Happy in Angers

You might remember the town Angers, if you've been reading my blog for about 2 years. :-) I studied abroad there in 2005, and Zach and I visited on our last Europe trip in 2008--blog post here.

We left Paris on the third day of our honeymoon after checking out the Garnier Opera House and took a train to Angers, which is about two hours southwest of Paris, near Nantes in the Loire Valley. We arrived in the evening and checked into the Hotel du Mail. The hotel had a modern lobby and hallway, but it was a charming historical place.




Our friends we were going to visit were tied up for the evening, but it was our first evening to be just the two of us, so we decided to explore and find a place to eat. We walked for a bit and ate at a place called Les Varieties. It was kind of a French diner with a "variety" of food. :-) We had fish soup, omelettes and salad with the first beer I ever liked, Kronenburg's 1664. I didn't take my camera, or I would have posted the photos. :-(

After dinner we walked around a little bit before it started raining, so we called it a night.

The next morning, we packed our bags and left them with the front desk and decided to see some of Angers' sights before we had to be back at the train station in the afternoon. Here is the front of the hotel :-)





This is the oldest building in Angers, called Maison d'Adam. It was built in the 1500s.


Next we visited Angers cathedral, one of my favorite cathedrals I have seen in France. Check out the fountain--frozen in this photo!










After we finished looking around the cathedral, my former host dad, Max, called us to invite us to lunch at his home. We'd just bought baguettes(tres french and less than a Euro. :-)) so we brought them along when he picked us up!



Max and Patricia Charbonel were my host parents, and they are some of the most hospitable people I've ever met. Language is never a barrier, thanks to Max's trusty english/french dictionary. :-) I was definitely rusty, but it's easy to converse with them all the same.







We enjoyed a lovely lunch with them, including this homemade(Max is a retired chef) apple pastry with cream.



Our friend Marie, the sister of Claire in Paris, came over to see us for a bit as well. It was great to see her!



On the way back to the train station, we saw the Fiat 500--the car I really really have a crush on. It's smaller than the mini-- and it's coming to the US in 2011!


So ended our too-short time in Angers. :-( We boarded the train, met back up with Stacy and Jason and started the most interesting adventure yet... in the next europe post. :-)

The honeymoon: The Phantom's Paris

Masquerade! Paper faces on parade!

This post wraps up our last day in Paris. It's a bit short, but I'm hoping to get to the rest of the honeymoon before our 1-year anniversary!

January 13, our third day in the City of Lights, we had breakfast with Stacy and Jason, packed our bags and stored them, and left Hotel Londres Eiffel to spend the day in the city.


Zach and I took the Metro to my favorite spot in all of Paris-- the Garnier Opera House. I'm a huge, huge Phantom of the Opera fan-- I've read the book, seen the movie and play countless times and memorized the soundtrack. Fellow POTO fans might know that the story is based in this very opera house. There is a lake underneath, and the inside? Well, you will have to see.

Does this look familiar? The opera house was opened in 1875.



Remember the Phantom, singing from the roof top?





I am in love with the architecture of this building. Check out the reliefs on the ceiling. This is 3D!



The statues are so beautiful!



My favorite song from POTO is Masquerade, when the cast dances up and down these stairs. :-)



The opera house has a rainbow of colored marble throughout. It's incredible.





A peek into the boxes!



A grand hallway



Second floor balcony



Lovely foyer

After spending a few hours in the Paris Opera House, we returned for our luggage and boarded a train to Angers, a smaller town west of Paris. What did you think of the Opera House?

Oven roasted green beans

Oven roasted green beans are my favorite green vegetable right now. They are easy to cook, and because you use fresh green beans, they are fresh and crisp. I love chopping the ends off of the green beans. It makes me feel domestic. :-) I got the recipe initially from Cooking Light's Chicken for Dinner magazine.

I make them about once a week, and tried them out on my family for Christmas. They approved. :-) Hope y'all will, too!




Oven Roasted Green Beans

Serves 6 (The magazine says 12, but... we like our green beans. :-))

• 2 pounds green beans, trimmed
• 4 teaspoons extravirgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Place a baking sheet with a lip or large glass casserole dish in the oven for 10 minutes.

3. Place the green beans in a large bowl.

4. Drizzle the green beans with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss well to coat the beans with the mixture.

5. Arrange the green beans as spread out as possible (a single layer if you can) in the pan.

6. Bake at 425 degrees for about 8 minutes, or until crisp-tender. You don't want to cook them too long!

Nutritional facts per serving:

Calories: 37 Fat: 1.6g Protein: 1.4g Carbohydrates: 5.5g fiber: 2.6g Sodium: 196mg Calcium: 29mg

Pesto Quinoa

So, I'm a little behind on the superfoods trend. A few weeks ago, Zach sent me a link to an article about Quinoa and it was the first time i'd ever paid attention to the food so many people raved about. I tried  this pesto recipe that night and we both became huge fans. It's SO delicious!

Like everyone says, it's a really versatile seed. It takes on the flavor of pretty much whatever you mix it with, it's high in protein and really filling. We're not vegetarians, but we'd like to eat less meat ($$$) so recipes with quinoa tend to fill us up better than say, eating a salad for dinner. :-)

Make sure you rinse the quinoa before you cook it. We haven't experienced any bitterness in the quinoa, but you might as well be sure! It's kind of messy, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of herding the tiny dots eventually. :-) Let me know what you think! I got this recipe from allrecipes.com.



Pesto Quinoa
Serves 4

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups chicken broth-- you can substitute veggie stock if you'd like
• 2 tablespoons basil pesto
• 1 tomato, diced
• salt and pepper, to taste

1. Bring the chicken broth and quinoa to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. 

2. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the broth is absorbed.

3. Remove from heat and mix in the pesto.

4. Stir in the tomatoes.

5. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve it up!

Nutritional info, per serving:

Calories: 207 | Total Fat: 6.4g | Cholesterol: 5mg

Courtney and Cade

Courtney and Cade are some of my favorite repeat clients. Courtney has had me take photos of Cade since  he was a year old, and this is our third shoot together. He's grown from a baby hanging on to Mom to an independent little boy in such a short amount of time.

We played in a park in Fort Worth on a cold November afternoon for this shoot. Cade's become quite the athlete, showing us his golf and football skills. But we did get some nice portraits--when he stopped to catch his breath. Thanks Courtney for letting me capture your little one!

David & Alysha

It's been quite a while since I've posted any photo shoots. I had a string of shoots this fall, and I'm really excited to show y'all what I've been working on. I'm also trying out a new format to how I blog them... and introducing my logo--finally! My friend Faith designed it and I'll be showing it off more later. :-)

My youngest brother David and his girlfriend Alysha had recently celebrated 6 months of dating when we did this shoot in October at Brackenridge Park in San Antonio. Here's to many more month's y'all! Thanks for letting me photograph you!