Sunday Brunch: Barbette

A few (okay, several, like REALLY SEVERAL) weekends ago, Hannah and I met up for one of our usually-long-overdue catchup sessions over brunch, and it was one of those days where you could linger for hours enjoying the sunshine, and people-watching, and appreciating a friendship. I think late spring and early summer are the best seasons for brunching…especially on a patio this charming!

Location/Ambiance:

Barbette is a little French hole-in-the-wall that’s been around on Lake Street for close to a decade now…walking distance from Lake Calhoun and Uptown alike. While the exterior is nothing to write home about, housed in a nondescript whitewashed brick hulk of a building, the interior is all warm wood and interesting light fixtures and a big horseshoe-shaped bar. Their patio, tucked along the side of the building, features café lights strung overhead, bright painted tables, and ivy-covered walls…utterly precious.

Score: 7/10

Beverage:

Hannah stuck with the classic mimosa, and I tried the “Red Dwarf,” which turned out to be a mimosa with cranberry juice instead of OJ. It was yummy! Very little cranberry, so it was just a whisper of flavor, but the champagne was good, and it was tart enough that I didn’t chug it like I sometimes do with the more citrusy counterpart.

Score: 7/10

Food:

It’s funny how, less than a month after returning from Paris claiming I was totally oversaturated with French food in general, I made my way to one of the best-known French places in the Twin Cities. What can you do, I guess?

Hannah went with the quiche of the day, which featured asparagus, onion, goat cheese, and pepper. I picked the breakfast crepe…scrambled egg, Brie, and herbs in a buckwheat crepe, all rolled up with apple compote on top and a delicious bed of mixed greens. It was delicious…exactly the sort of un-fussy, plain old good flavor I loved about crepes in France. Bonus points for the delicious light vinaigrette dressing on the greens…perfectly astringent and fresh.

Score: 7/10

All in all, I highly recommend Barbette for your next girly catching-up…especially if you can grab a colorful table outside! To visit yourself, head to www.barbette.com, or if French breakfast offerings don’t tickle your fancy, pick another place! I’ve got over a hundred of them right here. Happy brunching!

A fountain show at Versailles!

Yesterday we left off after touring four separate parts of the gorgeous palace of Versailles: the main palace, Le Domaine de Marie Antoinette, the Petit Trianon, and the Grand Trianon. Our tour, however, was far from over. Versailles boasts over 800 hectares of gardens, including 200,000 trees, 210,000 flowers planted annually, a man-made lake and river, an orangery that's relocated outside every spring and inside every fall, and over 50 functional water fountains.

Our ticket for the day included admission to the famous "Grandes Eaux," the staging of the fountain show that runs every spring and summer. 

The gardens are incredibly formal and laid out in a way that forms "outdoor rooms" known as "bosquets," intended to allow the sensation of existing in a sort of escapist maze. Anne-Sophie, our wonderful guide for the day, made sure we saw each of the stunning, unique bosquets and their fountains over the several hours we spent in the gardens! First, however, we took a quick break at the Grand Canal to admire the sweeping views. 

Emily caught this photo of the rowers on the canal...

...and I caught this photo of her in the act. Love. 

Anne-Sophie was also kind enough to take our first official Schwegwomen photo of the trip!!

I also loved getting to see how massive the palace was from down below in the gardens: 

Unbelievable, right? No wonder the concept of the Bourbons' absolute power lasted unchallenged through so much, for so long. 

Designed meticulously by André Le Nôtre, the famed landscape designer, every view in the gardens of Versailles was scrupulously engineered and designed very specifically to create vignettes and visuals intended to delight the eye. Anne-Sophie was incredible at pointing out the intention behind every framing, whether it was with plants, arbors, sculptures, or water. See?

And the fountains! Due to poor water supply, the fountains at Versailles can't run year-round. According to Wikipedia, "In 1672, Jean-Baptiste Colbert devised a system by which the fountaineers in the garden would signal each other with whistles upon the approach of the king indicating that their fountain needed to be turned on. Once the king passed a fountain in play, it would be turned off and the fountaineer would signal that the next fountain could be turned on." How ingenious! I would like a personal fountain-whistler someday, please...

Every fountain is different, and I'd be hard-pressed to pick a favorite. The Fountain of Enceladus shows a giant being dramatically buried beneath boulders...

...while the Salle de Bal is designed to resemble a rushing mountainside stream. In the Bourbons' time, elaborate concerts would be staged in this bosquet, with musicians perched among and playing over the sound of the rushing water. Can't imagine that would have been good for the instruments!

I was also partial to the Colonnade Grove, 32 perfect arches with individual fountains surrounded by perfect topiaries and statues. 

I do think my favorite, however, was the Mirror Fountain. While all the fountains had beautiful symphonic music piped in the background, the Mirror Fountain was actually synced up to perform a Bellagio-esque show along with the music. 

Perfect setting for a Schweg sister pic! Meems is pretty gorgeous, huh?

I tried to take a little video, but ended up wanting to just watch them instead. We lingered there for close to 15 minutes...an eternity when you consider the other 49 fountains we could be admiring!

I also loved the Grotto of Apollo, the Bacchus fountain featuring drunk baby cupids, and the garden's famous centerpiece of Apollo, the Sun God (how fitting) emerging from the water driving his chariot. It was near impossible to get a good picture of that guy, however, with the prevalence of selfie sticks...UGH! Bane of my existence right there. 

Having enjoyed the entirety of the fountain show, we wandered slowly back to the palace's exit, admiring sculptures: 

Enjoying the views: 

And stopping to check out the famous Orangerie, one of the classic examples of a truly manicured, regimented formal French garden. Can you even get over the amount of attention these sculptural hedges have to require? It was absolutely staggering to see the size of this garden alone...the photo truly doesn't do it justice. 

Time to bid Anne-Sophie goodbye and head back to Paris! Until next time, Versailles...merci millefois for un journée incroyable. Thanks a million for an incredible day!

Versailles, you guys.

Versailles, for me, is akin to the Magic Kingdom. There's a princess, a bit of a fairy tale, and a hell of a lot of gold and chandeliers. My inner history nerd has always found the Bourbons completely fascinating, and getting to make a return trip to their fabled playground and eventual gilded prison was, for me, one of the highlights of our trip! 

We scheduled Versailles for the Sunday after our Friday arrival, which worked out perfectly to escape the worst of the jet lag. An easy 45 minute train ride from central Paris, we got to sleep in a bit too before our 10am tour! I would ALSO like to point out that that Sunday was the day that Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge graced the front cover of every newspaper ever, including this one, in French, bien sûr: 

Damn right, I took a picture. And with that, let's leave the English royals behind and return to the French ones! 

The sheer size and breadth of Versailles is opulent and intimidating on a level completely foreign to Americans. When one considers it was palace, political statement, and center of power all at the same time, it's easy to understand how significant it was in French history. Built from a humble hunting lodge by Louis XIV, the "Sun King," it embodies everything he wanted the Bourbon dynasty to stand for: wealth, power, beauty, security, and luxury. Even the gates were gilded. 

As a huge tourist attraction, the main palace itself was packed for the morning portion of our tour. I have to confess, the pushy tourists did detract a bit from the experience for me, but getting to soak up these gorgeous sights did plenty to distract, including the Chapelle Royale...

...the elaborate ceilings and crystal chandeliers in every room...

...views of the palace that seemed to go on forever...

...and my personal favorite, Marie Antoinette's floral explosion of a royal bedchamber. 

Emily got into quite the staring contest with Louis XV while relaxing in there, by the way. (I think he won.)

It wouldn't be a Versailles trip without a leisurely wander through the famous Hall of Mirrors. Emily's stunning camera work really highlights the visual impact of the chandeliers lining the hall...imagine them all lit up and reflected in windows and mirrors on both sides! How intimidating. 

My fail of a photo, on the other hand, does at least give an idea of the kind of crowds we were dealing with. Insane, right? 

I did find a clear bit of mirror to take the ultimate selfie in though. Millennial vanity for the win!

After a quick lunch break down in the village of Versailles, we rendezvoused with our small tour group (and our OUTSTANDING guide, Anne-Sophie!!) for visits to the three smaller properties on the grounds of Versailles...Le Hameau de la Reine, the Petit Trianon, and the Grand Trianon! I was extra-excited for these tours, as we had skipped them back on my 2010 visit...just look at the moderate crazy radiating from my eyes, below. Steer clear of the nerd, or she'll start spouting obscure facts about 18th-century monarchs at you!! Even more exciting, though, was seeing the sun break through the clouds right in time to explore the expansive gardens and acres of wild space on the palace grounds. 

Le Hameau de la Reine, or "Marie Antoinette's Hamlet," is a small, fake farm that Louis XVI had constructed for Marie as an escape from the constriction of formal palace life. She used to go hang out there with all her wealthy princess and duchess friends, pretending to be a peasant while drinking fresh milk out of priceless china in buildings that were painted to look artificially aged. I love the detachment and excess of it all. The village itself looked postcard-pretty after the rain. 

There was even a cow! And chickens, and goats, and geese, and fish...this place was a serious working farm. It even has its own tiny winery, owned by the Coppolas. Because, of course. 

Like the doomed queen herself, however, we soon tired of pastoral play and headed for the Petit Trianon, the smaller of the two outlying palaces at Versailles. Louis XVI also gifted this to Marie Antoinette after the birth of their first daughter. Smaller and much simpler than the main palace, it offered her a private retreat where she could entertain only her closest friends, and where courtiers, including her husband, could only enter by her express invitation. 

The iconic portrait by Elisabeth Marie Vigée-LeBrun hangs there...I died and went to heaven, figuratively, upon viewing it in person!

I also fell in love with her gorgeous music salon. 

The Grand Trianon, on the other hand, is a long, snaking Italianate confection of pink marble that was used for more formal court escapes from the main palace. Just take a look at this! I even dressed to match it, haha. 

As much as I loved Marie Antoinette's music room at the Petit Trianon, I guess I could settle for this heavenly yellow salon...it IS my favorite color, after all. 

After Anne-Sophie posed the question, we all agreed that we preferred the Petit Trianon to the Grand Trianon, though. With that, we departed the outlying buildings to head back to the gardens for what was, in my opinion, the highlight of the day...the fountain show! This post is getting to be a beast, though, so we'll save that for later. As the French say, à demain, mes amis...see you tomorrow, friends! 

Oh hey, Monet!

Paris! I went there, over two months ago! And I know I've promised approximately four times now that it was recap time, but now it REALLY IS recap time. Mostly because I have the free time to appropriately express everything I want to say and share. 

Things will be a bit out of order, just because there's no easy way to lump things we did into nice day-by-day categories. We took several day trips, and those will come first because they're easiest to get down on paper! Without further ado...

One of the biggest must-do’s on our list for Paris was to take a day trip out to Giverny, home of Monet’s famously beautiful gardens and the site where he painted the bulk of his most iconic works. We booked the “Giverny and Monet” half-day tour for the Wednesday midpoint of our trip, which conveniently departed from an office two blocks from our apartment. Score!

The tour was nowhere near as small and private as our Montmartre or Versailles groups, but for this trip, it worked well. We boarded a coach bus with about 25 other people for the hour-and-a-half trip northwest. The countryside of France was beautiful, if intermittently rainy…the theme of our trip was "marginal weather across the board." On the drive out, our guides filled us in on the course of Monet’s fascinating life and how he ended up in Giverny. Upon arrival, we were unleashed (with hundreds of others) into his stunning gardens!

Monet’s home is the site of two gardens, both of which were laid out, planted, and tended by the artist himself. One is a more classic French rectangular garden, the other a stunning Japanese-style garden centering around a small pond where his famous water lilies still grow today.

Since words couldn’t possibly describe…photos!

The pathways through the Japanese gardens were winding and twisty, and every time we turned it felt like there was something new and gorgeous to marvel over. The on-and-off drizzle made everything extra-fragrant and offered up some pretty fantastic lighting for Emily to play with settings on her fancy-schmancy camera. 

The famous wisteria-covered bridge, featured prominently in this painting…

Of course, some water lilies! We were too early in the season for blooms, but the effect was still unbelievable.

His traditional garden, which stretches the entire length of the front of his home, was mindblowing. The arches are covered with climbing vines and every flowerbed was already lush with tulips and irises and hundreds of other flowers I couldn’t describe.

The tour also included a peek into his home…which I fell in love with the instant I saw the pastel pink façade and bright green shutters.

Monet and his family lived in the home until his death in 1926, and in 1966 when it was donated to the Académie des Beaux-Arts it was fully restored to consistency with Monet’s time there. The home was flooded with light from every side…perfect for an Impressionist…and his valuable and extensive collection of Chinoiserie sculpture and Japanese engravings are scattered and hung all over the home.

Emily fell in love with his studio, with good reason: how amazing to see (replicas of) his paintings as they would have been displayed in his time!

I couldn’t get enough of his cheerful yellow dining room…

…or the copper pots and hand-painted blue tiles that covered his kitchen.

So charming! I’ll be running away to be an Impressionist gardener and painter any day now, thanks.

To keep our Monet day alive and thriving, we had our lunch at La Palette…which felt like the kind of place Monet could have hung out back in his day!

After we finished up and stopped at our apartment to drop off souvenirs, we couldn’t resist a trip to l’Orangerie, the petite museum in the Jardins de Tuileries that is best known as the home of Monet’s Water Lilies paintings. The museum is at the opposite end of the Tuileries from the Louvre…and as the skies had cleared and the day was gorgeous, we enjoyed the walk from our apartment. Though we didn’t have advance tickets, the wait for entry was blissfully short…and well worth it when we arrived to see these beauties:

Can you even believe how stunning they are? The scale and scope and sheer massiveness of each of the eight paintings totally took my breath away, especially with the memory of the living garden so fresh from that morning.

Each painting has its own wall of two separate oval salons, flooded with soft white light and quiet as a church. The museum was so uncrowded, we could get right up and really examine each painting. I fell in love instantly.

Look at how fantastically detailed they are! Being able to scrutinize them from a breath away was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

As much as I loved him before, Monet’s rocketed to the top of my “favorite artists” list. Next time we’re in Paris, I’ll be checking out the Musée Marmottan-Monet for sure…since we returned, I’ve heard from numerous people that it’s a must-see for Monet lovers. I can’t recommend Giverny more highly to those lucky enough to visit Paris in the spring, summer, or fall...I absolutely loved our little peek into his fairy-tale gardens and home!

And then I threw an impromptu engagement party.

Fresh off my spectacular weekend in Chicago celebrating Melissa's wedding, I got to step back a few events in the whole wedding-planning/celebrating cycle and throw an engagement party for my book club friend Anna and her fiancé, Kevin! 

Not going to lie, I've felt a bit...saturated...lately by my overwhelming social schedule. Throw in a weekend road trip and less than 48 hours to pull this all together, and I was doubtful whether I'd pull it off or not. Fortunately, everything came together just beautifully! Without further ado...

I made sangria, which isn't pictured, in addition to these lemon bars (please PLEASE note the totally Pinterest-worthy engagement rings): 

And caprese skewers, which are a Schwegfam favorite.

I also picked up a cake (Lund's fudge buttercream frosting is officially too decadent to resist)...

...and plenty of engagement-themed serveware! 

Given the beautiful weather we've been having, it seemed asinine to not make use of my building's rooftop space. We quickly migrated out there, caprese skewers and lemon bars in tow, to catch up on all the details of Anna's proposal, planning and (short!) engagement...with a wedding date this October, they're definitely taking the fast lane!

We enthroned the bride-to-be, crown and all, in a something-blue-appropriate rocking chair...how cute is she?!

As sunset crept closer and Kevin arrived, it seemed opportune to do what basic white girls do best and have a total rooftop photoshoot. See below: 

I claim the above as my genius work. I'm basically a wizard with an Instagram filter. We also made use of one of my favorite additions to the party...I'm a sucker for balloons and couldn't resist these darling "Bride" and "Groom" bunches at Party City! I think they made for pretty adorable props, if you ask me...

It was so much fun to get the book club girls together, especially as our book club has unanimously met with a not-so-tragic demise at the hands of our very busy schedules and inability to discuss a book for more than five minutes without getting distracted by wine and/or our love lives. Oops? 

Of course, that cake wasn't going to eat itself....

Congrats Anna! You're pretty cute, and we're pretty excited for you. 

Looking forward to celebrating constantly until October rolls around! 

Oh, and if my Martha Stewart-conquering credibility was still in question? We ate everything...including that last lemon bar. BAM.