What a Weekend! (Part Two)

Continued from "What a Weekend (Part One)"...

After spending Friday night in Lyon, eating at one of the best restaurants in France, Melanie and I boarded a train headed to the town of Meximieux, which was right next to our ultimate destination: the medieval village of Pérouges.

We were hoping to catch a taxi in Meximieux, and we saw one as we stepped off the train, but we stood outside the terminal in the hot sun for almost 20 minutes and barely saw any cars go by, let alone another taxi.  Our French isn't good enough to call a cab, so we were feeling a little stuck, but after consulting Google Maps on my iPhone I realized that Pérouges was only about a 25 minute walk away, so we decided to give it a shot.

Melanie has a bum knee, it was pretty hot, and the village is on a hill... so after about five minutes we were already starting to regret our decision.  We had turned off the main street and were walking down a small deserted alley when, believe it or not, an empty cab came driving by.  We flagged it down and ten minutes later we were at the Pérouges gate.

I swear I could see axe and battering ram marks in what was left of the massive wooden door.

I had assumed that our room would be in some sort of hotel, but the guest quarters were in various buildings scattered around town.  Here are some pictures of where we stayed:

The woman from the hotel told us that our building was constructed in the 1400's.

Our room was lovely, and packed with antique chairs, chests, and tables.

The courtyard beneath the window in our room.

Even the key to our building felt authentic! How cool is that?

It was a warm day and our room was a little stuffy, so we threw open the windows to let in a breeze. We sat there for about half an hour, planning out our day, when suddenly and mysteriously one set of windows closed.  There didn't seem to be a breeze, and the other set of windows on the same wall didn't move a millimeter -- but it was like an invisible hand just reached up and slowly but firmly pushed them both closed.

I was looking forward to some ghostly hi-jinks later that night, but sadly that was the only strange thing that happened.

Pérouges is an incredibly beautiful little village and Melanie and I nearly filled our cameras up taking picture after picture.

The flower-filled streets were lined with vendors, restaurants, museums, and more.

The town's first well was dug in the 12th century. The mechanical parts were added sometime in the 1800's.

At certain times of the year old-fashioned minstrels stroll through the streets playing music!

We stayed in a different building, but this was our hotel: Hostellerie du Vieux Pérouges

After walking around the city for awhile we got pretty thirsty, so we stopped at Le Veneur Noir ("The Black Huntsman") to drink some cold beer and have a bite to eat.

Nothing tastes better on a warm day than an ice cold beer with your best friend. And you can't beat this setting!

That night we had a terrific dinner at the hotel.  We were still pretty full from Friday's extravagance but the food was so good we didn't mind loading up again.

The dining room at the hotel was absolutely charming.

I ordered scallops and they were nice and light... and delicious!

After the never-ending cacophony of noise outside our apartment in Paris, the silence of our hotel room, even with the windows wide open, was almost deafening.  We slept like babies.

The next morning I got up early and looked outside.  There was a mist hanging over the town in the distance so I held my iPad out the window and snapped a picture to show Melanie.  I had absolutely no idea what I was taking a picture of, or even if the iPad was level, so I was kind of shocked when I saw the picture:

I took this picture completely blind, but it came out kind of nice, don't you think?

We had planned to catch another taxi back to Meximieux but the owner of the hotel told us that it can be hard to find one.  So he pulled his car around and drove us himself!  Outstanding service.  (We tried to give him a little money for his trouble but he refused to take it.)

Unfortunately, we got to the city a little earlier than expected and had about an hour wait for our train back to Lyon.  Melanie and I were sitting on some covered benches next to the track, reminiscing about our adventure, when out of NOWHERE a high speed TGV train suddenly came screaming by us.

HOLY CRAP!!!

Melanie's eyes got as big as saucers and I just stood there with my mouth open, mid-sentence. Seven seconds later it was gone but I think it was several more minutes before our hearts started beating again.

That thing scared me more than any roller coaster I've ever been on.  I'm not sure why it had such an effect but I guess because it was just ON us, with barely any warning.  One minute we're listening to birds tweeting and talking quietly about our recent adventures, the next minute this giant metal beast is SCREAMING past us, ten feet away, at almost 300 KM per hour.  If that thing had jumped the tracks there would have been nothing left of us to even identify.

Ten minutes later it happened again, and it was almost as scary as the first time.  Melanie said, in all seriousness, "If that thing comes by again I'm going to have a heart attack."  I was hoping to capture the excitement on my camera, but I sat there in a ready position for nearly an hour and no more trains came by.

Despite being nearly scared to death on the final day, we had a phenomenal weekend.  I know I've said this many times before but we feel so blessed to have this opportunity.  So thanks to Corentin and Bastion and the other folks at Pretty Simple who made our adventure possible.  We're so very grateful.

What a Weekend! (Part One)

ANNOUNCER VOICE:  "Melanie and I ate dinner at a 3 star restaurant, spent the night in a 500 year old hotel, almost had heart attacks in the Meximieux train station, and MORE on this week's edition of 'PARIS OVER 50'!"  <cue music>

Yep, we just returned home from a glorious weekend trip to central France!  Check out Melanie's awesome fish course from Friday night:

Fillet of red mullet with crispy potato scales and cream sauce.

More on our delicious meal at one of the top restaurants in France a bit later...

We have been wanting to visit a quaint French village since Melanie and I moved to this country almost ten months ago, so Friday morning we piled into an Uber car and headed off to Paris's Gare de Lyon railway station, which you may remember from my Italy for the Weekend post. After several weeks of research we had settled on the medieval village of Pérouges, which is only about 30 minutes from another place we've been wanting to visit, so we decided to spend our first night in Lyon, and head over to Pérouges on Saturday.

Lyon is the third largest city in France, and one of the gastronomic capitals of the world!

Although we couldn't stand him at first, Melanie and I have become big fans of chef/author/TV personality: Anthony Bourdain.  His shows about France were really inspirational during the arduous process of selling our house, and trashing or donating 95% of our earthly belongings; and we particularly enjoyed the episode he did in Lyon.  It taught us all about perhaps the most famous chef in the history of France, Paul Bocuse.

In 2011 Paul Bocuse was named "Chef of the Century" by the Culinary Institute of America!

As it so happens, Paul Bocuse's 3 Michelin star restaurant is in Lyon, and we knew this was an extravagance we we just couldn't pass up.  We checked into our hotel, had a very light lunch, and then Ubered it over to the restaurant.

The L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges has had 3 Michelin stars for over 50 years, longer than any other restaurant.

We had reservations at 8:00 but we arrived a bit early.  This was no problem and the staff lead us to our seats straight away.

To be honest, the outside of the restaurant is a bit gaudy.  (Orange and green? Really?)  But inside it's very elegant, and was everything we expected.

The walls of the restaurant are adorned with old pictures of Bocuse and other famous chefs.

Naturally, we had already looked at the menu online and debated about what to order for more hours than I'm comfortable admitting.  I'll take you through our courses:

It wasn't on the menu, but this creamy tomato soup starter was incredible.

Duck foie gras with passion fruit sauce and crispy potato. Tremendous!

 Filet of sole with noodles à la Fernand Point. This may look simple but the caramelized cream sauce was sublime!

Our complementary palate cleanser: a delightful "Winemaker's Sherbet".

Filet de Boeuf Rossini, sauce Périgueux. (Perfect steak, foie gras, truffle sauce, potatoes... maybe the best thing ever.)

This was the pre-dessert dessert: creme chocolat et griottet (thick chocolate cream with a morello cherry). Addictive!

To be bluntly honest, we should have stopped after the pre-dessert and our meals would have been perfect. But they had three *tables* full of all-you-can-eat cakes and other sweet goodies for a pretty reasonable price. We couldn't pass that up... even though we should have.  Don't get me wrong, the desserts were not bad, they were just sort of... average.  We were already quite full and the sweet stuff really pushed us over the top.  We left the restaurant feeling decidedly... blech.

I got 3 desserts: baba au rhum cake, île flottante, and spiced Beaujolais with fresh fruit. (The latter was very good.)

This meal was definitely a splurge, but we're really glad we did it.  Everything we ordered was either really good or outstanding (with the exception of the desserts).  The whole meal took nearly three hours and it was great to see everyone around us having such a good time.  For example, when they brought in the dessert tables for the first couple, everyone immediately took out their cameras to take pictures.  The elegantly dressed man at the table looked at all the food and muttered, "We're not getting out of here alive!"

We took a cab back to our hotel and somehow managed to roll ourselves into bed.  We slept like logs and woke up still feeling full, but pretty good, all things considered.  We checked out of the hotel and caught an Uber to the train station.

Next stop: Pérouges!

Summer Travel Plans!

We've had a few rainy days, but for the most part it has been beautiful in Paris for the last couple of weeks.  Melanie and I really have the travel bug right now so we are excited for our upcoming trip to Ireland (our first time), but we haven't made any specific plans yet.  Our daughter Autumn is coming for a short visit next month (yay!!) and we'll probably head off to Ireland after she leaves.

Incidentally, Autumn's visit was supposed to be a surprise for Melanie's birthday, but she bought her plane tickets using a joint bank account and Melanie happened to get online and see a picture of the check. I came home from work that day and heard, "Why did Autumn write a check and make a note that it's for Portugal and France trip???"

"Uh... err... I have no idea.  I have to go to the restroom..."

I slunk off to the bathroom and immediately texted Autumn to see what she wanted me to do. From the kitchen I heard Melanie yell: "Are you texting Autumn right now"?

"Uh... err...  no..."

Shit.

It's probably just as well that the secret got out, as I'm not very good at keeping those damn things. After Autumn and I made our secret plans I caught myself, more than once, saying to Melanie, "When Autumn comes-- comforts... when Autumn COMFORTS her cats... I wonder what... she... um... says to them?" To which Melanie would reply, "...what!?  What is WRONG with you???"

Autumn won't be here until the middle of August, so in the meantime we would like to take some short weekend trips to explore France, and I'm happy to report that we have finally decided on our initial getaway!

First, we're going to spend a day in Lyon, the third largest city in France and supposedly one of the gastronomic capitals of the world.  (Paul Bocuse, the world famous French chef, has a 3 star restaurant there, and we're thinking about splurging on a meal!)

Lyon, a city in France’s Rhône-Alpes region, sits at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers.

Then, the following day, we're traveling to Pérouges, a medieval walled town about 30 km northeast of Lyon.

Pérouges is perched on a small hill that overlooks the plain of the Ain River.

According to Wikipedia, Pérouges was founded in the 1100's by a Gallic colony returning from Perugia in Italy.  In those early days it was mostly inhabited by craftsmen, farmers and linen weavers.

French maïs hanging above the patio of a restaurant. I think this is at the hotel where we will be staying.

In 1167, the Seigneur d'Anthon famously shut the commune's walls against the troops of the Archbishop of Lyon, and as early as 1236 the inhabitants earned communal freedom.

Pérouges is often used as the setting for period films by French directors and others.

In 1601 the town officially became French, and until the end of the 18th century, the textile industry in Pérouges boomed. In the 19th century, however, roads and railroads were re-routed and the population dropped from 1,500 to 90. Starting in about 1911, the town was restored and many of the original houses were saved.

Although a very small town there are several excellent restaurants in Pérouges.

Here are a couple of shots of our hotel:

We will be staying at the Ostellerie de Pérouges,in the heart of town.

The restaurant serves regional specialties like morel mushrooms, crayfish, and the famed Bresse chicken.

Even the rooms have a certain old world charm.

We're very excited and I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures and stories to share when we get home!

Dammit! The World is Too Beautiful...

Though my wife would frequently disagree I think I'm a reasonably intelligent guy. Except when it comes to world geography. On that subject I'm a complete and total idiot.

Don't believe me?

1. Until my daughter corrected me a few years ago I thought Spain was somewhere near Mexico. (They speak Spanish in Mexico so I figured the home country was nearby.)  
2. I didn't realize Mongolia was still a country.  
3. Until a week ago I thought that Northern Ireland was just the "top" part of Ireland.

Thankfully, now that I am living in Europe my world knowledge is slowly starting to improve. And France is so centrally located that it's very easy to actually visit some nearby countries and learn more about them.

But here's the thing... I think I somehow had it in my head that all the pictures I've seen over the years -- of those quaint French villages, Italian cities overlooking the ocean, and exotic Irish castles -- were just different views of the same handful of especially picturesque locations.  Obviously, that's not true at all.  France alone has so many incredible looking little villages we have no idea which ones to visit.

We've always wanted to see Ireland, so that's our next big vacation, but in the meantime we'd like to organize some weekend trips here in France.  But how on earth are we going to decide? Check out these pictures (which I liberally borrowed from various websites):

COLMAR

Considered one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Colmar is straight out of a fairy tale.

EGUISHEIM

Just a short distance from Colmar, Eguisheim is the birthplace of winegrowing in Alsace.

CASTLENAUD-LA-CHAPELLE

This medieval town overlooks the Dordogne River in southern France.

ANNECY

Annecy is an alpine village in southeastern France, where the River Thiou meets Lac d’Annecy.

LA ROQUE-GAGEAC

A little commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine, southwestern France.

SAINT PAUL DE VENCE

Saint-Paul-de-Vence is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.

SAINT CIRQ-LAPOPIE

Saint-Cirq-Lapopie is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France.

MONT SAINT-MICHEL

Le Mont-Saint-Michel is an island commune in Normandy, France.

ANGLES-SUR-L'ANGLIN

Angles-sur-l'Anglin is a commune in the Vienne department in the Poitou-Charentes region in western France.

SAINT-CÉNERI-LE-GÉREI

Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei lies nestled in a loop of the River Sarthe that is spanned by a small stone bridge.

GORDES

A commune in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. The residents are known as Gordiens.

DINAN

Dinan is one of the best preserved small towns in Brittany.

Welp, I Was Wrong. Some Parisians DO Understand BBQ!

Time for me to eat a little crow.  (No, not LITERALLY, that's just an American expression.)

Last week I wrote about how Parisians -- and even some Yanks -- don't understand BBQ.  Turns out I was wrong about the Parisians.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  But more on that in a minute.

This is what made me change my mind about Parisian BBQ

First, I want to tell you about a rather geeky tradition in our household called "BBQ Day".  It's a fairly recent practice, only becoming a "thing" after my wife bought me a "Big Green Egg" grill and smoker several years ago.

The Big Green Egg is a smoker AND a grill

My Egg used to let me grill steaks at 600 degrees (about 315 degrees Celsius), or I could barbecue a brisket for 18 hours at 225 degrees (about 107 degrees Celsius).  We had to get rid of the ol' girl when we moved to Paris and I miss her.  <sniff>

Okay, back to "BBQ Day".

STEP 1:  THE ANNOUNCEMENT
During the summer, if it looked like we were going to have some nice weather, I would suddenly proclaim to my wife, with as much regalness as I could muster, "Saturday... is BARBECUE DAY!" She would usually roll her eyes a little and sigh, deeply; but fortunately, she puts up with me and my shenanigans.

STEP 2:  PICK UP THE MEAT
During the week it was my wife's job to drive down to our meat place and pick up either a brisket or a pork butt.

For those of you taking notes:

brisket - a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of a cow
pork butt - the American name for a cut of pork that comes from the upper part of the shoulder

STEP 3: TRIM & RUB
Thursday night I'd trim up the meat (removing a lot of inedible fat), add my spice rub, and then wrap the meat in foil and stick it back in the refrigerator.

STEP 4:  THE FIRE
Friday night, a little before midnight, I'd clean out my Egg, load the bottom with hardwood charcoal and some aromatic wood chunks (like pecan, apple, or hickory), and then light it with a flamethrower.

The flamethrower was an efficient way to light the charcoal (and kinda fun)

Once the fire was well established I'd lower the lid and adjust the vents (top and bottom) to only allow a tiny bit of air in.  Pretty soon the wood would start smoldering and then I knew it was time for me to put the meat on and head off to bed.

STEP 5:  TRY TO SLEEP
Most smokers need constant tending, but the Green Egg is such an efficient cooker I never really had to worry about my fire. Didn't stop me from being concerned, though. I was always terrified I'd run downstairs the next morning to discover that my fire had gone out in the middle of the night, meaning that big hunk of meat -- and BBQ Day -- were both ruined. Never happened, though.

STEP 6:  A DELICIOUS ALARM CLOCK
Our bedroom was directly above the patio, so I can't even begin to tell you how good it smelled on Saturday morning. After 7 or 8 hours the meat would be starting to turn brown and the smell of the cooking meat, mingling with the pecan or apple wood smoke, would drift up from the patio and waft into our bedroom.  As birds chirped hello to the new day, and the occasional sprinkler played a soft ratatatat song in the neighbor's grass, that smoke would embrace us in a warm blanket of meaty goodness.  Heaven.

STEP 7: THE CALL
I don't know WHY I started doing this, and I'm not particularly proud of it, but my special day always started with an early morning call: "IT'S BBQ DAY, BITCHES!" (Seriously, don't ask me. I don't know why I started doing this.)

STEP 8: ALCOHOL
We used to begin drinking pretty early on BBQ Day, and we didn't eat breakfast or lunch, so it didn't take long before we were feeling really good.

STEP 9: BBQ SHOWS
At about 9:00 AM, drinks in hand, we'd start watching barbecue shows like "BBQ Pitmasters", "Man Fire Food", "BBQ Crawl", and many more.  One episode right after the other.

The host of "Man Fire Food" with what appears to be beef ribs

STEP 10: CHECK THE MEAT
After about 10 hours I'd start checking the meat. Pork butts are very forgiving when it comes to cooking times, but brisket is notoriously difficult to get just right.  It goes from tough, to perfect, to dry and falling apart, in a very short amount of time, so you have to know just when to pull it.

STEP 11:  WRAP & REST
When the meat would come off the Egg I'd wrap it in tin foil, a blanket, and then stick it in a cooler to rest for at least 30 minutes. I can't tell you how difficult this was because after drinking and NOT eating all day, and smelling that delicious meat, and torturing ourselves watching barbecue food porn on TV, we were ABSOLUTELY STARVING!

STEP 12:  TIME TO EAT!!!!
Oh, sweet lord. I'm not really a religious man, but when I bit into that first piece of meat I KNOW I heard a choir of angels singing. Each juicy, smoky, bite was divinely good. I won't lie, I sometimes shed a few tears.

*  *  *

So... after last week's blog post: "Parisians Don't Understand BBQ", several people recommended that I try "The Beast", a BBQ joint in the 3rd arrondissement.  I was already planning to do that sometime this summer but when I realized that it was going to be nice on Saturday I thought, "Hey, maybe we should try out The Beast this weekend!"  And then it hit me.  We... could... have... a... BBQ... DAY... HERE... IN... PARIS!!! (Minus the part where I actually COOK the barbecue, of course.)

So that's what we did.

To be honest, I expected The Beast's barbecue to be somewhere between "terrible" and "okay". It has really good reviews online, but as you can probably tell by now I'm very particular on this subject.  I think I know good BBQ and even a lot of the restaurants in the United States don't measure up to my exacting standards. (It should be noted that I've yet to eat at any of the authentic places in Texas, Kansas, or the Carolinas.)

I got to the restaurant a little early, so while I was waiting for them to open I grabbed a beer from a bar down the street. It was nice, sitting outside, enjoying the warm weather, watching the world go by, and waiting for some, hopefully, good food.

The Beast isn't a very big restaurant, but it sure smells good in there!

My friend Steve said that when you walk into The Beast you can immediately smell the smoke and the cooking meat.  It even lingers on your clothes after you leave.  He was right!  This was a promising sign of hopefully good things to come!

I was going to be bringing the food back to Melanie, and I wanted to get a decent sample of their fare, so I ordered the following 'emporter' (that means "to go" in French):

• 1 beef rib
• 1 order of baby back ribs
• 1 order of brisket
• 1 order of pulled pork
• 1 order of mac and cheese
• 1 order of bbq beans
• 1 order of steamed greens
• 2 biscuits  

I was a little weak in the knees by the time I got the food home.  I'm not really a huge fan of beef ribs (they are always a little tough) but for some reason I decided to try my rib first. Maybe because it was taking up so much room on my plate.  See pic below.

This was my plate, with the big beef rib right in the middle and some sides, in cups, at the top

The first thing I noticed is that I could pull the meat off the bone with my fingers.  I've never seen a beef rib as tender as this one.  And the flavor.  Holy cow!  It was smoky, beefy, and the barbecue sauce gave it a wonderful tang and just a hint of heat.  Outstanding!

With excitement I dug into the rest of the food, and with the exception of the biscuits everything was amazing -- especially the meat dishes.

I was pleasantly surprised.  We will definitely be returning to The Beast the next time we have a BBQ Day.  Which may be next weekend...

Just kidding...

Or maybe not.