Belgian Fries and Cocktail Sauce

Here I am, back on Paris for another 13 days after our road trip of Northeastern France. The small villages and French countryside were really spectacular! On Tuesday morning we visited the Chocolate Museum and factory that is just outside Strasbourg. It was one of the highlights of my trip, but I really love factories as you know. They told the history of chocolate from its ancient beginnings in South America as a commodity more valuable than gold to its trip to Europe, where it was discovered to be even more delicious when mixed with vanilla and sugar. There was a tour of the story of chocolate where we saw little moving figures--kind of like the Small World ride but without being in a boat--such as mechanical French queens and officials as they discovered the magical chocolate drink for the first time. After the walking tour, a French lady gave us a demonstration of how they make chocolate elephants, race cars, bears and bunnies using molds and liquid chocolate. She had us taste test pure white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate. The milk chocolate is always my favorite. I was in heaven in the chocolate gift shop...cute bags with chocolate pictures on the front and an apron that I almost bought for my mom, but then I looked closer and saw it was poorly made. We all got a bag of chocolates to take home for free so I decided not to buy anything.

The city of Metz was not too far away. This city is found in the province of Lorraine. Remember that both Alsace and Lorraine were taken by the Germans on several occasions and consequently have lots of German influence. I decided that I love the German style: flower boxes in the windows, colorful houses, open window shutters. The Quiche Lorraine is from this province, so Ali and I set out to find a bakery and try one. We went to the tourist info center and got a map of the city first. We then proceded to take ourselves on a tour of the various cathedrals. The oldest church in Europe, dating back to 600AD is found in this city. We stopped at a Music and Dance conservatory to check it out. The thing I want to do most in France is observe a school class to compare with our schools in the USA. I am really going to try and do this in Paris, but most the schools are out for the summer. Big surprise, eh? This conservatory was the same way--a few private students came in but the classrooms were mostly empty. The two of us just showed ourselves around and Ali tried to find a bathroom inside (public restrooms are near impossible to come across in Europe unless you are in a café and have paid for something). As we were looking around, a man with a pegleg came down the stairs and said, "I don't recognize you two. What are you here for?" I told him that we were teachers from the U.S. and planning on telling our students about this consevatory as a place they could possibly come and study abroad. This got him so excited. He asked if he could get his coat and tell us all about it. Ali can be a lot more abrupt than I can and whispered to me that she wasn't interested at all in talking to this guy and all she really wanted was a bathroom. Well, she found her toilette and the guy came downstairs. He said he would like to take us out for coffee and tell us everything we would like to know. I thought we could at least listen to him for 5 minutes but Ali said we had SO much to do that we didn't have enough time. We let him walk with us out to the town square, he walked slowly and I tried to ask him lots of questions so that he would feel his time was not wasted. We ended up thanking him for his time after we got to the time square and left him there to take off on more adventures.

As we walked along, out of nowhere, a huge storm appeared and rained down SUPER hard on us. We got soaked!! We were supposed to meet our group for dinner an hour from then, so we ran through puddles back to our hotel to get our umbrella and change out of wet clothes. Wow, some storms give no warning! We met our group for dinner and decided upon a really authentic looking Indonesian restaurant. We all ordered shish kabobs with either chicken, beef or lamb. Allen, Emily's husband, however, choose grilled frog legs. France is definitely known for those. When they came out, I was glad it was him eating them and not me. He had such a difficult time ripping the flesh off the legs with his teeth. He said they tasted like chicken with an after taste of fish but were difficult to eat. They brought Dan his plate of beef kabobs and he started eating them. After a few minutes the server realized that he gave Dan lamb and Dr. Erickson had ordered the lamb. Rather than taking the plate back to the kitchen and bringing fresh plates for both Dan and Dr. Erickson, he took the plate where Dan had already eaten some rice, pineapple and a shish kabob and just handed it to Dr. Erickson. How unappetizing. This would never go over in the United States. Dr. Erickson looked a bit bugged, but what do you do? The server then brough Dan out a new plate. Part of the experience.

Yesterday, on our last day of the road trip, we decided to be ambitious and go through Luxembourg and Belgium before coming back to Paris. It was a super fun adventure. There wasn't much to see in Luxembourg, and it was drizzling--the weather here is so bipolar, you never know what to expect--but I took some pictures. We stopped at the first city after crossing the border into Belgium. Dr. Erickson gave us one hour to do whatever we would like. The 5 of us younger ones set out on a mission to find Belgian waffles and French fries (French fries were actually invented in Belgiam and they are world known for them). I stopped a couple of people in the street and said, "Bonjour! We are only here for an hour and were wondering where can one find the most delicious Belgian waffle and fries." They always laughed, thinking we were such funny Americans. Sadly, we found out that southern Belgiam is not as well known for hot waffles and the only waffle bakers were on vacation for a month. We settled for a patisserie that sold hard waffle cooky type things with sugar crystals inside. They actually were pretty good. We did, however, find the best fries I have ever eaten!! This fry shack had fries stacked up near the back walls. When you order them, they fry them a second time in a different oil and serve them with your choice of 5 different sauces. Mmmmmm!!! So hot and fresh!! I chose La Sauce Cocktail, which is a glorified fry sauce. I thought fry sauce was a Utah thing!! Best lunch ever!!

After these small trips, we visited Verdun, a huge museum and cemetary, dedicated to WWI soldiers. It was very sobering. We also stopped in Reims to see a famous cathedral where all the French kings were crowned before coming back home to Paris.