Cucina Testa Rossa

Le Chat sur Le Bar

Oh, to be a cat in Paris.....

A must for every outdoor grill...

Musée du Quai Branly

photo by Ed Alcock for The New York Times

Musée du Quai Branly: For a New Paris Museum, Jean Nouvel Creates His Own Rules
By Nicolai Ouroussoff, New York Times

"The new Musée du Quai Branly should raise the hackles of people who hate to see Paris's beauty tampered with: Defiant, mysterious and wildly eccentric, it is not an easy building to love....." It wouldn't be France if this much anticipated museum weren't met with a healthy dose of criticism now, would it.....?

La Vue de Ma Fenêtre ~ Chalone sur Saone

Herbs at the Farmers Market in Chalone sur Soane, Bourgogne ~ June 2006

click here to see all the pictures...

La Vue de Ma Fenêtre ~ Mont Saint Vincent

Le Bec Fin Chez Mimi - a darling cafe in a tiny hilltop village called Mont Saint Vincent, Burgundy ~ June 2006

click here to see all the pics...

Fête de la Musique

every june on the summer solstice, throughout all of france, music takes to the streets.... in every town, city, nook and cranny music soars from churches, museums, squares, corners, streets, boats, parks and rooftops. here are a few pictures of two bands within one block of me. multiply this by a few million and you have france on the night of June 22, 2006. yet another reason to love this country. bonne fête de la musique!

A McDonald's Ally in Paris

picture by Lars Klove for The New York Times

Great article in today's New York Times about McDonalds (called McDo - mac doe - in France) and an interesting insight into French culture by John Tagliabue entitled "A McDonald's Ally in Paris"... Bon appetit!

La Vue de Ma Fenêtre ~ Rue St Andre des Arts

Water level marker from the Flood of 1910 on Rue St Andre des Arts, Paris

Hangin' Out in Paris

Hangin' out. Like tying a scarf, the French have elevated hangin' out to an art form. I think it's in their genes. People here just hang out. Everywhere. All the time. Parks. Cafes. Squares. After two years here I still struggle with this concept since in Silicon Valley it is considered the eighth deadly sin and I am sadly engrained with that insane need to work constantly. The thought of simply taking a book to a park to read for a few hours is the last thing that comes to mind on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Luckily I have friends that have never come within 1000 miles of San Francisco nor a hi-tech company and they are much better at this hanging out thing than I am. Today it was a picnic at Champs de Mars, the park in front of the Eiffel Tower, and last week it was just hanging out in the Jardin de Luxembourg. Click here to hang out, Parisian style...

Ratatouille ~ the movie not the veggie

I was doing some serious (read: obsessive) shopping therapy on iTunes this morning when somehow I ended up on the Disney movie site. I'm not a big movie person and you won't catch me dead waiting hours in line for openings like I did 32 times (!!!) for Star Wars a hundred years ago, but when I saw the trailer for this, I was hooked.

The hero in question, a little mouse names Ratatouille (rat a too ee), lives in Paris and has a very sophisticated palate. Yesterday's garbage just won't do, it's 3-michelin star left overs for little Ratatouille which inevitable causes him to be the target of many a chef's wrath.... Click above to see the trailer....