Completing The Opens...A Day at Roland Garros

 By now you all know what a rabid tennis fan I am.  Actually, if the truth be told, this entire trip was built around attending The French Open.  I worked backward in the planning stage, securing the tickets even  before the flights.

A shout out to Kensington Travel…we had VIP access to a lovely lounge all day for lunch, afternoon tea (although there really was no tea…Paris is not London…it’s Moët & Chandon all day), and great seats.

The weather throughout our trip was lovely; a bit cool in Amsterdam but that’s expected.  But when the sun comes your way at Roland Garros, you better be prepared with your chapeau and sunscreen.  

The matches were great.  I always try to attend the Quarter Finals as you see the best players. 

Ons Jabeur, Tunisia’s only ranked player, came out strong but Brazil’s Maia took her in 3 sets.

Sadly for our American, Coco Gauff, she was no match for Iga Swiatek who beat her in the finals last year in Paris.  Coco’s turn will come.  She’s only 19.

It was great to see Alexander Zverev back on his game after his injury a year ago.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen harder hitters than Sasha and his opponent, Tomas Etcheverry, from Argentina.

Sasha deserves to win a Major so perhaps it will be this year.  We will see….

We are on our way home, thankful for being able to travel once again.  Thank you to all who read my blog.  I hope you too enjoyed our journey.

From Serenity to Chaos

 Our drivers and guides have been so punctual that we were surprised to hear the driver who would be taking us from idyllic Champagne to Paris was going to be 15 minutes late.  No, he did not oversleep.  He was caught up in the French workers strike/protest.  You might have heard…they are angry because President Macron wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.  Really?????

If this was the end of the day’s delays, it was no big deal.  But Nooooooo.

Once we were finally settled into our Paris hotel it was time to meet our guide and driver out to Chartres for an afternoon exploring the lovely village and the other famous Notre Dame Cathedral.  The guide was waiting in the hotel lobby but the driver was no where to be found.  He was stuck in a protest, unable to move for who knows how long.  Thankfully he finally got hold of another driver who was able to take his place and almost 2 hours later we arrive in Chartres, a village about 50 miles outside Paris.

The village is out of a storybook, smallish stone houses, mostly attached on either side of narrow cobble stoned streets.  A brook ambles through the town. Many pilgrims visit Chartres, at times numbering 15,000, walking miles.  As they come into the village, they finally spot the cathedral up on the hill.  I’m sure this vision gives them the final encouragement they need to complete their arduous journey.

The cathedral dates back to the 1100’s.  It was begun with one type of architecture but due to a fire, it was finished in the 13th century in the gothic style.  The thousands of carvings and statutes interpret biblical scenes many times over. The 167 stained glass windows are captivating; not only for the stories they tell, but for the vibrancy of the colors.  The rose windows rival those of Notre Dame Paris.

One disappointment was that the labyrinth was covered with chairs.  We were told on Fridays the chairs are cleared and the pilgrims pray on their kneels while traversing the labyrinth….quite the devotion, considering the stones and the unevenness of them.

To me, the most special item in this UNESCO site is the relic of the veil worn by the Blessed Mother at the time of the Annunciation and most likely, when she gave birth to Jesus.  Charlemagne received the veil as a gift from a Byzantine empress in around the year1,000.  The Chartres website has a much more detailed description and history of the veil.  As a person so devoted to the BVM, I was so moved to be able to pray before an item that has been authenticated back to the time before the birth of Christ.

Off to Roland Garros!  This trip has been planned around this day.

A Sparkling Day

 We have had a love/hate relationship with train travel in Europe.  Elevators have been known to be non-existent or out of order and Dom has had to haul my 50+lb suitcase up several flights of stairs and then run back down and carry his own bag up, cursing all the way.  So when I tell him we are training it from Brussels to Champagne he immediately pales.  Luck was on his side when all went smoothly and a smiling driver was waiting for us after a lovely 2 1/2 hour ride to take us to the Chateau we will be staying at for 2 nights.

I hadn’t made dinner reservations so the concierge was happy to make one at a restaurant in Reims, the city adjacent to Sacy, our village.  We enjoy an alfresco dinner with friendly staff.

We are met this morning by our guide/driver for the day, a young man (33) named Baptiste.  He takes us to Ruinart, the oldest Champagne house, exclusively producing champagne since 1729.  It is owned by LVMH, the Louis Vuitton conglomerate which owns most everything these days, including Tiffany, Givenchy, Tag Heuer, Fendi, Sephora….

Ruinart’s cellars are among the largest in Champagne.  They are made from ancient chalk mining; the chalk that keeps the cellars at about 50 degrees (be sure to bring a sweater if you visit).

Two of the young ladies attending this tour/tasting had just read The Winemaker’s Wife.  One of the timelines in the book is 1940, a time when the French Resistance hid Jewish people in the cellars in Champagne.  They were eager to walk in the caves of these heroes.  

Our 25 year old guide, Quentin, struck me as such an old soul.  He was born and raised in Champagne.  His love for the vineyards, the science of the craft, his business sense, are extraordinary.  Quentin is particularly proud of their new cuvée, a product of our climate changes.  He mentioned he had just returned from spending a year and a half in the Middle East.  When I asked what he was doing there he replied, “I went to learn Hebrew”.  Oh, ok.  We Americans barely speak English.  Europeans speak a minimum of 3 languages.  Clearly, their ease in traveling country to country is a huge advantage but it doesn’t stop me from being envious.

We taste 3 different champagnes.  Most of us use flutes to serve our champagnes at home.  Well now I know that flutes are the worst glasses to use so I’ll be trading them out for ‘tulip’ glasses.

It’s now time for lunch and Baptiste takes us to, of all places, the same restaurant we had dinner the previous evening.  We are greeted by the same staff who remembered us.  We have a good chuckle and I ask if they have a lunch menu.  They do NOT!  It’s the same menu as dinner.  Do you really think I’m going to eat filet mignon or a veal steak for lunch??  We beg off their hospitality and drive through Reims where we spy a casual brasserie.  While Baptiste parks the van we go into this neighborhood eatery where no English is spoken.  We could see the eager waitress break out into a sweat and quickly employ a patron who knows a little English.  Imagine her relief when Baptiste walks in as we had naturally invited him to join us.  

Before driving into the country we visit the cathedral in Reims, their Notre Dame, which took over 100 years to built, beginning in 1211.  All the Kings of France were coronated there.  Sadly, it was severely bombed during World War I as were many parts of this area.  It was declared a UNESCO site in 1991, another point of pride for this city.

A ride into the country takes us to a small vineyard, Michel Fagot, where Baptiste takes pride in taking us through a very different, smaller production house.  This is a culture that runs through everyone’s veins; it is the air they breathe.  It is also highly regulated; run by the Champagne Commission who rates/ranks all vineyard houses; who inspects them annually to ensure they all follow the ‘rules’.  

The Chateau we are staying at sits atop a hill overlooking the most picturesque landscape of vineyards.  As I gaze at this landscape I feel a serenity I don’t think I’ve ever experienced.  Coupled with a glass of wine and crusty bread so delicious, I wonder if this is what Heaven is like.  Honestly, it’s almost biblical.

A magpie came to visit us while we had dinner.

Wine and bread have been on my ‘no carb’ list for so long.  I hope God will forgive me for He surely never meant that to be!

The Flavors of Brussels

 Wherever we travel we love to do a food tour with a local guide.  I convinced myself it must be 5:00 somewhere when we made a beer tasting stop around 11am.  Of course the beer was paired with bread and cheese so it was quickly absorbed.  Who ever heard of cherry beer??  It was delicious! 

Coupled with our food tour, our guide pointed out so many interesting spots.  Brussels is on the route of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and to mark the way these shells can be found along the street pavements.  As a matter of fact we saw a procession of men wearing cloaks with the shells on their lapels carrying the statue of St. Nicholas.

It was time for a lunch of fresh cod and a glass of light white wine.  We continued to walk this off until we came to the beautiful Royal Gallery of Saint Helen dating back to the 1800’s.  

I would classify the champagne truffles from Mary’s almost a delicacy!  A little factoid…every American president since daddy Bush has ordered chocolates from Mary when they come to the Capital of Europe, Brussels.  Mary will not reveal the exact favorite flavor however, but I will tell you that I bought the champagne ones to take home.

Now there are Belgian waffles and there are tourist Belgian waffles,  the dumb dumbs who buy them off the street fronts load them up with all sorts of junk, like syrup, cream, fruit, sprinkles, etc.  it is so gross.

To taste the true flavor of a Belgian waffle it should have a crispy edge of baked in caramel and be topped with powdered sugar only.  We shared one because if I eating a whole one was just too much after all we had tasted.  

They say if you are on a diet, do not come to Brussels.  So true!

Tomorrow we train it to Champagne!  I’m so excited!

Hidden Gems of Brussels

 Knowing that tomorrow we have a guided tour of Brussels along with a food tour, we decided to seek out what most likely will not be included as the ‘must sees’ .

Most of you know my rabid interest in needlepoint and my early interest in sewing, so the Fashion & Lace Museum is right up my alley.  Needle and bobbin lace have been part of the Belgium culture since the 16th century and to see the delicate and intricate samples was jaw dropping.

But who knew Diane von Furstenberg’s iconic wrap dress is 50 years old?  Further, did you know that Ms. Von Furstenberg hails from Brussels?  The museum is honoring her and her “simple little dress” with a fabulous exhibit and we were lucky to have stumbled upon it.

Next up was the Musical Instruments Museum which houses over 9,000 instruments from the beginning of time.  The audio guide allowed the user to listen to the sounds made by a huge sampling of these instruments which filled floors of a building that was the Old England department store.  The facade of this building is as attractive as the contents.

Enlarge the building photo to see the musical details.

An excellent dinner at the Italian restaurant in our hotel capped off a perfect day.  A hotel, by the way, where DVF has been a frequent guest.

On to Brussels

 We bid adieu to Amsterdam, hoping to return one day as we truly loved their lifestyle and ease of living.

Our driver Nick loves his job and he was very keen to share his knowledge of the Netherlands as we travelled first to The Hague and then on to Antwerp with a lovely lunch stop in between.

The Hague is a city, of course, the 3rd largest in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam.  It is known as the city of peace and justice.  We hope one day to see Putin in the International Criminal Court building, charged with his war crimes!

On a lighter note, who knew The Hague was also on the coastline and a beach friendly city?  One disappointment was that we didn’t have tickets to see The Girl with the Pearl Earring at the Mauritshuis, their art museum.  I’ll have to be satisfied with all the other Vermeer(s) we saw in Amsterdam.

After a stop for a lovely alfresco lunch in a fort town along the way, we were on to Antwerp, the largest city in Belgium.  

Antwerp’s huge port made it the richest city in Europe at one time, attracting rich bankers from all over Europe.  It is still a cosmopolitan city and was once the sugar capital of Europe.  Because of its tolerance of all nationalities, a very large Jewish community began to call it home, especially those emigrating from Spain and Portugal, most notably the Orthodox community, as far back as the 15th century.  The Hasidic Jews grew the diamond trade so large that Antwerp was known as the diamond capital of the world.  80% of the world’s uncut diamonds came through Antwerp until recently.

I just finished watching Rough Diamonds on Netflix which spotlights the culture and intrigue of the diamond business in Antwerp,  It’s worth the watch, especially to see the handsome young star who left his Orthodox family only to return 15 years later 😉

Brussels will be our home for 3 nights.  At first glance, it is the total antithesis of Amsterdam; a little bit like Rome, a little bit NY…loud, gritty and full of tourists….more like the real world.  Stay tuned for a recap of tomorrow’s adventures.

A Day in the Country

 When your driver tells you his grandad used to take him fishing on the very highway you are riding on, you sit up and listen.  But how is this possible?  Then you realize this is Amsterdam, a city over 6’ under sea level; a city founded on the Amstel River, hence the city name and the name of a favorite brew.

This is a city we must return to to explore further, but a day in the country sounded quite nice after literally pounding the pavement for the past 2 days.  By the way, there is not a high heel to be found in the city as that would be tantamount to committing suicide with the stone and brick walks, trolley tracks and the close calls with bicyclists…more on them later.

After a brisk morning walk and a free ferry ride (yes, I did say ‘free’) we meet our driver Jon.  Jon is a big burly man who lives in the house he was born in just outside the city center; a house dating back to the late 1800’s.  As he is driving he gives us what could be a Master’s class in Engineering…all about the modern windmills and how the radar detects when the birds perch on the blades and stops them so they don’t kill the fowl…how the dikes open and close to allow for boat traffic…how the fish now have a waterway all to themselves so they can mate in the salt water and then give birth in the fresh water.  More than this city girl could imagine!

In about 1 1/2 hours we arrive in the village of Geithorn, nicknamed the Dutch Venice, where no cars are allowed.  It was founded by the Mennonites; the most idyllic place with canal cruises maneuvering throughout.  Unfortunately it has become a tourist bus destination so in the season there are traffic jams, the same as the original Venice.  Fortunately we timed it just right so it was a totally relaxing afternoon.

Dinner proved to be quite the experience!  Two separate friends recommend Pesca, a fresh fish restaurant where you begin by Step 1 -choosing your fish(es) and sides, Step 2-choosing your bottle of wine, Step 3- hoisting your short legs up to your table top with your bucket of beverages hanging behind you.  What a fun, happening place!  The fish and the service:  A+.  Thanks, friends, for the rec.

So here’s the bicycle stats:  in a city with 1.2 million people, there are 600,000 bicycles.  A new garage just opened at the Central Station that can park 20,000 bikes.  Not all the commuters use this garage, however.  We took the ferry where there were more people with bikes than without.  Bikes are parked all over the city, sometimes just with a simple bike lock, but not always.  Riders believe they have the right of way, red or green light.  If a car hits them, even though the car is in the right, well, the bicyclist will argue they do and the police decide it’s a 50-50 fault.  People are practically born on bikes.  Young and old traverse the city and NO ONE wears a helmet or has a rear view mirror.  Nerves of steel!

By the way, does this house give you pause??

We loved every minute of Amsterdam!  The Pulitzer Hotel, the welcoming hosts throughout, the culture and history, even the chilly weather.  We shall return!