photography class for their school. as we tried to figure it out, mark just thought, hey we have done it before, why don't we just walk it. the girls were not as inclined as they really wanted to wait for the bus. as we walked along the seine mark spotted a specific bus available just to take people down to the train for versailles. we gathered up the girls and off we went.

after all that hoopla we get there only to find the most extraordinary palace followed by the most extraordinary lines! AHHH. not only was there an hour and a half line up to get tickets, but there was a two hour line up just to get into the palace. hence we should of got up earlier! lol. this came the point where i kept silent but in my head was thinking, why does mark want to go here so bad, will this really be worth it? i am glad i kept it silent! he he he.

as we were in the first line-up two ladies came up to us and another man and wondered if we were together. we said no, but inquired and they proceeded to say that they had three tickets that they would sell us for the same value as they purchased them by mistake. done. the three of us went to the next line. then as we were in that line for roughly a half hour a young boy asked us if we would switch places with him and his mother who were quite close to the gates. asking why, the boy replied that his dad was waiting in the first line trying to get tickets. we agreed only if we could take the gentleman that went with us in the first place.

then we saw this:

the amount of gold, art, and just shear opulence was amazing. AND i know marie-antoinette did not have a role in everything but i decided to give her all the credit because it was amazing. mark just rolled his eyes at me. he he he. and even though there were swarms of people in the hall of mirrors it still held an awe factor. my favourite thing in the palace.

but little did we know the best was yet to come as we went outside into the gardens:

it was the lovely. here you could take rowing boats and paddle through out the whole lake (which was huge, we never even got to finish walking it!). drift over to marie-antoinette's personal headquarters (because on top of a palace one needs their own house). or just wander around (like we did) enjoying the flowers, swans and music playing in the background.

i enjoyed the music so much so (from the water fountain show):

that i felt the need to dance. it was lovely.

that was our versailles experience...
till next time!
love