Wandering eye in Barcelona

'Churros & Chocolate' caught my eye

I tend to take fairly random photos when discovering new cities- or so they may seem until months later I see an image I captured on camera and it reminds me again of my trip - making my trips down memory lane even more memorable. Today we spent a fair amount of time walking around, taking random images and discovering Barcelona.
Here are a few images of Barcelona from my perspective.

Mojitos, tapas and sunshine

Being in Spain I feel like I should probably be having Sangria, but the Mojito has made a comeback onto my list of favourite cocktails for this week. Had some tapas at the waterfront today after Part 2 of our morning on the Bus Turistic. Kept it fairly simple, but it was surprisingly alright.  I say surprisingly because I am always wary of places that seem to cater strictly to the tourist. The food could have been arbitrary for all I cared – the sun my face was yet again all I needed.

Barcelona beckons

The Sagrada Familia

I would have been glad to just sit at a sidewalk cafe somewhere, people watch and feel the sun on my face. We escaped Paris for a few days to take in some sun and Barcelona did not disappoint. Did the tourist thing yesterday, the Barcelona Bus Turistic, Part 1.
Has early drinks at a lounge bar called Zahara near the Marina where we got a recommendation for Kharma, which was fantastic.
Loving the feel of the sun, and enjoying friendly Spanish hospitality- Mission: Savour Catalan Cuisine before we leave.

Zahara Lounge Bar, Barcelona

Friday night was our night of discovery. After our day out doing the tourist thing on the Bus Turistic, we had sundowners at Zahara- a lounge bar on the waterfront- not the glossy side, more the worn and weathered and less touristy. Had well-made mojitos, wine and listened to lounge music. I’ve said before that cocktails, sun and lounge music are the perfect chill out combination for me. Ola Barcelona!

Zahara Lounge Bar

Pg. Juan de Borbon 69

Barcelona 08003

Tel: +34 932 213 765

Wishing you happy holidays!

Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah...whatever it is that brings you together with your loved ones this time of the year. Do celebrate it well and hope it's a great one!

For us it will be a crispy one. Gave up a sunny, braai-filled, golf-playing South African summer this year for a chilly, vin chaud-fuelled, chestnut-roasting European winter. I do love the lighting and gaiety that comes with it all though.

Joyeux Noël!

Books: THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Title: The Thing Around Your Neck
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Published: 2009
Genre: Fiction

I read this book in two days...I do enjoy short stories at times, it makes the progress faster and there is always the next story to look forward to if you are not particularly engrossed by one story. I first read Purple Hibiscus three years ago and fell in love with Adichie's writing. The Thing Around Your Neck is a collection of stories previously published in various publications. It tells of immigrant Nigerians, professionals, students, wives carving their way in the land of opportunity, America.

Feeling culinary

Yesterday I made  gravlax, a salad with a balsamic vinaigrette, magret de canard with honey and balsamic vinegar and dark chocolate fondant with chestnut cream for lunch. It was fantastic.
Yes, with a bit (ok, a whole lot) of help of course.
Spent the morning in a cooking class with some wonderful people, working through a simple yet ultimately delicious menu. Thanks Valerie for organising!
Learnt the value of using fresh ingredients with minimum spices for great taste.
This led me to a further search for cooking classes...should you not quite yet be ready for the Cordon Bleu Institute or Alain Ducasse's Ecole de Cuisine. There are many, varied and in English. Here is a brief list,  of the ones I have good recommendations of;
Cook'n with Class , La Cuisine Paris, and Promenades Gourmandes.

Gastronomy in Bastille, Paris

A month ago, before the chill started creeping in we tried Le Bastille, right opposite Place de la Bastille in the 4th. A pleasant surprise all round as it was the first restaurant we sat down at. The fact that it's right in front of the vibrant, popular and touristy square, I had half expected it to be over-priced and mediocre. It wasn't. This is often the case for us on those afternoons out, no prior planning, which often results in hasty choices being made because by that time everyone's starving. Pretty much hit-or-miss with regard to the restaurant selection - so far though there have been a lot more hits in our restaurant roulette.
Le Bastille serves up bistro food, so anything from croque monsieurs and salads as light meals to duck, beef, lamb. The service was good, the waiters friendly, atmosphere sunny and cheerful- it was a rare late autumn sunny afternoon. After which it was a  a stroll around the immediate neighbourhood and early evening drinks at a funky little bar call Le Préau, where I sampled my very first piscine - champagne served up with ice- Shock! Horror! A very summer drink not to be repeated again...why ruin a great glass of champagne by putting ice in it - even if the ice is made from the champagne itself. All in all, a great afternoon to add to the memory books discovering the 4th & 11th arrondissements.

The one where I'm a tourist

The nonchalance of the French is the image I have been going for for the last three months. I'm not entirely sure why, I just know that I did not want to look like a tourist. The accent when I speak still comes across as obviously foreign so my best bet was not looking like one- mind you with the camera I'm always lugging around, not sure I was succeeding at all. Well, tossed it all aside last week and decided that I need to see Paris from  a different perspective, not to that mention I got tired of being nonchalant when seeing the Eiffel Tower all lit up, or the bleu, blanc et rouge of the french flag billowing through the arch of L'Arc de Triomphe, when what I really wanted to do was to squeal and point with glee. I still stand and gawk in awe at boulangerie windows - in fact there is a Lenôtre in my neighbourhood that has become my favourite place to visit -to just stand and stare. I cannot feign the nonchalance of the French anymore, I am still in awe of this city.
Hopped onto the sight-seeing bus of  Les Cars Rouges last week. It was a real treat to unreservedly indulge the tourist in me. Took some great pictures, waved at the locals from my perch at the top (yes, I did) and got an entirely different view of the city. It was refreshing to just be le Sud Af in France.

Images from my morning here.

Books: THE TIGER'S WIFE by Téa Obreht

Title: The Tiger’s Wife
Author: Téa Obreht
Published: 2011
Genre: Fiction

In the Tiger's Wife, Téa Obreht retells the story of a tiger that escapes from a zoo during the Balkans war. Told through the protagonist, Natalia the story is both allegorical and entertaining enough. The sudden and strange circumstances surrounding the news of her grandfather's death, a medical doctor like herself, leave Natalia following the path her grandfather may have taken in the latter days of his life as a way to try and uncover answers to the mystery around his death.

The Art Freaks

This exhibition has been on since July- and on my 'to see' list from around the same time.
Olaf Breuning has re-worked renowned artists' works in installations that hang from the ceiling of Palais de Tokyo museum.
Do not go with any pre-conceived notions of garnering some socio-political insight - go just to see, and maybe enjoy in the process. He is an artist who eschews the pretension that sometimes inhabits the art world. He simply makes art for the visual pleasure- and stresses that endlessly in this interview.

It was interesting, in a good way and also just plain bizarre - as art can be. Was I moved? More intrigued, if perhaps to read up more on what makes this artist tick.

'Neither Black Nor White' Art Exhibition

If you're in Accra next week from Wed 30th Nov - Sat 3rd Dec, Studio Kurtycz has an exhibition on titled "Neither Black Nor White", with works by Anna Kurtycz, Isaac Konney, Kelvin Haizel, Nii Obodai and Rudek van der Helm.

A print-making demonstration will be help on Saturday at 5pm.
Sad to be missing this - do go and enjoy.

A Wonder? Of course it is!

Do we really need the New7Wonders organisation to tell us how wonderful our mountain is? Not! But it's great that they've noticed.
Two weeks ago  Table Mountain made it onto the list of seven of the provisional results to the New Seven Wonders of Nature list; not a mean feat to be selected from  a draw of 440 locations, 220 countries and 28 candidates. This came right off the back of a french class in which one of my classmates was speaking with pride about the wonders of her country; Venezuela. I never actually ever do that, unless asked - and I do find it interesting that she can wax lyrical unprovoked just like that. This was also in the same week I met some South Africans who were not particularly proudly South African. That I can never understand, but that's for another post entirely. All this was in the week in which a few not-so-friendly-French-encounters led to a not-very-happy-South African-expat. I was feeling extremely homesick ; then the seventh Wonder announcement and a morning spent poring over South African websites - cyber therapy if you will. Felt better after, and now calling all positive South Africans (and non-South Africans) to share something positive about South Africa today, on blogs, email, whatever. Let's spread the wonder!

Maori at Musée du Quai Branly

If you have seen the All Blacks performing the haka before a game, you will understand my fascination with the Maori culture. I must confess, I am not a rugby fan - my enthusiasm for the sport only ever emerges if the Boks are playing in some international final- and even then it's the camaraderie around the matches that enthuses, not the actual game itself. I am discovering that it is a definite followed sport in France though. That aside, I will go through all the pre-game rituals; drinks? check! snacks? check! remote? check - just to see the haka in any game, Boks playing or not. 
Then came the movie Whale Rider and and that just fed my interest further. Today I made it a point to get to Musée du Quai Branly early to take in the current Maori exhibition. I was not disappointed.

Brand watching

The strange phenomenon that is branding. Walked past Louis Vuitton on the Champs Elysees on saturday and the masses had gathered, yet again to see, buy, touch the apparel, handbags that are LV. Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall - it is alway the same. A perfectly executed and managed brand LV, screams of luxury and conspicuous consumption, suggestive of celebrity and exclusivity. Or is it?

Gastronomy: Le Sud, Paris

My children were mopping up the remains off their plates and declaring it the best food ever. Hunger will do that to you...it had been a long day and we'd gone to Le Sud for a light-ish meal. Ended up being a delicious lamb stew, with pasta and rich gravy. A taste of Provence, which was just what we needed that day. I was particularly impressed with the restaurant's lack of a kiddies menu. I have written before about the fact that I am not a fan of greasy, fried chicken, meat, mystery meat in any form served up as food for children. Le Sud has half portions from the main menu as the children's menu and they loved it!

Marché de Noël on Ave. de Champs Elysées

We started out early - well, past midday and the weather was beautiful. There were already throngs of people at the marché, simply strolling along, sampling the hot wine - of which there were many stalls, having their snacks on the sidewalk food courts. It had a strangely commercial feel to it though- it is after all the Champs Elysées though-  for authenticity I have been told that there is no other than the Strasbourg Market .

Robbed of Matisse, Cézanne & Picasso

Armed with my ticket from yesterday, I set out early for the Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso: The Steins Collect  at the Grand Palais - only to be rudely told to come back at 13h30. What!? Turns out the jumele ticket I bought restricts one's visits to certain hours only. Now, if only that kind gentleman at the ticket counter had explained this time restriction...best I get that french up to speed sooner than later, to avoid such vital communication being lost in translation. Irony is I missed the exhibit because I had a french class.

'Tis the season

It is grey outside. Gone are the long, balmy evenings; a far memory the Indian summer that drew itself out to the end of October. It is now grey. Even the crowds outside the famed Louis Vuitton store on Avenue Champs Elysées are no more - Ladurée looked stark and empty, I guess nothing was drawing the crowds out into the cold for their delightful macarons. Abercrombie & Fitch; I have yet to fully understand what it is this store sells that draws the crowds so much- but from what I've read and seen, great marketing and branding can take a product a long way. Even this store did not have its usual, winding queues. The models were still there though - decked out in their winter gear, ready to welcome would-be shoppers.

Books: LYRICS ALLEY by Leila Aboulela

Title: Lyrics Alley
Author: Leila Aboulela
Published: 2011
Genre: Fiction

I am going to come across sounding unimaginative I know, but Lyrics Alley is lyrical. A slow-paced introduction to the extended dynastic Abuzeid family leads one to identifying with the characters almost immediately. Slow-paced as the introduction is, the turn of events as the plot gives way is anything but. Lyrics Alley reads both like historical fiction - which it is not, and a dramatic work of fiction you want to sink your teeth into.
The plot centres around Mahmoud Abuzeid, a Sudanese whose life is a mélange of cultures, traditional Sudanese and modern Egyptian. Torn between the two worlds, he remains unavoidably and staunchly tied to his origins and his family in Sudan yet socially ambitious and yearning for acceptance in his new world. It is a story of families, love and heartbreak.