la Nuit Blanche

or "the White Night" is an annual night time festival held in Metz as a celebration of the arts. Of course, larger cities all across Europe celebrate this as well, sometimes with expositions lasting all the way through the night but a combination of a sleepy town (with gallery closing times around 1) and some yucky rain sent most people scurrying home early. Most of the art (this year at least) was modern or conceptual but all very interesting and inventive.

Most of all, we just enjoyed seeing our beautiful town lit with beautiful lights and filled with art-loving people.

temple neuf (one of the few protestant churches) all lit up

du pavot à la rose -- poppy rose installation

each boat was filled with rose petals

in the "bubble island" section they had large, colorful balloons everwhere

looking up in abbaye saint-vincent

Michael managed to get a video clip of a modern music concert that we stumbled into taking place in the previously pictured abbaye saint-vincent. the video features me staring at the incredible vaulted ceiling like a goof along with our friends Anna and Seth and a bit of music just to give you an idea of what an experience it is to hear a modern music concert in a 1000 year old church. sorry about the thumping, by the way, i have no idea what it is.

mermaid tails hanging from trees

temple neuf and cathédral saint-étienne

temple neuf in the rain

oh, and Michael finished my haircut earlier that day. i'm fairly certain tracy (my hairdresser back home) will say: "what the hell did you do??" but he cut it exactly how i instructed even if he was uneasy, and i love it; that's all that counts, right?

Mangé à Notre Maison: Beef and Lentil Stew

Never did I expect that moving to France would turn me on to lentils. I guess I had no clue just how popular they are here. And their popularity makes them, as is to be expected, cheap. We bought a bag for a Lentil Curry and have been experimenting since to use up the bag. For us, this particular resulting recipe was both delicious and cheap although I'm coming to the unfortunate realization that wine will no longer be the same price as water once we move back to the US.

Beef and Lentil Stew
yield: 4 main course servings

1 T olive oil
1 lb chunk stewing beef
2 c red wine
1 c beef broth (or water will do)
1 onion, sliced into 8 wedges with the root holding together
2 carrots, cut into large, 1" chunks
1 c mushrooms, rubbed with a dry paper towel to clean
1 c lentils
1 T honey
salt
pepper


how to:

1. liberally salt and pepper the meat on all sides
2. heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat until the oil is hot and glistening
3. add meat to the hot oil and allow meat to take on a dark brown sear, turning to get all sides
4. add the red wine and broth to the pot, being sure to scrape up all of the brown bits (fond) from the pan
5. add in the remaining ingredients, season to taste with salt and pepper and bring to a boil
6. turn the heat down to a simmer and cover the pot
7. allow the stew to simmer on the stove for 1.5-2 hours, the meat should be tender and show no resistance when pierced with a fork and the lentils should be tender

Oktoberfest and the Motherland

*Wow, 13 posts in one month! Surely this is a record. I don't expect it to slow down any time soon though; so much yet to do in so little time.*

Scratch that, this post was meant to go up 3 days ago but alas, blogger and I have been arguing over whether or not it's going to let me post my pictures, so far, blogger has been the victor but not today.

We intended last year to go to Oktoberfest but little did we know that Oktoberfest actually is primarily in September. It ends the first Sunday in October. So, by the time we realized what was going on last year, the festival was practically over. Really, it was all for the best though since we would have been going by train last year which would probably have meant being suck in Munich for a whole weekend. Not that Munich isn't a beautiful city and all but it is a bit crazed come Oktoberfest (6 million people visited last year!) and on this trip we established that despite our exploration into the world of wines, spirits, and beer this past year, we are hopeless lightweights, so spending the whole weekend at the festival would have been pointless.

Thankfully, this year we have our lovely Lune Rousse to get around with, which meant that after deciding that we had had our fill of beer and crowds, we were able to take off and visit the alpine portion of Michael's ancestral homeland, Bavaria.

Welcome (or Willkommen, rather) to Oktoberfest!

and welcome to the Hofbräu "tent" (really, how do they get away with calling these things "tents?)

All of these people were drinking liters of beer at 10am

All of those people included us

We sobered up with a beautiful view of the Bavaria statue which was commissioned by Ludwig I, grandfather to crazy Ludwig II whom we will hear about later. The statue is massive though, thought to be a technological masterpiece at the time it was built (between 1844 and 1850)

A live carousel, how cool!

We always feel so healthy after Germany trips.

Does this look familiar to anyone?

Munich's New Town Hall -- we missed the clock performance but were able to enjoy the beautiful building with the cascading flowers. Nearly every house in Bavaria was covered in cascading flowers.

Another Hofbräu establishment, this time the beer hall for dinner.

We finally sober up and it's time for another liter for Michael at least, I had a half liter (which is still huge compared to tiny French beer bottles).

Our German heritage may not have presented itself in the beer tolerance category, but when it comes to food we are German through and through. I had a crispy pork knuckle (at which the older German man across the table laughed and laughed...I guess he's never seen a small girl eat so much) while Michael had a slice of roast pork. We both had some deliciously sticky potato dumplings and sauerkraut on the side.

The rain set in after dinner so after heading back to our tent for some warmer clothes, we went back out to enjoy the Oktoberfest night scene.

And what is Oktoberfest without spiced (if slightly soggy) almonds? Don't listen to me, I just made the correlation up.

The next morning we packed up and left our interesting accommodations (we slept in bunk beds in a white tent on the right)

And took off for a sometimes quaint (see above) and sometimes breathtaking (see below) drive on the Deutsche Alpenstraße (German Alpine Road).

Lune Rousse was a champ,

those S-curves are nothing to laugh at!

Can you imagine waking up to that?

We went a little crazy at a German grocery store. There is a picture of everything at home later but these delicious caraway meat sticks didn't make it anywhere near Metz.

Inside these walls is one of the most ridiculously ornate Rococo styled churches I have ever seen (the only one I've ever seen, really).

The Wies church was erected to house the statue of Jesus (figure of the Scourged Savior) when it was noticed to be crying and pilgrims began to flock in hoards to be in its presence. There are 3 houses in the town. I kid you not.

Ludwig II grew up in this castle, it looks perfectly adequate to me.

Apparently he didn't think so, he had this castle build next door. It's called Neuschwanstein and was later used by Disney as the model for the Sleeping Beauty castle. He only got halfway though the construction however (draining the family money along the way) before the other Bavarian aristocrats had him deemed clinically insane, thus stripping him of his rule. A few days later he and his doctor were found dead, drowned in a lake.

On our way home we happened to drive by the tallest church in the world located in Ulm, Germany.

Evaluation of our German purchases: nut crunch cereal, nestle cinnamon toast crunch knockoff, some dark beers (dunkels) for stew, english muffins, a 6-pack of hefeweizen, pickles that were consumed en-route, blood orange juice (also previously consumed), a mix for those potato dumplings, sauerkraut, sausages, beef (also for stew), sweet mustard and spätzle

And the resulting beef-beef stew with potato dumplings

Oh, and you can check out the rest of the pictures by clicking HERE.