Duomo di Milano

It took 500 years to build the 4th largest gothic church in the world and the largest church in Italy. Commissioned in 1386, the Duomo was not finished until the early 1800. Regardless of your religious affiliation, it is amazing. I was quite surprised though by the experience inside. It was rather dull and not as magnificent as one would have expected.  Very limited light on the inside. Nonetheless, impressive.

At the Triennale Design Museum - Milan Italy

Amazing exhibit questioning "what is Italian design?"

To respond to that question, several famous Italian designers (furniture, design, cars, clothes, etc) were featured with their interpretation.

One of my favorite responses is from Alessi is featured below:

Also featured were chairs designed by various Italian artists.  Here are a few of my favorites;

Pics from Dijon (#2)

Place Wilson

Palais des Ducs et des Etats de Bourgogne

Les richesses et l'elegance du patrimonie architectural

About the Mustard!

About a week ago, I took a gastronomy tour of Dijon offered by the Office of Tourism and aptly titled "Saveurs et Piquant."  This almost 2-hour tour focused on the top three specialities of this region (outside of wine) - - Mustard, Pain d'epice and Cassis.   It was  rainy Friday and that worked to my advantage.  I was the only person that showed up and had the private tour in..of course, French.

This post focuses on the mustard and future posts will uncover other delicious delicacies...

When we think of Dijon, we think of Dijon Mustard. What surprised me the most was to learn that:

1.  Most of the Mustard is produced in Canada.  Dijon Mustard does not have protected designation status and so if you follow the recipe, mustard made anywhere can be rightly called "Dijon Mustard".
Fortunately, there is "Moutarde de Bourgogne" that has protected status and requires that at least 30% of all the mustard seeds come from this region.

2. Famous Dijon Mustard brands - Maille and Amora are owned by Unilever.

3. At Maille, one can buy seasonal collections of mustard (see above for new Fall flavors).

Pics from Dijon (#1)

Arc de Triomphe  de la ville de Dijon s'appelle la Porte Guillaume

Dijon, a beautiful historic town is the capital of Cote d'Or department and the Burgundy region.  It also has the status of the "City of Art and History."

This town inherited great palaces, elegant buildings and splendid architecture from the old Burgundian nobility.

Enjoy your gum and keep the streets clean

This is one of several popular street signs on the "grand rue" in Besancon.  This sign invites chewing gum enthusiast to "stick" their gum on this pad, instead of throwing it on the ground. The interesting thing is that these pads are changed almost everyday.  What an innovative way to keep the city clean.

Keep on chewing!!

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MOVE: 6 Suitcases weighing 130 lbs and 194 Boxes

That's what 20 years collectively looked like. Shocking! Surprising. If you were to boil down your life and "stuff" into boxes how much would it be.  What do you think is necessary? A burden? Just stuff that you collected over the years?

All these thoughts run through my mind as I was looking around an empty apartment and realizing that everything important we owned was boiled down to just 2,300 lbs which was packed into 194 boxes. Our prized possessions weighing 130 lbs traveled with us as we made our move to France from Chicago.
This blog chronicles our move to France and attempts to capture interesting experiences along the way.

Bienvenue...