Thanksgiving in Paris

Yesterday was just another Thursday in France. We went to the bank, to the library, etc. However, we did have our own Thanksgiving dinner - just the two of us.

We went to the butcher shop where we had plenty of choices:

From the top left: pheasant, wild duck, pintade*, free range chicken, and yes, turkey!
(the furry critters are wild rabbits on the left and a hare on the right)

We chose a pintade which is known in English as a guinea hen. It looks like this when still walking around:


And this - when ready to eat

We cooked it with sauerkraut and a little bacon. Sounds weird, but it was delicious!

Happy Thanksgiving to all dear friends and family. I hope your holiday was filled with love and good food.

Sempé

On Monday afternoon we cycled over to the Hôtel de Ville to check out the Sempé exhibit. Jean-Jacques Sempé, cartoonist born in 1932, has been a regular contributor to several French magazines since the 1950s. He has been featured in L'Express, Le Figaro, Nouvel Observateur and Télérama. He has released dozens of albums of cartoons and is also the creator of Le Petit Nicolas.

Sempe is well known to Americans thanks to his cartoons which appear regularly in The New Yorker magazine.

Here are some examples from the exhibit:





The English version of the website is pretty slim. You can learn a lot more about Sempé if you can understand the French site.

Stéphane's birthday

Patrice's son Stéphane turns 40 on November 21. We celebrated his birthday this weekend with dinner at the Buffalo Grill. We decided to dress for the occasion - our cowboy shirts went well with the Montana theme.


Patrice's daughter Florence and son Stéphane


Father and son:


Stéphane's new helmet


Profiterolles for dessert

Happy Birthday Stéphane!

Lac du Der - part 3 - churches

The region near the Lac du Der has a unique architectual heritage. There is very little building stone, but plenty of water and clay. Churches built of wood are very rare in France and this style is unique to this area.

Here are a couple of stunning examples: Outines -




And Lentilles -

Lac du Der - part 2 - cranes

The Lac du Der is the largest lake in France. It was created in the 1970s to regulate the flow of water in the rivers and to keep Paris and the Seine river safe from flooding. The lake provides a refuge for common cranes (grues cendrées) which migrate south from Scandinavia. The water is very low at this time of the year, but the cranes don't seem to mind.


The cranes look like this up close. (I didn't take this photo - they're too skittish and I was too far away to get a good shot)


Most photographers come equipped with equipment like this:


My camera takes photos like this:

You can get up early and see them take off, (we didn't) or you can watch them return to the lake at sunset (we did).


The cranes make a distinctive cry. It sounds like this:

Lac du Der - part 1 - photo exhibit

This week's excursion took us about 200 kms east of Paris to the Lac du Der in the Champagne region of France. No, we weren't shopping for or drinking champagne; we went on the advice of my friend Marcel who recommended the area for three reasons: 1. the cranes, 2. a nature photography festival, and 3. the churches.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and visited the photography exhibit first. This is the cover photo for the exposition.


Patrice and I were awed by the expo. I don't think we'll ever have the time or the patience or the equipment to capture the kind of photos we saw in the exhibit. . . The photos were breathtaking and reminded me what you can do with a "real" camera and special lenses rather than a pocket sized point-and-shoot. . .

Armistice Day

We happened to be on the Champs Élysées on November 11th. We missed the parade, but visited the Arc de Triomphe where the President traditionally places a wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier with its eternal flame.


The enormous flag flies only for special occasions.