We went out for an authentic French restaurant that night and had a fantastic meal.
For the starter or what the French call the Entrée , Kirsten and I had the "Croustillant de Poulet aux Artichauts et Asperges vertes sauce au Foie Gras"...you know, like your Mom used to make. What it actually is is a combination of chicken, artichokes and asparagus pressed together, put in a pastry and then they bake the son of a b*tch. Then they lather it up with “Foie Gras” sauce. It's very rich and damn good! I had seen someone else having it, the one other time I was at this place and was glad I didn't miss it this time. Then for the main plat I think 3 of us had the "Escalope de Saumon d’Ecosse à la crème d’oseille et pâtes fraîches". This was a thin fillet of Salmon with a sorrel sauce on top of a little tower looking creation of pasta (it's on the tabled in the pic). This was very good as well. We finished with our choice of dessert. I had an what we all agreed was an excellent crème brulée and Kirsten had one of my new favorite desserts here in France, the amazing L’ile flottante or "floating island" of goodness.The next morning we had a quick bite to eat, that included the 'fabulous little melons' Randi had graphically discussed with us the night before. Then we drove south to Barcelona, Spain. We again stayed at the Prestige Congress, as we did a month ago with our kids. This time the rate was 75 euros, even though "I thought they said 69" when I made the reservation. I repeated that to the front desk a few times but it didn't seem to mean anything to them and it started to sound weird to me, so I stopped and agreed to the 75 euro rate...still not bad. We had a good time that Saturday, visiting a couple locations of architect Antoni Gaudí’s most famous buildings.
First we went to the incredible and almost indescribable Sagrada Familia. I'll leave it at that...because I can't describe it. Then we strolled through the just as sylish, maybe a little less crazy of a concept, Park Guell. Randi described this place before as being 'Dr. Seuss meets the Taj Mahal'. It is a beautiful and really magical looking place, with winding trails laid out with many different architectural styles based on nature elements, using thousands of pieces of mosaic tiles. 
People were snapping pictures constantly. Jackson found himself in the way a couple times but he didn't seem to care really...he's gigantay!! :)For dinner that night we went down to the Port Olimpic area, on the hunt for JohnE style Scandinavian paella...tough to find in Spain...but we found something like it! After being told repeatedly by the maître d’ to order the sea bass, we all had the paella. It turns out that JohnE still makes the best paella...and that's now covering a very impressive 4000 mile radius.
Sunday turned out to be one of the most fun days we've had, since being in France. We started the day playing the part of art connoisseurs, visiting the Museu Picasso, in the interesting Born area of Barcelona. There was a lot of pondering being done. What could pass as looking like we were contemplating the impact of Picasso's modern art, was for me just selfishly wondering 'if I could have this piece in my house, would it continue to interest me long-term and where would I put it?' Frankly, I wouldn't want most of his work in my house. For example the piece titled
"La Nana", the dwarf dancer, looks as though it inspired the movie 'Chuckie'. I suppose Jack might like this midget masterpiece but I would be terrified to have that in my house. However, there were other pieces,
like "First Communion", "The Doves" and other landscape paintings, that were incredibly cool. From there we went to the Barri Gòtic (Gothic district), in the heart of Barcelona, for lunch and to visit the gothic cathedral known as La Seu. The cathedral is officially named Cathedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulalia but I like to call it the Cathedral de la Niña, la Pinta y la Santa María. The church along with the 14th century cloister was very interesting. We also had some time to do a little shopping, 
where Jackson considered purchasing some cropped, tight green pants. The store owner wasn't sure why we were laughing at first and suggested maybe trying some other vibriant colors they had in stock, until he realized Gigantay had no intention of purchasing them. From there we went back to the hotel for a short nap before getting ready for the big game!! It was the Minnesota Vikings opener against the Cleveland Browns. 
Jackson scoped out the game on the web and found the George Payne Irish bar in Barcelona had NFL football on. We arrived not knowing which NFL game was on and were slightly discouraged seeing a Philedelphia Eagle jersey wearing fan walking in but it turned out that most NFL fans for Week 1 wanted to see Brett Farve in a Minnesota Viking jersey and that's what SkySports had for us at the bar. And Jackson and I didn't disappoint any of the Spanish Irish NFL fanatics with our new Farve jerseys on, provided by our good buddy Jack. It was incredible. I kept thinking that if someone would have told me a year ago that on this day I would be living in France, traveling to Spain, to watch the Vikings in an Irish bar, while wearing a Brett Farve Minnesota Viking jersey, I would have said "get away from me ya weirdo" or something like that.
It was great to see the Vikings get the victory to start the year. It makes me wonder if the road to the Super Bowl actually starts in Spain?? We had an unusual amount of nachos and beer that night and didn't feel so good the next day but man it was fun and well worth it.
The following weekend, on Sept. 18th, after K&J spent their week in Cinque Terra, we picked them up at Girona, Spain airport on Friday night and went to 'storm the castle' in Carcasonne on the way home to Toulouse. In a metal steed called a Peugeot 308, they rode for miles. All the while drinking wine and eating a king's share of bread and cheese.
We arrived in Carcasonne after midnight and thought we may not even be able to get in the fortress section of the cite. But while this fortified city has withstood centuries of attacks, they have not encountered a formidable enemy the likes of Randi Mae and the Knights of Vin Rouge.
We were able to walk the empty streets of Carcasonne...much different than the couple other times we had been there, during the daytime. We ended up walking upon a rockin company party where the employees were a bit out of control, pole dancing, crack riding and pants sliding. There would definitely be some explaining to do, come Monday in the office. It was very entertaining.
On Saturday we took a short car ride to Cordes-sur-Ciel. We parked conveniently at the base of the town, so we'd be able to see most of the town while climbing the steep incline. 
We had a nice time hitting the little shops there. It's one of those classic cute, little French villages and we were not disappointed by it's charm. 
From there we planned to drive through the vineyards of Gaillac and made our first stop at the Manoir de L'Emmeillle vineyard, where Randi and I had been a month earlier. The vintner remembered us and continued his French language lessons with the four of us. We felt as though we passed and made our way to a second vineyard, Domaine de la Tronque. They owners there were really nice people. They gave us a tour of their winemaking process which was really fun. 
However, they had one wine that possibly has the worse bouquet that any wine has ever had since the Romans started making wine here back in the 6th century BC. They were making excuses for it, as they poured it and unfortunately Jackson and I started to giggle. I wanted to say that instead of a wine spit bucket, they might have a puke bucket ready. We wondered whether dog sh*t was part of the fermenting process on this one. It was unbelievable! I can't imagine them selling this vintage to any of the French here! The smell alone was orribla!! I don't really know what it tasted like...I spent that time trying not to laugh out loud. I took a picture of their lineup...watch out for the one in the middle. That night we went back to Toulouse and had an awesome French meal at La Madeleine de Proust, where Jackson and I had their Entrecôte sauce foie gras. It was a excellent steak by French standards and foie gras sauce was awesome...damn, it was good.
Then on Sunday we walked to the Toulouse market to purchase St. Jacques, the patron saint of scallops and then made our way to the De Danu Irish Bar for lunch. That night we enjoyed listening to the live radio feed (NFL.com's Field Pass) of the Vikings second victory of the year. Randi made St. Jacques over rice and we just hung out and talked...and blogged. It was really great to be with them for two weekends like that. Some great memories.
