Leah & Julian in The World

Le Tour Eiffel

Our final destination in Europe!  We’ve been keeping busy so far in Paris – apparently there’s more wet weather on the way so we’re making the most of the half-sunny days.

First stop, the Picasso Museum, for a look at the Spanish painter’s crazy cubism.  And no,  we didn’t take the sketches.  The security was quite low compared to most galleries we’ve visited.

Notre Dame

We then took a walk across Pont Neuf to Ile de la Cité (the island on the Seine) to visit Notre Dame.  Nearby on Ile Saint-Louis is Berthillon, the most famous (and best) ice cream shop in Paris France Europe the world.

Berthillon

Walking on we glimpsed the massive Louvre museum and the Tuileries Gardens before ending back at our cute little apartment just two minutes from the Louvre.

The Louvre

At night we checked out Le Tour Eiffel from across the river at Palais de Chaillot.  Every hour it puts on a little flashing light show.  It is 120 years old this year; the last time I saw it was at it’s centenary.

Le Tour Eiffel

Although we did not visit one of the bigger châteaux, we saw about half-a-dozen smaller ones without even trying.

Château de Tours and St Gatien Cathedral

We had some wet, stormy weather in Tours but it made for some interesting photos of the sky.  (And we had a much needed rest).

Our  wine tour promised cheese but did not deliver   Nonetheless, it was a good opportunity to learn about French wines and visit a vineyard in each of the Bourgueil and Chinon regions.  In Europe, it is the region (and not the grape) that is usually marked on the bottle.  So if you don’t know which grapes are grown where, then you’re basically just deciding between  red and white!

Château de La Grille winery, Chinon region, Loire Valley

In contrast to the Australian cellar door tasting  experience where you line up at least half-a-dozen varieties of grape from whites to reds, here it is half-a-dozen vintages of the one variety.  Both vineyards we visited grew only Cabernet Franc vines but the weather and soil conditions the different vintage grapes were exposed to produced a very wide range of tastes in the final wines.

35-year old Cabernet Franc vines at Château de La Grille

In other news,  the EU elections were held on the weekend.  Although we’ve seen a lot of advertising for the elections in various countries, they had the lowest voter turn-out ever of 43%.  The Swedish Pirate Party actually won a seat!  Arrr!  (Not that type of piracy )

Tagines cooking at La Maison Arabe

The cooking class with La Maison Arabe is listed as the #1 thing to do in Marrakech by TripAdvisor.  Our host at our Riad also advised us that the class came highly recommended.  It is so popular normally that we weren’t sure we would be able to get in. Luck was on our side, and we were booked in for the Thursday, our last full day in Marrakech.

The class is conducted at the hotel’s “country club,” which has excellent facilities.  The class takes a maximum of 8 people, but on our day there were only 4 in total – us and another couple.  Our translator was Mohammed, who spoke excellent English and gave us a briefing on the basics of Moroccan cookery.

The facilities and the chef

Spice mix (before ground)

Moroccan food relies heavily on spices and dried fruit, which is unsurprising given the desert-like climate.  The main spices are salt, pepper, saffron, tumeric and dried ginger (for savoury foods).  Sometimes cinnamon and Ras-el-Hanout are added.  Ras-el-Hanout is a spice mix, bought premixed from a spice merchant.  It can have up to 24 spices included, and each vendor will have his own version.

We prepared a 3 course Moroccan meal.  Firstly, a Moroccan raw salad, which is just tomato, green capsicum and red onion, mixed with a little oil, white wine vinegar, cumin and salt.

Moroccan salad

The main course was a tagine – chicken with preserved lemon and olives.  It has salt, pepper, tumeric and saffron, plus coriander and parsley.  You serve it in the tagine, with the skin of the preserved lemon artfully arranged over the chicken.

Tagine of chicken with preserved lemons and olives

Finally, a simple Moroccan dessert – oranges with icing sugar and cinnamon. It’s simple, but it’s delicious!

Simple but delicious!

Overall, the experience was well worth doing – the setting is beautiful, the translator and chef are lovely and there’s something very satisfying about cooking the meal yourself.

Happy customers!

Ten things to do in Marrakech

1. Experience the souks with all their chaos and diversity.  Be sure to bargain with a stall owner (but only when you really want the item in question).

Spices in the souks

2. Visit le Jardin de Majorelle, wander through the cacti and be inspired by the bold blues and greens, like a Henri Matisse painting.

Majorelle Gardens

3.  Visit Jamaa el Fna and buy an orange juice from one of the vendors.

Orange juice vendors on the square

4.  Still on Jamaa el Fna, avoid the dentist with his array of molars, the men dressed in red and crazy hats who follow you playing cymbals and the men who try to put their mangy monkeys on your shoulders.

The square at dusk

5.  Take a break from the hectic crowds and heat and return to your Riad – an oasis in the medina.

Riad de lÓrientale

6.  Eat tagine – lots of it.

Tagine with preserved lemons and olives

7.  Drink mint tea – lots of it.  It tastes like chewing gum and is served with lots of sugar!

Minty fresh!

8.  Visit the mosques that dot the skyline (although you are not allowed inside unless you are Moslim).

Mosque

9.  Buy a pair of babouches, if you can get them down to a reasonable price!

Babouches

10. Take the cooking class offered byLa Maison Arabe, and learn some of the secrets of Moroccan cooking.

Cooking at La Maison Arabe

The fast AVE train from Barcelona delivered us in Madrid in under three hours.  There were unfortunately some avian casualties noted on the nose of the train after the 700km journey.

Art outside the Prado Museum

The Prado Museum is free on Sunday evenings so we visited to view some Spanish art along with Bosch’s ‘Garden of Delights’ and Velázquez’s ‘Las Meninas.’  Outside the museum there had been a painting competition during the day – the courtyard was full of easels displaying locally-themed works in many styles.

Spanish vegetarian

We sampled the vegetarian cuisine at Restaurante Integral Artemisa – eggplant lasagne, vegetarian paella, catalan-style spinach and yummo fried zucchini balls.  The second night we ate very cheaply at Puerto Rico Restaurante – two courses and drinks for two for €15.

Kermit plays for us in Puerta del Sol