Friday, March 10, 2006

black beans and okra!!


black beans!!
Originally uploaded by vivienfrance.
I am so tired. Remember how I was so tired last week and I had that emotional breakdown? I'm like that tired. Not sleeping through the night for another week straight has caught up with me, I suppose. So I'll try not to blather on uncontrollably.

Doc and I did make it to the lovely town of Nancy today, in the most bizarre weather I have ever experienced in France. It was literally what we used to say back in Florida: "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." Torrential rain, pounding hail, high winds, blue skies, sunshine, wash rinse and repeat. I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would have liked, but I did capture a few (especially of the incredible gold-embellished ironwork of Place Stanislas) which are already posted on my flickr account.

Our main goal, of course, was to visit the current expo at the Parc des Expositions, which featured everything you could ask for in building and furnishing your new home, which Doc and her family are in the process of doing. Since there were few people there, we were able to see everything in only a couple of hours and head back to downtown Nancy to find some lunch and sightsee a little bit.

The most extraordinary thing we discovered was a quaint Cuban restaurant featuring black beans in a couple of different dishes - the very thing I've been craving for about a month now. We each enjoyed an incredible "menu" of latin food - Doc had a tasty (and authentic!) enchilada and I had my super delicious black beans.

Then Doc did something that never would have occured to me - she asked the waiter if he knew where we could find black beans. Then the waiter did something even more extraordinary - he went to ask the chef! He came back with directions to a specialty shop within walking distance of the restaurant. After making a few photographic stops on the way, we found the famous shop and not only did I find my elusive (not to mention very inexpensive!) black beans, Doc stumbled right onto some fresh okra! She grabbed a few and announced that she would be fryin' up some okra tonight, and with that, we waltzed our happy selves back to the car to make the three hour trip back to chez moi.

I wish I could tell you more about the lovely centre ville of Nancy, but I'm afraid we didn't see much of it, due to time contraints and wacky weather. I would love to have the opportunity to visit it again and explore it some more.

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