Rembrandt - The Night Watch

Made it through the doors of the Rijksmuseum within the first minute of opening and directed by Rick Steve's excellent audio commentary on our iPhones we were first in the fabulous Rembrandt gallery and had perfect peace and self indulgence exclusivity for the first 30 minutes. The Militia Company of District II is a contract painting of a group of militiamen about to go on duty! So much added interest in the form of stories and anecdotes of the characters depicted. Rembrandt painted dozens of militia groups on huge canvases. Good contract work must have kept him happy!

Amsterdam sign

Early morning and first in line at the Krijsmuseum we pass the large block letters that say "I am Amsterdam" which are usually crawling with kids and folks standing on the letters. Opportunity to get a clean shot of the artwork and use it as a possible model for our RivahFest project.

Van Gogh in Arles

House in Arles that Vincent Van Gogh rented and used as his artists retreat and invited his friend Manet to join him. Unfortunately Vincent got violent and threatened his friend with a knife and then subsequently cut off his own ear. Sad end of a gifted life!

Van Gogh

No other painter of caliber has a museum so totally dedicated to his own work thanks to his surviving family who so carefully curated his work after his death and the death of his collector agent and brother Theo ! Early impressionist in the late 1800's he painted as much as one piece of artwork daily before sadly committing suicide by shooting himself and walking home to die at a young age. The Van Gogh Museum is beyond anything I've seen in terms of range of works, historical coverage, quality of the selected pieces, gallery presentation, value of the pieces, almost all aspects! You walk through Vincent's life from his traditional Dutch dark works through his Paris enlightenment and awakening and then on to the Provence years in awe! Veritably all other galleries become generalized museums and this is a different league!

Our menu tonight

Nice!!  At the Toro Dorado in Amsterdam. You even get a certificate with a 10 digit serial number that can be traced back to the actual cow! You would not expect to think of Amsterdam as a beef sampling center of Europe but Toro Dorado had it all including the best Wagyu Japanese - the only restaurants in Holland to be authorized ! Quick calculation shows the top Royal Wagyu at 230 euros or $250 for 250 grammes or 1/2 lb - that's $500 per lb or $1,000 per kilo! Note prices are in Euros so multiply by 110% to get USD! Needless to say Margaret had the Scottish and I had the Argentinian! Superb!!

Amsterdam digs

Our pied a terre in Amsterdam about three blocks from the Centraal Station and a quick block from the tram which took us everywhere on our three day pass. All Amsterdam houses were taxed in width so hence their narrow profile which does not allow much of a staircase - so all houses have a pulley on their front gable so that deliveries or furniture can be hauled up to the appropriate French door windows for above ground floor delivery!

Entertainment on the metro

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Available until Jul 27, 2016

View from half way up!

Pre-booked lunch at the 58 restaurant on the first floor of the Tour Eiffel... got center seat by the window (pays to dress up a bit!) and pique-nique French style lunch with terrine de canard, chicken or salmon and veggies, and ice cream dessert ! Walked off the calories by walking down the stairs back to ground. Lots of prep work going on on the Champs de Mars for the Euro 2016 Soccer Tournament!

Special Coffee!!

Roland Garros French Open has a unique signature chocolate sprinkle on my cappuccino!

Roland Garros at last!

The high point of any tennis fan is dropping in at one of the grand slam tournaments. Our day out we had great seats and great weather and a full day of excellent tennis including Rafa who beat Bagnis and unfortunately pulled out the next day with injury and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who beat Baghdatis! Roger failed to appear due to injury and cancelled a week before! Helas Roger!!

Here comes the Minister...

Even the French can drive on the wrong side of the road English style when they really need to … a fast moving ministerial convoy with motorcycle outriders speed across Pont Alexander III

Ile Flottante

French dessert with a meringue island floating in a sea of light custard! Margaret indulges in the island which is allergy free and I clean up the sea of custard! Works out well for both of us!

Goat cheese pit stop

These are just the goat cheeses! Hard to understand the sheer scope and diverse goat cheese offerings in France, each one a special delight! Maybe in my next life I will own and manage a cheese shop - a lot of tasting and sampling will be my downfall! One of my memorable five year old treats was driving home from our local French town market with a really hard goat cheese to gnaw on which kept me quiet but rather smelly! Better than candy or sweets!

Frederic - our chef instructor

Cooking class

Chicken with Marchant de Vin sauce, carrot and parsnip balls, mashed spuds extraordinaire, veloute of Jerusalem artichoke, and poire Belle Helene! Also included trip to market to buy ingredients and sit down lunch to consume it all!!

One of my favorites...

Kidneys in sauce and mashed potatoes... one of those French comfort foods at the Cafe du Commerce close to our apartment in the 7th arrondissement... they just have a way of making it so delicious!

Orangerie

Never been to an art museum where the entire main floor (of only 2 floors) is entirely devoted to one artist and eight paintings of water lilies and willow trees in his backyard at different times of the day at Giverny.
Claude Monet did take some 11 years to complete these masterpieces which if lined up end to end would be nearly 300 ft. The basement is not so shabby with a top notch collection of Picasso, Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse and Modigliani. Compact but powerful art gallery!

French Markets.....

.... have a way of selling themselves by just spectacular presentation! How can you resist one of these planners of raspberries, blueberries, red currants, plums, strawberries or blackberries? Just salivate checking this out...

Macarons class in Paris

Julie and her six happy and successful students! The end product was tasted after 24 hours… superb!

Artistic bone stacking

The French invented the word bureaucracy and they should also be credited with elegant storage of dead people's bones... all six million of them! In the Paris catacombs which once were limestone quarries are now laid to rest (for the second time) the bones from victims of plagues and diseases, revolution and government insurrection put downs, and many Parisian cemeteries that were relocated due to expansion of the city going back 300 years. Skulls and tibbias form the main artistic components with lesser bones thrown in behind the wall. We are here some 60 ft beneath the southern part of Paris and walked two miles of underground bone storage tunnels ! Macabre!

Eiffel Tower bids good night

Every evening we look out of the kitchen and bedroom window of our friends apartment (he left for Bali!) and enjoy the stunning view - at 11pm and midnight the tower comes alight with popping white flash led that scintillate the whole tower for five minutes. High security everywhere after the latest Egyptair crash.

Inside Quai d'Orsay Museum

Behind the clock face

The Quai d'Orsay museum overlooks the river Seine and once upon a time was the main train terminus for Orleans. Now the ultimate Paris museum it houses the best of the best! Great lunch in the restaurant and time to have a cafe behind the clock face....

Notre Dame

The Chimera on the Notre Dame tower keep a watchful eye over Paris

Soft Shell production line

First of the season! Fourteen hotel size soft shells, some with quinoa flour and most with regular seasoned flour, hit the two fryers with steam, smoke and flying oil - a house specialty and an evening to remember!