Car Cooking: Galettes in France

I'm in France and I attempted a French dish and I failed.

Enjoy!

Belgium, Fontainebleau, Beer, Bread and Cheese

Tim Donahue and Tim Murphy (The Tims) flew into Paris for an 8 day visit. Our game-plan was to drink plenty of Belgian beers and climb plenty of rocks. I think we succeeded.

Given the heatwave that coincided perfectly with the Tims' arrival, we decided to start the trip with the beer part. So we made our way to Brussels, stopping in the French city of Soissons along the way.

By the time we arrived, all of the restaurants and cafes closed down for the afternoon. But at least they had a very very large and fancy church.

For Brussels we had a tick list of breweries and bars that we wanted to visit. Our first stop was the Black Door. It's a really cool little bar in a basement that immediately gave you the sense of 100s of years of serving and drinking beer here. 

Then we drove an hour outside of Brussels to camp and climb at a spot called Freyr. It's a beautiful series of limestone cliffs alongside the Meuse River. Unfortunately the temps were still in the high 80s/low 90s and most of the rock faces south, but we made the best of it and climbed some really fun routes with beautiful views.

Then we checked off one of our highest priority goals: visiting the Cantillon Brewery in Brussels. They've been brewing traditional lambic beers since 1900. There are only a handful of traditional lambic breweries left in the world. Some of Cantillon's beers can be found in the states if you look hard enough, but when found, expect to be paying $30-$50 per bottle. So we wanted to go to the source and experience their beer in the place it's been produced.

They offered a self-guided tour of the brewery which was really really cool (and surprisingly trusting of tourists...).

With the tour we got 2 free samples. Then we purchased a couple bottles on-site and then about 20 bottles to go (maybe we got carried away, but the prices and the beer were too good).

We booked an airbnb nearby so we could shower and truly experience the beer of Belgium. That night we walked around, exploring various bars and taking in the Brussels nightlife. 

It's also worth noting that we ate lots and lots of Belgian fries and obviously tried the waffles. They ain't no Eggos dude!

Then we made our way back to France for the second half of the trip. Tim Donahue and I had yet to see Paris so we conceded to being Paris tourists for an afternoon. We attempted to rent bikes from one of those self-service stations. It took our card but wouldn't give us bikes so we gave up and walked. 

The Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower were cool I guess. Too many people.

We camped in the Forest of Fontainebleau where we planned on climbing. With rain scheduled for the entire next day, we booked another airbnb nearby. It was out in the countryside on a large farm. The setting was beautiful and the house was very relaxing. Of course we drank a few of those Cantillon bottles.

Due to the rain, the temperatures were much more agreeable: mid 70s. So the next 2 days we bouldered in Fontainebleau. The area contains over 20,000 established problems on beautiful sandstone boulders. We climbed as much as we could physically manage and were very beat up by the end of day 2.

On the last day for the Tims we killed time by exploring the Castle of Fontainebleau. The castle was expanded many times over by different kings and currently contains over 1900 rooms. We didn't pay to go inside but explored the gardens surrounding the building. 

Then I drove the Tims back to the airport in Paris and made my way back to Camille's house in the countryside. The trip was a great success and we climbed/saw/drank everything we had wanted to experience.

I now have 9 more days in France with Camille before I head back home and think about what I want to be when I grow up.