This post is dedicated to Julie of Writing Roads who is fascinated with this little cookie!

Tomorrow is third annual Jour du Macaron. Yes. An entire dedicated to this little guy.

There seems to be a little mini-obsession over these little guys these days, probably due to the fact that they are hitting main stream America.

Starbucks sold boxes of a dozen during the holiday season, and it now seems that they may be coming to a McDonald’s near you…in this extremely well written post on the Wall Street Journal online they detail a bit of the history and share that the McDonald’s in Paris have been serving their version since 2007, but have only recently overtly advertised their presence.

I can only guess that it won’t be too long before they show up in McDonald’s here.  That will be a sad day.  Nothing is sacred.

Let me just put it out here that I am not a huge fan of macarons.  It’s not that I hate them, it’s just that there are many, many other French desserts and partries that I prefer over them.  But I can definitely tell the difference between a well-made macaron and an industrialized version.

I bought a box of the Starbucks ones over the holiday season to share in the office.  They weren’t good.  Some people liked them.  Most people had never had them before. And nearly eveyone said they looked like mini-hamburgers – maybe that is why McDonald’s is serving them??

In reality, the preparation is an art form and like most bakery or pastry items, they must be sold fresh.  In Paris, the recognized leaders in macarons are Ladurée and Pierre Hermé.  And of course there are many fine bakers with boutiques in Paris that do an exquisite job with these miniature delights.

Just a note on our American version, which we spell as macaroons.  The coconut cookies that we know on this side of the pond.  All of these cookies, the French version, the American version, as well as versions made in other countries all trace back to an Italian (Venetian) recipe from the Renaissance.

More information for you on macarons:

• Again, this fantastic article from the WSJ
• Serious Eats also did a great post on macarons
• Wikipedia information on both the macaron and the macaroon

If you are interested in trying one, please don’t try it at a fast food place.  Try to find a baker who makes them locally, I guarantee you it will be a much better experience!

Anyone have any good macaron stories to share?

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Post from one year ago today: NATO/OTAN Reunion

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If you’re Generation X, American and watched either Saturday morning cartoons or ABC After-School Specials you will have no doubt seen this commercial.

A frying pan. A narrator saying, “This is your brain.”

An egg added. A narrator saying, “This is your brain on drugs.”

Totally freaked me out. So much so, that I still remember it!

I am a little fried right now.  Work is really busy, which has been really great, but I am really busy!  I have not had a chance to read too many blogs this week, but will definitely make up for it this weekend.

Hope everyone’s week is going well and hope to stop by to visit you soon.

Stay tuned for a yummy French Friday tomorrow!

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Post from one year ago today: Wordless Wednesday #4

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day Misadventures with Andi style!  I’ve got the green and (begrudgingly) the Catholic Church à la Pere Lachaise Cemetery. I have not been yet, but it is on my list of places to visit.

In all seriousness, for those who celebrate this day, enjoy and be safe!

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Post from one year ago today: St. Pat’s Haiku

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Seeing photos of Sarah Jessica Parker from the Oscars reminded me that Sex and The City 2 is coming in May – yay!  And that makes me thing about Carrie Bradshaw.

I know a lot of people make fun of her fashion sense (and Lord knows, I have no fashion sense!) but I think she is fabulous. An innovator and a risk taker, and I love it.

I always think about my business trips to Tokyo and how the women there seem to be able to throw a purple and yellow polka-dotted shirt together with and orange and blue striped skirt, add plaid socks and go!  And it is fashionable! I want to show up in the office some day like that.

When I think about Carrie Bradshaw I also think shoes!  Even though I choose classic comfy shoes for work and play, I am a big shoe voyeur and love to look at the styles and drool.  I ran across this fun website awhile back and thinking about SATC and Carrie and clothes and shoes, reminded me of it and I wanted to share.

The site is called Shoes of Prey, a website where you can design your own shoes how cool is that?!

According to their website,

“you choose the heel, toe, fabric, color and embellishments. Our expert craftsmen then make your shoes to measure, swaddle them in a soft dust bag and crisp new box, and ship them straight to your waiting feet.”

I personally just love to look at the possibilities, and because they have a section called Voyeur, I am guessing that I am not the only one!

Are you a fan of Sex and The City?  When you think of the girls, is there something that resonates for you?

BIG News, my pal Susan over at Transient Travels is doing a SATC giveaway – go check it out!

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Trying a new thing today as well:
Post from one year ago today: Oh sweet love of mine you have returned

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Dear Democratic Party,

This is a break up letter. I am sorry to have to do this so impersonally, but under the circumstances, I think it is for the best.

I was so in love with you two years ago. All fired up to help you win against the awful “R’s.” But now, I am no longer feeling the love.

You see, you’ve become too clingy.  Sending me emails on a daily, sometimes twice a day.  I can’t have that.  It’s too much.

I need my freedom.  It’s me, not you.

Maybe in two years when we’e going to have to fight the evil overlords again I’ll give you call.

Don’t call me, I’ll call you.

Until then, it’s Unsubscribe, baby.

From a former-supporter-who-is-sick-of-all-your-direct-mail,

Andi

For my non-American readers, here is info on spam.

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Growing up, when I read a good book, my only options if I really loved it, was to read a again.  From time to time it would be made into a movie, like The Outsiders or a TV-series, like The Thornbirds. But that was rare.

These days, when you finish a book, there is the movie, a blog (or many blog posts), a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, Ning groups, phone apps -  a multitude of ways to feed the obsession. That what happened with the Twilight series. That is what’s happening with the series written by the late Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.  And I am just as obsessed as everyone else!

It had been awhile since I read a really good, juicy murder mystery, which is my preferred genre.  It was only when my pal Julie wrote a post about working on the film’s social media that I had even heard of the book. But you want to hear something funny?  I actually bought the first book in French in Paris because it looked good!  Since the title is completely different I did not make the connection. Last week when I was putting back a book on the bookshelf I noticed the name Stieg Larsson on the spine of a book sitting in my “French” area I realized it. Funny huh? Like the Universe was saying, “I am going to keep putting this book in your path until you read it.”

And I did read it.  I bought the book, opened it, and then couldn’t put it down. It is supremely well done.  I was unable to guess many of the plot points, which to me is a sign of a good mystery.  I have to say that I found the first half of the second book a bit slow, I nearly gave it up and persevered.  I was rewarded in that fact that the second half of the book was awesome.  I am [very impatiently] looking forward to the third and final tome.

The movie is out now making it’s tour, it’s considered a foreign film since it was filmed in Sweden and is in Swedish, so you’ll need to find a theater near you that is showing it. Stieg Larsson was Swedish.  I say “was” because he died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack after writing and delivering the three novels. The books are placed in Sweden with lots of references to Swedish history and locations.  Not being familiar with the country, it was an added bonus to learn some of the country’s history (albeit more on the negative side) and look up locations on maps, etc.

I am not going to review the book(s) now, and I haven’t seen the film yet, but I am going to tell you it crosses through a wide variety of topics besides the investigation of crimes. Other people have written really great posts covering those topics and I wanted to share them here:

Computer security and hacking > I was seriously paranoid after reading this book, it was really strange that shortly after finishing the book, my computer started acting funny and then requested that I update Firefox, I could not help but be suspicious, and if you read the book you will understand why!  Kelly Diels wrote an excellent guest post on Copyblogger on how this topic in the book/movie made her think about her blog security.  Besides the review she offers some really great security advice.

Abuse and revenge > One of the main characters, Lisbeth Sander, is a victim of the “system.”  She has been the victim at the hands of bullies, narcissists, sadomasochists, and more.  But she fights back and fights back hard. You want to feel sorry for her, but you can’t, because she is so kick-ass!  She is scrappy and takes on anyone who tries to treat her unjustly. Aliza Sherman of Entrepreneur Mom (and many other places!) wrote a great post on revenge.

Sex lives and sexual violence > Further to the abuse angle from above, an underlying theme in the book is sex.  The abuse and violence that Lisbeth and others face.  Then there is the sex lives and sexual choices of the main characters.  So well written that it is part of the story, but not. I don’t know how to explain it beyond that.  There is no judgment around how people weave sex into their lives. No morality statements that I would normally expect to find, I am guessing that is because the author is European.  But one way you could get your husband or boyfriend to watch the movie is to tell them there is a lesbian love scene, as Alisa found out when her husband joined her while she was watching the movie!

I already mentioned Julie’s own masterpiece of a post, “Blogging Lessons from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” if you missed my link yesterday, read it.  And Julie has been hard at work with the movie website and has launched a sweepstakes in the form of an online treasure hunt.  She has placed clues at various blogs (some of which have been mentioned here) and you need to collect the tools to win prizes. You can read her post for a clue as well as visit the contest page on the Dragon Tattoo film website.

Read the book, because the book always gives more detail, then go see the movie.  Here is the theatrical trailer:

You can see it on the Dragon Tattoo film website as well.

Have you read the book?  Are you planning on seeing the movie?

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Photo credit: Caro's Lines

Training over! Eight days of eight-hours of jamming content into my head leaves Andi a tired blogger.  What have I missed? What have I missed?

My favorite posts come from the first part of the week when I somehow still had time to read.  I may cheat next week and have more than 6 if I have to slip some fab posts from the end of this week in, I am sure that is what is going to happen!  Thanks to everyone who commented on the leaving comments on blog posts post I did last Sunday.  If you look through the comments you will see that there was no clear answer!  But it did give me an understanding of how to proceed.

On to this week’s favorite posts:

[1] Hannah of 2000 Streets wrote a post about her Mom visiting her in Paris.  I loved towards the end when she described the scene where she took her mother to a restaurant for dinner.  It was a perfect illustration of Tip #3 from my post “Three simple tips on how not to be the annoying American tourist in Paris.” So cute.  I think that you have to be a culture passionate about food in order for the people to have the nerve to tell a paying customer, “no, I will not serve it that way.”

[2] Juliana of A Blonde Walks into a Blog (don’t you love that name?) created a touching post on Secrets.  As I mentioned in this week’s French Friday post, I am in total awe of people who can tell a story with beautiful photo montages.  I am not artistic or creative at all and just dig on that.  That’s why I like the books that Jen of Life Unfolds does and the art journaling that Lucrecer of Art Slam does. Juliana did a great jobs with her post, the second photo secret totally killed me.

[3] Berkeleyside wrote a great review/interview of a former Berkeley resident turned author. Zoe Fitzgerald Carter wrote a book called Imperfect Endings: A Daughter’s Tale of Life and Death, about her struggle with her ill mother who wanted to commit suicide because she was suffering from illness.  My husband and I always say that we want to be able to have this option if anything should happen to us and we have a long-term or terminal illness. Switzerland allows this, as well as other countries, and now Portland (here is info about this topic).  It is a highly controversial topic, but I think it is a very, very personal choice. The book has gotten great reviews, I intend on checking it out and supporting a local author.

[4] Last Saturday I highlight a book review by Alisa, saying that I wished I could write THAT kind of book review (apparently Jen and I are in the same boat…).  This week I have to share a post that Julie of Writing Roads wrote for CopyBlogger.  I have written a couple of “5 Things” posts about how a certain movie, book, celebrity or  character has taught me things about life, but I cannot top Julies post on what the book and movie The Girl and the Dragon Tattoo has taught her.  It is a masterpiece!  (P.S., there will be more on TGWTDT tomorrow, as it is my latest obsession, stay tuned!)

[5] J’adore this post on Parisien Salon on the topic of  Women Over 45 and what that means in France versus the United States. It ties into the book I just finished reading by Edith Kunz called Fatale : How French Women Do It. Edith has a whole chapter about the topic of women “of a certain age” that details how and why women over 40 (50?) are revered in France. She ends her chapter with a sentence I just love, “French women heed their heritage and their history lessons and do not waste time moaning about the number of years they’ve left on this earth, but get down to the business of living passionately, stylishly and gratefully.” Love that!

[6] This last one, okay, two, are not real posts.  But I absolutely love them  One is a video that a co-worker tweeted about.  It is a National Geographic video (short) about the friendship of an orangutan and a dog.  The simple message why can’t humans within the same species get along as well as these guys?  The next is a promotional website from a Dutch store that is very, very fun.  One of my instructors from my training this week shared it with us and I think it is very clever.

Thanks for playing along!  If you have any posts you liked from this week, please share, I would love to read them!

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I always appreciated the wonderful photo montage posts of Cathi at Everyday Adventures of a Curious Girl and Laura at Under the Sheets, but after trying to do one myself for today, I have a new found respect for them! 

My intent was to complete the Venice tour with a post describing the cultural influences between France and Italy, particularly the fleur de lys, but the training class that I am in this week requires a lot of interaction, so when I have breaks or lunch, or when I get home in the evening I am catching up on office work and I ran out of time.

So instead, I am sharing photos of the typically French fluer de lys that I found in Italy.  This “lily flower”  has been the symbol to the French monarchy since the 12th century and was adopted by papal officers in Italy as well as several other European monarchs, cities and countries.

I think the symbol is really beautiful and I love “finding” them in all sorts of places when traveling.  Here are just a few from that trip to Italy:

Fleur de lys in Rome

Fleur de lys in Florence, also the symbol of the city

Fluer de lys in Burano

I know I have a fleur de lys photo from Venice, but I can’t seem to find it in the 1000 photos from that trip!

Do you have something that you find you like to take photos of when you travel?

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Murano

Last week I talked about my arrival in Venice. And earlier this week I gave you suggestions on the best way to spend the first two days of a three day trip.

Today for Day 3 I am going to talk about Murano and Burano, two islands off of Venice that you can get to on the water bus.  The same easy-to-use and inexpensive water bus that takes you all around and through Venice also goes to the small set of islands around Venice.  You just need to take route 42 to Murano and from there you can get over to Burano. Nothing could be easier!

Murano Glass

A classic Murano glass necklace

When people come to Venice they buy two things.  Carnival masks and Murano glass. Trouble is, most of the Murano glass that tourists buy is not from Murano, but rather China.

Authentic Murano glass costs a pretty penny and it is not something most tourists would purchase.  And the fact that they are finding Murano glass real cheap doesn’t make most tourists stop to wonder why and the Venetian and Murano shopkeepers aren’t going to tell you unless you ask directly.

Personally, I am not a shopper, nor am I one to buy souvenirs.  When I do, it is usually a item of clothing like a scarf that becomes part of my wardrobe. So neither my husband nor I were in the market for any jewelry or housewares to buy on Murano. And ultimately, unless you are in the market to buy glass or want eat at a very touristy restaurant, there is not much to do on Murano.  In my mind it is a necessary evil to get to Burano.  [I would love to know if anyone has a different opinion of Murano, please share!]

Burano Beauty

Once you leave Murano and arrive in Burano you will see it is a whole other world. It is a small fishing village that is a photographer’s dream. There is a little downtown area that has shops which sell lace handicrafts (doesn’t it seem that all fishing villages do this? I guess the wives need something to do??). There are also touristy restaurants in the downtown area as well.

But I had done my homework. I had found that there is a small restaurant off the beaten path that serves wonderful food and wine. And it is still not quite on the radar for tourists.  If you Google ‘Burano restaurants’ it doesn’t come up, you have to dig real deep. And I am so glad I did because the restaurant I found was the perfect start to a lovely afternoon.

It’s called the Riva Rosa.  The menu is small with an emphasis on seafood and pasta with a real great wine selection.  The restaurant is inside a  house and the decor is beautiful.  The atmosphere was tranquil, efficient, just lovely.  A reservation is required and I had our hotel concierge as the Westin Europa & Regina make the booking.

Riva Rosa is located at Via San Mauro 296 in Burano.  The telephone is 041.730.850.

But what is the real delight of Burano?  The houses!  They are painted in such whimsical and warm colors and so lovely to look at.  You can take photos for hours. I know because we did!

Aren’t they amazing? We walked around and looked at all the homes and the care that went into the detail of the outside, it was incredible!

When we got back to Venice at the end of the day we passed by a shop that I had not seen before. It was not too far from our hotel. It was a shop that sold Murano glass jewelry which not being an interest of mine I had passed it up many times on our way to our hotel. However, at night, the content of the store was quite enticing and I went in to speak with the shopkeeper.

She had necklaces on hand that were beautiful, but she was also making them to order in the color preference desired by her customers.  And she was doing it quickly, within a couple of hours.  Her glass is authentic Murano, and that is represented in the price.   But she was doing unique pieces which was interesting. [This reminds me of a post done by Susan of Transient Travels on the topic of buying local souvenirs.]

I actually bought some pieces, which wasn’t my plan.  They were so beautiful I couldn’t help it.  And like most jewelry that I make the mistake of buying, it is sitting in a box in the bottom of my dresser!  In any case, if you want to buy authentic Murano pieces while visiting Venice, I recommend her shop which is called Le Perle.

Her website doesn’t really give you a good indication of what she does, but I provide it all-the-same.  The location is: San Marco, 1231 Frezzeria (phone: +39 041 528 5614). I took a picture of two necklaces I bought to give you an indication.

Day 3 is over, tomorrow you leave Venice having saturated yourself with getting lost in a truly wonderful environment, which quite frankly may not always be around given the environmental issues the city faces.

Hope you liked the tour, I enjoyed revisiting myself!  It’s been two years since I was there and the memories make me want to return!

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So it’s Venice week on Misadventures with Andi, did you notice?  You’ve arrived. You enjoyed Day 1 and 2 and now you are taking a short pause to enjoy a (Not quite) Wordless Wednesday before I finish the week with Day 3 in Murano/Burano and French Friday which will have a Venice/Italy slant.

Hope you are enjoying the tour!

This picture illustrates how narrow some of the passages can get. It was interesting to wonder if some of them ever see the light of day!

Photo taken by Mr. Misadventures.

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