Round

Back in November I decided to start counting my exercise time towards a goal. I am currently walking for exercise I chose to measure in miles. Since I’m very interested in the Basque country, and we had a weekend planned there in February, I chose Bilbao Spain as my destination. So I’m walking to Bilbao.

Bilbao is 462 miles from Paris (my home). Some of you suggested I makes some stops along the way, which I found to be a big improvement to my original plan. This is my third stop in my virtual tour, and this time I’m marking the miles walked to where I could have gone - because Nancy is the opposite direction of Bilbao. But since it’s a virtual walk it’s really easy to change direction whenever you want!

We also canceled the real-life weekend in Bilbao. It was supposed to be this weekend, leaving on Friday, but we had an IUI and my DH has been sick so there was just no way for us to get away right now. We’ll book it for another time, no doubt after I’ve EARNED it! Once I started walking towards this goal I realized it would be pretty hard to make it halfway there before the trip, so I’ll really feel it’s worth it once I’ve walked my 462 miles before getting there.

During this week while walking to appointments and adding up little 15 minute walks I made it to 176 miles, so I decided to give myself a “stop” here and find out a little something about Nancy France, a town I’ve never been too but that I’ve heard about several times.

Nancy is in the Lorraine region of France, towards the German border. During WWII the Germans claimed this region (plus Alsace) as part of the German state and thus spared it much destruction in the war.

The city is listed as Unesco world heritage site, largely due to the Art Nouveau architecture. It looks over-the-top but pretty as is typical of this style.

I love art and architecture, so this city looks like a really great place for me to visit and looks small enough to do easily in a weekend. I would love to visit this museum.

And food? Each time I “stop” in a new town we look at the local foods - and with Nancy we will not be disapointed. This is the home of Quiche Lorraine, created in 1586, and adding to the waistlines of the French and the rest of the world ever since.

It’s a rich egg quiche in a rich crust, traditionally made with egg, bacon and cream and in modern times sometimes with cheese. When you add onions it is no longer Quiche Lorraine, it becomes Quiche Alsacienne (the region next door).

Nancy also claims to have invented a type of Macaron but this is not a debate I think is worth getting into.

Macaroon cookies (which are not the shredded-coconut sugar bombs of the US) are in my mind an over-rated cookie. The ones in Paris that make everyone ga-ga are in fact it’s two macaron cookies (like the ones in Nancy) filled with a cream-butter-sugar filling flavored with something and thus made into a little sandwich. The flavors have gotten very creative in recent years but to me they are still not fabulous… Although they are pretty, look:

Finally, my heart lept with joy when I read that Nancy (well, the region around Nancy) is the home of my favorite little Mirabelle plums. These little plums are incredible - sweet, tasty, flavorful and fragile. They are only around for a few weeks and rather expensive. I suspect they are too fragile and too scarce to really make it into the global food chain of exportation and unity and I am so grateful to live in a country where they are available to me for a few weeks every year. I buy big sacks of them whenever I see them in the summer and we eat them very fast.

Some people make tarts and jam from them but we always just eat them plain. They’re about the size of cherries and pure fresh fruit heaven! Each one usually packs the flavor of the best plum you’ve ever had - they’re fabulous. Unlike Quiche Lorraine or Macarons, you don’t need to hold yourself back with these treats around - delicious!

I read a bunch of different sites but think this New York Times article is among the best for those looking for more info.

I saw this ad a while back in an art magazine and ripped it out. I came across it today while cleaning some papers…

This is an ad from a campaign by the German Olympic Committee, and I had a hard time finding the image I wanted so there might be a problem with the copyright… So for the record, I think the campaign is fabulous and I’m not trying to steal anyone’s thunder, just get it out to more people…

Pretty striking, isn’t it?

I’ve gotten my act together and walked both days this weekend, which is something I *should* do every weekend, but somehow I often don’t. I also managed to walk for 30 min one day during the week, so for the first time in ages I actually met my exercise goal this week.

I started a new audiobook today too. My rule with the audiobooks is to ONLY listen to them when I walk - so on the metro and at other times I listen to my iPod it’s music or podcasts, but to move on with the story, I must move my body…

It was really nice today - sunny, warm-ish (around 50 F) and I even saw signs of Spring - little crocuses popping up in the park, showing their bright yellow sparkle against grass which is turning downright green! I LOVE Spring! Last night’s walk was also a mission to find Mexican products here in Paris. I walked to 3 addresses I’d found on the web, only one of which was valid. I bought chipolte peppers and jalepeno peppers and also some mole sauce. I just couldn’t bring myself to pay 7.50 euros (about $10) for a large can of refried beans… I am frustrated because I can’t find dried pinto beans here ANYWHERE, and the rumors that I’ll be able to find black beans aren’t looking too good either. So I’m mixing my exercise and my quest together for a series of excursions to some exotic food markets hoping to track down the suckers to have a steady supply for the future. For short-term, I have a friend visiting in February, and my brother in April, and both of them will bring me the stuff I ask for, but long-term I’d like to find a local source. The walks are also a fun way to combine exploring the city with exercise, and since I’m really determined to find these things, gives me something to look forward to…

Back in November I decided to start counting my exercise time towards a goal. I am currently walking for exercise I chose to measure in miles. Since I’m very interested in the Basque country, and we have a weekend planned there in February, I chose Bilbao Spain as my destination. So I’m walking to Bilbao.

Bilbao is 462 miles from Paris (my home). Some of you suggested I makes some stops along the way, which I found to be a big improvement to my original plan.

Sometime over the weekend, with all the walking around we did in Amsterdam, I passed over the threshold for my next stop. My current mileage is at 132, but I’ve selected my second stop to be Le Mans, France, which is 114 miles from home in Paris. Walking around a new city for 2 days will really rack up the miles!

I chose Le Mans as my next stop because I’ve actually been there, unlike most of the other cities approximately 110 miles from Paris. It’s on the outer reaches of the Loire Valley.

I had a friend who got married here a few years back, so I got to wander around the town and church for a few hours that day. The old town center was really charming, with old buildings where the wood beam construction, ‘colombage’ is showing.

Le Mans is most famous for the 24 hour car race held here every year. Car racing doesn’t interest me in the least, but my friends actually got married the same day as the race in 2005, and we needed to book train tickets far in advance to be able to come.

What about the food? The city is famous for it’s Rillettes. Rillettes is a kind of pork spread that is made with seasoned pork cooked in a whole lot of lard (pork fat) and then chilled. They usually spread it on bread. At the wedding there were huge bowls of it, and everyone said it was fabulous. Here at home our local butcher won the national rillettes competition a few years ago, and we often buy it as an appetizer when we have guests over. The concept of it grosses me out completely — as you look at rillettes you see the white lard among strings of pork and it makes me squeamish to even see it, let alone smell or taste it. Yeah, that white stuff is lard.

Despite the creativity in using “all of the pig but the oink” which the French love to do, Le Mans is really a nice city.

I also found that there is a type of apple from Le Mans, called “Reinette du Mans”. I must admit that I’ve never seen these apples sold in the market near my house, and from what I read online (in French) they don’t seem worth going out of my way for them, but it’s nice to know there’s a local food I’d like much better than Rillettes!

Click here for a site offering a virtual tour.

A few weeks back I decided to start counting my exercise time towards a goal. Since I am currently walking for exercise I chose to measure in miles. Since I’m very interested in the Basque country, and we have a weekend planned there in February, I chose Bilbao Spain as my destination. So I’m walking to Bilbao.

Bilbao is 462 miles from Paris (my home). Some of you suggested I makes some stops along the way, which I found to be a big improvement to my original plan. 

With today’s 3 miles (completed early this morning) my total miles walked is now 68. And 68 miles from Paris is Orleans, France.

Orleans is less famous than the US city that tried to honor it (New Orleans). But it was quite a powerhouse in it’s day, being the second-most powerful city after Paris for 2 centuries (10th & 11th). Probably the best known thing about Orleans is that it was seized by the English when they had overtaken France, and was the site of the brave and legendary Joan of Arc leading the French to defeat the English in battle in 1429.

Geographically, Orleans is Southwest of Paris, in the middle part of the country, and is on the far Eastern edge of the Loire valley. I visited once for work, but don’t remember much, but I found a cool virtual tour of Orleans online.

In France just about everything runs around food, and each city and region has a specialty. (Just about every time my DH travels, and that’s every week, he brings home the local specialty from where he’s been).

In Orleans, where he goes often for work, it’s Cotignac d’Orleans, a candy that’s a clear gel made from apple and quince, put into a small round wooden box.

I’ve tried it, and quickly decided it wasn’t worth the calories for me. It’s like eating concentrated, thicker jelly. My stepson loves it, however. And it is very quaint with the round wooden box. We even have some in the pantry right now.

Author’s note : I actually found different measures of distance for Orleans from Paris, but I’m going to stick by the site where I found the distance to Bilbao. I’ve decided NOT to trace my route to Bilbao (because it will mainly be in just a few regions) and instead focus my periodic updates on where in France I could have walked to. I’m loving this project already!

I’ve been fascinated by the Basque people for quite some time. The Basques are an ethnically distinct group in Europe currently living in Southwest France and Northeast Spain and are coming close to the end of the line as they become more and more assimilated each year with the European culture around them (Spanish separatist movement & violence notwithstanding).

I’ve been in France for 4 years now & have never made it there to visit, even though I’ve read several books on the topic & am very interested.

Well, my husband proposed that we take a weekend there early next year - in February.

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to decide what to do for my exercise tracking. I’ve seen these neat programs where you do a virtual walk across the US or Canada but couldn’t find that for Europe, so I calculated the number of miles between Paris (where I live) and Bilbao (capital city in Spanish Basque country) and viola — 462 miles.

Yikes. I don’t think I can actually walk 462 miles between now and our trip, but at least it gives me something to measure against, and it seems more meaningful than counting the minutes. Last week I set up an exercise ticker w minutes, with the goal randomly selected at 500, but I’ve actually been making good progress towards that (as of yesterday I’m at 285 of 500 minutes, so clearly that is do-able). I think the miles to Bilbao will be a better goal, and even if I’m far off in February, I’ll get there eventually.

So, here’s the ticker :

…it’s also on my Progress page!

I had an exercise boost today. There have been major transportation strikes in Paris for the past few weeks, and today I had a meeting across town. I considered my options and decided to WALK instead of fighting the crowds of the metro or risking crazy stress levels from terrible traffic jams on the roads. So I put on my iPod and set out… and ended up walking home at the end of the day too. 6 miles round trip! Not bad at all, and the most environmentally-friendly and least-stressful choice I could have made! Plus I’m that much closer to Bilbao

Today I went on another walk, inspired by so many other people’s blogs and stories of how they feel better after forcing themselves to exercise. I tried a slightly different route, and ended up going for a whole hour!

I just played with Gmaps Pedometer which is really cool - I was able to put in a couple of walking routes around me and I now know a 3 mile loop and a 4 mile loop, both of which take me through local parks. It was easy to use (after I read the instructions!) and useful too. It will even calculate your calories burned.

I’m feeling much more into the swing of losing weight this week. It seems like less of a struggle, and I have been enjoying listening to podcasts on my walks. This weekend will likely be hard (houseguests, and a dinner party) but I think I’m settling into this without much strain right now.

As I was walking I was thinking about how I’ll exercise in the winter, whether I’ll need to re-join the gym, etc. It’s true that walking is much more pleasant than the gym. But when it’s cold, rainy or snowy? I still want to check out the public pools around me, that could be a good solution too.

All of this seems to be a decent distraction from feeling sorry for myself, and that is a good thing. I am still having pain & some trouble from my miscarriage, and I really need a distraction. It would be easy for that distraction to be food, so I think I’m doing pretty well, all things considered.

Ok, I know that’s not the world’s biggest deal, but I didn’t go yesterday and the weather for the rest of the week is supposed to be crummy, and I have lots of work to do, and I didn’t feel like it. But I went anyway. And it was nice, I went over to the park and did a lap there, then came back - 40 min in total.

It just started raining now that I’m back, so clearly I made a good decision.

I started an exercise ticker in the “progress” page, and was happy to have something to put on it.

I also set a weight goal. 175 lbs in about 6 months, that’s around a pound a week. No stress, though - if it takes longer, it takes longer. I’m not ready to really diet yet, and while I’m quite proud of getting some exercise in, the walking I’m doing right now isn’t really enough to lose weight. But it’s another step in the right direction…

…and I have just walked out the door.  Every day for 5 days now.  Even in rain twice.  It’s been really nice to have this return to exercise be so natural.  I spent YEARS pushing myself into a gym (and here in France the gym is really ugly, loud colors & not air-conditioned, and pretty smelly, crowded & cramped).  Once in the gym I would push myself hard on the various machines, with my fave being the elliptical.  I may still go back to the gym someday (especially in winter) but for now I am really liking the walking.

It feels like a reward at the end of the day, just me and my iPod walking in different directions around this great city, or sometimes heading to a big park to get some green.  I know walking doesnt burn as many calories as lots of other stuff you can do, but since it was forced on me due to the rules for recovering from surgery, I have really found it to be a great thing.  Years ago I walked & lost some weight, and then found the gym & did that instead.  Now I’m hoping I’ll keep walking as a part-time activity even after I go back to the low-impact things I can do at a gym.

Tomorrow I am hoping for a long walk, especially as Sunday is supposed to be rainy, so I’m sure it will be a short one.

Bored with your treadmill? These boys might inspire you to try something new! Just click on this text…

I probably won’t have this much fun on my walk today, but at least I get some fresh air!