Month: December 2012

  • Our Christmas dinner 2012

    This year we are having Christmas dinner at home by ourselves and outsourced most of the preparations. Simple! Starters:  smoked salmon, foie gras & lentils, salade noël (really just mixed greens with star-shaped cut carrots). Lobster ravioli in squid ink pasta, champagne cream sauce Roasted veal tenderloin (rosemary, shallot), gratin dauphinois, carrots in maple-syrup, saute…

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  • Les Trois Dômes, Sofitel Bellecour, Lyon

    Lyon is well known for food. On our visit during the weekend of the Fête des Lumière, Sue booked for the four of us a table for lunch at Les Trois Dômes in the Sofitel Bellecour. This restaurant received one michelin star – according to viamichelin:    This is how the hotel describes itself online. “Drift into…

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  • Fête des Lumières 2012: Place des Terreaux, Lyon

    Over the weekend of Dec 8-9, we went to Lyon for the annual Fête des Lumières. The Festival of Lights is a uniquely Lyonnaise tradition which requires that every house place candles along the outsides of all the windows.  Dating from 1643, it was meant to be a tribute to Mary if Lyon was spared of the plague. The light…

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  • Le “Bouchon” Weekend in Lyon

    The word “Bouchon” in French has several popular meanings. Looking it up in Larousse, the word bouchon means, among other things, a “plug” (1. Objet qui, réalisé en diverses matières (bois, liège, plastique, métal, caoutchouc, etc.), sert à clore un contenant), and a “traffic jam” (2. Accumulation de véhicules qui gêne la circulation ; embouteillage), etc.; and…

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  • Penguin Carousel at Oceanario do Lisboa

    While we were in transit at Lisbon airport from Madeira, we ducked out for 2 hours to do a quick tour of the Oceanario do Lisboa. This is the second of two videos I(Chris) shot at the Oceanario in Lisbon. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wWALqucGEk?rel=0&w=510&h=287] Penguin Carousel is a three minute video shot while I was standing on a…

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  • Otter Foot Massage at Oceanário de Lisboa

    On our way home after A and F’s wedding in Madeira, we had to change plane in Lisbon but the wait was four and a half long hours! We asked our friends about the possibility of seeing the center of Lisbon – but the trip is 30-45 minutes each way, so it was not quite…

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