Crème de la crème

EDITED [to add]: Despite all the raving below, I miss B more than I even enjoy being here. He is muh Boo.

I wish I had the time and talent enough to describe everything I have experienced since leaving Paris… as Mia says… AHHH-MAY-ZIIINNGG!

We got into Le Creusot around 9am on Monday morning and went directly to the technical center to begin testing. We had pre-tests scheduled for that entire day in order to determine various parameters for the formal and documented testing the rest of the week… very impressive facility and employees. We went to the Cafeteria (similar to K&W but with French cuisine) for lunch and experienced many faux pas during the meal. The day concluded at 5pm, and Jean Philippe gave us a quick tour of the town before dropping us at La Petite Verrerie.

Meghan and I walked up to a nearby restaurant (below).

We were unaware that they do not serve dinner until 7pm so we enjoyed an appertif (basically a two shots of cognac that you sip on) as we waited.



It is less expensive to order a “menu” (basically a combo) rather than an individual entrée. So I began with a French style chef salad with this spicy mustard tasting vinegarette, followed by a local fish plate, and concluding with crème brulee... over a bottle of wine from the burgundy area… AHHH-MAY-ZIIINNGG!

Tuesday was extremely stressful at work. I made numerous mistakes and felt like an ass. Not to mention we had a four course meal (with wine) for lunch, so I was tired and tipsy… which means the French got a little taste of Bitch Nasty Hannah. Ehhhh, needless to say I spent the rest of the day kissing ass after showing mine when I became overwhelmed.

Recap of lunch:
Salmon spread on toast
Salmon salad
Spanish fish dish
Assorted cheeses (holy cow… amazing)
Assorted fruits
Lots of wine

We were so filled from lunch that we didn’t even eat dinner that evening. We did get to drive to the top of a hill in order to see out over the city and Jean Philippe took us to his sister's bakery where I bought fabulous handmade chocolates (most made with liquor as well).








Wednesday testing went smoothly and I felt much better… despite all my screw ups the previous day. Lunch was had at a local Chinese restaurant where I put a bunch of vegatables, beef, chicken, and shrimp on a plate to be cooked in the Wok in front of me. As I began to eat the beef, my collegue, Eric, said, “You like the Kangaroo – you know the one that hop?” I thought it was all coming back up. We concluded for the day at 4pm so we could travel to Chalon St. Marcel (~30km east) to visit the INCREDIBLE AREVA plant located there. Our steam generators from the Salem outage were procured from AREVA Chalon. The town of Chalon was absolutely beautiful, and once again I had the best dinner of my life.








Foie Gras (some sort of liver), but tasty as long as I didn’t smell it as it went in my mouth

Saint Jacques (local fish)


Coconut milkshake, tiramisu, ice cream, and pie (best dessert I have ever eaten in my life)


All washed down with two bottles of local wine and an after dinner drink that tasted like drinking straight Jack.

Below is a picture of our friends and colleagues here... from the left, Jean Philippe, Tomas, Welty, and Eric. Notice Eric's man purse... they all have them, and they are adorable. I absolutely have loved my time with these guys. They are fabulous hosts.



Below are some of the other dishes served...

C'est la Vie

I made it to Paris… minus a train ticket, a scarf, my dinner, and two and a half precious hours. I suppose US Airways values all of the money AREVA puts into their company, so they gave me a personal phone call Saturday afternoon to let me know my flight was delayed two hours. Ehh, I have never had any luck when I am flying, so it was to be expected. I met Meghan in the Philadelphia airport (my arch nemesis... Philly, not Meghan :), had a couple beers, and was off to France. I had my window seat that I always request and my flying mate was a French girl who looked to be about 8, but spoke as though she was 15. The first thing she told her father across the aisle was, “She is not French.” I said, “No dear, not even close.” I tried offering her gum and striking a conversation, but all I got was a finger waved in my face… “no, no, no”. After an hour she was asleep, lying on my shoulder, and for some reason it really touched me.

About two hours into the flight, at approximately 1 am EST I thought I was going to lose my cookies. I started sweating and my saliva became extremely thick. I had to wake the poor child up in order to make it to the lavatory, only to have my legs feel like jello and fall to the ground. I sat in the lavatory for about 30 minutes before someone asked me to come out. It happened once more on the flight before I fell asleep until about 6 am EST. I have no idea what came over me… motion sickness? Something I ate? Ehhh….

While in the Charles de Gaulle airport I realized my train ticket for the next morning to Lyon and Le Creusot was on my refrigerator in Lynchburg, VA. I am a pure bred genius. I called the travel agency and they said there was nothing they could do until my local office opened at 8am EST on Monday… 2pm in France and six hours after my train was scheduled to leave. Ugh.

I didn’t let it stop me from hopping into a taxi and taking Paris by storm in the eight hours I had. Let’s see, it went a little something like this…

Arrive
Taxi
Espresso
Hotel Check in
Espresso
Notre Dame
Crepe
Espresso
Louvre
Espresso
Metro
Eiffel
Metro
Sacre-Coeur
Metro
Espresso
Escargot
Wine
Metro
Hotel
Internet
Sleep for 4.5 hours
Espresso
Breakfast (fabulous for continental)
Gare de Lyon
Scarf stolen
Can’t communicate with the billets office to explain I left my ticket… have to buy a new one.
Spend thirty minutes trying to determine which train is mine out of the thirty in front of me.
Get on FIRST CLASS. So nice.

Before I left we had a family weekend with Mags and Josh at the Bobcats game and setting off our rocket we got Josh...

Groove Weld

The weekend came and went faster than seems reasonable, but B and I thoroughly enjoyed our Valentine's Day.

Being the Diva I can be at various moments, I love to be picked up from work. I cannot explain it, I just do. So Billy took me to work and picked me up from work on Friday, and when he picked me up he had a fabulous collage of quotes on a homemade card for me in the glove compartment [he knew I would dive in there once I got in the car to grab my sunglasses]. He also included a smaller version for me to keep in my wallet, as I love to keep little tokens of joy in there. Later he took me to Vinny’s for dinner and we watched 13 Conversations About One Thing together (no good, btw).

Saturday we spent the day running errands, filing taxes, and he had an interview late that afternoon, so I set up a mini scavenger hunt for him. Saturday was a designated "H&B party night", so naturally he couldn't be wasteful and had to finish his beer first.

I took him on an adventure to the XXX store (toys), the gas station (white chocolate), the ABC store (passion fruit vodka, Jose, and Jim) and back home for a cookout with me. After each clue and at each stop, he went in and asked the person working, “Do you have anything for Billy Arrington?” Then the person would reach behind the counter and hand him a little bag of goodies.











It got a little cold outside once the sun went down, so we went inside for our own dance party!

We also went out for the third time in Lynchburg, and actually had a pretty good time. We chatted up a few ladies in the bar, laughed a lot, and went home. Ohh we also decided to turn each other's name into an acronym while we were enjoying the ABC store goodies.

Sunday was pretty lazy. We watched Vicki Christina Barcelona… highly recommend it!

We also received our wedding invitation from Joe and Andrea, and we CANNOT WAIT for the wedding. The night before the wedding we are all going to see Dave Matthews Band at the Verizon Amphitheater. Their beautiful invitation is below...