Airplane Reviews - To Austin & Back Again

During the little bit of time we had on our layover in London, we ate breakfast at Gordon Ramsey's Plane Food. The only disappointment of the meal was the realization that we should have taken the time to eat there in the past two years of flying through London. I had salmon and eggs and Jenn had delicious (in her words) pancakes and a smoothie.

On the flight, we watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The first part of the movie was all in Moscow so it was cool to see all the places we had just been. Seeing the (spoiler alert, but not really) Kremlin blow up was pretty neat. As with most Mission Impossible movies, the action was all very entertaining while the plot was unnecessarily confusing and nonsensical. I had never heard of Paula Patton before, but she's nice to look at for a couple of hours. Simon Pegg is a funny guy, but he doesn't seem to have much range in that he plays the exact same character in every single movie.

On the ride home, we were upgraded to business class, which was a nice surprise. Every time I get to the point where I've lost faith in the American Airlines AAdvantage program, I am pleasantly surprised by something like this. I was debating whether or not to eat dinner in the DFW airport because I didn't want to eat airplane food. I was convinced that once I bought dinner that we would be upgraded, meaning we'd be treated a nicer meal. I was right, but I still was happy to have my bbq beef sandwich. 

Before getting to sleep on an almost fully reclined chair, we watched 21 Jump Street, which I liked a lot more than I expected. It was dumb, but there were some funny things in it. The only question I have is why did the movie have to be called 21 Jump Street? I don't remember the show, but I think besides the premise, there was no real connection between the film and the TV show. It could have just been a movie about cops going undercover back in high school and it still would have worked fine. 

An Aix-traordinary End to our Provence Trip

Our final stop for the week was Aix-en-Provence. We had a hard time figuring how to pronounce many of the cities we visited (even though Jenn supposedly took French in high school), but ultimately it was my boss, who is Italian (but lives in Paris and speaks fluent French), who taught me how to say this one ( it sounds like the letter X).

Aix was bigger than the other cities we went to during the week and it felt like it. If we had started there, we probably wouldn't have felt this way, but in comparison to some of the other towns, this seemed huge. With the look of the city and the shopping, it reminded us of a miniature Paris.

WIA: The well known pastry here is a calisson, which I'd compare to a small shortbread like cookie, but that's not quite it. Jenn tried one, but I wasn't interested. We had terrific Macarons from a modern looking shop called Morosso. I had an apple one that really good. Neither of us was that hungry, so we had a light dinner at the tiny Carton Rouge consisting of a cheese plate and for some reason lentils with salmon roe. I'm not sure why I ordered the second dish, but it was fine.

On the second night, after a very long day, we ate dinner at Auberge du Provencale. They had several set menus to choose from. Jenn went with the lobster menu which included lobster bisque, lobster over pasta with cheese, and some kind of fruit kabob with citrus-y ice cream between shortbread cookies. I had what was called the Gourmet menu and dined on cream of mushroom soup and very rare beef (just the way the French like it) over mashed potatoes. Dessert was chocolate cake with ice cream. 

All of our dishes looked pretty and tasted good, so we were happy. The place was completely empty. We ate by ourselves out on the patio, which was nice, even though the view was of the parking lot. 

We picked up food from the market the next day and ate a picnic lunch in the park. We had rotisserie chicken because we saw it at every market and we'd been craving it all week. It was really good and juicy. No French picnic would be complete without bread and cheese and we also had fresh strawberries and raspberries. It doesn't get much better than good, fresh, simple food.
Our last dinner of the trip was a nice one at the Michelin starred Le Clos de La Violette. We tried to keep a balance on the trip between fancy and casual places as well as local eateries versus ones that cater to tourists. We always would like to eat where the locals eat. Often places start out as local hot spots and then get written up in every guidebook and magazine and against their own wills become tourist hangouts. As long as the food is good, we don't really care. The building that houses the restaurant was modern and sleek looking both inside and out. The surrounding garden is pretty and does a nice job of creating a quiet and peaceful atmosphere, almost making one forget that the hustle and bustle of the city is only a few blocks away. As with many of the restaurants during the week, there were very few customers. This was the very beginning of high tourist season, so maybe we caught the calm before the storm, or they are feeling the economic downturn just like everyone else. Everything was prepared beautifully and the portions were much bigger than we expected. After the sardine over polenta amuse bouche, I had the daily market menu: aubergine and rabbit, roasted duck, and a strawberry rhubarb for dessert. Jenn had scallops over risotto, roasted chicken with truffle mac and cheese, and chocolate cake for dessert. It was a really great meal to close out a week of really great meals.

WID: We did a lot of walking. We walked up and down Couers Mirabeau (the main street) and through the winding streets of the city. We did a little bit of shopping. 

We spent a day exploring the awesome Gorge Du Verdon, also known as the French Grand Canyon. We drove through lots of small towns to get there and stopped in Moustiers Ste Maries to grab a sandwich and walk through their market. We drove along the North rim on the Route des Cretes, which had many scenic outlooks with amazing views. It wasn't as grand as the Grand Canyon, but it was very impressive. After driving the loop for a few hours, we got out of the car and hiked the Sentier des Pecheurs trail. It brought us down to the river and then all the way back up. The part along the river was really nice, but there was some tough uphill at the beginning and the last kilometer and a half was all straight uphill back to the parking lot. We then drove around the stunning St Croix Lake. We couldn't get enough of looking at the bright turquoise color. It looked fake, which it kind of is since it's man made.
On Saturday, Aix has several markets market, but as you walk through town, it just feels like it's one long ongoing market with different sections. There were lots of food stands, but also clothing, flowers, and household goods. After our picnic, we walked around a bit. We started to follow the Cezanne walk, which was much like the Van Gogh walk in Arles, but much more boring. We gave up after getting about halfway through it.

WIS: We spent a little more to stay at La Pauline. There wasn't much information about it online, but what we saw looked promising. We were sold the minute we drove up the dramatic entrance through a tree lined path. The estate was originally owned by Napoleon's sister. The property was huge, with a small vineyard in back, a swimming pool (which wasn't functional during our visit), and two smaller guest houses. Our room was the master suite of Jenn's dreams. It was all white with nice antique furniture. We also had a front and back porch with a beautiful view of the countryside. I was disappointed that at a bed and breakfast, they still charged 20 eur per person for breakfast. We didn't want to go into the city the last day because there was a marathon going on, so we did spring for breakfast before heading to the airport.
WAM: On the drive back to Nice, we thought we gave ourselves enough time, but we cut it extremely close. We ran inside with our bags after returning the car (with an empty gas tank) and it ended up not being a big deal. Jenn already likes to be at the airport hours in advance of a flight "just to be safe", so I'll be paying for this in the years to come.

WTF: There are no public toilets in Aix. In Europe, it's rare for stores to have toilets available to customers and hotels don't necessarily love it when you walk in and use their facilities. On one day, we had to walk into a small cafe and buy a bottle of water in order to use their bathrooms and on another, we sat down at the famous cafe, Les Deux Garcons, and bought a 6 euro cup of ice cream just so we could again relieve ourselves. One might ask, why do you two have to go to the bathroom so much, and that would be a very fair question. It's true that the two of us probably are not the best at "holding it", but it is important to note that even if you wanted to go to the bathroom, when you're traveling Europe, in a town where there is no Starbucks or McDonald's, it is hard to find a place to go. Jenn and I are convinced that the bowels and bladders of Americans are trained to go when they have the urge because there are toilets everywhere in the US. Europeans are probably more used to not always having a toilet available to them, so probably have much better control of things. Someone needs to do a study on this.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

From Arles, we headed North in the morning and ended up doing quite a bit of driving during the day, seeing a lot, and finally ending up in St Remy, where we would stay for a couple of nights. We also celebrated Jenn's 33rd birthday.

WIA: We heard from a couple we met at our B and B in Avignon about a strawberry festival in Velleron. This sounded fun and delicious, so we went, even though it was out of the way from where we were now located, in the South. We were there early, which was good, because it started to get very crowded by the time we left. I ate a cup full of strawberries sprinkled with sugar and Jenn had smoothie. Both were fresh and very sweet. We bought a small basket of strawberries, which we ate later that day while driving around. The other goodies we got to take with us were an enormous strawberry meringue, a strawberry napoleon, and a tropeziene, which looked a lot like a little cheeseburger. Thinking back, I don't think we even ate lunch that day.
We had a nice al fresco dinner at Bistro Decouverte in St Remy. We each had a glass of wine and then ordered from their daily menu. Jenn had vegetables in olive oil and I had aubergine flan. There was a small salad with pesto and tomato sauce around it. We had different types of fish and both were fine. Dessert was a molten chocolate cake with raspberry sorbet. It wasn't amazing, but everything was good.
We enjoyed a simple breakfast at Mas de Menoille of bread, cheese, and strawberries. We snacked on several things, olive oil, cheese, and macarons, at the wonderful St Remy Wednesday market. We had chocolate from Joel Durand and shortbread and sable cookies at the very famous Le Petit Duc. I don't remember if all of this was in chronological order, but regardless, we definitely ate a lot this day. We had Jenn's birthday lunch at Le Mirabeau. It's an unassuming place with a bunch of tables outside filled to capacity at lunchtime. The atmosphere is not too loud, but still lively, as it was bubbling with activity every time we walked by. It looked like a fun place to hang out. I had their signature burger, the Cheeseburger du Mirabeau, which came topped with foie gras and soaked in port sauce. It was huge, but I couldn't help myself from eating the whole thing. Jenn had a cheese burger, but didn't ask for any special arrangements. She decided since she was now 33 years old, she should be more adventurous, so...  she ate something exactly as it came on the menu. That is living.

Later in the day, we went back to Joel Durand for something cold and refreshing, which came in the form of ice cream on a stick covered with chocolate. 


There were a few restaurants that we reserved weeks in advance of this trip. Chez Bru was one of those places. It comes with a reputation of which they are acutely aware. I couldn't believe they opened the place because it was only us and one other couple eating that evening, but we were happy they did. Jenn did a small tasting menu and I ordered a couple of things a la carte. Everything was excellent, with the lobster lasagna being the standout.
We went more casual for lunch the next day at the renowned Bistrot du Paradout. This bistro looks and feels country. It's located on the side of the road on the outside of the city of Paradout. It has been around for a while since Peter Mayles talked about eating there in his book, which was published in 1991. Jenn continued her adventurous ways. She didn't have a choice really since there was only one menu served at lunch which this day included eggplant and tomato confit, rabbit with mashed potatoes, and several dessert choices. Besides the burgers in St Remy, this was probably my favorite restaurant of the trip. It was a quintessential Provencal meal.
WID: After the aforementioned strawberry festival, we drove to Les Baux, which is situated atop a mountain and offers scenic views. It reminded us a lot of Mont St Michel in Normandy. A couple minutes away, there is an art and light show inside a quarry called Carrieres du lumieres. It sounds kind of cheesy, but in reality, it is far from it. The quarry is quite large and completely dark with the exception being the projected art that covers all exposed rock. It is synchronized to music. We stuck around in there for a long time until the pictures started to repeat.

In St Remy, we walked through the Wednesday market, which had everything one can imagine. The produce was beautiful. The town itself is compact, well maintained, and for lack of a better word, cute. We both thought of St Remy as a place we could live if we ever wanted to put everything on hold and move away to France (which we think about more than you would think). We covered the whole town by foot and went outside the perimeter to see a small area with Roman ruins. There is a mapped out Van Gogh path that allows the visitor to see several different locations where Van Gogh got inspiration for certain paintings. It was much like the one we did in Arles, but not as good, though we did get to go through the hospital where he cut his ear off. Inside the hospital, Jenn had her second great photo idea of the trip (the first was getting inside the open sarcophagi in Arles), which was to "act crazy". I'm probably should have taken her up on it just to see what she would come up with, but I refused to take a picture and we both moved on with our lives.


WIS: The Mas de Menoille was as basic as basic can be, but clean and comfortable. Michelle, the owner, is anything but basic. She was so nice and made every effort to make our stay special, including going out and getting a beautiful bouquet of peonies for Jenn's birthday. She takes so much pride in her home and making visitors feel welcome. I didn't even mind helping her set up her new computer the morning before we left. She asked for my help once she knew I worked at Dell.

WAM: At a small shop on one of the side streets in town, we purchased our first piece of art, a painting of the Provence country side which Jenn describes as "modern impressionist". The artist, Jean Michel Espinasse was very friendly. In typical indecisive fashion, I think it took us three different visits there to finally pull the trigger.

WTF: While driving to St Remy, we ran into a detour that we had never seen before and probably never will again.

To view more pictures, click here.

Camargue and Arles

From Avignon, we drove to the southern coast of the region to take in the Camargue Wetlands, home of white horses, pink flamingos, and black bulls. We stayed the night in Arles, a city filled with Roman ruins due to their occupation starting in the early 2nd century. Van Gogh spent some time living in Arles and painted some of his most famous paintings here.

WIA: We had a quick lunch of tartines at L'Ardoise in the Place du Forum, which we ended up at because Cafe Van Gogh next door was no longer serving food in the late afternoon. We came across very few restaurants serving food at that point in the afternoon (3pm), so it was that or nothing. We were eating in the spot where Van Gogh painted Cafe Terrace at Night. Our dinner was outstanding at Jean Luc Rabanel's Bistro a'cote. We don't know anything about wine, so we mainly just let the waiters recommend something to us or drank the house wine. That worked out pretty well. The food was simple and straightforward. Everything we had was delicious. I had an enormous beef rib from a black bull like we had seen earlier that day in the Camargue Wetlands. The beef was tougher than what I was used to, but I enjoyed it a lot. Jenn had a mixed seafood dish with shrimp, mussels, and squid. I had a tasty apple cake for dessert, while Jenn had a vanilla/strawberry tiramisu. It was strawberry season, so we had lots of strawberries and strawberry desserts throughout the week.

WID: We drove down to the southern tip or the region and stopped in the city of Saintes-Maries-de-la-mer to get some information about the Camargue Wetlands in the tourist office. Our plan was to go horseback riding on the famous white horses from that area. The other famous animal in the area is the black bull. We saw several along the highway. They don't let you ride those unfortunately. There wasn't great information online, but everything we read just said there would be multiple places along the highway to which we could go. This was true, but some looked much more reputable than others. The woman Jenn spoke to in the tourist office wasn't that helpful, but gave her some information on different stables and a map. We stopped at a couple of stables, but the problem was that you couldn't just take a horse and go. These were guided rides and they only went at set times. The only times available at that point were much later in the day, and we didn't feel like waiting. We spent a couple of hours walking through the Orinthological park looking at flamingos and many other types of birds and then we decided to head towards Arles, which is where we would be staying that evening. The Wetlands were pretty, but we probably would have been okay if we hadn't gone at all. Maybe it would have been different if we would have been able to ride white horses along the beach.
Arles felt very Italian, which is due to the fact that it was occupied and developed by Romans. It's not just the arena that resembles the Roman Coliseum and the ruins of the amphitheater, but the layout of the town, the main square, and the narrow streets. We followed a route that took us to several different spots in the city where Van Gogh painted some of his famous pieces. This was a clever idea for the city to do. In each spot, they have a picture of the painting facing the direction of what Van Gogh would have been looking at as he painted. There was a river cruise ship blocking the view of "The Starry Night." We also walked through Les Alycamps, an ancient Roman cemetery filled with sarcophagi. Jenn had to explain to me what sarcophagi were. They are stone coffins. The cemetery is lined with them. Jenn wanted me to take a picture of her in one, but I refused because I thought it was disrespectful. She thought it would have been hilarious. We agreed to disagree. 
WIS: We stayed Le Calendal., which we chose because the price was right and it was the number one rated hotel in Arles on Trip Advisor. The location couldn't be beat as it's right in the center of the city and about 100 yards from the arena. It was very basic inside, but for one night, we weren't concerned. It surprisingly had a very nice spa. In each country, we always kind of tiptoe our way into the spa and watch other people to see what the rules are regarding what one wears and doesn't wear. Everyone was in bathing suits, so we did the same.

WAM: We were in the car a lot during the week, so we had the opportunity to catch up on all the current American pop music. There is no shortage of it on French radio. It's not like I grew up at a time to really experience or appreciate great songwriting, but there is so little concern for lyrics in most popular music today. It's all very catchy, I'll give them that, but if you ever take the time to really listen to the lyrics (which I do not recommend) of Nicki Manaj's "Starships" or Carly Rae Jepsen's incredibly catchy "Call Me Maybe", you will realize that they could have (and probably were) written by someone with either a 3rd grade education or with so little respect for the English language and those who speak it. It goes along with my ongoing complaint about the trend in television shows and movies catering to the lowest common denominator. I fear for the next generation as the world is becoming dumber every day. Having said all this, these songs, along with Gotye's "Somebody that I used to know" (which actually is somewhat well written) are much more likable than some of the other garbage at the top of the charts. We probably heard these three songs at least 20 times each in the week we were in Provence.

While on the subject of the radio, we devised a game while we were there called "French or English" where within the first few notes of a song, we would have to guess whether the song would be in French or English. Most of the radio stations played a mix of the two. It's much more fun than it sounds and harder than one might think.

WTF: It never ceases to amaze me how little regard their is in Europe for rules and order. It seems to almost be a badge of honor to make it clear that they are not as uptight as Americans and would never stress about such things. We drove up and down the road through Camargue to Saintes-Marie-de-la-mer several times trying to figure the whole thing out. There are plenty of horse stables, but you have to drive up to each one to then find out that there isn't any real schedule to it, but is based on when they have enough people to go. Even after talking with the tourist office, we still couldn't figure out where to drive and what there actually was to see in the Wetlands. We ended up pulling off on the side of the ride where we saw cars and it looked like something to see. This is how we happened upon the Orinthological Park. I'll be the first to say we're over the top in the US when it comes to order and procedure, but there is also something to be said for making it easier on people.

For more pictures, click here.