procrastination... results in laziness and massive posts.

procrastination is a beautiful thing. as my comrades at despair.com so eloquently state: "hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now."

the problem is, the laziness pays off later too. with a big can of whoopass. aka the recap blog. so without further ado, the recap blog. feel free to skip this sucker, it's long, unwieldly, really states nothing of huge interest, and has a ton of pictures that will clog up your corporation's internet connection. some of you might find that fun, i take no responsibility (the wonders of disclaimers).

the nice thing about grace's classes, are that some of them have breaks at around lunch time. so after waking up about 5 minutes before the very last second i need to get ready, and walk there without being too late... we went to 'le bistro landais' which is a michelin star restau... no? we can't afford a michelin... hmmm so it was a random bistro that grace encountered on her 3 mile walk to school. the wonderful thing about actually LIVING in paris instead of visiting for vacation, is that you can visit random locations like this, without having to worry about not getting a full vacational experience.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

more mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

and of course, after she left to go be productive, i... didn't have anything to do. so i took out my camera, went for a walk, and snapped a couple of cool photos (post processed to hell of course).

this is your typical parisian cafe... full with little tables that sit you outside (almost no one sits inside)... and of course... menus. obviously.

more random pictures


more random pictures


keeping theme here... more random pictures


a typical parisian metaphor. the beauty of the flower, overshadowed by smokers. smokers everywhere.


see what i mean?

grace then had a three day weekend, and the weather was nice, so what better time to head out to champagne? grace was really really excited and happy about the trip (this is despite having to wake up early in the morning!) and so, purchasing a couple of high-speed rail tickets, we trucked off to epernay. first stop, perrier jouet and moet chandon!

if i were to put this picture into the MOMA, it would be aptly named:
"the winds of time as they blow through the minds of a birds eye as it perches on a tree waiting for for the worm which is just a figment of it's imagination."

on the train, grace checks out her awesome pictures of the day


and finally we made it to champagne!!!

so for those of you thinking about taking a romantic trip to epernay and reims in visiting the beautiful areas of champagne... be forewarned. it's not the pretty vineyards of napa or sonoma. it's nowhere remotely close to it. think... the middle of oakland. the bad side of oakland. epernay not so much as reims, both towns are more city-like, and there's not a grape vine to be seen. it's where they do all the cellaring when they bring the bottles from the vineyards. and that's it, other than that... it's a city like any other.

so our first destination was moet chandon, but we got there a little early (9AM, it opens at 9:30), so we hiked the long walk over to perriet jouet (aka next door), and we were snubbly told that... 'excusez moi. no... no... ve do not do these... tours. no... no... you need resevations just to enter store. goodbye.'

bleh... so we walked back to moet chandon, which was fortunately just opening... and... we got a private tour! just the two of us! into the dark cellars of moet we went (after coughing up a butt load of cash).

grace looking forward to her bubbly


the cellars are massive. 18 miles worth of cellars. and a good portion of the 18 miles of cellars is... xx miles of... dom perignon. i wanted to cry. especially when she pointed at some nondescript bottles (lines and lines of bottles) and nonchalantly said, "mmm yeah, vintage doms. let's move on."




and most importantly, the tasting.



you don't find a ton of vintage champagnes around in the states, but we tasted the non vintages next to the vintages, and... ruined ourselves. we will never be able to drink a non vintage champagne again. it's like... going to japan and eating the freshest sushi at the tsukiji fish market. you're just never the same.



she feels at home.


yeah. they make dom. tons and tons of dom. i swear, if grace wasn't giving me 'the look' i probably would have swipped one (or 70) from the cellars.


but we ended up buying two vintage champagnes and calling it a day (since we were then broke.)


so, deciding we were only cash broke, and hadn't quite maxed out our credit cards, we ate a deLICIOUS meal at Patrick Michelons, within the hotel Les Berceaux. it started off with crab (we didn't even order it...)


and followed by another 'from the chef' beef platter. the square thingie of beef tasted like a beef stew, except without the stew. and it was incredible.


quinn got the steak with the 7 lb foie gras (which he had to sign a waiver form for), and grace got the fish. quinn thinks he got the better end of the deal.


and of course... dessert.

we then took a train to reims (they pronounce it rahNce... kinda like France without the F... uh... yeah. what the...). Reims to reiterate, not pretty. epernay is mildly cute as it's a smaller town, but reims? it's probably the pittsburgh of france (aka the armpit). we headed to Mumms house, and there's a stark contrast between the two houses. mumm tries very hard to prove to the world that they have good champagne. you can tell by their cycling movie at the entrance which shows their champagnes being used as winner champagne at races, being used with different celebrities, being used at massive extravagant parties. even the outlay of that place is extravagant, and modern. you can definitely tell they are trying to prove they are great. where as moet? moet chandon doesn't do any of that. they are pure opulence and grace. they don't need to prove to anyone that they are great. they just are. i guess when you have dom... what else is there to say? the tasting at mumms was good, not fantastic, i am now a moet chandon man.

after a thrilling day at champagne, we boarded the train back home. which for some reason, decided, 'hey wouldn't it be fun to go 5 mph for an hour and see what our customers do?' we're still not sure exactly what happened since 1) we couldn't speak french... and 2) we couldn't understand the conductor's announcement because... we couldn't speak french... but the lady that shared our cabin dropped the french equivalent to the F-bomb (merd...) so... yeah we assumed it was... not good. after a crummy train ride, we, desperate to end the day off on a good note, went back home and... cooked us some spam eggs and rice. seriously, the world just needs spam eggs and rice and all of the world's ails would be solved with gelatinous, giggly, pink, processed, meat. SPAM. Scientifically Processed Animal Matter. My ambrosia.

we finished our weekend checking out a new cafe that's down the street from where we live, and oddly enough, grace selected a place that had good looking potatoes. i say oddly enough because it seems to me that every single place she recommends... oddly enough, has good looking potatoes. i firmly am now a believer that indeed, it doesn't matter what the menu, crowd, or ambiance of a place looks like... as long as they have potatoes, it gets a 'recommended to check out' in grace's book... and of course the correct answer to such recommendations is obviously...
'oui chef!'
like my dad so instilled in me, and is a shining example of... when the chef is happy, you still get to eat. keep the chef happy.

breathe. relax. we are finally done.