End-of-2009 update

While I wait for the Frenchy to get back from a shopping expedition in the snow here's a quick recap of the end of 2009:

• We got married. It was wonderful. Not at all what I'd expected from years of singing at others' ceremonies but wonderful nonetheless. I missed having my Australian family and friends around me on the day but I've made a promise to have another wedding in Sydney in December 2010. Patience is a virtue, kids!
• We went to Carcassonne (and the SW region of France) for our honeymoon, which was fantastic. Great weather, beautiful countryside and loads of delicious food (Cassoulet, anyone?) Pics here.
• I went to Australia for two months to sort out yet another visa. Having received it and now being back in France I can freely say that, with one exception, the visa section of French consulate in Sydney is staffed by uncaring, stick-in-the-mud a*seholes. The one exception was the guy behind the counter who I finally got to meet with, who treated me like a human being - with understanding, compassion and a sense of humour.
  I can't tell you how relieved I am to be in the position of never having to deal with them again...or at least not for a long enough time for me to get over my ill-feelings toward them. Phew!
• I returned to France after seeing my much-loved family and friends and spending (almost) every second day on the Harbour using KT's OC1. Paris greeted me well - the Frenchy came to the airport, the sun was shining and the temperature wasn't as bad as I was expecting. It's since gotten cold and getting colder (yesterday got to -2...) but snow has fallen for the past three days so it's beautiful and helps me ignore the biting wind.
• I had a job interview last week that seemed to go quite well. No details on exactly what I'm being offered but I've been assured that things will become clearer over the next week or two. Fingers crossed!
• And, we're looking for a new apartment. Somewhere close to a park would be nice but the Parisian rental market is clearly NOT a renter's market - it's highly competitive and shockingly expensive. However, we remain optimistic and at least have the luxury of not having to move out of Mazarine urgently.
  

And that's about the sum of things. Of course, there are things afoot that I can't write about just yet (although I'm sure you'll be able to piece together a few of the things above to figure it out) but for now I'm looking forward to Christmas. It'll be my first European Christmas in many years, and the first I'll be spending as a married man with my family-in-law (which sounds horribly formal, particularly as they're so lovely). We'll be having dinner at B's mother's place on the 24th, B and I will have the 25th to ourselves (which I plan to spend admiring the tree...when it finally gets put up and decorated), and then we'll be having a Boxing Day/post-Christmas celebration at our place on the 26th, for which I'm cooking. Many, maaaany thanks to my mum for help in putting together the menu.
After the celebrations, B and I are heading to the north coast for a week and possibly for NYE, although that's a bit up in the air at the moment. Either way, lots of fun ahead.

7 amazing 1-take clips

Why is it that the time I'm busiest is the time I spend watching (admittedly awesome) stuff like this?
http://www.neatorama.com/2009/09/28/7-most-amazing-one-take-video-clips/

Update from Paris

One week to go!

And, here's a quick summary of what's been happening lately:

• We went to Bruges a few weeks ago. Aside from being much like I imagine Disneyland to be (e.g. devoid of people who actually live there, uber clean, tourist-focused, etc) it was still a lovely city. Very pretty. Lots of beer. Photos here.
• We got our third delivery from Gerard's POT company. Many of the same delicious things plus some new stuff. Funnily enough, each time we get a delivery we get another colour of beans. See what I mean?
• The Frenchy had her 3X birthday. Joyeaux anniversaire!
• Paris' weather began to turn cold and gloomy again (although it's actually been quite beautiful every second day or so, so it's a gradual decline).
• One of the Frenchy's friends helped create an indoor garden at Le Centqautre, which we visited and enjoyed a lot (not least because they had a bunny).
• And we gave up on the guy we'd originally asked to design our marriage rings. After weeks of emails and phone messages from my side, and complete silence from his side, we found another designer who seems to know what professionalism means. Yes, initially grrr, but now ahhh.

Oh - almost forgot. We've decided to go to Carcassonne for the honeymoon. Lots of castles, wine and cassoulet. Mmm!

The soupe de soissons she made last night?

It was delicious.

The recipe (taken from Lucy's Kitchen Notebook) is below. Note that we substituted confit de canard, which you can buy in a can in Sydney along with its fat, for the lamb, and fond de veau for the veal demi-glace. Seriously, who has THAT lying around?

Ingredients
200 grams broth cooked Haricots de Soissons (big white beans)
1 branch sage
1 clove garlic
1 European bay leaf or 1/3 to 1/2 of a California bay
water to cover
1 courgette
1 small onion
1 slice of leftover leg of lamb
2 tablespoons duck fat
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons veal demi-glace
the juice of ½ lemon
a drizzle of good olive oil

Directions
Make a bouquet with the sage and bay.
Put the beans, the bouquet, and the clove of garlic of which you have peeled and removed the germ in a small pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, and then turn the heat down to very low. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Cube the courgette and mince the onion.
Cut the slice of lamb into strips and heat the duck fat to very hot. Toss and turn the strips of lamb in the duck fat until they are browned and crisp. Remove the lamb from the pan, and add the courgettes and the onion.
Put two soup bowls in the oven to warm.
Turn the heat down on the courgettes and cook them slowly, stirring occasionally until soft, about 5 minutes.
Remove the bouquet from the beans, leaving a leaf or two of the sage.
Mix the beans and their liquor with the blender into a smooth puree.
Add the demi-glace, stir, season with salt and pepper, and brighten with lemon juice.
Taste and adjust seasoning.
Bring the hot bowls from the oven and mound a spoonful of courgettes into the center of the bowl. Cover with soup, and then pile the crisped lamb strips in the center. Drizzle with fruity olive oil and serve immediately with dense crusty bread.

From here...

...I can smell haricots de Soissons with garlic and a bouquet garni of bay and sage cooking alongside a confit de canard, and - despite being swamped with work - I can't help but procrastinate enough to consider that in less than two weeks I'll be a man married to the most wonderful, generous and (lets face it) gorgeous person on the planet. Did I mention she's the one doing the cooking? Oh, you figured that out for yourself? Fair enough.

My life...

...is some kind of ridiculously lucky joyride from which I won't be hopping off any time soon, apparently.

Yesterday, we took delivery of the first in (hopefully) a long line of fruit and vegetable paniers from Gerard, one of B's friends. Recently, Gerard bought a plot of land outside of Paris and began planting an enormous veggie garden. Yesterday's delivery was the incredible first production, which included a personalised list of the contents and several recipe ideas.

Here's some idea of what we got. The rest of the pics are on flickr here.

Personalised service









Contents











Recipe











Goodies











Tomatos and garlic











Beans

Beach: Paris-style

Paris Plages is (are?) back.




Photo by jmvnoosinParis

July-August

Well, if July to its mid-point was a big month, its ending and August's beginning has been nothing short of enormous. The biggest news of which is...cue drum roll...the Frenchy and I are getting married!

Call it cliché if you must but I went the whole hog on the proposal - surprise early return to Paris, drinks and dinner at our favourite local bar and Italian restaurant respectively, then, during an arm-in-arm walk across Pont Neuf on the way home, a proposal in French on one knee (sans mistakes, I might add). I'm still buzzing from her saying "oui" and life life continues to be wonderfully happy.
We've decided not to have a formal wedding. Instead, we'll do the required civil service in Paris and follow it up at some stage with a big party. The wedding itself isn't all that important to either of us, although we will do something semi-formal in Australia (if not for some time). The civil wedding also allows me to apply for a spousal visa, a necessary step to a more permanent move to France now that the MBA Center sponsorship has fallen through.
Of course, not wishing to rest on our laurels, we continued the excitement with a 12-day trip to Portugal. Five nights in Lisbon, one night in Sintra, two nights in Evora, and four nights near Odemira on the Atlantic Coast.

Pure. Sun-drenched. Bliss.

Highlights for me included authentic Portuguese custard tarts (thanks Erin for the help in finding the best ones in Lisbon!), the afternoon breeze that washed over Lisbon every day, driving Madame Camembert (our little red Citroen) often at high speed along rural back roads, and body-surfing off Zambujeira do Mar. Oh, and the black Labrador puppy - that lil' bugger provided hours of entertainment.

Photos here. (You'll definitely need a cuppa for these ones.) In the meantime, this was the beach on our final day.




Not bad, huh?

Music doctor

Blogger no longer supports gifs. Poo! Go here instead.

Update

It's been an exciting July so far.
The most exciting part is that my brother and his wife had their first child - Lucinda Margaret. Normally, I look on newborns the same way I look on aliens - odd, not particularly attractive, and baffling beyond belief. But Lucy is just gorgeous. Uncle bias? Almost definitely!










I've had some great weekend trips to the city to catch up with friends new and old, in some cases reacquainting myself with people I haven't seen in a decade. And, of course, what would weekends in Sydney be without paddling on the Harbour? A waste, that's what! Unfortunately, they're also slightly hazardous to my health as KT and I have decided to do the Hawkesbury again. 110km of pain without the usual paddling base and three months of specific training? NO SWEAT! ...

However, it's not been smooth sailing the whole way. The MBA Center have decided, due to 'economic circumstances', to cancel my sponsorship. I only got the news about half an hour ago so I won't write anything more for fear of saying something I'll later regret. But I WILL say that my faith in this particular company has been crushed irrevocably, and that, after three months of waiting, I'm now back to Square One and don't feel particularly optimistic about my immediate future. C'est la vie, non?

Art vs graffiti

It's just that simple.

Infographics

I don't see these often but when I do - wow. From emergency procedure signs on planes to beat-making videos, these things provide endless fascination.
Check out a few here: how to make a beat; spotting a hidden handgun; and baseball pitching.

What's your favourite?

Auto-Tune the News

News getting you down? Current affairs too boring? Auto-Tune it!

Updating "Update...from Australia"

Holding Pattern D for Delayed has yielded! Here's a quick update of what's happened:

• Interviews: Instead of being conducted by the director, they (and we should've seen this coming a mile off) were passed on to the new coaching manager. She's been of great help over the past couple of months, so despite taking my future job I can't hold anything against her as she's working really hard to push this sponsorship through. She finally got them finished on Monday.

• Finalising the application: This actually needs to be done by the Director in person. The coaching manager is trying to get that to happen in the next week, but I'm not holding my breath.

• Department checks: We've had an update on the time frame - up to three months. Aack!

• And perhaps the biggest news of all: the director offered me a flight to go back to Paris early. I know - how rude of me to company-bash when they've offered to fly me to Paris so I can be with the Frenchy, right? Perhaps. The Frenchy was dubious from the start as it's an uncharacteristically generous move on his behalf. I was less sceptical and was even a bit chuffed that they'd spend that much money on me. However, as it turns out, she was on the money as they went back on their offer yesterday.

So where am I at now? Well, having had the idea of returning to Paris early put into my head, I've booked and paid for a flight myself and will be back on French soil in mid-July. The plan is to be there until early October, by which stage I'm expecting the French government to have made up its mind about the sponsorship and, if they've said yes, to have sent the valuable piece of paper to Australia. I'll then fly back to Sydney, apply for the visa, wait one-two months for approval, and then fly back to Paris in November or December (although mum said yesterday we might spend Christmas here and get the Frenchy across too. Food for thought!)

So, at this point in time, it's actually working out quite well: I'll be here for my nephew's/niece's arrival, I'll get to see the Frenchy sooner than expected, and I'll get to come back to Australia towards the end of the year. And if what the coaching manager said is true, the company will be flying me back to Paris - in accordance with the sponsorship agreement - once the visa is approved. The adventure continues!

Update...from Australia

Almost two months ago my working holiday visa ran out and I had to return to Australia. I haven't really felt like writing anything down - so much has seemed up in the air and too fleeting to record - but after two months, and with probably the same amount time to go, there's time to pen a few words.

The weeks before I left were insane. I was offered a sponsorship deal by the company I'd been indirectly working for (the MBA Center, not my portage company) just before the start of April. The Frenchy and I had already begun the process of sorting through a sponsorship deal with the portage company, so we handed over everything we'd found to the MBA Center. Unfortunately, and despite repeated attempts at clarification, they were convinced it was vastly more complicated. This caused delays, and with each day more precious than the last, any delay was looked on by us with increasing annoyance. So what began as a relatively straightforward (if action-heavy) process turned into a daily, then weekly, and now monthly drama.

At the moment, I'm waiting on the MBA Center's director to interview the people who applied for my position. One of the stipulations of a French sponsorship agreement is that no foreign person may do a job that a French national can, so we had to advertise the position and interview anyone who applied. Unfortunately, several people did just that, and it's taken the director several weeks to organise himself sufficiently to be able to conduct the interviews. Knowing him, it will take another week at least to get through them, and for the Frenchy and I, weeks seem like years.

Once he's done the interviews, the MBA Center can finally complete the sponsorship application and send it to the French employment department. From there, as I understand it, if it's accepted it will go to another working department who will give it the final once-over. If it's accepted there, they'll send me a piece of paper which I can take to the French consulate in Sydney as part of a long-term visa application. From there, the process is simple - a two-four week wait for the visa and then whoosh, back on a plane to Paris. Simple, huh?

I've come up with a rough timeline for all of this (perhaps wishfully thinking. We'll see):

• Interviews: One-two weeks

• Department check 1: One week

• Department check 2: One week

• Postage of valuable piece of paper: One week

• Visa application: Two-four weeks

• Total = Six-nine weeks.

Do I sound a little negative? I guess I am. It's not all doom and gloom though!
The good news is that I've been offered and have signed a contract, so - technically - the job is mine. I won't go deeply into the fact that the job the contract offered is nothing like what I was offered and shook hands on in the weeks before leaving Paris. Suffice it to say that I at least HAVE a job and all the benefits that go along with it. Including, most importantly, being able to be with the Frenchy again.

In the meantime, I'm getting in the occasional paddle on the Harbour, catching up with friends, re-establishing contact with people I haven't seen or spoken to in ages (several years in some cases), still working occasionally for the MBA Center, and also looking for further work. If anyone has any openings anywhere, I'm your man!
I'm also, and this is the best part of all, going to be in Sydney for the birth of my nephew (or niece...though I'm convinced it's going to be a boy), due in mid-July.

So that's where we're at. Holding Pattern D (for Delayed) but hoping to move to Pattern A (for Advancing) soon enough.

Seville: the photos

After a crazy two weeks finishing applications for the April 1 deadline, I finally found time (and patience) to upload and name the photos from our trip to Seville, Spain. I'll write more about the trip soon - it really was one of the best experiences of my life - but suffice to say there is a HUGE thank you going out to the Frenchy. I owe you (more than) one, kiddo!

In the meantime, head on over to flickr to check out the photos.

Hail Tsunami!

Congrats to the kids in Sydney Tsunami who came in 3rd in the Minor Final at the recent NSW State Dragonboat Championships!
ps: Oi, Wendy - camera's over here!

Seville

Back from Seville, gloriously happy with a perfect trip, stuffed to the gills with fried food and beer, and vaguely glowing with the beginnings of a tan...Does life get any better?

I'm also putting up, well, let's just say the usual amount of photos/videos on flickr. Hopefully I'll get that done by the end of the week.

Happy birthday, mum!

Look, I'm not going to tell you how old she is, no matter what you offer me.
What's that? A lamborghini AND dinner with Daniel Craig (my mancrush)?
Well! In that case she's 21. No? 25? Okay - you got me - she's 26. There! Happy now?
Alright, alright. Enough silliness.
Happy birthday, mum!

I have really talented friends. Part 1

Lucy Taylor, take a bow
(ps: This was from March. It took me this long to remember to publish it. Can you imagine? Me - tardy! I know!)

Thoughts on Winter

As the temperature guage flies around like a crazy person (yesterday was cold, rainy and windy in the morning but then perfectly sunny in the afternoon - a trend that today has followed), I thought it'd be good to share some thoughts on Winter that highlight the emphasis people (me DEFINITELY included) give the weather here:

"When the thermometer bottoms out, I remember, again, that winter isn't a season, it's a place. Just over the hill is the 19th century, and somewhere beyond the river lies the 18th. Why winter should seem so much more continuous with the past than summer does is never clear to me. But this morning it's 3 degrees, and I can hear Melville, a few miles north of where I am, writing to his sister: "The weather here has been as cold as ever. Other than the weather I know not what to write about from Pittsfield.""

Courtesy of Verlyn Klinkenborg for the IHT. The full article is here.

Mesmerising

"powerlineflyers" by Wes Johnson



You really must see this. At around 1.20 my jaw dropped.

His comments are interesting, too.
In response to:
"Great long shot - loved how you resisted temptation to move camera and let the birds do their thing..."
He said:
"That's a bit of a funny story, actually. Fate made me keep it static. I didn't have my tripod with, if you can believe, and I had to rig one from a light stand, a super clamp and a grip head. That it even worked is nothing short of a miracle--I had to block the wind from passing (and honking, of course) cars, because the stand was so unstable. To look at me making this film must have been a sight."

Now THAT'S the kind of photography I love - random, challenging and utterly beautiful.

Language

I'm sitting in the middle of an education fair (by Studyrama, if anyone's interested), representing the MBA Center by giving 12 seminars across two days on three topics: How to choose well an MBA; What language tests & levels are required by foreign MBAs; and How to make the most of your application.
But it's interesting at the moment as my little “room” (four walls, no roof) is next door to a much larger but similarly-structured conference room where, right now, there's an Italian man speaking in French, getting a little more animated than, perhaps, the French audience was expecting. I can just imagine them sitting there, stunned and probably a getting little concerned as he gesticulates, as Italians do, getting into his speech, speaking more and more quickly and at higher and higher pitch and volume levels. It's not that he's crazy – well, probably not anyway. It's just the way Italians speak – with a little more animation and passion than the French.
In that way, for me at least, the French usage of their language can be really boring and frustrating. There are very few stops for any reason in a sentence – you either breathe quickly or you make a sound like “ahhhh” or “uhhh” to ensure the other person either remains interested or at least doesn't get a look in - but the tone remains at relatively the same level, without the excitement given by the Italians. Additionally, if you're not a native speaker and if you don't catch the start of the text you're stuck for a while, swimming against the verbal tide.
It's made me think about how I'm going with learning and using French, and how it's interpreted by native speakers. The short answers are: I'm not, well enough for daily life, and probably with a mix of amusement and condescension.
I stopped taking French classes a long time ago. I couldn't afford it and couldn't ask B to continue paying for them for me, and I started working and found that to be an excellent excuse for not going to class. Also, I thought I'd learned enough of the fundamentals to allow my development to continue on its own.
Unfortunately, that development seems to be sideways and not upwards. I'm learning more vocabulary (slowly) and more ways of saying the same things, but I'm not utilising the full range of tenses nor engaging in more in-depth conversations.
And as far as my interaction with native speakers goes – I get by. It's not always easy and I still have times when I don't understand or am not understood but, generally speaking, I can express myself sufficiently to get what I want.
Sometimes, though, judging by people's faces usually, I get the feeling my attempts at French are confusing, to say the least. Other times, people have a vaguely amused look on their face, like “Oh, you think you speak French? C'est trop mignon! (That's so cute!)”
Occasionally, though, I get out-and-out confirmation that I still have a long way to go. Yesterday, someone standing beside me in another but sort-of-related conversation told me I spoke French reasonably well. A nice thing to say, I thought. But they were immediately sharply contradicted by the French person I was talking to who said, “No. You don't”. Thanks for the support, pal!
So, overall, things are going better. I don't feel weird trying to talk in French and I'm still learning, albeit at a slower pace. If only the French weren't so honest...

Soleil

The sun came out today. Not in its usual way of late - peeking out from behind clouds, with the sky a dominant grey. No, today it was full-on, bright-in-the-blue-sky sunshine.

Paris seemed to finally throw back the duna, rub its weary eyes, take a full breath of the morning air and decide that, yeah, today was a good day to get out of bed.

Apparently, so did seemingly all of the city's population. It's like someone stepped on an ant's nest! I haven't seen so many people since the last of the sunny evenings last year. We even had fire engines - like, with the sun in the sky it's suddenly a good reason to have a BBQ in your living room where it's still warm. Good one, people.

Anyway, despite a very mild hangover from a fantastic champagne party last night (thanks Axa et les mesdames ambassadeurs!), the sun was all the encouragment I needed to go outrigging. I even got to use, for the first time, an OC1 without a rudder. A little tricky steering, I'll admit - people walking on the side of the Marne must've thought I was practising slalom without the markers - but heaps of fun. Until, that is, the last five metres before the pontoon when I got a little cocky, tried to do a tricky turn and - splash! - ended up in the river (the FREEZING COLD RIVER) in front of the rest of the crew (who were, as luck would have it, just coming in from their session).
Apparently, I gasped like a fish when my head surfaced - my mouth was all movement, no sound. All very funny for everyone else...and me, eventually, once I was able to breathe again.

So, farewell Winter!, you cranky, depressing old man. And hellllooooooooo Spring!

Well, almost.

Chamonix wrap-up

I wrote "warp-up" first...Freudian slip, perhaps? Certainly, eating raclette for our first night's dinner at midnight in a room specifically delegated to the experience was pretty crazy!

I had a fantastic time in Chamonix, even if it wasn't exactly warping. I'd been to Chamonix once before when I was about 21, but it was only for six hours, most of which I spent trying to ski without taking any lessons and consequently falling on my behind. This time, however, B organised lessons for us both - two hours on Saturday afternoon and the same on Sunday morning - and the whole experience was so much better, particularly thanks to Sebastien, our excellent ski teacher (he's the one in front of B, here). Sure, there was some falling involved but only when I got cocky or when we'd just had lunch.

I have fallen in love with this sport - particularly when it's done in places like this, this and this. I mean, c'mon! We even had glaciers nearby (it's in the centre at the top of the photo).

And look, I realise I wasn't the most fashionable guy on les pistes, but I felt okay as I was having fun doing stuff I've always wanted to do. Although not, perhaps, as much fun as this little guy... :o)

A big thanks to Axa and Jes for letting us stay at their house in the middle of town. It was so nice to come back from a hard day's skiing (scoff!) to a palatial hideaway. And, of course, an enormous thank you to B for introducing me to a sport that has the ability of taking over my life like only dragonboating has before.

Chamonix

Just a quick post to say I'm having a fantastic time in Chamonix.
We've come to a place where the cold makes sense!!

On the way here we stopped in Burgundy for a small session of wine tasting (thanks Jes!), last night I had my first raclette in a purpose-built room (thanks Jes, again!) and today, after wandering around the markets in the snow, B and I had a two-hour skiing lesson...WHICH WAS AWESOME. My legs are tired, my kness ache, I have mild sunburn but, wow, what a great day.

Tomorrow we're taking another lesson en piste then (hopefully) spending the rest of the day skiing. No idea what's happening after that but I'm sure it'll inclue vin chaud (red or white - they're both perfect for the cold), more cheese and good times.

More snow

Not quite yet but hopefully on the weekend...when I'll be going skiing!
We're heading to B's sister's husband's family's place (phew) in Chamonix from Friday to Tuesday. Yes, it's a tough life...
I haven't been skiing since I was 21 and even then it was less "skiing" and more "6 hours of falling on my butt". I'm hoping to stay a little more vertical this time.

In other news, the weather continues to defy belief by becoming more disgusting. Last night we had winds up to 130km/h. Crikey!
And B and I are staying at her sister's place this week looking after B's nephew, Leonard. Who knew 2 1/2 years could grant such an ability to swing between being adorable and unbearable?

That's it, though. Work (and the search for more) continues as normal, and updating flickr is almost the same. I'll probably be posting a good number next week so stay tuned.

Snow

It snowed last night. Woo!











Crunching through the snow this morning on the way to the gym was delightful. As was listening to Bjork's album "Vespertine" - truly, a perfect match of music and feeling.
Sure, it turned to mush as the sun came up but for a brief moment this morning all was a Winter Wonderland. I even threw a snowball. At no-one in particular. Just because I could. :o)

Italy: Day 6

We arrived late in the evening of Day 5 at a truly beautiful little B&B (the Podere Villuzza), with the most Tuscan driveway of the trip. I mean, really.
We ate like kings that night, sitting beside a warm fireplace, being served plate after plate of delicious local food by a woman from Melbourne, drinking Chianti and enjoying being alive.
The next morning, after saying our goodbyes and admiring their incredible Saharan Desert Rose (explanation here, which differ slightly from our host's version that included camel pee) we drove into San Gimignano proper, parked the car and began another day of walking around a beautiful town with its own old gates, views of swaying trees, and fantastic places to eat and drink. San Gimignano is also known for its towers, fourteen of which still stand.

As it was our last day in Italy and we had to be back in Pisa that night for the flight to Paris, we wanted to see a couple of other towns on the drive back. We managed only to have time to see Volterra, once under the control of the Medici family (their castle still stands). Yet another beautiful town set on a hill, and again with its own Etruscan Tomb and Roman ruins.

And so our trip to Italy ended as it began - a beautiful town, breathtaking views and a feeling of being somewhere normally only seen on postcards. If anyone wants to visit Tuscany, give me a call. I'll be on the next plane!

Italy: Day 5

The day was beautiful so we got an early start and retraced our steps to the Duomo, threading our way through the decorated streets past the Prefettura and it's neighbour, the beautiful Facciatone (where even the Wombat was impressed with the view), stopping to check out various cathedrals, crypts and museums, including the Museo dell'opera with the original statues from Il Duomo (which have elongated necks so they could be more easily seen from street level). I can't remember where we had lunch but I'm sure it was delicious...and blissfully cheap by West European standards. Pasta for 6€? Unheard of in Paris!
We then spent the afternoon having a looooong walk around town, taking in the interior of the Duomo (complete with mosaics of the Italian cities, represented by animals like a rabbit (Pisa), an elephant (Rome) and a panther (Lucca)), the Pizza del Campo (with its fountain and numerous places to stop for a drink in the sun) and then the rest of the town. One of the most enjoyable things for me was noticing the decoration on street corners and elsewhere letting you know which Contrada you were in. There are 17 Contrade of Siena, municipal districts, which have animal logos like a worm, a giraffe, a rhino and a dragon).
Siena is a great place to walk, even if some of the hills are a little steep. Walking along the walls and through the back streets presented us with things we didn't expect, great art work and views which seemed they belonged elsewhere, perhaps on a Mediterranean coastline.

Before long, though, the sun was starting to go down and it was time for us to drive to San Gimignano. But not without photographing the largest tub of Nutella I've ever seen! Whoa!

Italy: Day 4 (the end)

Well, the end of Day 4, actually. Arriving in Siena was something of a bun fight. The walled city is on a hill. The entrances are portas, scattered around the walls. However, to actually GET to those portas you need to navigate the melange of roads - normal, freeway, motorway. You name it, it's there. And lacking a highly-detailed map only made things near-impossible. However, with a bit of faith in our natural sense of direction (which, between us, is not bad) and judicious use of the moon, stars and landmarks, we eventually made it to our porta of choice - Porta San Marco.
The parking for tourists, certainly at this entrance but possibly across Siena, is, in a word, lacking. We toyed with the idea of parking miles away and hoofing it up the hill but it was dark, cold and we were only thinking of getting to our hotel ASAP and finding some food. There was parking just outside the porta but we figured why not try to park inside the walls - it can only get us closer to our hotel? So we agreed to drive through the porta and, in no time at all, found a parking spot...one which belonged to a local resident...a neighbour of whom turned up out of nowhere to explain, in speedy Italian, that no, we were not allowed to park there, yes, there were parking spots outside the walls for people like us, and - oh, you didn't know? - when you drive through each entrance your car's number plate is photographed by enormous cameras, the photos from which are sent to the local fining powers to ensure the parking inspectors the next day know exacly which cars to target. Of course, we didn't understand this last part very well, it being delivered in speedy Italian and all, so B tried her best to understand and then explain that we weren't evil people and that we'd only leave the car there overnight. In the end, the man shrugged, smiled like he knew something we didn't (which he did) and we legged it to the hotel.
There, the woman at the front desk explained in English all that our Italian friend had tried to explain, so we took our bags up to the room, I ran down to the car to try to find another park, and B had a chat with the concierge to get us out of paying the parking fine.
As it turned out, that search for a park was the most fraught 30 minutes of my life as I raced the Panda around Siena's streets looking for something legal (no luck) and then a way to get out of the walls near Porta San Marco to try the bus parking area just outside entrance. I remember having the window down despite the cold and swearing like a sailor each time I ended up somewhere that didn't align with my goal on the map.
Eventually - and yes, I'm aware this is turning into something of a saga - I parked the Panda in an area marked for tourist buses only and prayed that, being just out of high-season, we'd be okay.
After that, the rest of the night was a piece of cake! We took a stroll through the SW part of the town, past the Duomo, the Piazza del Campo (where they hold the Palio) before finding a place for dinner with some interesting dishes (see the last one on the menu).
Then it was back to our hotel, Il Chiostro del Carmine (a beautifully-renovated monastery, complete with decidedly un-monk'ish art) for a well-deserved rest.

And so it came to Day 5! Phew!

Italy: Day 4

We arrived in Radda in Chianti in the late evening of day 4. Radda, south of Florence, was surrounded by wineries (not a surprise - we were in Tuscany) but was still a beautiful place to drive to and around.
We checked into a small “hotel” (inverted commas because it was really a room and a bathroom in a block of what looked like apartments) run by the family who owned the downstairs wine bar, sadly closed for the time we were there. We showered, changed and headed into town for a quick walk before finding dinner. The town was on top of a hill and sported not only nice views but the remains of a medieval church and fortified walls. All very cultural and lovely but we had food to find!
After narrowing down our options we ended up settling for a pizza place – hey, we were in Italy – which turned out to be one of the best finds of the entire trip. Out of the way, packed with what seemed like locals, staffed by friendly and welcoming people, and serving fantastic pizza and Chianti, this place was awesome. If you're ever in Radda, it's under the via Roma, downhill and across the road from the medieval ruins. We had the usual white, tasteless bread on the table - one of the few disappointing things of Tuscany - but, perhaps because of the bread, tried something odd for the main, from memory a pizza with sausage on it. It was delicious! Warmed by a great dinner and a bottle of wine we took another quick walk before going back to the hotel.

The next morning we woke early and had breakfast at a nearby bar filled with workmen either already on a break at 9am or just taking the start of the day slowly.
After a quick check of the maps (too quick, as it turned out) we headed off in what I thought was the direction of Castellina but which turned out to be the opposite. No matter! We turned around, drove back through Radda and then through some really lovely countryside to get to Castellina in Chianti. A quick trip to the tourist office revealed an Entruscan tomb on the outskirts of the town and some lovely walks to do. What they failed to mention - to their detriment - were the cute local "utes". I mean, really - could you design a car any cuter than that!?
After checking out the tomb we jumped in the car and headed for several local wineries. The best wine tasting for me was done at Podere San Donatino, and with fresh (like, 3 days old) olive oil and views like this, could you think otherwise? Unfortunately, the wine wasn't fantastic so we only left with some olive oil. You can't win them all.

From there we had the rest of the afternoon to make our way to Sienna, so we spent it driving through the area in the beautiful sunshine, stopping wherever we felt like it. Barbischio and Vertine were two memorable places along the way, not least because they had more chicken signs here than seemingly anywhere else.

And so, a few hours later, we arrived in Sienna - not the easiest place to park or navigate either in or around, I'll be honest, but what would the following day turn out to be a great experience.

2009

Well! It's been a while, huh? Much water under many bridges - that sort of thing.
But I'm back, so, for starters, bonne année and bonne santé!
I hope you had a great Christmas and NYE, that you managed to go somewhere or do something worthwhile, and that the holiday season was not only silly but relaxing and rejuvenating. It certainly was for me, not least because I was in Sydney for almost a month! Ha!
But that'll be dealt with in a later post, as I need to first deal with days 4 and 5 of Italy (for record-keeping purposes only) and expound a little on my plans for the blog in 2009.

Before that, as a means of welcoming you (and me) back to the fold, and to help you discover the world at large:
1. Cult procession fail - wait for it, wait for it...
2. Constant Seige - NSFW and potentially challenging for those with sensitive sensitivities, but wholly worthwhile nonetheless.

Enjoy! (a request and a hope)