YUM!

David has been helping a fellow PhD student, Fred, with his proposal presentation (he proposes today!). So, as a "Thank You" Fred wanted to take us out to dinner. :o)

We went to a restaurant that is pretty close to our apartment. À Côté. I'm pretty sure it is called this because it is right next to another restaurant that the head chef owns. We were lucky to have the Chef there the night we went too. His other restaurant was given a 1 star (the highest rating for any restaurant in Metz ...3 is the highest overall though). So around Metz he is pretty well known.

Most of the seats in the restaurant are bar-style so that you can see all the cooks cooking. It was fun being able to see our food throughout all its stanges of preparation. But, you'd think that I would know how to make all of it now, right? Ha. We saw it all the time, but sometimes it would pop up looking totally different than the last time we saw it. It was like magic!

I had fois gras, and David had calamari for appetizers, then I had a duck "burger" (nothing like a burger you would picture) and David had jarret de veau (veal). They were both delicious, but I have to admit, I think the duck was better. Then for dessert I had cheesecake (just like American cheesecake!) and David had a fancy milkshake-like dessert. It was wonderful. And it wasn't too much food because this is one of those restaurants where you don't get too much becasue they serve everything as if it were meant to be a decoration for your plate.

It has been one of our goals to eat out a little bit more so that we know of good restaurants in the area to recommend to people. Plus, we won't live in France forever...but I WILL be cooking forever... Sorry I don't have pictures. I guess if you really want to know what it was like you'll just have to come visit us and we'll take you there! :o)

Videos

Until I blog again...some videos to hold you over:

Snowshoeing:
(The default quality of this video stinks, so, if you click the little "HQ" icon in the bottom right corner you can watch it in high quality and it's much better!)


Duncan:

Valentine's Day Weekend

David and I always seem to end up with interesting Valentine's Day stories. This year was no exception.

We took a trip to the Black Forest in Germany to go snowshoeing. We were invited by a lady from our scuba diving club who is a member of the Alpine club in Metz that planned the trip. We left Saturday morning at 6:30am, took a bus with the rest of the club members, and began hiking through the snow a little after 12:30pm. We hiked for 6 hours, about 10 miles the first day. The views were beautiful! The snow was fluffy! And the sun was shining! It took us a while to get our clothing layers right, but once we found the right combination it was great.

After the 10 miles we arrived at our hotel. The rooms were nice and we had an enormous balcony (too bad it was too cold to really enjoy it). We went to check out the pool and were unhappy to see that the pool wasn't heated. The water was freezing! So, of course, we skipped it! After nice warm showers we headed down for dinner. We had vegetable soup, delicious filets and potatoes, followed by a yummy sorbet and fruit dessert. Pretty good for a Valentine's Day dinner...and we didn't even plan it!

The next morning we set our for day two of snowshoeing. With healed feet and rested legs we were raring to go! A lot of the time we were following a path, but often we got to create our own. I liked it best when we were able to walk through the fluffy, untouched snow. The only qualm I had with snowshoeing was that I saw a lot of ski slopes and skiers. While we were walking UP they were skiing DOWN. And when we were WALKING down, they were still SKIING down. I was totally jealous. I wanted to ski so badly, but the cleats on the bottom of my 'raquets' wouldn't allow it. So, Matthew, this picture is for you:

The ski slopes we've been to are like the ghetto compared to everything I saw this past weekend. There were so many slopes to ski down that it wasn't crowded. You could ski wherever you wanted and on paths of completely fresh and fluffy snow. So cool.

At the end of our hike we stopped by a little German "cafe" (I guess that's what you'd call it...it wasn't a restaurant...). We had hot chocolate and an enormous slice of apple pie. It was delicious!

Then we got back on the bus and headed back to Metz. This is where is gets pretty interesting. Things were so normal the whole time that I new something was bound to happen. On the bus they had a microphone so that the 'leaders' of the trip could make announcements. For the majority of the trip back there was someone talking on the microphone. They were talking about future trip options (in extreme detail) as well as recaping the trip that we just took (also in extreme detail). And after that they put in a German music CD and turned up the volume. Then, after a while of the CD playing, the guy that had the microphone started whistling the tune and tapping on the microphone. So, all of the talking and noise making was kind of annoying. We were kind of hoping to sleep some on the way back...ha!

It was a great weekend. Check out more pictures here.

Awaaaaaaiting Summertime

I don't think I've ever been more ready for the summer! Maybe, when I was 16 and back in high school I would have had a similar motivation for the summer and a break from school...but this year my reasons are different. I've lived through the coldest winter that I've ever experienced. I was away from home for the first time at Christmas. Duncan is here now and he loves being outside and I'll be glad to have his company. And, I never really look forward to spring because of my pollen allergies. So, I have high expectations for the summer and all it may bring.

I'm trying to block from my memory the summer of 2007 here in Metz... because it was not really a summer at all. Rain, clouds, cold = not summer. But this year, it just feels like things will be different and I'm ready!

I've been searching for a special kind of picnic blanket since we came back to France in August. I even looked in Germany! Luckily, I finally found what I was looking for and it's even a little better than I had planned.The kind of picnic blanket I've been wanting has a special tarp-like lining on the underside of it. This is key here in Metz because the ground it always moist. Thanks to the new Intersport store that they put in near Cora I was able to find exactly that... and more!

They didn't have picnic blankets all by themselves so I had to get one that came with an entire picnic set! (for 4) Darn.

(Duncan is winking at you because he is really excited about our new stuff)

Goodbye winter! Hello sunshine! ...hello? ...sunshine? ...you there?

Gombo!

You will never believe what David and I found yesterday at what might become one of our favorite grocery stores...

The store is called "Grand Frais" because they have a large variety of fresh vegetables and fruits, etc...

We went there in hopes of finding some asparagus, since they NEVER have it at our grocery store downtown! While we were there we were totally impressed with all the stuff we found. The biggest surprise was that we found okra. Yep! The vegetable that every french person we've ever asked (and some of the Americans...usually of northern decent) have never heard of. ...the vegetable name that couldn't be translated by our awesome french/english dictionary. ...the vegetable that made our dinner last night awesome...OKRA!

On the sign above it it said that it was called "gombo." So, now we know. And I'm sure we'll be telling all our french friends about it, and then making it so that they can try it. We also found corn meal for preparing it. It was delicious. I'm very happy. :o)