Note to self: A marble floor is not a great place to drop your camera..

While touring Versailles I dropped my camera on the marble floor. It seemed ok until I started taking pictures again and noticed a strange blue/purplish tint to the photos. I thought it might be the display screen, but after I moved the photos to my laptop I discovered that the same bluish tint followed.



I guess it's time for a new camera, but I think I'll play around with this one some more. The effects are kind of groovy!

Chocolat!

One of the things I LOVE about living in Europe is proximity to the holy trinity of chocolate producing countries. Belgium, France, and Switzerland. I make it a point to seek out local chocolate shops whenever I'm in town. In Paris we stumbled upon this beauty. We had pastries like ganache filled macaroons and this dark chocolate mousse filled eclair. Mmmmmm. The perfect treat for an early Valentine's Day. Speaking of romance, if you want to read a story about how Brett asked me to marry him, it's on the Kodak Blog today at 1000words.kodak.com

How to avoid "salespeople" in a foreign country

I've had it happen to me many times while touring in a foreign country. I'm walking along minding my own business when someone says loudly "Do you speak English?" and when you turn to look they shove a piece of paper in your face with some sort of sad story asking for money. OR You encounter an overly aggressive shopkeeper or panhandler who won't leave you along and gets in your face. This happened to us when we were touring Sacre Coeur in Paris.

The secret to a clean getaway: Speak Dutch to them. They can't quite figure out where you're from and are so befuddled they'll leave you alone. We used a few key phrases like "No thank you (in Dutch)" while in Paris and it cut our delay times down to seconds. Thanks to my Dutch colleagues for the handy tip! That's one advantage to speaking a less mainstream language.

Faux finish

We noticed these decals at a department store in France. They're photographic stickers of a pile of towels. I guess you're supposed to stick them on the front of your cabinets for a cool effect. They also had dish towel stickers, plate stickers, and even canned vegetable stickers.

They were kind of fun - but they were so realistic I think I'd be slamming my hands into the cabinet door everytime I reached for a towel or a can of chickpeas!

Enjoy your cardboard baguette!

In Paris we stopped into a local department store to see what kinds of unique things were for sale in France. One trend that I can't quite figure out is cardboard "look alike" products.

Brett's enjoying his cardboard baguette in this photo. It was even stranger to see life size "fireplaces" and "marble" mantles - especially for $30 and up! If anyone could make cardboard upscale, it's the French.

A toilet made for 2

My friend Courtenay was in Antwerp a few weeks ago when her friend went to use the bathroom. She came back down and said "I'm not going to tell you what I saw, but you HAVE to go up and look in the bathroom." When Courtenay went up, she was surprised to see these side-by-side toilets. I guess since many girlfriends go to the bathroom at the same time, this restaurant figured they'd make the process more efficient.

Strange for sure, but I bet the lines are shorter :-)

-Lori

I love my onion goggles

My eyes are extremely sensitive to chopping onions - so one day I was in the store and noticed these onion goggles. They have a foam layer underneath the frame that seals your eyes from the onion fumes.

They work great, though I look extremely silly wearing them. Still, they were one of the few cooking items that made the cut for the trip from San Francisco to Amsterdam. They're that good.