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Monday, December 19, 2016
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
France!
Been a while since my last blog entry. By a while, I mean 7 years. So I just decided to start afresh and deleted the lone blog post from 2009 and renamed the account. The inspiration to start writing came from my recent travel to Europe. A trip that was initiated because I had some work with Amazon teams based in Luxembourg and France turned into a beautiful vacation with family. After I had finished working of course ;)
A few months ago, during spring cleaning of our home in India, we found close to 10 VHS tapes. These were tapes from our family holidays in the 90s. It was just amazing to see our old houses, to see how our parents and we have grown older and how simple life was as a kid. I realized just how important it is to capture memories via photo but preferably video. It gives you perspective on how life has changed and helps you remember the things that contributed in making you who you are as a human being.
With this in mind, I wanted to capture all the amazing experiences we had in France in a blog post. We of course took lots of pictures but unfortunately not enough videos. Perhaps there was a charm in carrying a 5 kilo video camera and recording your family's antics in the 90s.
We were in France for 9 days excluding travel time. Our trip spanned 3 major cities - Paris, Lyon and Nice with day trips around the South of France. The most remarkable things from our time in France:
1. 95% of Uber cars are luxury brands and all the drivers wear suits. They are also very good looking.
2. They say french wine is amazing, but so is the coffee and croissants
3. It was strange that we had some of the best Italian food in France
A country that can make you fall in love with it when its less than 10 degrees Celsius and raining, is a country to be appreciated (and probably where I should buy a house and retire). Paris and Lyon are the most charming cities despite the dull grey skies and rain (means a lot coming from me since I live in Seattle). The gorgeous architecture and delicious food more than make up for the weather.
Nice is a different ball game altogether. I'm in love with the south of France - Nice, Cannes, Monaco! I wish I could have visited Eze and Antibes as well, but there is just so much vacation one can get in a year. The shining blue waters and the sunny skies cast a spell on you. The old towns of both Nice and Lyon are so charming you can just walk there for hours admiring the architecture and feel.
The best part about France are its people. Indians sometimes take up "fasts" - a promise to not eat any food or specific types of food on certain days of the week. During our trip, my mom was fasting and had some very specific food restrictions on Fridays. The two Fridays that we were in France, the hotels and restaurants we visited were extremely accomodating. They heated up my mom's food (even though it would be considered "outside food") and went out of their way to make her comfortable. I found this extremely remarkable and humane.
As a reminder to me for when I visit again, and for you in case you ever decide to visit, here are some restaurant recommendations -
Paris - Angelina near Louvre for Eclairs, Spring Bristrot near Arc de Triumph for their Salmon sandwich, Sarvana Bhavan for Indian food, Il Cantalina for homemade Italian near Opera train station, Domenico near the Louvre for Italian. We stayed at Radison Blu Champs Elysees - perfect location!
Lyon - Aux Bon Sauvages - Authentic French Food - amazing asparagus soup with onion ice cream , Mozzato - BEST ITALIAN EVER! Discovered a new cheese here - Scarmoza. so delicous!
Lal Qilla in Vieux Lyon for Indian - trust me guys, if you are Indian, after 4 days you will crave Indian food ;) We stayed at an Airbnb which was just across the river from old town.
Nice - Cafe on Promenade the Anglais has amazing coffee sundae,
Monaco - We ate on the terrace of Monte Carlo hotel/casino - amazing Salmon and views
Cannes - Lemonot (Lebanese place very close to the train station ) We stayed at an Airbnb which was more car friendly so we had to take ubers to the city every morning. But it was worth it because the apartment had gorgeous views and was very spacious.
A few months ago, during spring cleaning of our home in India, we found close to 10 VHS tapes. These were tapes from our family holidays in the 90s. It was just amazing to see our old houses, to see how our parents and we have grown older and how simple life was as a kid. I realized just how important it is to capture memories via photo but preferably video. It gives you perspective on how life has changed and helps you remember the things that contributed in making you who you are as a human being.
With this in mind, I wanted to capture all the amazing experiences we had in France in a blog post. We of course took lots of pictures but unfortunately not enough videos. Perhaps there was a charm in carrying a 5 kilo video camera and recording your family's antics in the 90s.
We were in France for 9 days excluding travel time. Our trip spanned 3 major cities - Paris, Lyon and Nice with day trips around the South of France. The most remarkable things from our time in France:
1. 95% of Uber cars are luxury brands and all the drivers wear suits. They are also very good looking.
2. They say french wine is amazing, but so is the coffee and croissants
3. It was strange that we had some of the best Italian food in France
A country that can make you fall in love with it when its less than 10 degrees Celsius and raining, is a country to be appreciated (and probably where I should buy a house and retire). Paris and Lyon are the most charming cities despite the dull grey skies and rain (means a lot coming from me since I live in Seattle). The gorgeous architecture and delicious food more than make up for the weather.
Nice is a different ball game altogether. I'm in love with the south of France - Nice, Cannes, Monaco! I wish I could have visited Eze and Antibes as well, but there is just so much vacation one can get in a year. The shining blue waters and the sunny skies cast a spell on you. The old towns of both Nice and Lyon are so charming you can just walk there for hours admiring the architecture and feel.
The best part about France are its people. Indians sometimes take up "fasts" - a promise to not eat any food or specific types of food on certain days of the week. During our trip, my mom was fasting and had some very specific food restrictions on Fridays. The two Fridays that we were in France, the hotels and restaurants we visited were extremely accomodating. They heated up my mom's food (even though it would be considered "outside food") and went out of their way to make her comfortable. I found this extremely remarkable and humane.
As a reminder to me for when I visit again, and for you in case you ever decide to visit, here are some restaurant recommendations -
Paris - Angelina near Louvre for Eclairs, Spring Bristrot near Arc de Triumph for their Salmon sandwich, Sarvana Bhavan for Indian food, Il Cantalina for homemade Italian near Opera train station, Domenico near the Louvre for Italian. We stayed at Radison Blu Champs Elysees - perfect location!
Lyon - Aux Bon Sauvages - Authentic French Food - amazing asparagus soup with onion ice cream , Mozzato - BEST ITALIAN EVER! Discovered a new cheese here - Scarmoza. so delicous!
Lal Qilla in Vieux Lyon for Indian - trust me guys, if you are Indian, after 4 days you will crave Indian food ;) We stayed at an Airbnb which was just across the river from old town.
Nice - Cafe on Promenade the Anglais has amazing coffee sundae,
Monaco - We ate on the terrace of Monte Carlo hotel/casino - amazing Salmon and views
Cannes - Lemonot (Lebanese place very close to the train station ) We stayed at an Airbnb which was more car friendly so we had to take ubers to the city every morning. But it was worth it because the apartment had gorgeous views and was very spacious.
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