May 29 2014

The orchids in Ffm

Renate’s flowers. Her advice is: put them, the orchids under the sunlight. The rule of thumb 经验之谈 has been, indirect sunlight. Plenty sunshine is good.
Oh well. It works for me ever since!

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May 29 2014

The popularity of zhacai 榨菜

On the flight from Ffm to Beijing, I sat next to a young man who was nice enough to ask if I’d like some homey food. He was on his way home after touring Europe for 10 days, and still has so many homey food from China. I wondered how many did he bring. “A lot,” he laughed.
“Is this your first trip to Europe?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you visit?”
“I don’t know …”
“Why? ..”
“I, or we shopped mostly.”
His tourmates all have so many red bags, just liked his.
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After we landed in Beijing, waiting to exit the plane, he called his parents in Tianjin, to tell them he’ll be home for lunch and his sister would pick him up from the train station. A considerate son.


May 29 2014

Heading to BJ

It’s only May but the hot spots – the tourist traps are already crowded to a point as too gaudy and tiring, reducing the enjoyment. Which makes the off beaten track so much more appealing. But the hot-spots are no brainers and the off beaten tracks need a little digging to find and to plan: they even out in the end?

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23kg in one pc of luggage is the limit for Lufthansa at Frankfurt airport, but 24kg is tolerable. I have exactly 23kg but after shopping at the supermarket with 2 bottle of wines and sausage it’s bit over weight. I’d to take the green shoes and the Coach bag out.

Carry on bag checkers are really work hard at looking at our belongings. The macarons are problematic and already broken up in small pieces. Really dumb of me to even bought this.

The passengers on the flight are predominately Chinese. They quietly lined up at Gate 54 which is next to 52 – our indicated gate. The Lufthansa females agents were laughing at it. But in the end we indeed gone through Gate 54 instead 52. Not sure it’s for the ease or they intended that way.

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The airplane is noisy, the Chinese tourists are all speaking at the same time. Obviously they all knew each other. Few are talking about drinking together. The overhead cabinets are loaded up to the max. A few costumers came bit late had trouble to fit theirs in.

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It’s cute to see Chinese pickled veggies on the airplane that is heading back to China. They’ve loaded up their favored snakes for the trip and have those many leftovers. Don’t they want to try the local cuisines?!

The massive Chinese seems to buy buy buy and buy, everywhere. A boy in his late 20s or early 30s sitiing next to me, offered me a small bag of pickled veggie 榨菜.
“Where did you get those?” I wondered. Hoping he did not bring those from China.
“From China.”
IMG_2976Gosh, he carried those snakes and local delicacies around the globe.
“Are you a tourist?” I asked him.
“Yes.”
“How long was your trip?”
“Ten days.”
“Where did you go?”
“I don’t remember.” He looked vacant.
“What did you do?”
“Buy .. watches and (hand?) bags ..”

When we landed in Beijing, he called his parents to report safe return, and went on to say, he’d catch a train to Tianjin and that his sister would pick him up.


May 29 2014

Visiting Elisabeth

We walked to Elisabeth (1924-2011) grave which is by the national library, passing by Gr


May 28 2014

Benlux

It’s the summer 1983 (June 24


May 28 2014

The Louvre, and a rat

Saw a mouse in the food court at the prestigious Louvre! McDonald is the busiest of all! Benlux is 99% Asian .. Some pix on FB
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May 28 2014

The TGV

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May 28 2014

Paris Metro Gare de L’Est

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May 28 2014

La Cure Gourmande

La Cure Gourmande Montmartre
8-10 rue de Steinkarque
75018 Paris, 01 42 234202
curegourmande.com

The service is better than Maison Georges Larnicol

 

 

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May 28 2014

Maison Georges Larnicol

Just went to shopping around the corner. Montmartre is a liberal area with many 99 cent trinket shops stores catering to tourists. There are two sweet shops Maison Georges Larnicol (7-9 rue de Steinkerque, 75018 Paris) and La Cure Gourmande Montmartre – they’re under handed and I found the sales women rude at Maison Georges.

They’re charging up scale $ with 99 cent store mentality. For the paper bag, I’ve to ask for twice and seeing the reluctance. Maybe the Europeans’ frugality is saving the world. No one dare to say no when asking reasonably for a free bag in the USA – No one beats the Americans for service. They tasted ok. My review on Yelp. Ladur