The Shreveport Bucket List

My beautiful wonderful friend (and one of the only readers of this blog) Caroline suggested that I create a "bucket list" of all the things I want to do in Shreveport before we leave in late May. We're starting to get a bit wistful about leaving our settled happy life in Shreveport, as well as all of the great friends and family we have here. And I have committed to staying present in Shreveport while we're still here, although it will be a bit difficult considering I'm only in town for 4 more weekends before we officially move. So here's the list - most of these things we've already done before but want to make sure to do again before we go.

Eat at Strawn's
Enjoy the azaleas & garden trails at Norton Art Gallery
Run along the Red River with Otis
Have a Humphrey yogurt from Counter Culture
Go to Mudbug Madness festival downtown (Shreveport loves festivals, and this is our favorite - music, crawfish, beer, and the weather is summery but still bearable! Luckily it will be our last weekend in Shreveport... yay)
Shreveport Farmers Market (Found out this doesn't start till after we move - sad!)
Thirsty Thursday at the Captains minor-league baseball game (didn't make it here)
Pick blackberries (hope they are in season before we leave)(Not in season until mid-june - boo)
Go to Bears and listen to music (I will just have the good memories at this one)
Go hear Papa Grows Funk at Fatty's on April 15 (nope)
Eat at Noble Savage and stay for good music
Dinner & a movie at the Robinson Film Center (sad we didn't do this one! Too bad Bridesmaids doesn't show at the RFC)
Thursday night trolley ride & pub crawl downtown
Hot Jazz on the Red (weekly jazz concert at the Barnwell Garden Center overlooking the river)
Italian ice at Happy Belly
Gourmet popsicle at Geauxsicles
Sno cone from Tim's
Burger & casino cake from Rollin' in the Dough (didn't do this but I did get a burger from Maxwells... pretty darn amazing)
Steak & au gratin potatoes from the Cub (dive bar with great steaks - featured in Southern Living this month - weird!)
Fragolini and/or mojito on the patio at Giuseppe's
Southern Maid kolaches & donut holes
2 for 1 vodka freezes from Cuban
See a show at The Strand
Chicky's Boom Boom Room for fun dancing
Go to the boats (this one's for David - I would be ok never going to them again)
Otis Ockley farewell performance at White Coat Burning Party at the farm
State Fair (maybe? not sure if this is really that great?)
Tour the Municipal Auditorium
Eat at Monjuni's (original location)
And one last party in our backyard... ending in a game of rock band of course

What would be on your bucket list if you had to move?

Bonne anniversaire

Never blogged about our last day in Paris, which also happened to be my birthday! Here is a photo recount.

Best breakfast from the boulangerie

Shakespeare & Co - cool English bookstore on the Seine

Hemingway et al used to hang out here

I thought this place was really cool

Picture of happiness: glass of wine, sunny outdoor table, and Eiffel Tower in the distance

Decided to go for a boat ride on the Seine -great cheap way to see the Paris scenery

Our future flat (in our dreams)

Au revoir Paris!

Paris Day 3

Thursday we slept in late... because we could... we were on vacation, right!? David went for a jog around our cute Canal-district neighborhood and then we headed to a couple of areas we hadn't yet been - Champs Elysees and Montmartre. Champs Elysees was crowded and full of eye candy in the windows and girls wearing interesting outfits. It was fashion week in Paris and I don't know if that influenced some of the crazy things people were wearing, or if it was just normal!

Louis Vuitton flagship store

 

Proof we were there

Guys breakdancing in front of the Arc de Triomphe - a funny juxtaposition to me

From the Champs Elysees, we took the Metro to Montmartre, the little neighborhood to the north of Paris that sits up on a hill. It was fun walking around the cute streets and stores up there and we hiked up to the Sacre-Cour Basilica, which was beautiful and sacred.  Enjoying the panoramic view of Paris from the steps of the church we were serenaded by a French dude perfectly performing Jason Mraz's song "I'm Yours." Fun little moment!

View of the steps we were getting ready to climb

Sacre Cour

We wandered back down from the church and stopped for espresso at a cute little cafe. Once we sat down, we realized it was the Cafe des 2 Moulins from the movie Amelie (if you haven't seen it - you should!).  Montmartre apparently has a big music scene, because there was a whole street of guitar, bass guitar, drum, and turntable shops! David loved the window shopping, especially at this place where some super talented guitarist was testing out one of the models inside.

Great movie, but not so interested in seeing an actual show there...

We ended up by the infamous Moulin Rouge and hopped on the metro to our dinner for the night at Bistrot Paul Bert. Out-of-this world amazing meal and highly recommended for anybody going to Paris! I had the fixed price menu, with some sort of fish tartare in a yummy vinaigrette and the sea scallops swimming in butter (France has the BEST butter... why don't we have it in America?), and David had the steak au poive & frites, perfectly cooked with a rich sauce to be soaked up by the fries. For dessert we had the Grand Marnier souffle... YUM!

Au revoir!

London

On Friday, we left on Eurostar for a weekend in London.  The plan was to see Les Mis at the Queen's Theatre and an Arsenal match at the Emirates, and squeeze in all the sights possible in between.  We also got to stay with an old friend from Shreveport and his wife, who have lived in London for almost three years.  

After getting in, we quickly hit the tube to Green Park and walked across to Buckingham Palace to join the mass of people taking pictures in front of the gold and black gates.  As we walked towards Trafalgar Square, we noticed a lot of security and a big crowd of people around a gate.  Suddenly 4 cars rushed out, the middle two being identical Range Rovers.  The first had a rack of clothes in the backseat, and the second had...Prince William.  They sped off with heavy security and the crowd snapping as many photos as they could.  After they cleared out, the only thing left on the street were these horses:

From there we made our way down to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey before heading up to Islington (the N1, as our friend affectionately called it) where we were staying for the weekend.

 That night we saw Denise's favorite musical, Les Mis, at the Queen's Theatre by Leicester Square.  This is the 25th anniversary of the show's running in London, and it is still selling out.  We sat in the front of the balcony and saw a great show, even though we were 15 minutes late due to poor time management at the pub beforehand.

 The next day, we went to London Tower.  Our tour was run by a Yeoman Warder, and he was hilarious as he told us the history of the tower, from the first construction in the 1080s through all the public beheadings and ultimately as the storage ground for the Crown Jewels. 

He was definitely correct when he stated after seeing the Crown Jewels, anything you own will forever seem insignificant.  The diamonds in the crowns, swords, and staffs were unbelievable.  One diamond was called the Star of Africa, was a 530 carat diamond that was originally part of a 3100 carat uncut diamond.  We then headed across Tower Bridge (not London Bridge, a common mistake!)

After a quick walk through the London Borough Market for lunch, we headed up to Ashburton Grove to get ready for the Arsenal v. Sunderland match.  We met up with more friends at an Arsenal pub around the corner from the stadium.

Note that David is sporting the Arsenal jersey from 2000, while Denise has the latest one.

After a few London's Prides, we headed towards Emirates Stadium.

Amazing stadium.

 Even though Arsenal could not overcome the terrible reffing of the match (ended in a draw, 0-0), we had still had an amazing time and brilliant seats.  The fans sitting in our area were hardcore Arsenal fans, and being around them made SEC football fans seem polite and well-mannered.  We will have to leave out 99.9% of what they said during the game from this blog, but they also agreed that the ref needed to "get on with it" and openly expressed their feelings towards the visiting Sunderland fans.  The funniest part, however, was after a long and colorful tirade about the striker Arshavin being lazy, one of the fans commented that it was 4 o'clock and he could use some proper tea.

Seats right on the 18, 18 rows back from the pitch.

After a night of fish & chips at the Narrow Boat back in the N1, we packed up for our Sunday morning return to Paris.

London town

Forgot to update on day 3 in Paris before we hopped the train to London this morning! Have just returned from seeing Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre... Still have a smile on my face and perhaps a tear in my eye... It was amazing. More pictures and such to come later. Hope everyone back in the States is doing great!! TGIF to all you working folks!

Day 2 - Huitres and Hemingway

Day Two in Paris was wonderful. It was cold and sunny again and we started the day at the Tuileries Garden and Musee L'Orangerie, where Monet's gorgeous Water Lilies are displayed. There is a white room that you have to enter before you get to the paintings. Monet designed the room so that Parisians could decompress from the bustle of city life and find a space to relax and be filled with the beauty of art. Loved that.

Lunch was divine at Huitrerie Regis in St-Germain. A tiny little restaurant run by two gentlemen (one shucking oysters, the other pouring Sancerre and delivering the goods to the tables), it had all white walls with hundreds of white feathers hanging from the ceiling. The oysters were amazing, served with good bread butter and a glass of Sancerre, and of course a cafe at the end.

We continued walking around St-Germain, stopping in little shops along the way and strolling through the Luxembourg Gardens. We visited Chapon, an amazing little chocolate shop, for macarons and truffles.

We also walked into historically significant places like the churches of St. Germain des Pres and St. Sulpice, and other important places like Louis Vuitton and the new Hermes flagship store. The Hermes store was so cool with these wooden structures and different levels... kind of hard to explain but it was a feast for the eyes. In the front of the store there was a florist with luscious displays of flowers.

We ate dinner at Les Papilles, where we had a fantastic four-course meal in this tiny bistro-slash-wine shop.

After dinner (and cafe!) we decided we were up for trying out the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz. David read about it somewhere - it has this celebrated mixologist and was Hemingway's favorite drinking hole in Paris (hence the name) - so we changed into nicer clothes and headed that way. The cocktails were expensive but superb and worth the experience... plus we got a great view of the Opera at night! Until the next blog... au revoir!

Our big vacation begins

Subtitle: Storming Paris like it's 1944
(nerd alert... subtitle courtesy of David)


Well after a fun day in Dallas hanging out with friends, we hopped on the direct Dallas to Paris flight. It wasn't too bad, but we definitely did not get a full night's sleep. However, when we arrived, it was sunny and bustling and we just kind of picked up the energy for the rest of the day! Our apartment in the Canal St. Martin is super cute and in a great location. Here's a self-photo a few steps from our apartment:





We headed out to explore and just kept walking... got a fantastic lunch at the nearby boulangerie, then headed down to the Marais where we toured the (free) Musee Carnavalet. The coolest part to me was the sign gallery downstairs. Apparently at one point in time there was a serious literacy problem and all of the shopkeepers had to draw pictures on their signs so people would know what they were offering. Took a pic of this iconic sign:






From there, we kept walking - went over Ile de St. Louis to Ile de la Cite where we enjoyed deux cafe and basked in the sun with a view of the Notre Dame while this gentleman provided background music:








We wandered through St. Germain, got lost in Les Halles (not really in the shops, we just lost our bearings when we exited and strolled in the wrong direction for awhile before we spotted the Pompidou and realized we were turned around), and finally wove the way back up through the Marais and home. When we mapped our route, we realized we had walked about 7 miles in total. Picked up delicious bread and cheeses at the fromager and are currently enjoying them with a glass of wine provided by our landlord. C'est ce bon vie!!