Getting Ready.

BIG NEWS! We finally bought a new suitcase. It's one of those hard shell type deals with wheels and plenty of room for our clothes and toiletries. We have our passports, purchased our plane tickets, and are currently making some detailed lists of things to see and do while in France and Belgium. We've been trying to decide what we can easily travel around with and/or do without while trekking throughout European city shops. We plan to keep a laptop with us to instantly blog about experiences we're having. We've also picked up one of those small pocket-sized flip-style camcorders to document our travels. Hopefully, we can occasionally hop on a wireless network and let everyone back home in on what we're up to.
If you've never seen David Lebovitz's blog, it's worth a look. He's offered up some great descriptions and images of various shops/delicacies all over his blog. Occasionally, the topic of finding practical things, such as public restrooms for Paris visitors, comes up and raises a bit of panic in the "always be prepared" boy scout part of me. Another website http://www.parispatisseries.com/ has post after post about several must-see shops we plan to visit.
Wendy has compiled a list from several sources which has a number of shops we hope to visit while there. Many of these also have shops in Belgium, so if we don't get to some in Paris, we'll wait and visit their Belgium locations. Check these out and you'll notice that most do not skimp on web design. Lots of European shops and restaurants boast flash-heavy sites with audio and high end graphics of their offerings. Many look like jewelry stores. We experienced a bit of this aesthetic when we visited San Francisco a while back.

• Patrick Roger: http://www.patrickroger.com/en/index.php 
• Michel Cluizel: http://www.cluizel.com/ 
• Michel Chaudun: http://www.michel-chaudun.jp/ 
• Christian Constant: http://www.christianconstant.com/ 
• Jean-Paul Hévin: http://www.jphevin.com/ 
• La Maison du Chocolat: http://www.lamaisonduchocolat.com/en/#/home 
• Pierre Hermé: http://www.pierreherme.com/index.cgi?&cwsid=0663ph0A000108ph8718225 
• Pierre Marcolini: http://www.marcolini.be/ 
• Richart: http://www.richart.com/ 
• Lenotre: http://www.lenotre.fr/ 
• Ladurée: http://www.laduree.fr/ 
• Hugo & Victor: http://www.hugovictor.com/ 
• La Patisserie des Reves: http://www.parispatisseries.com/2010/12/03/inside-la-patisserie-des-reves/ 
• Sadaharu Aoki: http://www.sadaharuaoki.com/profil/en.html 
• Pain de Sucre: http://www.patisseriepaindesucre.com/ 
• Carl Marletti: http://www.carlmarletti.com/

We are looking forward to hitting the ground running over there and hope that if anyone has any suggestions, to post them here in the comments or contact us on Facebook. In a couple of weeks, we'll be taking a trip to Atlanta to watch a demo by Master Chocolatier, Chef Jean-Pierre Wybauw (from Belgium). Wendy has taken classes from him in the past, and we hope to ask him about his favorite (chocolate-related) things to experience in Belgium.

In other news, we finally saw a drawn copy of a floor plan for our new location. So exciting! Check back periodically for updates on our travel plans. We'll be posing developments up to and during our trip.
-Brandon