San Sebastian, St Jean Du Luz, and back to Paris

Sorry (mom) for the delay in posts! We have been been having quite a bit of fun, leaving little time for blogging :)

San Sebastian was really amazing...I think we would travel back there again over and over for its culture and mostly food. We ate our fair share of jamon iberico, anchovies and Pintxos (although I'm sure Zach would say he has room for more).

On Friday the film festival in San Sebastian started and we headed out...back up the coast to a tiny town in French Basque country called St Jean Du Luz. But first we detoured to Getaria for an awesome lunch with Andy and Stacy Bard who had just gotten to Bilbao for 2 weeks in Spain! Ate the tastiest grilled Sole I've ever had and we were on our way. St Jean Du Luz is absolutely beautiful and charming and we at seafood there that was some of the freshest I've ever tasted. Everything is simply prepared (a la plancha) and just perfect. We ate tons of prawns, squid, hake, langoustine, and fish soup.

...oh....and Arzak, but that's another story, enough for it's own post. Stay tuned!

Today we drove all the way back to Paris, dropped off our car and checked into a really cool hotel in Montemart for our final days of the honeymoon. We went out for Zach's favorite meal so far (Chinese food) with Max and Ari. And then cheese, pate, bread and pastries at Max and Ari's apartment...so, thanks to them (and our amazing time in St Jean Du Luz) we can no longer say it is hard to find good food in France!!

Here are some photos from the last few days...

La Bretxa Market y Pintxos

More Pics, + Arzac interview confirmed for tomorrow!

No big updates, except Nina & I are confirmed for an interview with 3 star Michelin chefs Juan Mari Arzac & his daughter Elena Arzak tomorrow afternoon. Yes, it's work, but it's the really fun kind of work!

More food pics in the next post...

Chateau Villandry

Before leaving France for San Sebastian we visited the Loire Valley. We went to the Chateau Villandry, a 16th century chateau most well known for it's acres of painstakingly cared for gardens. I can't even put into words how amazing the gardens were...mostly just the sheer size of them, but also the attention to detail, the symmetry and the beauty of it all. A very interesting aspect was a whole edible garden, planted entirely with veggies, fruit trees and grape vines. Below are some pictures that don't even do it justice...it was 2 hours of a gardeners dream come true!

San Sebastian

We arrived in San Sebastian yesterday- two days earlier than planned & we couldn't be more excited. This place has it all. We had the best meal of the trip last night a restaurant called Rekondo...simple shellfish soup, lomo, hake with clams, & squid with squid ink. The local txakoli wine was phenomenal and cheap.

Our hotel is at the top of the western closure of the bay-the late night photo below was taken on the terrace. We a have a funicular to bring us up and down the mountain into town. Now that it's Tuesday there are more places to eat so we're looking forward to a major tapas splurge tonight.

Food! Finally!

Nina here....first blog post from me!

So we've definitely gotten off to a rough start in the food dept by my standards....it's very difficult to get away from the touristy places in France. For me the trip finally started today when we had some of the best food yet...this is the stuff I've been dreaming of! We spent the day in Nancy, a small town close to where we have been staying. We visited the local covered market, filled with many beautiful and amazing food stalls filled with charcuterie to cheese to fish and produce. We bought ourselves a baguette, some Brie du meaux, butter and prosciutto and had ourselves a regular French picnic in the park! Delish. Then coffees in the square....felt very French. And then we finished the day with a really amazing dinner in a beautiful Brasserie called Excelsior. The food was perfect and everything about it made me smile. Here are some photos from today and yesterday (driving the Rue Du Vin in Alsace)....