Anthony Bourdain celebrates 100th episode in...you guessed it, Paris!

In just one hour from now, 10/9 central, September 6, the Travel Channel will air the 100th episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. And where does this episode take place? I suppose I spoiled that with the title of this post, but, yes, in Paris. France, and Paris in particular, is kind of the mecca of food for Bourdain, especially seeing as how his family originates from France, and as a young boy he would spend summers there. Then there's his restaurant, the French Les Halles, and the fact that the French are very good at cooking with those bits of animal that most Americans turn their noses up - and that Bourdain relishes. It's a very fitting setting for his 100th episode.

I was in Paris when my favorite meal became just that. Le poulet roti avec les haricots verts, aussi avec les pommes purees. Roast chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes (though really, any kind of potatoes). I have the most divine roast chicken recipe that's made with an herb butter that you actually rub in between the skin and the meat several times, and surround by garlic cloves. Mmmm. And I just saute the haricots verts in some butter and minced garlic and it's perfection (Yes, I love butter).

So yes! I will be watching eagerly, and I'm sure, whilst salivating. While I wait for the episode to air though, here's some videos of Bourdain's take on the City of Lights:

Tony's Best Moments

How Tony Enjoys Paris

Who Says Paris Sucks?

I love his recommendation to while in Paris, just wake up and walk, do ordinary things. Bourdain's gig is kind of my dream gig, only I'd be writing rather than on tv. Writing and traveling and writing about it - what could be better?

The Beginning | Le Commencement

25 is looming ahead of me, like the unfortunate snowstorm that happens just after the hope and promise of the New Year (literally: my birthday is in the second week of January). And, while those older than me either laugh, or take offense at my concern about this milestone, for me, it’s, you know, the oldest I’ve ever been and ever felt, and it’s quite scary!

According to a budding psychologist friend, though, 25 is actually, “developmentally, quite exciting.” This is refreshing news. According to her, and having something to do with the frontal lobe, 25 becomes the year that decisions are more clearly made, paths more clearly defined. Things just click. Ambitions are met with the kind of drive and work it takes to achieve. I look forward to this (though I will still participate in the illusion that I am only celebrating my 24th birthday when the time comes).

So I’m starting 6 months early. This blog marks the beginning of my efforts to make it to Paris, city of lights, la ville du mode, and the place I’ve dreamed of returning to since I first spent a blissful weekend exploring its charms the summer before my senior year in college. Previous efforts have, well, been half-hearted. Why is this, one might ask? If it’s my dream, really, why is this? Honestly, I don’t know. There were other things in life to figure out first, perhaps.

But, so, this particular journey must begin with a sacrifice. It would be lovely and charming and all if I could just pick up and move to Paris, find some quiet little flat to live in and eat charming French food and speak charming French words and wear charming French clothes. But, the road since graduation has been a little bumpy. I am 24, a nanny, a freelance writer and marketer, a would-be fashionista, a dreamer, a baker, and, a little broke.

So, first step to Paris: give up shopping. Give up shopping to get to fashion mecca. Can it be done?

C'est moi, a Paris, at the Palais Garnier for the ballet, my first time in Paris.