Notre Premiere Weekend

So Mark and I had a pretty exciting first weekend together in Aix.  As I previously mentioned, we went bowling on Friday night and had a great time!

Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day - a little chilly, but still nice - so we wandered around the town and explored.  Along Le Cours Mirabeau is les chalets de noel (Christmas market).  We found all kinds of really interesting shops, from chocalte figures to lavender sets and many other Provencal traditional gifts.  We also walked along La Foire aux Santons which is a row of shops that sell hand-made clay figures for nativity scenes.  They are pretty sweet! (But expensive)  Eventually we made it to the north end of town and stopped at a pub for a drink.  Inside the pub, Mark and I witnessed our first rugby match on tv... whoa!  It's definitely a more exciting game than soccer, but quite confusing... especially when all of the commentary is in French.  We'll have to get a rugby lesson from Mark's uncle when we're back in Chicago.  There's a match in Perpignan in February that we're going to try to go see.  Should be fun!

Today was a surprise... my old co-worker, Alex, from Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas arrived in Cannes yesterday for business this week.  Cannes is only an hour and a half away, so Mark and I hopped in the car this morning to go spend the day with her.  Unfortunately it was a rainy day, so there wasn't too much to do.  We did find a cute little restaurant for lunch and sat there for a couple hours.  It was wonderful to catch up with Alex, and crazy to hear how much has changed in the six months that I've been gone (can't believe it's been that long!)  Afterwards we walked around Cannes, through the Christmas market and eventually to a casino... go figure.  So not a bad way to spend our first weekend in France.

In addition to our explorations, I've been able to explore a bit of Provencal cooking.  Friday night I made a "stoup" with wonderful fresh vegetables and chicken.  Trying to find chicken stock in the grocery store was a bit of a challenge... my first attempt resulted in buying some kind of "ramen noodle" thing.  Luckily, my brother and Joan were able to tell me what I really needed - boullion cubes.  The stoup turned out to taste pretty darn good, especially with some black olive tapenade on top.  Mmm...  Last night was a bit simpler.  I made an onion vinaigrette (recipte courtesy of the cook at the villa my family and I stayed in during Thanksgiving in the Dominican Republic).  I don't have the exact measurements for all of the ingredients, so this recipe will be a trial-and-repeat deal.  The main course was three-cheese ravioli and chicken tossed in olive oil and herbes-de-provence.  So simple, but so delicious!  Can't wait to finally have our own apartment so I can explore more with the French cuisine.