Sunday, November 29, 2009

Philly for the week-end

Here we are for a long Thanksgiving week-end, which started on Thursday! We headed over to Jenny's parents in Parsippany for the traditional dinner, where we ate a lot! The next day we took off for Philly to meet with Johanna and Antoine and visit Philly.
Enfin un long week-end, commençons donc par le jeudi de Thankgsiving, cette fête traditionelle américaine qui consiste à manger touta la journée durant! Nous sommes donc allés chez les parents de Jenny dans le NJ, où nous avons pu manger et boire à loisir! Le vendredi nous avons pris le train pour Philadelphie, où Johanna et Antoine nous attendait pour une journée touriste!


The buildings aren't as tall and numerous as in NYC, but there are quite a few official buildings which make the city quite pleasant to visit!
Les buildings se font rares à Philly mais beaucoup d'infrastructures officielles en font une très belle ville!


We couldn't visit Philly without having a cheesesteak, we opted for Campo's, an old favorite and original in the historic area...
Nous ne pouvions pas repartir sans goûter à la spécialité locale, le Philly cheesesteak!
And of course, the Liberty Bell, symbol of the American rebellion and independance, which now rests in the museum, and supported by a "spider" system to prevent the crack from spreading...
Et bien sûr, la cloche de liberté, le symbole de la rebellion et de l'indépendance Américaine, qui est préservée dans un musée et tenue par un système de support "araignée" qui l'empêche de fendre davantage...
It was pretty cold with the wind coming from all points, especially when you're in the center just as louloute is!
Il faisait assez froid avec le facteur vent qui débarquait de tous les cotés, louloute en faisant l'expérience au point zéro de la ville!
Of course, he wasn't part of the founding fathers but the Rocky statue is an important crowd gatherer!
Bien sûr, nous ne pouvions pas contourner la statue de Rocky, située au pied du musée de l'art de Philly!
One of the arches...

After walking for quite a few hours, we had to stop at the French bakery for desserts, and in the Italian market for some seafood and fresh vegetables and head out to the country side. We met with Johanna's parents and had a great dinner, played some poker while being heated up by the wood fireplace! We spent the next day chopping wood, and clean up the barn a bit... It was already time to go back to civilization!

Après les quelques heures de marche, nous nous sommes arrêtés dans une pâtisserie française ainsi qu'au marché italien pour prendre des fruits de mer et des légumes frais, direction campagne! Nous avons rencontré les parents de Johanna et avons fait un diner superbe, joué au poker, le tout en étant réchauffés par le feu de bois! Le samedi, les garçons ont coupé du bois pour l'hiver tandis que les filles ont réglé les derniers préparatifs... La nuit tombant, nous avons pris la route vers la civilisation, mais que ça a fait du bien de respirer l'air pur!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Lio in town

So he has finally decided to cross the Atlantic and stay for a couple of weeks! It started off easy with some pizza, beer and a movie at home, but then things got really good!
Il a enfin traversé l'Atlantique pour quelques jours et découvrir l'univers new-yorkais! Première nuit tranquille avec au menu pizza, bière et film, histoire de ne pas surcharger les choses d'entrée de jeu...
Pier 40 downtown Manhattan, Lio getting some rest after a 2h soccer game...
S'ensuit donc une sortie sportive, pier 40 à Manhattan, où Lio a pu faire admirer ses talents footballistiques, le tout avec des vues superbes de la ville!
Lio dreaming about an old rich lady living in a penthouse of 5th ave...
Cinquième avenue, bar à ciel ouvert, en face de l'Empire State Building, un white russian sur la table et un Lio qui rêve les yeux ouverts...
Fransua's birthday at the Tout Va Bien, where Lio explains the pastis theory...
Pour l'anniversaire de François, nous nous sommes rendus au tout va bien, QG local, où Lio nous a fait part de sa théorie pastissienne...
Lio at a gourmet restaurant, obviously enjoying his plate!
Un bon vieux bourguère comme on en trouve pas ailleurs, et des patates douces, quoi de mieux pour incarner ze american dream!
At the Brooklyn Bridge with his big little sister, trying to impress the Asian chicks...
Sur le pont de Brooklyn avec sa grande soeur, posant pour greenpeace!
Apollo theater, Lio couldn't climb all the way up though...
Une visite à Harlem et le temple de la soul, l'Apollo Theater!
Lio and Louloute at the Chart house and its great NYC view...
Encore une sortie bouffe, dans le NJ cette fois-ci, pour admirer la ville en pleine nuit...
Trekking down to NYC for his last day...
La dernière journée de tourisme...
Last but not least, a night he will never forget! The Coyote Ugly and some great lounges in the East Village to end his trip! I'll be back, those were his last words...
Et une journée qui finit en beauté! Les bars et autres lounges du East Village ont laissé le jeune homme sans voix, et sans t-shirt! La tête pleine de souvenirs, il nous a promis de revenir!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

ThunderDrôme

Apologies for the title, but I couldn't refrain from putting it! So, after the great week-end in Paris with Pierre and Vivi, we've spent a few days in Montauban with Choup's mom and brother and took the train to Bourg de Péage. On the menu, great food and booze, family and friends, what a great concoction!

Bérangère and her hubby paid us a visit with their little daughter.
Since we couldn't celebrate Louloute's birthday in April, her whole family came by to celebrate and get her great presents. Above with her baby brother Steven :).

Two cakes, yeah! And she succesfully managed to blow both candles :p!
The familly:)...

We also got to take a little trip to Lyon and pay a visit to Christy, who's going to college there, here's a snapshot of the sisters!

On Saturday before taking off, we got to celebrate louloute's father birthday, who is now XX years old (we won't divulge :p)!

He got some awesome presents and was happy as a kid!
Of course, Annie made great food as usual!

And here are the cakes who turned out to be really good!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Paname, Paname, Paname....


On our way to the ThunderDrôme, we stopped first by the "city of lights", Quasimodo's pad, i.e. Paris! We spent a few days visiting with Vivi and Pierrot who (finally?) settled after years and years of expatriation...
We went all over the place and got to enjoy the city while the parisians were out baking down the south!
La tour de M. Eiffel.
Mr. Eiffel's tower.
Lady Liberty hopped on from Newark :)!
La statue de liberté a fait le déplacement aussi!
Vivi and Pierrot taking a pose at the Senate park.
Vivi et Pierrot prennent la pose au park du Sénat.

Inspector Clouseau, with the moustache and all! Zis iz incredibeul!

Troubadour...
Going back from the Panthéon...
En revenant du Panthéon...
Bobo came by for a great dinner prepared by Vivi!
On a même pu revoir Bobo autour d'un bon dîner préparé par la maitresse de la maison Vivi!
A la Sorbonne...
The prestigious Sorbonne...

Thank you guys for having us, it was a blast!
Merci les jeunes, ce fut un plaisir de vous revoir!

Friday, September 25, 2009

San Francisco in July

As July started in a big bang in NY, we headed over to San Francisco and spent a couple of days visiting, eating, drinking (x3). The weather was incredibly great (except the fog in the morning, but it ain't SF without it) and Geoffrey brought us to a couple of great spots, thanks!

Juillet ou comment profiter de San Francisco le temps d'un week-end prolongé... Profitant d'un temps superbe et d'un guide touristique en la personne de Geoffrey, nous avons fait de belles découvertes et pris quelques clichés!
C'est une maison bleue adossée à la colline, on y vient à pied... Merci Maxime!
The typical SF street architecture, straight streets and crooked buildings :)...
Pier 39 where all the sea lions chill out...
Pier 39 où tous les phoques se dorent la pillule...
Los turistas!
Geoffrey avec une vraie bière à la main!
The tourists again, and the legendary cable car...

Next off, France again!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Independance Day


As the cold and rainy month of June was finishing off, July opened up with a great celebration aka Independance Day! Since this year's fireworks were on the Hudson river, to commemorate 400th year of Henry Hudson sailing all the way down to NYC, we thought it might be appropriate to have people over and celebrate!

So we got all the stars and stripes material and were anxious about the fireworks! It started off with a big bang but the party was the main attraction.
The most courageous stayed until very late or very early for some poker! Thanks to all for coming and sharing :)!

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