Charcuterie shopping, luxembourg garden meanderings....

Good Morning Every body! Yesterday morning was spent in the Latin quarter of Paris. We wandered the tiny streets peaking in neat little flower shops, and taking a coffee break at a cafe in Place d'Elgise St. Sulpice. Soon we were hungry and ready for a relaxing picnic in the Jardin de Luxembourg. We hunted for the best charcuterie shops in Clotilde's book called Gilles Verot. We were not disappointed! The best pate du campagne ever! Mr Verot is also a head cheese champion....unfortunately we didn't have enough courage to try any! HA! I hope you enjoy the pictures,

Love and Hugs

Dinner at the Dodges parisian apartment

Good morning Everybody! Last night we went to the Monoprix grocery store and picked up a few things to take back to Mom and Dad's. We chose lamb chops, little cute baby romain lettuces, black tomatoes, coucous and wine! What a feast, it was so comfortable and cozy making dinner together in their small space and relaxing on the couch afterwards with a glass of wine and good conversation. The last picture is of the only small closet space so that Aunt Ann and Aunt Jane know "what not" to bring! :)

Love and Hugs

First afternoon in Paris

Good morning Every body, Mom and Dad are enjoying the Parisian life in their little apartment and taking bike rides along the seine and eating on terraces. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them. We wish the Aunts would hurry the hell up and get over here already! HA! :)

Love and Hugs

Mom and Dad are here!!!!

Sorry no pictures....I was too busy hugging and kissing them. They arrived a day late this morning at 1030am. I picked them up at the airport and we headed back into town to their apartment. They had a nap and then we opened a bottle of champagne and had a few appies. Later we went for a walk in their neighbourhood and found a great bistro with a terrace to have dinner. We just parted ways in the subway and will see them again in the morning. I promise I will take their picture and post it tomorrow. Wish you were all here with us so bad!
Love and Hugs

Our parents are almost here!

Good Morning Every body! Oh my gosh I can barely type I am so excited! Vince's parents and my parents are coming over tomorrow to meet for the first time. I haven't seen Daniele and Jose since June and Mom and Dad since August. I'm so giddy and freaky pants and excited and everything! Oh boy I can't wait to see them all.....and together! Last minute preparations are at hand, I'm buying champagne,thank you cards, flowers the works oh and I can't forget to clean the toilet when parents are coming over! HA! :) okay that has been added to the list!

Love and Hugs.

Sue inspired tabouleh

Good Morning every body! For the last week I have been craving tabouleh. I have never made it from scratch before and was nervous. It seems like ages ago we went over for dinner at Donna Folmers place in Halifax and Sue brought over her handmade tabouleh, which was to DIE for. I still remember it. I think that was in 2004 or 2005? It was so delicious and I wanted to make the same thing last night....
So what do you think, would you eat my tabouleh? I also roasted some lamb with a sardine,rosemary and lemon rub loosely adapted from Clotilde's blog yesterday. Add some hummus and olives and you are good to go. We ate outside on our balcony last night and Vince said it was the best meal he's had since he's been back in Paris. I think he's biased! :)

Love and Hugs.

Late night Eiffel Tower

Good Morning Every body! Last night we went out to a Corsican wine bar around the corner to celebrate our anniversary. It was delicious and cozy... and you know we had some cheese! After dinner we stopped at home grabbed a bottle of champagne and headed over the Eiffel tower to see it light up at 10pm. It was so magically romantic and beautiful, hands down the best anniversary I have ever had. I feel so lucky to have such a romantic wonderful man in my life!

What are you guys up to this week? Mom and Dad you should start packing!
Love and Hugs

Three years of life changing Love!

Good Morning Every body, today is our three year anniversary! Three years ago Vince and I met in the dank smoky basement of the Pogue Fado. HA! When I saw Vince for the first time my heart stopped. There was something about him that made me all nervous, hot and sweaty. I had to get to know this guy, even his name would do. I couldn't let him leave the room without saying something. And boy was I glad I did. We fell in love hard and fast and it just keeps getting better! He's the man I love, the very reason you can't wipe the smile off my face every day!

I love you Vince, and will never ever stop!

Happy Anniversary my cutie!

Carly Fleischmann - 20/20 segment

Okay this is totally random. I watched it on a father's blog called, http://pacingthepanicroom.blogspot.com/. I became addicted to his blog after his "maternity series" photos were posted on the Smitten blog over at Glamour.com. Anyways just like him this girls story touched me so deeply and I wanted to share it with you too. Autism is heartbreaking and this girl gives everyone hope. It's clear the reason I like this video so much is that it shows how deep a parents love runs and how you are never willing to give up. No matter the circumstance.
Love and Hugs.

Techno Parade

Here is some pictures and a video from the Techno Parade in Paris yesterday. We had a great time walking around watching the kids dance on the floats. We had a favourite guy with a vest, can if you can see him in the video? He was killin' it with the dance moves and making us laugh. We were totally motivated to drink a bunch of redbull and get up there with him! HA! or not!

Love and Hugs.

Saturday in Paris

Good Morning Everybody! Yesterday Vince and I woke up and took our bikes to the Ile de la Cite for a picnic. There is a small park at the very tip called Square du Vert Galant with some benches and nice patches of grass. We picked up some cheese, bread, wine and fruit on the way over and settled in the middle of the park. It was so nice and relaxing, we read a few papers and magazines and then headed to the Latin quarter. We heard there was a parade and wanted to see if we could see what was going on. Pictures and videos from that on the next blog. I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

Love and Hugs.

Okay not gonna work!

Plan B coming up.
Love and Hugs.

Congratualtions on Ryan's new career!!!!!

Ryan is now officially the Royal Ontario Museum's Library Technician in charge of acquisitions,circulation and interlibrary loans! How friggin cool is that?!!!

I believe Ryan's dream has always been to be deep in the basement of a museum dusting off old artifacts, wearing a sweater vest, determining which World War an artifact came from and generally be immersed in history. Ryan has worked long and hard at this dream. He stayed in positions he despised to get closer to this job, gosh he even volunteered on his days off! He went back to university which had him living away from Brittany, something he hated 24/7. He wrote A graded paper after A graded paper. He travelled the world and expanded his mind and experience. Instead of just reading about it, he went to Vimy Ridge and was moved beyond belief. He then moved to Toronto not his first choice but has made such a place for himself and his family there. Years and years of preparation and hard work have taken Ryan to this job and I think I can speak for everyone when I say we are so very proud and overjoyed for you Big Fella! You did it! I can't imagine what it is like to wake up every morning with the person you love and get ready for a job you adore, what could be better?!!!

You are Extraordinary!

Love and Hugs.

Still trying!

Okay Vince and I tried all night last night to change the HTML on my blog and upload an audio player. I was so naive and thought it wouldn't be THAT hard. But it was and it still is. We decided to give up and try making a home video of the song I wanted to play for Ryan instead. Easy right? Not so much. We made the video and the sound quality is pretty good but now the video is too big or long to be uploaded to my blog! URGH! We even tried storing the song from my Itunes to our free online storage site and then getting it from there. No go, the file is too big! I have one last idea I am going to try and then I will just have to post him a congratulations without the music. Oh Bummer I hope that doesn't happen.
Love and Hugs.

Post about Ryan coming up!

Hi guys, I am trying to re-write the HTML on my blog so I can upload an audio gadget so I can play Ryan a song. He just signed the papers for his new job yesterday and I want to congratulate him properly and tell you all about it. Obviously I am no computer technician so I need Vince's help and he's a work. We won't get it fixed till tonight and I will have the blog ready for you tomorrow morning. Sorry no pictures today. :(
Love and Hugs.

Maniago, Church and Silvia walking down the aisle

Goodmorning Everybody! Isn't Maniago beautiful? I was totally stunned at all the mountains and green rolling hills around this little town. And isn't the church so adorable? The wedding was at 12 noon and before the ceremony we were invited to Silvia's family's house for nibblies and belinis. Around 11:45 we all walked to the church together through the town. The service was lovely and emotional and Silvia looked so hot! After pictures were taken we all got into a bus and headed to the reception venue....a small restaurant on the outskirts of town and boy did we EAT! I will post some more pics tomorrow.

Love and Hugs.

Indoor frenchie BBQ

Good morning Everybody! I'm taking a break from the Venice wedding photos to show you our indoor BBQ. Are you sooooo excited! HA! It's electric and only has one setting but works great. Before I left Canada in August I made sure I had the latest "Food and Drink" magazine from the LCBO. They always have the best recipes. So anyways I wanted to make this salad from the early summer 2009 edition and thought I would show the process. I couldn't find lamb or beets at the store so we supplemented the recipe with green beans and veal. The outcome was supremely delicious but didn't look anything like the picture. It's seems to always turn out like that for me. What about when you guys follow a recipe, does it always look like the picture when you're finished? Oh and Sue I am waiting for those spaghetti pictures! Love you!

Love and Hugs.

Weekend Love

Happy Weekend, here's some Maniago!

Good Morning everybody! These pictures are from our first day in Manaigo last Saturday. We arrived in the afternoon and after checking into the hotel went down to the main piazza to see what was happening. There was a festival with music, games and food! Men were selling BBQ'd sardines and grilled polenta so of course we had to have a taste. They were delicious but the polenta not so much. We had a few plastic glasses full of prosecco for 1 euro and headed over to Silvia's family's house for dinner. They had the backyard BBQ all fired up with veal brochettes, sausages, pork and polenta. We sat down to a beautiful meal for a group of 21 people all there to help Silvia and Gary celebrate the night before their wedding. The food was amazing, we had beans, tomatoes, salad, cheese, some kind of amazing smoked meat with arugula and olive oil on top and of course all the BBQ'd meat! What a lovely meal...oh and don't forget about the limoncello toast at the end of the evening. Just Perfect!
What are you up to this weekend? Alexis and his cousin are coming to visit from Strasbourg and we will be missing you.

Love and Hugs.