Fountainebleau : C'est tres beau!

My parents are here (yay!) and we had an excellent weekend. It was filled with wine, food, and a little adventure. Yesterday, we hopped on a train at Gare De Lyon and went to a beautiful town called Fountainebleau to visit a chateau and Andrew's school (!!). I had never been out there before, so it was an excellent opportunity to site see, with a little business mixed in.

[side note: there are a million train stations in Paris (at least 5 that I can think of) and did you know that by the name of the station you generally know where the trains come from? For at least 3 stations....Gare Du Nord (station from the north), Gare De L'est (station from the east), Gare De Lyon (station from Lyon...or south). You may have already figured this out, but I had never put put two and two together and it blew my mind a little bit.)]

Okay, back to Fountainebleau. (Another thing that blew my mind: I've been spelling it wrong forever. It's fountainEbleau. An extra E is thrown in there...just realizing this post is making me look very unitelligent ha). Anywho, the chateau is gorgeous. It's the summer palace of many kings and queens, as well as Napoleon (I,II, and III). In addition to being awe inspired, Andrew and I walked away feeling a tad bit ignorant on French History. (Who was Francois I again? Why are there multiple napoleons? Why are we so stupid? and/or why is the North American Education system so poor? j/k to all my teacher friends :-)) Anywho, I took lots of fun pictures and have vowed to read a book on the French Revolution (orrrrr at the very least watch Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette again doh).

Let's start with the grounds. Stunning. Can't wait to see it in the spring, but there is something beautiful about an ominous sky and naked trees.

The inside is gorgeous. The french clearly understand opulence and Fountainebleau is no exception. After seeing the 15th gilted ceiling you start to understand why the French revolution happened (and question why it didn't happen sooner).

I also noticed there were a ton of chairs everywhere (many I would love to steal and put in my apartment). A lot of sitting was done back in the day apparently.

Also, the detailing is magnificent. Below are two of my favorite examples from the party room. The salamander is the symbol of Francois I (or 'brand logo' as I like to call it. An old example of marketing at its finest -- a salamander was apparently known for being able to resist fire...take that enemies!). The other are 3 interlacing crescent moons. They are either supposed to be a C for his wife Catherine or could be construed as a D for Diane his favorite. Bit of a stretch, but a fun story none-the-less.

And lastly, here are some pictures of INSEAD yay! The campus is approximately a 10 minute walk away from the Chateau, which is pretty cool if I do say so myself. The town is quite charming, with a mix of an old french feel, with some busier commerce. The juxtaposition is seen quite well actually in the pics below -- on the left is the old chateau in which the strategy department is housed (how cool!?), coupled with a beautiful, modern and angular building on the main campus. I'm looking forward to making this my country home next year. So proud of you Andrew!

Chez Moi

The subway had 'technical difficulties' this morning and I decided to work from home. I don't normally get to enjoy the apartment in the morning light (and there hasn't been sunlight for a while), so it has inspired me to do a post on my apartment, which I adore.

Starting with: My view working from home. Not too shabby, eh?

We're on the second floor (3rd to you North americans) of a traditional Haussman building. Which means, we have a balcony! According to my intern, traditional haussman buildings have 5 floors. The ground floor is for retail. The one above that is traditionally for the people who own the shop. The second floor is the first of the 'tradiontally more well off' people flats, which is why there is a balcony. The 3rd floor used to house the servants quarters for the 2nd floor people, the 4th floor is the servants quarters for the 5th floor people and the 5th floor is the other well off family (hence a balcony again). Don't know how accurate this is, but it makese sense to me. Nowadays, clearly they all have been transformed into normal apartments.

Moving on (I feel like I'm in Cribs...remember trhat show?), is the living room.

So, I don't know much about the man who owns my apartment, but I do know he likes leather. We have 3 (!!) leather couches. From this detail (and a few others), Andrea and I have crafted a creative story about his life. We think he is a bachelor. We thought he may be gay (good decorating), but perhaps he's just perpetually single, career focused, and rich enough to hire a decorator. We thought he was german as he seems meticulous (turns out he's from Venice). He clearly didn't spend too much time in the apartment -- perhaps every other weekend -- whisking off to Asia and the middle east for very important meetings about bank mergers and IPOs....anywho, you get the point. We have too much time on our hands.

Next, the dining room (although I didn't take a pic of the table hmmm minor detail).

Two important things. I'm obsessed with my bookshelf! Thank you Ikea for giving us a place to display fun knick knacks. Second thing, not sure if you can tell but that is not a working fireplace. Notice how we don't even pretend-- that my friends is our wine storage. You can tell our priorities. And the fact that I've killed the orchird Charisse gave me. Sad face.

So if I were on cribs, I'd definitely have to do the mandatory 'what's in your fridge' segment. Welcome to that segment. Our fridge is basically a commercial for Activia. Can you tell I work for a yogurt company? Oh and we have wine and cheese. Once again, priorities.

Two other awesome things about our kitchen....Check out the rack for silverware in the dishwasher! So genius and clever, I've always thought it was awkwad getting silverware out of a dishwasher (another reason why we thought the owner was either german or perhaps swedish). The second is my favorite saying on a postcard that Andrea picked up. It's by voltaire, who happens to be the namesake of our metro stop. It says (en francais), "I decided to be happy because it's good for the health." True.

And here is the bedroom. If I were in cribs, I would say "This is where the magic happens." 

Lasly, the bathroom. We are incredibly fortunate to have huge bathroom, which I feel like is rare in europe. HOWEVER, to quote Cam Davison, 'Showering in Europe is Awkward,' and ours is no exception. Don't know if you can tell, but that piece of glass only goes about 3/4 of the way (WHY??). Which is normally fine, but on more than one occasion the shower nozzle has accidentally not been pointed the right direction and I've flooded the bathroom. I am not the only one, it's happened no less than 3 times. Whoops. And why no lip or something to block the water? Also, no bathtub....sad panda.

And that's it. Once again, to quote cribs "I don't care where you go, but you can't stay here. See ya" I've clearly seen one too many rappers give tours of their home. Thank you MTV.

Happy Birthday @ Natalie's News!!!

Okay, so Natalie's birthday is actually tomorrow. BUT since I'm not really a weekend blogger, I figured a day early was better than forgetting! Happy Birthday Natalia!!!! I'm so lucky to have you in my life :) (pic below is not the best of all of us, but it was such a good time it makes up for it....one of the many good times we've had and will continue to have!)

Wordless Wednesday

I've been inspired by one of my favorite blogs (@natalie's news) to do a wordless wednesday. Mainly because I'm stressed for time, but feeling guilty that I haven't written anything in a while haha. So enjoy a few instagrams from Paris I took last week.

Have I mentioned how much I love instagram? (okay, so much for wordless wednesday) I've always loved photography (as a 'conceptual' artist, I find photography was the one way I could express myself articstically, since I can't draw, paint, or sculpt to save my life). Anywho, a bulk digital SLR is great, but hard when you're on the go, or in a sort of sketchy place, or just walking around the city in your daily life. I've found instagram has really stirred and reignited my love of photography and I'm documenting my life a lot more.

If you're an instagram user, let's be friends! click here to follow me.
  

Wayfare magazine...How do you understand me so perfectly??

"We recognize that travel is not defined by how many miles you cover. It’s about finding inspiration along the way and celebrating the everyday moments. It’s about the spirit of discovery – breaking out of your routine to unwind, connect, and learn.  It’s this desire to go, to celebrate and to experience that drives everything we do."

Beautiful quote. Beautiful Mission. Beautiful Magazine. Check out: wayfaremag.com if you feel the same way.

Relish And Quaff: Le Garde Robe

So Andrea and I clearly have been spending too much time together lately...I was about to sit down and write an entry about our favorite wine bar Le Garde Robe, when I clicked over to Relish and Quaff and saw that she had just written a post!

No matter...the place is so fantastic it is well deserved of two posts. I've now been to many a wine bar in this city, but every time I head back to Le Garde Robe. It has stayed at the top of the list for a few reasons: relaxed and casual atmosphere, consistently good and inexpensive wine and cheese, and smoked filet mignon. Yes, you heard me right. Smoked.Filet.Mignon. It's filet, that's smoked! Absolutely awesome. The texture is like soft, pillowy steak and the taste is a mix between a fine jerky (oxymoron?) and saucisson sec. Yum Yum Yum.

This wine bar was confusing to me the first time we visited because we didn't quite understand how to order wine...It's a mix between a wine store and a wine bar (more bar, than store) and the wines are lined up in shelves to the left with two prices on the bottle: one to stay, one to take away. Talk about exposing your margin! But this is pretty typical in France, I've seen a lot of 'wine bars' do it. Generally, it's minus 30% to take home. Really makes you think :)

I plan on going again tonight with a dear friend from Dannon US. I can't wait to see what they have in store for me!

Chateau Vincennes

Did you know that this Chateau pictured above is really close to Paris? Like not in 'versailles' paris (which is close, but not close at all) but like a 10 minute drive, 22 minute bike ride or a 35 minute run from my house? It's Chateau Vincennes and I discovered it on Saturday and am totally amazed. First off, IT'S HUGE!!! The castle part itself is not the biggest I've seen, but the structure takes up an incredible amount of space. It's also magnifed by the fact that it's 'on the subway' line close to Paris....You're just minding your own business, going down a beautiful parisian street and then BAM huge ass castle. Gotta love France.

We visited the chateau on saturday when we decided to go on a bit of an adventure, which started by renting a bike via the Velib service here in paris. For those of you unfamiliar, it's a shared bike service which is pure genius. I pay 29 euro a year and I have unlimited bike use for up to 30 minutes. If you want to bike for more than 30 minutes, put the bike back and take out another one, or pay a euro or two extra. Easy as that! And they are all over Paris, so it's quite convenient. The hard part is biking in Paris. I must say that I've used bad weather as an excuse as to avoid trying this service, but really I was just being scared. I find walking terrifying in Paris somtimes (Motorbikes are the worst!!) so I could only imagine biking. Alors, determined to tackle our fears, we grabbed a bike and set our destinies on Chateau Vincennes.

The second part of the adventure was not only seeing Chateau Vincennes but going for a run around the Parc Vincennes. Unlike other major cities, there aren't really 'central' parks in which to run in Paris. And that makes it quite difficult as a runner because there are cars everywhere and you end up having to stop a lot or people honk at you and it's just a disaster. Considering I don't like gyms and I'm not keen on getting run over by a car, I needed to find another solution to exercise (and no, running through the cemetry pere lachaise is forbidden, despite looking like beautiful green space on a map. We know first hand). So we set our sites on Parc Vincennes and it did not disappoint. It was a huge, had lots of paths, tons of trees, grass, dogs...I was truly one with nature (or perhaps as one with nature you can get within the confines of Paris).

And it had the added bonus of an ancient chateau! Culture + exercise, what a pair! The chateau "like most chateaux' according to wikipedia was constructed as a hunting lodge for one of the Louis Kings. It's actually quite a famous castle, many of the kings were married there it's been added onto throughout the years (fortified, as they say). It was abandoned in the 18th century, made into a porcelain factory, a state prison (in the 1700s so not like those kind of prisons) and now is a beautiful place to go for a run. I highly recommend it.