Tennis - Day 2

The arena where I'm watching the tennis is called Palais Omnisports (not Bercy - that's the name of the metro stop).  The building is environmentally friendly with grass covering all sides.

The light show

Nadal...

Tsonga...

Tennis, tennis and more tennis!!

Tom bought me tickets to see tennis here in Paris at Bercy.  He bought me tickets for Monday through Friday both the day and night sessions!!  Too much fun!

There is a great light show between the matches that is coordinated to music.  I'll have to get better pictures tomorrow night and...I really need to learn how to use my camera!

Le Sénat

Keeping dry before the tour of the French Senate. 

The Senate is located in my absolutely most favorite gardens in Paris - Jardin du Luxembourg.  The senate is located in the palace that was built by King Henri IV's queen, Marie de Medici.  The palace, which was built in the early 1600's, resembles the Palazzo Pitti in Florence where Marie spent her childhood.

Where the Senate meets...

The throne of Napolean the 1st..

After the tour, we headed to our favorite pub along the Seine River and watched the Paris rugby game.

I love lemon!!

Tom brought home this wonderful lemon tarte for me the other night.  It was so lemony - exactly the way I love it.

Tom bought himself this wonderful chocolatey thing.  I had a small taste - it was so incredibly delicious!

Lucky for us, the patisserie is right up the road from us!

Poor Tom!

The morning after we got home from Tunisia, Tom left for a 4 day meeting at this château.

This was Tom's front door...

The main hallway...

Jules Porges built this spectacular château in Rochefort-en-Yvelines for his wife and daughter in the late 1800's.  He descended from a prominent Austro-Hungarian family.  He was born in Vienna and was raised in Prague, where his father was a master jeweler. By the 1860s he had settled in Paris where he quickly established himself  in the diamond trade and founded Jules Porges & Company.  The château is located about 40 minutes south of Paris.

Another book signing

I went to another book signing on Thursday night at WH Smith.  The book was Elegant Entertaining:  Seasonal Recipes from the American Ambassador's Residence in Paris.  It was written by Mrs. Craig Stapleton, wife of the former U.S. Ambassador to France and Philippe Excoffier, executive chef to the American Ambassadors for more than 10 years.  The book has wonderful recipes as well as wonderful pictures of the food and pictures of the inside the US Embassy.
For the book signing, they served wonderful champagne and scrumptious little muffin/cupcake sweets.  Yum!

Tunisia, Africa

Yipee!! I'm cleared to enter Tunisia!! No H1N1 !!
Here is where we stayed...The Royal Nozha in Hammamet
The beautiful Mediterranean..
The sea was so clear...
Shopping in the souks...
Next to the Medina...


View from our room..

Our purchases!! We are really excited to start cooking in our new tagine!

Quick facts about Tunisia:
- Located in north-east Africa on the Mediterranean Sea
- Located between Algeria and Libya
- Arabic is the official language but French is widely spoken as well