La dolce vita

As I mentioned, I was immediately stuck by Rome's unique ambiance and vibrant, warm-hued buildings. I made it a mission of mine to try to capture this charming essence. Here are some of my attempts:

A street near Piazza Navona the first day.
I had my last day in Rome to myself, as my friends had continued to Florence, so I walked around the Trastavere district. Trastavere was my favourite neighbourhood in Rome. It's a bit more rustic and picturesque, and seemingly less touristy. Next time I am in Rome, I would spend more time there.

This was my view walking home toward Santa Maria Maggiore at the end of each day in Rome:

Bocca della Verità

After visiting the Roman baths on our first day in Rome, we set out to explore the city. We stopped by the Bocca della Verità, which was featured in Roman Holiday.

According to legend, if one placed their hand in its mouth and was lying, their hand would be "bitten off." Apparently priests fuelled this myth by placing scorpions in the mouth.

Here I am joking around in the Vatican Museum the next day.

Rome: Midnight Mass

Going home for the holidays was never part of my plan; I left for Europe fully prepared to be away for the full eight months. My original plan was to spend Christmas with Kristen in Norway. When that fell through due to Kristen's boyfriend buying her a ticket to Toronto for the holidays, I made plans to go to Rome.

Rome was very un-Christmassy. There were way fewer Christmas decorations than I would have expected, especially having walked down Paris' Champs Élysées the week before. There there were some Christmas lights strung in the narrow streets, and the nativity scene and Santa's sleigh and Christmas tree set up in Piazza Venezia before the monument to Vitorrio Emanuele II. The climate was also not what I consider to be Christmastime weather. I have been calling Rome my first "tropical getaway" as in the daytime it hovered around a balmy 10°C (as compared to hovering around 0°C in SaintÉ), and perhaps even reached 15 or 17°C on December 23. Rome's un-Christmassiness made my first Christmas away from home much easier; often we would just forget it was Christmastime.

As I was in Rome over Christmas, my pilgrimage to Saint Peter's Square for midnight mass was thus somewhat incidental; having been brought up Catholic, I couldn't very well not take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to midnight mass at the Vatican.

It had poured rain all day Christmas Eve, which was especially disheartening as that was the day we had tickets to visit the Coliseum, Palatino, and Roman Forum. Because of the downpour, we weren't sure we would be able to attend midnight mass. But the rain finally stopped mid-evening and we set out for Saint Peter's Square.

Saint Peter's Square was so amazing! As soon as I arrived, I was instantly imbued with happiness.

Before leaving for Rome, I had read online that one needed to arrive early because thousands of people flock to Saint Peter's Square for the mass. We arrived shortly after 9 o'clock for the 10 o'clock mass and there were surprisingly few people there. Even by the time mass started, the square could not be considered crowded. Emily and I speculated that the rain deterred a lot of people from coming.

To be in Saint Peter's Square for midnight mass was such a moving experience, and exactly how I wanted to celebrate Christmas in Rome.

Day and Night

This was the view I woke up to this morning, and every sunshine-filled morning for that matter. It has been such a beautiful month so far, sunny and warm--almost an early-spring feel in the air.

Mid-last week I started to notice that the days were getting longer. The transition from winter into spring is one of my favourite times of the year. It's so encouraging to notice little differences every day and to have summer to look forward to.

As my dad noted, according to timeanddate.com, the days in Saint Étienne are nearly an hour longer than Red Deer, where he lives. I am only getting little less than a half hour of daytime more than Vancouver.

In Saint Étienne, the sun currently rises at 8:19am and sets at 5:25pm, making for a day of 9 hours 6 minutes. In Vancouver, the sun presently rises at 8:02am and sets at 4:42pm, for a day of 8 hours 40 minutes. And in Red Deer, sunrise is currently at 8:38am and sunset is at 4:52pm, for a day of 8 hours 14 minutes.

Even since I checked last week, the days have gotten much longer!

Broadcasting Interruption

I just wanted to apologize for the radio silence. I really wanted to catch up on blogging over the break (ever noticed how I never finished telling about Belgium, or Dijon, or la fête des lumières du 8 décembre?).

The truth is, after I got back from Rome I got sick with a really debilitating sore throat that I only just recovered from last weekend. So I feel I have been really bad at getting anything (blogging, sending snail mail etc.) done ever since. I will get on top of things though!

(image from Wikipedia)

Kitchen

I have been meaning to give a virtual tour of my flat. You have already seen my living room, and a glimpse of my kitchen, so I thought I would show you the rest of the kitchen.

This is our kitchen table. I thought the rooster from the Beaujolais Nouveau label was pretty, so I brought a poster back to decorate our kitchen.


Overall, I like our spacious kitchen--especially the floor tiles. It does have its drawbacks though, namely enough storage space and surfaces. We have tried to maximize storage space by placing things on top of the cabinets and fridge.

The kitchen is nice and bright. This door leads to a small balcony with this view.

Happy New Year!

La grande roue au Marché de Noël
Happy New Year! With the time difference, I rang in 2011 when it was only 3:00pm December 31, 2010 back in Vancouver.

For me, 2010 was a year that got better as it progressed. In 2010:

• After lots of stress and hard work, I completed my undergraduate Honours thesis, defended it and got an A;
• I graduated from UBC;
• I moved to France to teach English;
• As such, I have been able to travel around France and Europe, so far to Belgium, and Rome.

In 2011 I am looking forward to more travel and summer in Vancouver!

My New Year's resolution for 2011 is to wear more dresses!

How was your 2010? How did you ring in the new year? Have you made any resolutions for 2011? What are you looking forward to in 2010?

Roman Holiday

Rome was amazing. The city has a very particular atmosphere that is unlike anywhere else I have been to so far. While being a big, bustling city, it retains a certain relaxed quality; perhaps it's la dolce vita. Having now been there, I feel I can now understand how some people fall absolutely in love with Italy. I, too, have fallen in love with Rome, if not Italy. It didn't take me long, just the walk from Termini station to our Bed & Breakfast at Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore. It was the combination of seeing nuns and the vibrant and warm shades of golden yellow, peach, and terracotta orange buildings accentuated with green or brown shutters that charmed me. Having watched Roman Holiday just before leaving on this trip, I understand why Audrey Hepburn's character could not stop exclaiming

Santa Maria Maggiore
After checking into our bed & breakfast, we set out to explore Rome. Heading to the Terme di Caracalla, the Roman baths, we made a left turn and there was the Coliseum just ahead.

Rome has a very layered feel; ruins seem to be scattered pretty much throughout the city (many of which were discovered during excavation for construction) so they can be seen among buildings built at anytime in the last two millennia.

These are the ruins of what are thought to be ancient temples located just off one of the busiest streets in Rome, which cats have made their home:

Where Am I? Rome!

You guessed it: I was in Rome for the holidays!

Legend has it that Rome was founded in 753BC by Romulus, who along with his brother Remus, was raised by a wolf. In fact, the image of two baby boys suckling a wolf can be seen all over Rome.

It is into the Trevi fountain that tourists toss an estimated 3,000 euros every day. According to legend, if you toss a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder into the fountain you will come back to Rome one day.

Congratulations to Jocelyne, the lucky winner! I will pop this postcard in the mail for you tomorrow. Also, thank you to everyone who played!

Where Am I? Postcard Challenge #5

Today I am leaving on my next trip. I will be gone one week over the holidays. Here are the clues for the postcard challenge:

1. It is one of the oldest cities in Western civilization, its history stretching back at least three millenia.

2. Legend has it that its founder was raised by a wolf.

3. An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into this city's fountain every day thus ensuring continued tourism.

Where am I going? If you think you know, leave your answer in the comments below. Again, props to you if you can answer each of the three clues(but don't worry, it will not put you at an advantage for a postcard). I will draw the lucky winner once I am back on December 27th. This means you have until 12:00pm (Noon) Central European Time (CET) on December 27, 2010 to guess and leave your answer. If you are commenting anonymously, please remember to leave your name in the body of the comment otherwise I don't know who your are.

Good luck and Merry Christmas!

Looking a lot like Christmas II

I just thought I'd share a few more Christmastime photos with you:

I strung string between these two wall lamps in our living room and hung the Christmas cards I received as they came in. If you look closely you'll notice that the second one from the right is actually a Hallowe'en card. Although my friend mailed it to me in October, I did not receive it until early December.

This card is from my dad. It's super neat. Not only does it pop-up into a three-dimensional winter cottage, but if you press a button on the card, it actually lights up!

Merry Christmas!

Looking a lot like Christmas

Just thought I'd share a few photos of Saint Etienne at Christmastime:

Santa's sleigh

A polar bear and Christmas tree

Le marché de noël

Where Am I? Paris!

You guessed it: Peter and I were in Paris!

Paris was lovely. I am truly convinced that there is no bad season to visit, having been in spring 2006 and this past September. No matter the weather, the sights are beautiful.

While Peter had the amazing opportunity to tour Europe with Siskiyou, he didn't really get the opportunity to be a tourist in the towns they played. So in Paris we did touristy things like see the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, Sacré Coeur, Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge, and the Mona Lisa. We also visited the Opera house, which was really cool and something I might not have done had I not been visiting Paris with a musician.

The trip was somewhat bittersweet because it mean that our visit was ending and Peter would return to Canada. Even so, I am so glad he came to see me.

Congratulations to Kit, the lucky winner! I will pop this postcard in the mail for you tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone who played! Just a reminder to please leave your name in the body of the comment if you comment anonymously, otherwise I don't know who it is that is playing.

The next set of postcard challenge clues will be posted on Tuesday.

Where Am I? Postcard Challenge #4

Peter and I are leaving on a short trip before he returns to Canada on Friday. Here are the clues for this fourth postcard challenge:

1. It has consistently been a top--if not the top--ranking tourist destination.

2. Thirty-two bridges link the two sides of this city divided by a river.

3. It is home to a structure weighing 7,000 tonnes but that exerts about the same pressure on the ground as a person sitting on a chair.

Where am I going? If you think you know, leave your answer in the comments below. Again, props to you if you can answer each of the three clues(but don't worry, it will not put you at an advantage for a postcard). I will be back on December 17th and will draw the lucky winner once I'm home from work that day. This means you have until 5:00pm Central European Time (CET) on December 17, 2010 to guess and leave your answer.

Good luck!

I did it!

I ate escargot! Peter and I went for dinner tonight at the Escargot d'Or, the nicest restaurant in SaintÉ, and I ordered Escargots de Bourgogne as my appetizer. It was actually super yummy, all covered in butter and pistou. The escargots were actually a lot firmer than I expected them to be and I found that I didn't actually think too much about what they actually were (snails!) and so I wasn't grossed out at all.

Nanaimo Bars

Every Monday the teachers get together at recess to share a dessert, or douceur du lundi as they call it. I signed up for December 13th, today. I wanted to bring something Canadian and so I decided to bring Nanaimo Bars, which were invented just outside of the city for which it is named.

In 1986, the City of Nanaimo held a contest to find the "ultimate Nanaimo Bar recipe". I used this "official" recipe, but strayed from it on a few points:

1. I approximated the amount of coconut and almonds I used in the bottom layer (mostly because of the size of my baking dishes).
2. I could not find graham crackers in France so I used baby/digestible cookies.
3. I cut the amount of sugar I used in the middle layer and used regular white sugar instead of icing sugar and added a splash of vanilla extract to the middle cream layer.

The recipe calls for vanilla custard powder, which from what I can tell is just to add vanilla flavouring so in the future I would probably omit it and just use vanilla extract (it was not easy find in SaintÉ, but I ended up finding it hidden on a bottom shelf in Auchan).

It was super easy to make. The hardest part was creaming the butter by hand with a whisk (women baking without appliances must have had great arms).

They were well-received by my colleagues, many of whom just helped themselves to a small square because of all the butter involved--I don't blame them; this is my second time baking in France (not that I baked often in Canada) and I am starting to realise how much butter is frequently involved.

Peter is Arriving

Peter's train journey from Fulda, Germany to Lyon, France
In a few short hours, I will be meeting Peter at Lyon Part-Dieu train station. Peter finished his month-long European tour with Siskiyou last night in Fulda, Germany. Early this morning he boarded a train to make the several-hours-long trip to visit me before he returns home to Canada for Christmas. Schematically, Peter's journey looks like this:

Fulda, German → Frankfurt, Germany → Bern, Switzerland → Geneva, Switzerland → Lyon, France

With transfers in Frankfurt, Bern, and Geneva.

As tonight is le 8 décembre, it's the first day of the fête des lumières, and Peter and I are staying in Lyon to see the festival.

Dijon

Our motive was mustard...

The Maille boutique in Dijon. Me with lots of Dijon mustard.
And oh there was mustard. Lots of mustard. The Maille boutique in Dijon certainly had dozens (if not hundreds) of varieties. There were several mustards to sample in store, the most interesting of which I tried was the chocolate Spéculoos mustard; it had a subtle chocolatey-cinnamony taste that was followed by a more traditional spicy dijon flavour. I picked up a bottles of Pétales de Violette et Pousse de Radis Rose and citron harissa mustard.

(Photo of me with mustard by Kathleen Campbell)

Where Am I? Dijon!

You guessed it: I mustered up the energy to catch a train Saturday morning and went to Dijon! (I have been looking forward to using that pun.)

Congratulations to the lucky winners, Andrew and Mandy! I will pop this postcard in the mail for you tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone who played! There will be at least two more postcard challenges this month, which I will post next week and the week after.

Where Am I? Postcard Challenge #3

Tomorrow morning I will be taking a day-trip. Here are the clues for this third postcard challenge:

1. This city was once the capital of Burgundy.

2. It is the home of a popular sauce sharing this city's name.

3. Kir was invented here; or at least, it was named after a former-mayor of this city who popularized it.

Where am I going? If you think you know, leave your answer in the comments below before 5:00pm Central European Time (CET) on December 5, 2010.

Good luck!