2016 Year in Review, Part 1

At the end of last year, I consolidated my blogging about food, travel, and life in general into this blog only. As a result, all travel posts have been here -- and we traveled a lot. Many of our trips had birds and wildlife as a focus, sometimes combining birdwatching with visits to friends or family.

I read a number of books this year, but I think fewer than most years. I didn't blog about all the books that I read. My favorite books this year were the four Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante, blogged here.

We did many things, ate some memorable meals, and visited quite a few new and familiar places in 2016. Below I've picked some highlights from January through July. For a complete description of the trips, check out each month of blog posts as listed in the sidebar to the right of this post. In my review part 2, I'll continue with a summary of July-December.

January: At Home

Maybe the most colorful dish I've cooked this year: from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem: Roasted sweet potatoes with green onions, peppers, figs, and balsamic reduction. On our later trip to London, we ate at Ottolenghi's restaurant.

February: Panama

Our travels in 2016 began in February with a week watching birds and other wildlife in Panama.

A sloth in a tree in Panama.

February: Florida

After returning to Miami, we rented a car and drove around in Florida for around 10 days, visiting relatives and watching still more birds.

Clown shoes at the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum, Sarasota, Florida.

March: Cape May, New Jersey

We spent one day in Lancaster, PA, with my brother and sister-in-law, then met Evelyn and her family in Cape May, N.J. for a weekend.

Miriam and Alice at Lobster House in Cape May.

March: Fairfax, VA and Washington, D.C.

After Cape May, we drove to Fairfax and spent a week visiting the family.

We viewed the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. during our visit to Fairfax.

April: "Birds and Art in Provence"

At the end of April and the beginning of May, we spent two weeks in France. First a tour titled "Birds and Art in Provence."

In the Camargue region near Arles: a flamingo and some of the famous white horses.

We not only went on a number of spectacular birdwatching and art-oriented tours
near Arles, we also enjoyed the open-air market in the town.
Above is a photo of a market stall selling bread and 15 kinds of macarons.

May: Paris

From Arles, we took the fast train to Paris and spent several days visiting friends and seeing a few of our favorite museums -- and one new museum.

The Musée du Quai Branly has been open for 10 years, but this was our first time at this unusual building, designed by Jean Nouvel. We enjoyed the collections of ethnographic materials.

May: Dinosaur National Monument and Provo, Utah.

Soon after we returned from Paris, we went to Provo, Utah, for a birthday conference for our friend Charlie. Before the conference we visited Vernal, Utah, to see Dinosaur National Monument and some very interesting prehistoric rock art.

A dinosaur bone with me for size.

Statue of Brigham Young at the Provo library where the conference was held.

May and June: Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel.

Just a day after coming back from Utah, we flew to Tel Aviv, Israel, for a memorial conference for a friend. After the conference, we visited Len's cousin for a few days, and did some sightseeing in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Caesarea.

The city of Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv. We walked along the sea front from
our hotel to the tower in the distance in this photo. Jaffa is the
oldest still-active port in the world.

Falafel at a restaurant in Abu Gosh near Jerusalem.

The second half of my Year in Review will be posted tomorrow!

Playing: A Game of Pétanque

Here we are: back home in Ann Arbor, and I'm reading other people's blogs. At the blog titled "Where's my backpack," Ailsa Prideaux-Mooney has challenged her readers to create posts on the theme "PLAYING." To me, this is a great idea, as in fact, I rarely get photos of activities that would be considered "play." 

Birdwatching? I do it all the time for fun, but it's not really play. Eating and cooking? Some of the motives are similar -- but it's not really play. In my two recent trips, very few of my photos concern any conventional images of "play." I didn't, for example, take photos of musicians playing, the subject of several of the other blogs on the subject. Though I attended an opera performance, the musicians playing in fact seemed very very serious.

As I thought about play, I remembered watching a game of Pétanque in the small town of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in France last April --

... and also remembered a few similar photos from the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris a week later:

From the "Discover France" website, an explanation of this game and its popularity in France:

"The game of boules, otherwise known as pétanque, is perhaps the sport that is closest to French hearts. Similar to British lawn bowling or Italian bocce, the French version is traditionally played with metallic balls on a dirt surface beneath plane trees, with a glass of pastis at hand. The local boulodrome is a social focal point in southern France. 

"The object of the game is to throw your balls — usually with somewhat of an arched back-spin — so that they land closer to the small object ball (cochonnet) than those of your opponent, or strike and drive the object ball toward your other balls and away from your opponent's."

I've seen the game played elsewhere, including in the park a few blocks from my home, but these photos seem the most playful for the blogger theme.

Enlightenment

An Irish blogger named Ailsa Prideaux-Mooney wrote recently about her chagrin at the American election. She wrote: "To counteract this bleakness, I have resolved to actively seek out all that is enlightened, noble and beautiful about being human – and that’s what this week’s travel theme is about. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating the joy of the human condition."

I accept her challenge: to post photos from recent travels that make one think of enlightenment, and help to look forward from the current election season to what one hopes will be an enlightened woman in the Presidency. I am linking to her post, Travel Theme: Enlightened. 

My selection of photos I've taken in the past 6 months that have that meaning for me:

Paris, Museè D'Orsay, Statue of Liberty (one of various copies by the original French sculptor
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi).

Gutenberg's Printing Press. Printing Museum, Provo, Utah.

Woman doing Yoga by the Pacific Ocean. Kauai, Hawaii.

Hawaiian Rainbow.

Native Hawaiian Owl. While it denotes wisdom in our culture,
in Hawaiian culture the owl is a protector.

Chinese Scholar's Study, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Paris Yesterday

From the newspaper Libération.

From the New York Times. Teargas at Les Invalides.

Putting political problems out of one's head in Paris is actually a greater temptation than eating too much pastry! My impressions of Paris from last week were of lovely weather, people quietly strolling in the streets and enjoying themselves, parks available for calm relaxation, shop windows full of beautiful clothing and food, and overall tranquility. Of course these impressions are misleading, and it's much too comfortable to pretend that everyone is happy.

A day of demonstrations in the streets took place yesterday. In a story titled "France’s Socialist Government Survives a Vote, but Remains Fractured" NYT reporter Adam Nossiter wrote about François Hollande, President of France:

"Anti-government demonstrators, tear gas and police sirens filled streets again in Paris and other French cities on Thursday, with protesters voicing their opposition to the centerpiece of Mr. Hollande’s domestic agenda, legislation intended to make it easier for employers to hire — and fire — workers. ...

"Mr. Hollande’s smile, like that of the Cheshire cat, may soon be all that is left of him. His government survived a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly Thursday evening, two days after it resorted to a little-used power to force through the sharply contested labor law over opposition from some Socialists and others on the left. But with Mr. Hollande’s support in the presidential race at 13 percent and unemployment still above 10 percent, his chances of re-election, or even of making it to the final round of voting, seem to most analysts to be vanishingly slim."

I didn't describe our interactions much, but we had meals with Parisian friends four times during our trip. We discussed the current French political situation in various conversations with these friends. Dissatisfaction with the current situation and particularly with Hollande is widespread, going into elections next year. The rise of the extreme right and their potential to gain many votes is quite disturbing. If only one could remain a carefree tourist all the time!

Delicious Paris

Molten chocolate cake is on the menu at many restaurants this year, both in Paris and in Provence.
I ate at least a couple of them, and saw other people eating them: they can vary but all are delicious.

Though I didn't photograph every meal we ate, I still had a lot of pictures I haven't posted yet. We ate so many fabulous things in Paris last week! So this is a catch-up post that just randomly illustrates a few more great meals and great food-watching activities.

Duck with pureed vegetables in a restaurant near Place Monge.

A croque-monsieur at the restaurant of the Centre Pompidou.

At an open-air market near Montparnasse.

Goat cheese garnished with herbs, peppercorns, cranberries, or raisins.

Salads at a random restaurant on the Right Bank.

At our last dinner at the Bistro du Dome near our Hotel.

These grilled sardines were amazingly good.

Skate wing with caper sauce.

And every good meal ends with coffee.

I wish I were in Paris again, and I've only been home for two days.

Cafés!

Back to my own kitchen

After a long day of travel by taxi and by plane, I'm back in my own house. Our suitcases are empty, though all is not quite organized. I didn't bring home very many souvenirs -- but a few of them are in my kitchen.

Magnets from the Cluny Museum, the Orsay Museum,
and the area around Arles are on my refrigerator.

... I'm glad to see my kitchen!

On my counter, a bag of sea salt mixed with herbes de provence...

... I bought this salt at the market in Arles a week ago.

Though glad to be back, being in my own kitchen with American ingredients does make me think of all the French food I saw or tasted.

Update May 11: We've used the herb-salt on three dishes: inside a roast chicken with a cut up lemon; sprinkled on vegetables before roasting; and as a garnish on an omelet. Very satisfactory!

Here are a few more photos:

Cheese at the market near our Paris hotel yesterday.
Really, there's no cheese here that has the savory complexity of French cheese.
By the time it arrives here, it's just been kept too cold for too long, I suspect.

A baker at the market.

Our breakfast near the market.

And one more pastry shop window -- too bad we didn't try these,
though we did have some pastry later in the day...

... from this patisserie case we selected two delicious pastries.

Well, it's good to be home, but I wish we had some markets, pastry shops, restaurants, and cafes like those in Paris.