A Weekend in Bourgogne (translation: Burgundy)

Last weekend I parted fake France took off to "Real France" with Sam, Sarah and her husband. First stop on the roadtrip was to visit Justin in Chalon-sur-saône. He was the most hospitable host and I'm glad I had to see his charming town before his move to Paris. (Thanks again Justin).

I had every intention to go running along the river but life got in the way.


And by life I of course mean wine tastings, dining, sleeping and things like that. We visited several caves in the region and two of my faves were the Jean-Claude and Anna Breliere and the Paul Chollet domaines. The former is run by the cutest and most friendly couple imaginable offers all types of burgundy wine. The latter only produces crémants which are French sparkling wines not made in the Champagne region. Go figure.


While I did have a lot of fun on my trip I did manage to learn a thing or two about wine. In Burgundy there are two primary grape varieties grown the Chardonnay grape and the Pinot Noir grape and very little blending if any and little flexibility compared to the five primary varieties produced in Bordeaux and much more blending. Hence, if there is a bad harvest one year in Burgundy chances are you aren't going to have any good wine from that region and the producers are SOL whereas in Bordeaux producers have a lot more leeway to create their wines which is why they say that you can never really go wrong with a Bordeaux wine.

In addition to visiting caves and wine tasting we also visited the Hospices de Beaune and spent a day touring Dijon.

Comfy looking hospital beds

Medicine Anyone?

How 'bout some surgery?

Thanks to the Frenchies I have another long weekend coming up and I'll be heading down south to visit Aix-en-Provence and Marseille.

Outgrowing Paris?

When I first moved to Paris I used to revel in the idea of running into someone I know par hazard within the city limits. It felt like a sign that I had arrived and was building a network of people I knew, experiencing the city and making new friends along the way.

After almost two years here there are of course some people that you would rather forget or prefer not to see randomly by chance in the city such as your former fling when you most definitely didn't bring you A game, or the shock of seeing your friend's boyfriend with someone other than his girlfriend, or random people that you've met at parties that you'd much prefer to forget. These encounters, which all occurred to me over the past four days have me reflecting on just how freaking small this city actually is.

I guess that's a sure sign that it's time to get outta dodge for a few days and visit An American in Bourgoogne when this short 3-day work week is over.

Got a Haircut in Paris and Didn't Cry

First of all I want to thank you all for your comments regarding my previous post. I'm mostly over it now and am moving on.

Yesterday, I cheated on my beloved Logan of Serenity Salon in NYC and let a Parisian styist near my tresses. While I had every intention to remain faithful to Logan during my stay here in Paris it became harder and harder as my split ends seemingly began to multiple by the hour over the past couple of weeks. So I was really left with no choice in the matter I swear.

I managed to find the Living Room salon by chance as through a friend of mine. On top of that, salon owner and stylist Matt happens to be my neighbor. I figured these were both good signs besides what stylist is going to give a bad haircut to a client that knows where he lives? So I decided to take my chances.

When I sat down the first thing I told Matt was that I wanted to keep my length. He assured me that I had nothing to worry about at his salon. However, as I was sitting in his styling chair I couldn't help but feel overcome by anxiety as I watched him snip away at my tattered ends. A little more here, a little more there. On several occasions I even had to divert my gaze out of fear. When he began to do layer my hair using his special scissors huge long chunks of hair fell to the floor and I gripped the armrests ever more tightly. I had to keep reminding myself that it is just hair.

When all was said and done I realized that I had nothing to worry about afterall. While Matt's cut wasn't done with the same precision and perfection of a Logan cut it was exactly what I asked for and it came out looking pretty good and the price was right. So if I don't go back to NYC between now and the next time I need a haircut I will definitely visit Matt's salon again.

Living Room
22 rue des taillandiers
75011 Paris
01 43 55 66 81