So East it's Ouest

So basically the coolest thing has happened.  When talkin car, yeah you know guy talk and all that: piston, horsepower, chassis, spark plug...I mentioned that my favorite car in France is an old style Renault I didn't even know the name of it.  When in the midst of the conversation a friend says I have one of those.  'Yeah I drive it in the summer, it's a really fun drive'. Uh excuse me, first thought maybe I could sit in it and take a picture second thought maybe I could drive it a tad.  'I have to fix a few things up on her'.  Awh no go, ah well.  One week later 'you know I lent this car out to a friend awhile back, once I get her up and running well again would you like to have it for a bit?'   Jaw drop, rent this little gem of a car?  Tool around in the countryside with a little no heat, no power steering, no vacuum brake beauty?  Uh yes!  And so it was that in early March I was given the gardian ship of Gerty Blue otherwise known as...

Ducks are so nice.        I love ducks.      They      are  delicious.   S outhern France how I love your love of duck.  Foie gras (inh umane I kno w, a discussion for another time) , cuisse de canard confit, magret du canard, oscillicoccimum, parmentier au canard...etc etc.  The south west especially is known for their love of chicken's more classy and dignified (noisy) water cousin the duck or canard { kaa-nar} in French.  Try duck and you will taste the difference.  Duck has much more dark meat and a richer flavor and a much thicker layer of fat under their skin.  It also has to be cooked well in order to be nummy (or nummy nummy nummy), if it's overlooked it will be tough and chewy. In the southwest however they take duck to a whole 'nother level.  They feel that duck fat is healthy for you.  In fact they swear by it.  Say what?!  The people in...

After a week of pure misery I took the chance and met with Lydia in Lille in order to go together to Charleroi airport in Belgium.  We had a 7:00 flight to catch and a 3:00am bus to catch to get us there.  Angela made us both a delicious dinner and I hungerly ate up my first meal of the week.  That didn't go well and left me in misery for the next few hours, thankfully I caught two hours of sleep and miraculously awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed and so did Lydia.  At the airport I was patted down, I think my bruised eyes and overall druggy look set off some alarms.  We were herded like cattle on to the packed til bursting cheap Ryanair flight to Prague.   What can I say about Prague....  Go there, get your bags packed and get a move on.  I guess I really didn't think that Prague was going to be quite as awesome as it is, I was thinking that it would be starkly communist or dark and gothic but oh no no.  This is the capital of Bohemia everyb...

This is late in coming since I am now surrounded by delicious beer rather than delicious wine; however seeing as I have just recently been enlightened I will share my new found knowledge.  Do you drink wine?  Have you ever drunk French wine?  If so you may have noticed something special about the cork of a French bottle, well not exactly the cork but the foil.   In French this is usually called: la capsule (CRD) Aka'F: l'opercule, la pastille, le sceau, la capsule-congé This is the thing that covers up the cork and in France it has the symbol of Marianne (the female symbol of the French Republic) stamped onto it.  Ok so we have the symbol of France but why is it on the bottle of wine in the first place and why is it important?   First if you have seen this symbol you have just drunk a wine that was made in France and technically destined for French people because this cap means that it has been taxed as an alcohol in France, wines from France that do not...