Lunching at Mademoiselle VerteAdelie's

VerteAdelie aka Veronique(V)... real-life identity revealed. Who reminds me so much of the character of the film Amelie!

Last week, I had a special lunch invitation by lovely V whom I met through an exhibition of a mutual friend of ours Berenice (whom you'll see 'flipping' in one of the pics) chez hers. So unlike me, she was the perfect host, an ambassador of Paris to an expat lady like moi; she openly invited me over not only to munch up all her yummy concoction over chit chats, but also to view her wonderful, breathtaking, not to be missed Parisian view from her apartment. This was all from the 7th floor of one balcony where one could see not only see a little Eiffel tower but Sacre Coeur and half of Montmarte, city view of Paris, grassy hills etc. Perfectly planted in the heart of Paris' fabric/haberdashery area where countless numbers of these stores congregate, ahh heaven. How weird is that that's the area where 'Amelie' was filmed too.

Home made lunch courtesy of V was tops not to say the least! But here I surrender some pictures I took with my lil camera. Unfortunately it couldn't capture the full 180degree view from the balcony so here's a little teaser of Sacre Coeur in the background and beautiful Paris apartments in the foreground. Wouldn't you like that as a view chez yours?

For a silhouette illustrated version of her Balcony view check the top banner to her Blog!

Thank you Veronique for being such a lovely hostess with the mostess :x

Where have I been?! Santorini of course :)

Ok, I must apologize for the lack of attention I've been paying to my own Blog but I have been busy! With work first and foremost and secondly visitors to Paris, 6 sets of them thus far. We've just had our first week + weekend last week without any commitments to meeting or showing anyone where, how, when, what... in Paris. Actually we didn't know what to do with ourselves for a change. But thank you lovelies I feel blessed for your time far far away from home :) gros biz xx

Here are some pics of my trip I'd managed to squeeze in with my not only lovely but talented Australian friend Ella to Oia, Santorini in one of the Greek islands for my birthday :). What a treat indeed and how lucky am I. Apparently the only way to get to the island 2 years ago was via a 7-8hr ferry ride from Athens but since they've opened up an airport every Tom Dick and Harry is packing the tight cobbled streets of Oia, and especially for the sunset considered by many as one of the most beautiful in the world, making it little hard at times to walk and see anything! The only locals I saw were the ones working in the restaurants and stores understandably I would run away too if I were them eeek!

The local cuisine I found was easy to get addicted to; the Greek salads, battered squid, stuffed peppers, local dessert wine Vinsanto thanks for Ella's wee bottle in the fridge;) And here's a little run down on the way most Greek salads were composed of and how... as it's not the way I knew them to be from Melbourne, Australia where I'd lived where there's a huge population of Greek immigrants.

In a nutshell:
• a sprinkle of baby capers or some juicy caper leaves
• quarter cut your tomatoes(chunky) and not too many of them but more than cucumbers so 2:1 ratio
• a small handful of cucumbers and cut chunky also
• olive oil and lemon juice of course to your liking
• ONE BIG slice(about 3x3inches) of Greek feta cheese and on top of the salad
• don't forget to NOT mix the salad like you normally would
And voila!

Here's a little interesting history of Santorini if you'd ever consider going. And you should!
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