kuala lumpur haircut
i had an excellent haircut in KL on weds morning. i chose a salon at random, and was lucky enough to get a stylist called alexander, who cut each hair individually (almost) and then gave me a pretty fabulous colour job to boot. i’ve never had such a precision cut in my life. he did [...]
some images
from the louvre: at versailles: in paris:
almost home again
we are in kuala lumpur right now, in the largest hotel suite we’ve ever seen. we stayed at the renaissance hotel on the way over, and enjoyed it so much that we booked for our return. upon arrival they informed us that we had been upgraded. you should see this suite! it’s twice as big [...]
versailles
well. now that i have seen versailles with my own eyes, i’ve got some FABULOUS inspiration for my own home and garden. we need more gold around the house. and gilt. and carving. and ornate plaster work. and oil paintings. and furniture with inlays and repoussees and chassees. and murals on the ceilings. and REALLY [...]
obligatory eiffel tower photographs
and some beautiful art nouveau ironwork on a metro station railing:
good to know
just in case anyone was wondering:
more moet
as you drive through champagne and especially around the grand cru villages (there are 17 of those) you see little headstones near the grape vines, bearing the name of the champagne house who will be getting those grapes. it is mostly the big commercial champagnes who have these, and i can tell you it was [...]
some photos
normally i wouldn’t just shove a link on my blog and be done with it…but i am a little pushed for time. this link will take you to the photos i have uploaded so far. some were taken on the little leica and some were snapped on the iphone. things are a little out of [...]
moet in cramant
here are some of the famous vines…..we are staying just up the road and around the corner, a mere three or four minutes walk: and this is the view over the moet vines, to the next village, which is called avise: it is beautiful and green and not an inch of land is wasted. in [...]
le tour again
my absolute best photo of the race…..they scorched past us and i snapped off four photos or so. you can see how close we were….literally right there.
le tour de france
ok, this was SUPER exciting. you never met two less likely sports tourists as maurice and myself…..and our idea of a big morning’s exercise is walking to the patisserie. however, we turned into rabid cycling fanatics for 24 hours when the tour de france swept through champagne. last night, they raced into reims and we [...]
war. what is it good for? absolutely nothing.
yesterday we leapt up early and drove out to verdun, which is actually not in champagne, but over in alsace-lorraine. if you don’t know what went on in verdun during WW1, then get googling, because it’s a gripping read. the germans decided they wanted to capture verdun at any cost, and the french simultaneously decided [...]
the chocolate eclair
when i was a child, back in auckland, when the earth’s crust was still cooling….my mother worked next door to a weird underground coffee bar. literally underground. once you got there though, they had chocolate eclairs. these were feather-light tubes of choux pastry, filled with chantilly cream, and lavished with a coating of sticky, sweet, [...]
moet et foie gras
yesterday we spent the afternoon in the caves beneath moet et chandon. gracious….28 KILOMETRES of dimly lit subterranean tunnels with cellars branching off on every side, simply crammed full of millions of bottles of moet. it was THRILLING. and it was very nice and cool down there after the 36 Celsius afternoon we were wandering [...]
just say no
crikey. maurice bought some andouillette de troyes at the supermarket and cooked them up last night, while i made a russian salad* to go with. they smelled….odd….while cooking. but i sat down with plenty of mustard and i ate one. i wasn’t thrilled, there was a weird flavour i couldn’t quite put my finger on. [...]
