Date Day @ Le Creuset

It's pretty humbling to think that this time last week, I was still relaxing in California..and now here I am in Belgium and already venturing around again. Honestly, I definitely appreciate that I'm even able to do this! 

My amazing husband managed to take some well deserved time off when I came back, so we're wanting to take advantage of it! Later this month, I'll be heading to the Le Creuset factory outlet store over in France with a group of gals since it'd be pretty cool to get it straight from them verses a retail store, if that makes any sense. Well, Eric was actually really interested in going, but not with a group of women since he'd be the only guy... and he's not one for being in a hen house, lol. We were planning on going over to Chièvres, which isn't too far from the border of France, so we figured we'd go the extra hour and a half distance to actually go into that country to check out Le Creuset. I see it as not only spending time with Eric, but it's like I'm doing "intel" for the other gals who are going on the trip later this month in terms of finding out pricing, what's available in the shop, ect. And...I'll be able to get familiar with the area so when I do the drive again, I won't get so lost :) See? Win win.

The Le Creuset is located in Fresnoy-le-Grand, France, which has a pretty massive factory. There are rumblings that a second factory for the company is being built per some Le Creuset employees I've talked to during my purchasing adventures. 

Photo provided via Le Creuset 

In case you don't what Le Creuset is..let me explain. They make some of the most fantastic cast iron cookware, ever, and that's what they're known for. The company was founded in 1925 (86 years ago!!) and is still going strong. My grandmother actually has a piece of theirs which she got in 1947 and it still works AND looks amazing! Now, I'm psychotic about having nice cookware in my kitchen (Hi. I'm Pampered Chef  consultant and my kitchen is PIMPED out)...so as time as rolled on, I've collected a few little pieces here and there from Le Creuset. Eric is a loving and supportive husband, so when I told him that I wanted to get a few Le Creuset pieces, he didn't bother asking why since he knew I had already done all the research...and basically that I was a woman on a mission till I got what I was looking for. 

So, we made our way over to France bright and early since I figured out the store was open for a few hours in the morning, closed for lunch, then re-opens back in the afternoon. It takes just a wee bit over three hours to get there and the first hour and a half was spent in Brussels traffic (ick). Once we got past there, it was pretty smooth sailing for most of the remainder of the drive:

The sites along the way were pretty cool! We drove through numerous little French villages ....we even passed by several bunkers that looked like they lived through some history. There were even some really interesting churches along the way, but we didn't have a chance to stop since the French seem to enjoy drafting our Xterra and there really wasn't anywhere we could pull off to in order to allow people to pass. Le sigh.

Once we found the outlet, I was kinda surprised by how small it was. I mean.. I knew in the back of my mind that it was small, but not as small as it actually is considering it's RIGHT next to the factory. 

For those interested in visiting the Le Creuset Outlet here is the address & hours as of today's date:

Rue Olivier Deguise, 02230 Fresnoy-Le-Grand, France.    

Tel 03.23.06.22.45 

Hours: Closed Monday & Sunday. Tuesday-Saturday 10-12:30 & 2:15-6:30

As long as you're walking in without a specific color / particular thing in mind...you'll be perfectly fine in there. The majority of the colors they had available in their cast iron stuff was black, red, blue, flame, a few pieces of yellow as well as eggplant here and there.

When you first walk in, they have a table on the left that shows off what they currently have a promotion for. This month, if you buy any of the "Ocean Blue" colored items, they'll take 20% off of it for ya. I actually thought of one of my friends since this is TOTALLY a color she'd go for. In fact, I think this is one of the colors she picked in our pottery class to glaze the goodies she had made.

 One aisle has all the main cast iron goodies like oval and circular dutch ovens, frying pans, doufeu's, woks, etc.

 They also carry silicone pans for muffins, cakes, loafs, even muffin liners and colanders! 

Throughout the store (but mainly in the very back) they have a collection of stoneware to pick from. Like I said, if you don't have a particular color in mind...that will totally work in your favor. The color varieties ranged from off white, to eggplant, red, flame, black and a mossy green color. It just really depends on what they have available at the time when you go. 

In the other aisle, you can check out various tea kettles as well as mini little stoneware pieces you can use for little desserts, etc. Lots of colors available in those!

Tagines!

Aside from all the standard cookware stuff, they also have kitchen tools available like wine accessories, silicone spreaders, whisks, trivets, even little magnets for your fridge that look like baby cast iron dutch ovens.

While walking around and figuring out what I wanted, I found a price sheet that they had readily available for people to use rather than to lift up each individual piece to check the price on the bottom. Tell ya what, that thing was a blessing cause after lifting the fourth or fifth piece of cash iron, it gets a little tiring. Here's the price sheet I'm talking about.. the light orange is the price of the unit in the store, the white part is what the piece NORMALLY goes for, and the dark orange tells you how much you save. (If you click on the picture, it'll enlarge so you can see the prices better)

Once we got our fill from looking around and debating, we ended up getting a 2 quart.Tagine in "Flame".  If you don't know what a Tagine is, here ya go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajine Also, here's a little video on how to use one:

I've been pretty interested in getting one for a while since I'm wanting to expand my cooking arsenal with different types of recipes aside from all the usual stuff I made. Eric was even open to trying new things, so hell, why not get a Tagine :) We both agreed on "Flame" since Dune (a bone white color) was a little boring, and the Caribbean Blue isn't available in the size we wanted. The gal that helped me was FANTASTIC! When we told her what we were wanting, she went in the back and pulled out a box since all the big items are pretty much displays...she pulled the Tagine out and checked it for dings, imperfections and whatever else could possibly be wrong, showed it to us them boxed it back up for us to take home :)

 

I love how large it is! The bottom holds up to 2 quarts of whatever deliciousness you wanna cook, and as you can see, it's pretty deep so you don't have to worry about it overflowing onto your stove top. 

The top is made of stoneware while the bottom is cast iron..all together, it weighs around 7lbs.

Price wise.....errrrrmmmm... it's not all that much cheaper than what you can get in a regular retail store, at least in the US. When I was in the Le Creuset outlet in Gilroy, I manged to get my 7.75 quart round dutch oven for $115 (originally $280), a sauce pan for $75 (originally $170) and an awesome pepper grinder for $20 (originally $60). When I did the conversion rate for what I paid for my Tagine from the factory, which was 119€, it comes out to $160.65...about a $15 savings compared to what the going rate is online. Then, add in the cost of gas round trip (which is 80€)...it kinda took away the feeling of "saving on the price" by getting it directly from the store in France verses getting it on Amazon (which offers free shipping). I suppose it just depends on what you're really looking for since you can get better savings on certain items, but, it still ends up being pricier than anticipated and how much you really wanna dig. 

Overall, it was a beautiful drive around France in the process of finding this store..it was something Eric and I got to do together in addition to helping me figure out how to get there for the next time I'll be driving some ladies to the store. Now I just gotta find some cookbooks for Tagines as well as other cast iron dutch ovens...'tis the season for hearty soups!! :D

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Paris : La ville de l'amour

This past weekend, we invaded Paris, France.

Our base did over-night trip in which I managed to get myself, Eric as well as my Dad signed up for it. I'm SO glad we went! It's the first time we were able to make our way over there since we've been in Europe! The bus ride only took 5 hours, but it felt less than that considering the majority of the time, we were passed out since we left base at 6am (figure we woke up at 4am to get ready). Once we rolled into the lovely city, our bus driver swung us by our hotel ( Holiday Inn : Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport ) in which we were able to drop off our overnight bags, then continue onward to the heart of the city.

On our way to the Eiffel Tower, we passed by the Arc de Triumph. It's massive. I really can't explain how gorgeous it was...Pictures don't do it justice!

This is biggest round-about I've ever seen. This thing was ridiculous! I heard that there's some insurance companies that won't cover you if you actually get in an accident in it (that's not a shocker considering there's no median lines and the French drive like maniacs).

We finally reached our drop off point, which was the Eiffel Tower. It's really impressive in person even though it's "just" the support frame for a building (as someone put it to me). Either way, the engineering for that time is pretty apparent when you look at this thing for a while. You have the option of going to the first and second level of it, but we decided on investing our time checking out other things considering the line was VERY long (2 hour wait). Not to mention, the street vendors in the area were becoming rather pesky...they'll walk up to you and ask "Are you American? Do you speak English?" if you say "yes", they harass the hell out of you till you buy one of their Eiffel Tower key chains, toys, stands..whatever it is, you MUST buy it for them to leave you alone. We were just told that if they don't leave ya alone, just say "Police" and they'll scatter like cockroaches. True to the word, they scattered! hahaaa!

Eric & I

Dad & I

The Peace Pavilion at the Champ de Mars near the Eiffel Tower has the word "Peace" engraved in numerous languages.

 Statue of General Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre

 

 

After walking around for a lil bit, we figured out how The Louvre was from where we were. Given, we could have taken the city Metro to get there, but we figured a taxi would've been more fun. We managed to flag down a taxi (the driver was very nice) and we got to have a pimped out taxi ride in a rather flashy Mercedes. In no time at all, he got us to our destination in one piece (that alone was a miracle).

 Yes, we took our typical tourist pictures in front of the glass pyramid :) 

 

  

Before we actually went into The Louvre, we were checking out the exterior of the building since there were really intricate carvings, crown moldings and statues. Absolutely gorgeous! I really was in heaven at that place considering there was SO much to actually look at. The detail on the outside building carvings were amazing! 

 The Louvre fountains

From the courtyard, you could see the Eiffel Tower as well as the Arc du Carrousel. It was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate his Austrian victories and honor his grand army.

Once we got inside...

I was honestly surprised with how...uhhhh... calm The Louvre was. I mean, I was fully expecting it to be jam packed with tourists since we were there on a Saturday...and it's Paris, lol. Given, I was very grateful that we were able to move around pretty freely and take nice pictures without getting shoved around (biggest pet peeve ever). By the way, the entry free to get into the exhibits is only 9.50 euro AND....AND you can take pictures (without flash, of course). Take THAT Saint Pauls Cathedral!

The only time when we really experienced any sort of crowd was when we saw the Winged Victory of Samothrace as well as the Mona Lisa. Other than that, smooth sailing! Speaking of which:

By far, one of my favorite pieces! Very Hellenistic! Here's some additional info on this:

This exceptional monument was unearthed in 1863 on the small island of Samothrace in the northwest Aegean. It was discovered by Charles Champoiseau, French Vice-Consul to Adrianople (Turkey). The goddess of Victory (Nike, in Greek) is shown in the form of a winged woman standing on the prow of a ship, braced against the strong wind blowing through her garments. With her right hand cupped around her mouth, she announced the event she was dedicated to commemorate. The colossal work was placed in a rock niche that had been dug into a hill; it overlooked the theater of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. This niche may also have contained a pool filled with water in which the ship appeared to float. Given its placement, the work was meant to be viewed from the front left-hand side; this explains the disparity in sculpting technique, the right side of the body being much less detailed. The highly theatrical presentation-combined with the goddess's monumentality, wide wingspan, and the vigor of her forward-thrusting body-reinforces the reality of the scene. 

 

 Next was the Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde ) by Leonardo da Vinci. People need to realize that this isn't a massive painting. In fact, it's a piece that's of average size (something you'd normally have done as a private portrait)..never mind the fact that there's a 20 foot barrier keeping you from getting too close to it, as well as bullet proof glass. Tell ya what, it was a challenge to get a decent picture of her since I was battling a sea of Asian tourists, lol. 

Now that I got the two heavy hitters out of the way, I can show you the rest of the spiffy pictures I was able to take while we were wandering around the Denon wing of the Louvre. It mainly consisted of Italian artists as well as Greek / Roman sculptures: 

One of the first rooms we went into had this awesome pillars with really awesome carvings at the top of them. Each one has a different "theme:

Pretty ceiling

Awesome bathtub (it was actually used)

Bust of Minerva (Athena)

Statue of Titus

This statue was pretty awesome because of the different materials that were used to make it. For the life of me, I can't remember the name of it...sadly, I didn't take a picture of the statue information either :(

Inlaid stones were used for the garments patterned design

From there, we walked into another hall area with even more Greek sculptures:

Another statue of Minerva (Athena); she has a baby owl in her hand (it was stinkin' cute!) Her dress is made out of yellow onyx and marble. 

Mercury (Hermes)

Other various sculptures:

 When Eric first saw this, he thought the face was still a "work in progress". Actually, she has a sheer veil over her face, almost looks as if it would've been silk..and the same texture is consistent with the rest of her dress. LOTS of detail! It was just amazing to see that type of talent in marble..

This is actually a clay "practice design" that was made before the artist started working on it in marble:

Gorgeous ceilings in different exhibit area's:

I looked all over for some information on this archway.. I couldn't find it!

This is the "Coronation of Napolean", where he crowns Josephine queen. It takes place in Notre Dame and to the very right of the picture you can see the altar statue from Notre Dame. The size of this thing is ridiculous. Well, I mean.. it IS fit for a King & Queen.

Here's some close-up pictures I was able to get (I enhanced the colors so you could see the images better).

 The lady sitting in the upper left corner is supposed to be Napoleon's mom. From my understanding, she wasn't a fan of Josephine but she got a big spot in the painting anyway.

There's tons and tons of pictures I took, but these were the ones I was really stoked on considering we spent well over three hours in that one wing. When we were on our way out, Eric and I stopped off in the souvenir shop in which we were able to pick up a mini replica of The Winged Victory of Samothrace:

 Sure, I should've gotten something along the lines of the Mona Lisa, but you can get prints of her anywhere. I've never seen a mini replica of the statue we got, so of course, it was coming home with us. I love it! She's now sitting on "My travels" shelf in my office and keeping my other nick-nacks company :) 

Once we were done with that wing (we'll have to go back another time to see the rest of the place), we were off to get some dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  The staff there was REALLY nice.. you wouldn't even know you were in France because most of 'em spoke perfect English! Once we did some damage in there as well as their gift shop, we went a few doors down to pick up our official Starbucks Paris cup (we HAVE to collect 'em from any city we visit!)

Snagged a cool purse from the next door shop then made our way back to the hotel via Paris Taxi. 

I will say....riding in a Paris Taxi is definitely a life altering experience. It makes me appreciate my life a little more considering those guys drive as if they're rally car drivers. There's no lane markers so they drive ALL over the place, almost rear end one another regardless if they're in a nice Lexus, Mercedes or BMW. Motorcyclists and bicycle riders use the road (even the sidewalks) at their own risk considering they're just moving targets for the taxi's. By the time we reached our hotel, I think I lost 5 lives, almost 6. I don't quite remember since everything was so blurry, but I believe I threw myself onto the ground once I got out of the taxi, kissed it numerous times and said, "THERE IS A GOD!". Our driver WAS very nice, but I gotta tip my hat to him considering that's a whole other breed of driving!

All in all, the trip was a blast! We didn't go all over the city like a lot of people did during the trip, but it gives us something else to look forward to when we go back again :)

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