Cheese shop
Gaby and her mom went to that cool cheese shop today. “Meester van Tricht en zoon: Maitre Fromagerie“. Gaby’s bag had a bunch of little cheese packages all wrapped up. I’m sure we’ll discover all about them in Germany!
DelHaize – Belgium Groceries
DelHaize
One of the treats of coming to visit Gaby’s parent’s home is shopping at the local grocery store: DelHaize! They have really interesting food there. Oh, you see the same things in normal grocery stores: produce, wine, meat, etc. but the fish and mussels are FRESH! The cheese selection is really big! They have local favorites like Martino meat (basically raw meat used in a sandwich). And of course, the Beer! We have to get Gaby’s German survival kit: two cases of Duvel Beer! 
Belga Queen for Dinner in Gent last night
Belga Queen - Gent, Belgium
We had a WONDERFUL dinner last night with some good friends! We meet both couples through option trading believe it or not! Manu chose the venu: Belga Queen in Gent, Belgium.
Gaby had a fantastic dish “Turbot on its fishbone, baked on a hot plate, truffle béarnaise”. She THOROUGHLY enjoyed it! We don’t have fish often in Germany due to a lack of good fresh fish, so this was a treat. I had “Oven roasted “coucou de Malines” (Belgian poultry) on gingerbread rubbed with pear syrup, home-made crisps and a mixed salad with a cider vinaigrette” which was also quite good!
I think we stayed in the restaurant for about four hours! Restaurants in Europe aren’t in a hurry to kick you out. We really enjoyed ourselves with good company, outstanding food, great drinks and a nice atmosphere! What a wonderful way to spend an evening! I’m 100% sure we’ll do it again. What a great group of friends we discovered!
Gaby and I are thinking it’s pointing more and more toward us moving to Belgium after Paris. We keep changing our minds as we love Provence, France but we have so many friends and family in Belgium. Another factor is nearly everyone speaks English in Belgium so it’s quite easy for me to live here. Everyone here has hope that I’ll learn Dutch but I’m hopeless when it comes to learning a new spoken language. (computer programming languages are different). We’ll see. All we know for sure is we’re going to Paris!
Apartment Hunting in Paris
La Motte Picquet Grenelle
We sent in our first request for information on a few apartments in Paris today. We’re using Paris Attitude for our searching so far. They had some nice looking places for 1100 to 1500 Euro per month. Of course we’ll have to pay an agency fee of about +10% and I’m sure other fees. We found a few contenders. Here’s our criterion:
- Within walking distance of Le Cordon Bleu
- High speed Internet access
- A bed with two matresses (there’s a size issue if Gaby and I are on the same matress.)
- Decent kitchen so Gaby can practice
I think we’ll find something. Some are already booking for Jan 2011 so we’re starting now in our quest! This one looks interesting
Back to Germany tomorrow
We’re on our way back home tomorrow. Gaby will be back at the helm. I’ve tried to keep you updated while were in Antwerp, Belgium so she can focus on her family
Until tomorrow!
Tom
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