It almost seems like it isn't possible. You step on a plane in Paris, fly 11 hours to the south east, get off the plane and your clothes immediately stick to your body due to the high humidity, and you're still within the EU! Welcome to Île de la Réunion, a beautiful island in the Indian Ocean, and full of contrasts. My first WOW moment had to do with food- of course. We stopped at the first Carrefour we saw to stock up on food for our bungalow we were renting. Still tired after the flight, I wasn't really paying any attention to what we were putting in the shopping basket. So far everything looked french. But when we got the the fruits and vegetables I suddenly woke up and started jumping up and down. Huge piles of avocados, papayas and pineapples, bunches of greens I had never seen before in my life. "Let's try this," was my standard sentence, while holding up something. We certainly didn't go hungry while on the island. I tried many different things and left inspired to recreate the dishes we had.

Our first day on the island took us to the Takamaka valley, which is accessible on foot. But if you want the spectacular views promised on the post cards, then a helicopter flight is the only way. The photo on the left was taken from the trail head. The waterfalls seem to go on forever in the lush green rainforest. Walking through the rainforest is also an adventure. Everything is moist and green. Huge spiders make their webs in the branches above the trail. There are trees with red fruits, called goyavier on the island (a type of guava which is used in many dishes). Small waterfalls suddenly appear on the side of the trail.

In the afternoon we walked to the Bassin de le Mer (photo on the right) where we made our first acquaintance with the aggressive mosquitoes which inhabit the island. We never become good friends... There we also saw our first vanilla plants. A dip in the cooling waters made up for the mosquitoes and by the time we were back at the car, we were dry again.

Everywhere on the island, remnants of the old sugar refineries can be found. Some older made with stone and some newer with old machines lying around. Sugar cane is still grown on the island, but only two large refineries and distilleries (for rum) remain.

The plants! Many, many I had ever seen before in my life. Many I had only every seen at the florist's and a few I knew from growing up in California. When I was young, I had a coloring book with tropical plants. Plants I thought I'd never see in my life. Well, I actually saw quite a few of them. Every time I saw a plant, especially a flowering one, whether it was new to me or not I stopped and took a picture of it.

The one I wanted to see the most was the plumeria (frangipani). I saw it only once the whole time we were there.

The one that had me doing a little dance (luckily no one saw me!) was the Heliconia rostrata, because I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd ever see this growing.

Finding a little gem of a beach in the Sud Sauvage (wild south) just by following a little road was one of the many highlights on the island.

One can't go to La Réunion and not climb the volcano Piton de la Fournaise. The volcano which is supposed to be one the most active on earth. Lava is always coming out of one hole or another, but the last huge eruption was in 2007 and is still very noticeable, especially since it changed the course of the road around the southern part of the island. And it wasn't the first time it did that!

We got up at 4 o'clock to drive to the trail head and started hiking at sunrise. What an experience! We walked across the huge crater with every glowing in red. There were so many different kinds of lava, each from a different eruption. We stood on the rim of the Dolomieu crater in the early morning. Looking down into it, we could see the steam and knew it was still very active. Looking out down over the volcano towards the ocean was a beautiful view with fluffy clouds. We were back at the car at noon. By that time there were hundreds of people walking around and across the huge crater. Most of them wouldn't be going up to Dolomieu. The drive back wasn't less spectacular. We had arrived in the dark and didn't know what to expect. Driving back had us stopping more than once to take a picture.

Once we reached the Pleine des Remparts, the afternoon fog caught up with us, but we were still in awe with the landscape. It's as if you never know what you'll find behind the curve in the road.

But La Réunion isn't only about the volcano and the rainforests. There is also the coast line. Mostly cliffs and dangerous currants, there are a few beaches. But that is a story for another time.

We've just returned from our two week vacation to La Réunion.

It was a beautiful trip filled with a sunrise on the highest peak, hiking though cirques and up the volcano, swimming in pools, snorkeling in the Indian Ocean, watching the sun set, seeing the Southern Cross, eating tropical fruit, looking at flowers and birds and much more.

I will be sharing more photos and stories soon, and there will be a giveaway!

Every year we go away for Easter with a small group of friends. My husband goes caving with his caving friends while the women cruise around the country side. Last year it was a trip to Italy and Venice on Easter Sunday. This year we returned to the Franche-Comté and Doubs region in the French Jura department, with our base in Arbois.

Arbois is a small town with shops selling delicious Comté cheese and wine everywhere you look. The famous Vin Jaune and Savagnin are placed in a prominent position in the shop windows. Both are wines which you either love or hate. As a group of 4 we went wine tasting at the Jacques Tissot store. It was my first "real" wine tasting, and I had so much fun tasting all the different nuances.

While the men went caving, the women drove to Salins les Bains and visited the salt mining museum. It's very interesting, just be sure to specifically ask for an audio guide. We didn't and it wasn't offered to us. Only towards the end did we realize that and felt we missed out on some information. We also visited the Maisons comtoises open-air museum, which I highly recommend. It shows houses and buildings typical of the region, some dating back to the 1600's. Don't forget to check the website before visiting. The museum is closed from November to March. We missed our chance two years ago when we went in November, a week after they closed for the season.

One of the highlights was visiting Baume Les Messieurs on Easter Sunday. A beautiful village with an old abbey tucked away in the hills. The fruit trees were beginning to bloom, and I couldn't stop taking pictures of this beautiful place.

My husband and I had the same idea when almost at the same time we said "next time we'll stay here!"

On our last day, the weather changed and we had rain. But that didn't bother us too much on our adventures through the french countryside. We stopped at Château-Chalon, another pretty village on a hilltop. Our lunch at Les 16 Quartiers was very memorable. I had a delicious roasted vegetable and thyme crumble followed by fromage blanc with honey. We were all so happy with our lunch and if we didn't have such good manners, would have been licking our plates...

We are already looking forward to our next trip as we have found a few other gems we can't wait to visit. I leave you with a picture I took in Les Planches, near Arbois, which is actually like a little preview to our next adventure.

I spend last weekend visiting Nuremberg, bundled up against the cold. I had my camera with me and took pictures of the Neues Museum which I have wanted to do ever since it opened in 1999. Tucked in between the typical sandstone buildings, the modern glass front strangely doesn't look out of place.

While walking past the Lorenzkirche, I had to take a picture of the fountain which holds a special memory for me.

This may be a bit ghoulish to have a special memory, but it has a good story, and I think of it every time I walk by. Back in school, probably during the year I graduated, one of our teachers took us on a guided spook tour of Nuremberg and the tour started at this fountain. The short version of the story is, one day a school boy was on his way home from school and was dawdling, not wanting to go home to his chores (and probably thinking bad things). As he was walking past the church, the devil swooped down and grabbed him, taking him to hell. Probably to have him do schoolwork and chores forever... The tour went on to tell us about other spooky places in the city and it was a very memorable evening.

But we also drove across the country side before having dinner. It was my wish to go on a walk in the area and we came across an old chapel which was built in the 1300's. Right next to it was an old fruit orchard which will burst into millions of white and pink flowers in the next two weeks.

I particularly kept my eyes open for the traditional buildings in the area.

Saturday we spent the day in Munich and I took the evening train home, savoring sundown on Lake Constance.

Yesterday, the sun was out and we headed to the forest to pick wild garlic (ramps). It's that time of the year again, and we filled out bags thinking about what good things we were going to make. I've been wanting to make a soup and that was what I did with the first bunch. The rest of the ramps were pureed into a pesto to be used in various other recipes.

Wild Garlic Soup with Parmesan and Piment d'Espelette Chips

• 650 g peeled and diced potatoes
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 handfuls of wild garlic, roughly chopped
• 0.75 liter vegetable broth
• 200 ml sour cream
• butter
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• freshly grated Parmesan
• Piment d'Espelette

Heat a piece of butter with the olive oil. Add the onion and sautée until lightly browned. Add the potato, season with salt and pepper and lightly sautée. Add the broth and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 30 min. Add the wild garlic and sour cream. Remove the pot from the heat and using submersion blender purée until smooth. Add more broth or milk if the soup is too thick.

Place little piles of grated Parmesan on a baking sheet covered with a piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle a little Piment d'Espelette over the rounds and broil for a few short minutes (keep your eye on it!!) Serve with the soup.

Last week my friend and co-author and I traveled to Paris to attend the cookbook fair. Ever since she read about last year's fair, we've been planing this trip. We submitted our cookbook last summer and then started making a list of things we had to do while in Paris. At the fair, we saw our book presented alongside all the other books which had been submitted, including ones by well known authors such as Donna Hay, Jamie Oliver, Lila Lindholm and many others.

The fair was a huge source of inspirations to us. Not only because we were able to meet and talk to chefs such as KC Wallberg and Virginia Willis, but also because of all the food we tried at the fair. We spent a lot of time in the show kitchens inhaling the smells and the secrets the chefs told us. We grinned when we found out that "one can never have enough coriander", we tasted a 100 year old egg, learned how to cook for 300 people, tasted seafood from Chile, nodded in agreement when we heard that "if you aren't happy with cooking (or whatever you're occupation is), don't do it", and tapped our feet to the sound of hot Latin beats while being told that cooking food is the best when listening to good music.

Chef Ramzi Francisco Fantini and Gustavo Adolfo Mazuela

Chef Virginia Willis                                                                             Chef Jimmy Yang Jimei

Chef Chakall with Josie

We spent 2 days at the fair and the rest of our time we walked around Paris. On Friday we hit the shops. Our list was long, but we managed to visit everything we wanted to. Most of the places we wanted to go to were kitchen supply shops and ones that had to do with food and chocolate. We visited Mora, Sabre, Le Petit Atelier de Paris, numerous chocolate shops and much more. At lunchtime, we found ourselves in the Maris area in the Jewish Quarter where we treated ourselves to a bagel with lox. My friend bought an almond crescent for dessert and I chose a chocolate rugelach. All was very good.

After our shopping spree, our bodies, especially our feet, were in need of some pampering. So we dropped our bags off at the hotel and took ourselves to the mosque. This was another one of the highlights during our trip. We had planned a visit to the hammam which is part of the mosque, along with a tea room and restaurant. We checked the schedule and saw that Friday was reserved for women bathers. In we went and payed for a package which included the steam bath, a scrub, a massage and dinner. Forget about the tranquil areas you're used to when going to a spa. This was like a bazaar- everyone talking at the same time, soaping each other's backs, the women who worked there talking to each other in Arabic. It felt like we had stepped into a different world, somewhere like Morocco. It was authentic. Relaxed and sleepy, I was barely able to keep my eyes open over dinner. I have to say though, the food was absolutely delicious and the little nut cakes we had for dessert were the perfect sweet ending.

Saturday we explored the city some more before heading to the Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute to take a class on how to make macarons. I thought the chef was joking when he told us we'd be whisking egg whites by hand. But with the right technique, it was actually quite easy, and we quickly had a bowl of stiff whites. We made delicious orange macarons which I shared with my colleagues at work on Monday. They were gone within seconds. Most were too busy eating, but one said, "Normally you'd call this an orange macaron. At Sprüngli it would be called "Orange au Printemps"!" I had to giggle at that. Sprüngli makes Luxemburgerli, a slightly smaller macaron, and they are a very popular and expensive treat.

Sunday we first went to the organic Raspail Market to grab something for breakfast before walking from there past the Panthéon to the Institut du Monde Arabe, where we had tea. Then we walked from there, exploring a new part of the city, to the train station where we caught our train back home.

It was a very different kind of trip to Paris that left us inspired and with very many happy memories.

Danke Alex, für die schöne Zeit und v.a. deine Hilfe mit der französischen Sprache! Ich freue mich auf die nächste Parisreise. Champagner für alle!

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List of restaurants and cafés we visited and can recommend:

- Rose Bakery

- Poilâne (check out the café next door)

- La Mosquée

- Pooja

- Fromagerie Quatrehomme (pick up some cheese for a picknick)

- Korcarz