Happy Bastille Day!

Happy Bastille Day everyone! Management was on hiatus which explains the lack of blog postings since June but there were trips to be had and work to be done!

In honor of the French National Holiday - which unlike the US National Holiday, did not include much other than a massive military display on the Champs D'Elysees rather than lots of barbeques and summer riotry.  However in commemoration, I thought I would share a few of my "favorite things French".  There's not enough room for all of them but here are the top 5.

1.   Macarons from Pierre Herme - quite possibly the best macarons out there, though they're closely followed by Yauatcha in London, Laduree in Paris and if we have to make do in Vienna, then Oberlaa.  Perfectly light cookies, with perfectly butter cream center in flavors that make your head spin.  If you know someone coming from Paris, make sure to put in an order!

2.  Louboutins - do I even have to explain? Quite simply the perfect shoe - the fact that most of them don't fit me doesn't even matter.  They're not for comfort, they're for fashion, and in that sense French in every sense: expertly made, chic enough to catch your eye without being eye-catching, always in style, and appropriate with nearly every ensemble.

3.  The Eiffel Tower - when it twinkles of course, somehow nothing says Paris more...It's a tear jerker for me every time.

4. Champagne - despite our occassional paramourous dalliance with prosecco and sekt when serving the masses at our casa, everyone knows France's greatest contribution to libations is Champagne.  Brother Perignon liked to drink stars and so do I, preferably from the production of Louis Roederer...and preferably in pink.

5.  French Naval Officers - though in the end I was wooed to the altar by a US Naval Officer, the French equivalent will always have a place in my heart after a summer of my youth devoted to a group of gentlemen that rolled into my care while working at the French Consulate in New Orleans.  Sporting navy whites and rays of sunshine from Martinique, it appeared their naval duties consisted of mostly cocktail parties and wind surfing.  But long after the uniforms were put away and the tans faded, some have remained good friends to this day, years later, and I'll always recall them in the context of long evenings spent dancing to brass bands in French Quarter bars.