france – WhyTravel

What to Eat in Paris (it’s probably not what you were expecting)

August 10, 2019September 11, 2019Kimberly1 Comment

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Chez Hannah

It will come as a surprise to no one that Paris and food go hand-in-hand. There are countless books and articles and blogs dedicated to the topic, and if there aren’t poems, then there should be. An easy internet search or a conversation with a Parisian will get you quickly to the best baguette, croissant, macaron, cheese shop, caramel, crepe, fries, butter, ice cream, escargot, hot chocolate, praline, tomato tart, … well, you get the idea.

I recommend that you put falafel on the top of your list. It is worth a journey or a detour. The Rue des Rosiers in the Marais neighborhood is the center of Paris’ falafel district, with several falafel places within sight of each other. L’As du Falafel makes everyone’s lists, including this post by Serious Eats. You’ll enjoy a wonderfully satisfying meal, but the lines there are usually long, sometimes down the block. I’m sure that is aided by the photos posted of celebrities, such as Lenny Kravitz, eating there.

However, I skip L’As and head down the block to Chez Hannah. At all the falafel places, you can order your sandwich as you wish, with a choice of toppings. I order Chez Hannah’s hot-out-of-the-fryer eggplant, which is piled on the falafel balls, vegetable slaw, and tahini sauce. The mix of warm, cool, crunchy, and creamy is heavenly. One pita sandwich is probably big enough for two and a half meals.

Warning: although you can walk around with the stuffed pitas, sit in the restaurant or find a bench, or you risk losing half of it down the front of your shirt. You do NOT want to do that.

French food: Brittany, home of the crêpe

July 28, 2019September 11, 2019Kimberly2 Comments

… and the galette.

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Galette with leeks and mushrooms

IMO, you can never go wrong on a visit to France. I visit Paris any chance I get. It took me quite a few visits to venture outside of Paris and I am glad I did. Thus far, there has not been a bad decision in the lot.

A few years ago, I visited the Brittany region. Breton is both the name of the region in their language and the language itself, though most Bretons speak French. They are a Celtic group and you will experience a unique culture here different from other parts of France, including a strong nautical feel. Anthony Bourdain visited for a No Reservations episode and he ate a LOT of seafood. (Anthony, we miss you.)

But onto the wonderful galette…

They are commonly eaten as the dinner meal, but feel free to have one any time. They are huge and make a whole meal. This picture, with my mom in the background, gives you a sense of the size:

galette bert Galette of smoked salmon and leeks

Notice hers is square and mine (the first photo) is hexagonal 🙂 They like to do that. We could not finish our galettes and had to leave some behind.

galette fred

My dad had fried egg and ham. It’s bigger than the angle shows here. He was full.

Galettes — unlike crêpes — are made with buckwheat flour. They have bit heartier flavor and are gluten-free! Apparently there is a debate raging about galettes vs. crêpes that you can read about here.

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Dinan, France

This is the outside of the restaurant that produced our galettes. The whole town is lovely and full of these medieval half-timbered buildings.

A couple more notes on food and drink: a very drinkable hard cider is consumed throughout the region, with galettes or without. It’s usually dry, but you can inquire about which varieties they have on hand.

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photo credit: francetravelplanner

It is imperative to leave you with this one last photo.

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In St. Malo, 40 minutes from Dinan

St. Malo is also the setting for one of my very favorite books, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Read it before you go!

Printing and Displaying Favorite Photos

June 15, 2019June 16, 2019Kimberly5 Comments

dinan 16 Sheepdog monitors a flower shop in Dinan, France

I have written in the past about cheap and light souvenirs to bring home from your trip. Photos are fantastic souvenirs. They are as light as air and just as cheap. If you print them out when you get home and pop them in a ready-made frame, it can cost just a few dollars to display them on a shelf or on your walls. I have had consistently good results using Nations Photo Lab. Upload your photos, select the size and other options, and they mail the prints to you.

Photos are my favorite way to decorate my office. Memories of favorite vacations (or reminders to plan your next one) brighten up a generic office space really fast.

The photos here are my own favorites that I’ve chosen to print and frame.

guatemala 2009 KH (web) Antigua, Guatemala – a heavily touristed town, but full of splashes of color

Haiti KH Hillside around Pétion-Ville, Haiti

xian china y Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi’an, China

2007_0902ethiopia girls y Curious girls at Adadi Mariam, Ethiopia

sunrise over sinai Sunrise at the top of Mount Sinai

IMG_0981 fave? Cuban Cowboy

Here is a post I wrote about Cuban Art and Framing Tips.

I should mention that the photos throughout my blog are mostly my own. If they are not, I’ve credited the source.

Another option is photo books. In 2018, I created my first photo book with my cousin after our wonderful trip to Morocco with her daughter and daughter’s boyfriend. There were so many colorful photos and wonderful memories, it was difficult to boil it down to the 120 or so that made it into the book. We used Mixbook. We found their website easy to use for uploading photos and designing page layouts. We were pleased with the print quality of the hardcover books we ordered.

Left to right: cousin Rachel, cousin Tammy, me (shot by Dani)