Montreux Jazz Festival 2011

The program of the Montreux Jazz Festival 2011 (July 1 – 16) was published yesterday, as usual quite a bunch of interesting concerts!

With my friend Manu, we have decided us for the July 13 night with two concerts:

Both concerts are quite promising, in two very different styles. We could reserved two very good places, centrally positioned, not far away from the scene. Ticket-price is really going up, outch… Anyway, still very happy to be able to go there again this year ;-)

Montreux Jazz Festival Foundation 2011, © Artwork Francis Baudevin

Saint Barth 2011 – Day 17

To celebrate the “first week over and back to work”, I would like to share these pictures taken from the plane just after the take off from Saint Barth. My personal mood at this time was, how to express that?, not the best moment of these fantastic holidays…

Saint Barth from the plane

Saint Barth 2011 – Day 11

We are going to Saint Barth not only for its fantastic beaches, warm weather, beautiful villas, cool shopping, but also for the real culinary experience there. We have each time a lot of fun in the different restaurants we are visiting during our stays. Sometimes a real blast as yesterday evening :-)

One of the “highlight” was our dinner at the “On the Rocks” restaurant, part of the Eden Rock hotel, one of the two Relais et Châteaux of the island. This place is very special:

Unique in the world: the hotel’s location, built on a rocky promontory thrust into the sea at St. Jean Beach and surrounded by twin crescents of sandy beach, facing a coral reef.

The stunning On The Rocks Restaurant is situated high on the rock itself, giving you un-paralleled, floodlit views of St Jean Bay while you peruse all that the tempting dinner menu has to offer.

Some pictures to concretize this experience!

Started with a Margarita and Virgin Pina Colada:

A *lot* of very tasty and fresh breads (ummhhh):

Then Oeufs pochés, purée de topinambour & lard, Emulsion aux champignons for me:

And for my wife, the Ravioli aux Portobello, Emulsion au Parmesan & Pignons de pin:

Filet de boeuf Angus, jus au raifort, pommes grenaille et mascarpone à la truffe for me:

Risotto à l’encre de seiche et aux Calamards for my wife, who has found this very very good:

Then la tartelette aux fraises avec sorbet fraise (ummhhh!):

And the Soufflé à la vanille de Madagascar et glace au chocolat for my wife (she says also: ummhhhh):

Our little boy had a very good Filet Angus with some Pene au beurre, and a Moelleux au chocolat et caramel au beurre salé, glace vanille-caramel.

So a blast for the three of us!