Florence/Rome/Paris May2013 - 5

Back to Paris after the BBQ, dropped our luggage at the hotel, met our friends, and together immediately drove off to Honfleur! Love how familiar all these feel..

Charming place which we're always so proud to show off to our friends. 3rd time back here at restaurant Sa.Qua.Na and it's still as good and as value for money as ever. The half menu lunch at 68eur is already enough to wow our tummies. Very easy to drive to from Paris. Trust me that it won't disappoint!

Finally returned to our oh-so-dear Paris for the remaining leg of the trip. Stayed at Adagio hotel near the La Fayette and the location is super perfect. Access to shopping and very importantly to the metro. For one dinner, we wandered randomly to a nearby Korean restaurant which serves pretty good grills.

Roland Garros hohoho. Never to be missed. And again, showing off our favourite restaurant L'Ogre. Heavenly roast suckling pig and cote du beouf!!! Walk it off along the Seine and take in the lovely night scene. What a perfect end to the day.

Florence/Rome/Paris May2013 - 4

Day 6: Off to Paris! No hassle flying from Fiumicino to CDG. Picked up our rental car and rushed straight to Pierre Gagnaire. Been looking forward to this 3-star lunch as Mr. Gagnaire is well known for his molecular cuisine. And I love molecular for its limitless potential to surprise your taste buds. Inventive food that plays around your different senses :)

Then straight off to Fountainebleu! Small town about 1.5h from Paris. You see, the whole starting point of this trip was for S' INSEAD reunion. A full day affair of talks, catching up and networking like they always do. Not my thing. So I took the time to visit the Chateau de Fontainebleau and thereafter brought the wags to La valleé village for some shopping ;) The Chateau is so grand I wish I had more time to explore..

“The true home of kings, the house of ages” (Napoleon in Saint Helena, August 1816) With over 1500 rooms at the heart of 130 acres of parkland and gardens, Fontainebleau is the only royal and imperial château to have been continuously inhabited for seven centuries. A visit to Fontainebleau opens up an unparalleled view of French history, art history and architecture. -official website

One special thing being captured: Napoleon's Throne
"Requested in 1805 by Napoleon I for what was formerly the King’s Chamber, the Throne Room in the Château de Fontainebleau is the only such suite in France still in its original state. Together with his crown, his two ensigns and his daïs, the throne was installed in the alcove in which the king’s bed formerly stood. Originally made for the Château de Saint Cloud in 1804 by Jacob-Desmalter, based on designs by the architects Percier and Fontaine, it was installed at Fontainebleau in 1808. The seat itself had been created for the throne at the Tuileries Palace."

The morning after - BBQ feast at the campus!

Honfleur/Le Havre/Etretat (15-16April11)

The day after we returned from the South of France trip, we drove 2 hours up north with Charmaine to Honfleur for a lunch at Sa.Qua.Na, our favorite restaurant in France. I have to mention this place again because I love it too much. They offer a menu of either 5 courses for 65€ or 9 courses for 95€ whereby the entire table has to be served the same menu. However, I can safely tell you that the 5-course menu is more than enough. Both come with an amuse-bouche which is the pancake/tart-looking thing in the photo below. A weird, heavy amuse-bouche one might say, but when you put it in your mouth, you'll be utterly surprised at the lightness & fluffiness of it! The tinge of truffle aroma is just heavenly. Thus we have crowned this the single best dish of the restaurant which is to.die.for and to.crave.for. Their slow-cooked fishes and pigeons are also awesome. Do look back on my previous post (tagged Honfleur) for more descriptions made during my 1st trip there.

Afterwards, we headed to Le Havre via a 2km-long bridge called Pont de Normandie. Le Havre, which translates simply to "the harbour or the port", is "a city of the Haute-Normandie region (declared in 2005 a UNESCO World Heritage Site) with a port that's the second busiest in France (after Marseille)". We stayed a night there but I wouldn't recommend going there at this time because much of the city is undergoing construction to make way for new tram lines. The only thing we did was to walk around the city center (where the shops and bars are) which was quite charming. You can read more about it here.

The following day, we drove another 45 minutes from Le Havre to a place called Étretat. It is best known for its cliffs, which I was most attracted to because Claude Monet illustrated them in several of his paintings! Here are 2 paintings which you can compare against my photos :) The ones on the left is called Porte d'Aval and on the right Porte d'Amont with Manneport behind it. I hope I got them right.

Left: Source [http://givernews.com/?Balade-en-normandie]
Right: Source [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_1=AUTR&VALUE_1=MONET%20Claude&DOM=All&REL_SPECIFIC=1&IMAGE_ONLY=CHECKED]

We "trekked" up the Porte d'Aval for a better view of the beach, the cliffs on the other side, and the town. Love it. To end the visit nicely, we had shellfishes and wine at a restaurant by the beach. The mussels were quite bad though so choose the oysters and the likes instead.

Marseille/Lyon (13-14April11)

A popular attraction in Marseille is the Notre-Dame de la Garde, an "ornate Neo-Byzantine church situated at the highest natural point in Marseille, a 162 m (532 ft) limestone outcrop on the south side of the Old Port. As well as being a major local landmark, it is the site of a popular annual pilgrimage every Assumption Day (August 15). Local inhabitants commonly refer to it as la bonne mère ("the good mother")." according to Wiki.

By the time we reached, the Notre-Dame had already closed - a real pity because I've seen images of the interior of the basilica and they looked outstandingly different from the other basilicas in France. Oh well. At least we managed to catch the sunset and was rewarded with a panoramic view of Marseille. Hmm ok can't really say 'rewarded' because we drove up the steep slopes to reach the basilica. Kudos to those who walked up!

Last photo: just a random drawing on the floor by a random person asking for help to be fed.. 

Vieux-Port of Marseille

This signifies the end of our trip. 7-hour drive back to Paris but the torture was negated by a wonderful lunch in Lyon. Stopped over at a 2-star restaurant which I had decided on because of its really cheap (compared to other 2-starred restaurants of course) lunch menu! This menu changes from time to time. Food was very good so I highly recommend it!

Name: La Mère Brazier

Location: 12 rue Royale, 69001 Lyon

Expenditure: 150€ for 3 pple incl. 1 bot of wine (lunch menu at 33€ 2 courses & 37€ 3 courses)