london

our last show is in london

sean from monster movie will be joining us, as we've been covering "return to yesterday"

why do I never take pictures at our shows?

we took a train from paris, nothing like wine at 11:00 am

we love the underground & metro

we are both in such great shape after taking the trains for a month

eat here at rootmaster

all vegan - they even had enchiladas!

goodbye for now - i think rachel has more photos - we'll update soon!

~carlos

ferrara

ferrara is our last stop in italy

it's sad that all of the shows are coming to an end,

but we certainly have had a great time traveling around the continent

it's all gone by so quickly!

the venue we played at "Zuni" is normally a restaurant, but they have music events every week or so, normally on sundays

a good amount of people came out, and the show went well

again, I believe rachel has all of the photos

the window displays and sense of design here are great

and if you're craving mexican beer halfway across the globe, no problem

i didn't see any lone star

after 3 weeks of driving across the eu, i received my first parking ticket here

also our honey obsession continues

and of course, no golden afternoon tour would be complete without a romantic walk after dinner ending in projectile vomiting due to food poisoning (I blame the "little lobster") - sorry rachel

next stop, UK

~carlos

there is a castle in villafranca

in villafranca di verona, we played at a venue called arci kreon

the space was originally constructed by the architect who lived there,

but has since fallen into a state of relative disrepair

when we got into town, directions to get to the venue were not clear, so we contacted the promoter who said:

"there is a castle in villafranca,

I will meet you there"

once we got into the centro area, we found the castle with no problem

at the show, rachel met the venue's cat,

who was not taken care of very well

when we first arrived, she was so ravenous she began eating rachel's discarded crust

later we saw that dry dog food was her only other option for food

needless to say, rachel wanted to take her back to the states

and on that sad note, i will sign off

~carlos

getting to italy

getting to italy took forever

luckily it was a good day for driving

we stopped at monaco to have a quick lunch

the country is beautiful, but kind of a pain to drive in

in the end, we were almost late to our first italian show

~carlos

day off in st emilion

speaking of wine,

next we went to a town outside of bordeaux called st emilion

we ran into some loud americans there;

we quickly understood why it seems the french dislike our country so.....

"we're hungry.... manche....i want some cheese"

luckily, we did not capture any photos

eating food without dairy is difficult to do in st emilion

everyone wanted to us to try their foie gras, as it is the best

after a few meals, we began to think the community had lost their sense of taste after centuries of drinking wine

therefore we attempted our first diet based on espresso & wine alone

there are thousands of underground caves in the town,

originally designed to store the wine the town makes

rachel and i got lost in one of these caves and were forced to drink all of this wine

finally, before we left, we found this great restaurant that had fresh produce!

the locals had a laugh at my "crudite"

oh yeah, and i will never complain about austin driving again

until we get to italy!

~carlos

days off in bordeaux

we had a few days off before we went to italy

rachel and i had not yet been to southern france;

bordeaux is great - it seems like every french town has its medieval square with a castle, a church & a hotel de ville

and of course, wine.....

we also found this great vegan restaurant:

"the fast plantain"

if you're ever in bordeaux, go here

it's based on macrobiotic theory, but the sauces all had fruit or peppers

(i.e. mango & habanero)

also, the guys who ran the place were great

(here's rachel with the chef):

that's all for now

~carlos

festival for sounds of yamoy, nantes, france

wow! this has been one of the best responses we have ever received at a show or venue

everyone take note, this festival does it right

the line-up included do make say think, clues (members of arcade fire & the unicorns), and benoit pioulard; previous years have hosted animal collective, marissa nadler and many others

when we arrived, the venue was extremely warm, and we were fed a variety of vegan options

the venue was a small coffeeshop & bar - so many people were packed into the room

(this was posted by an audience member):

at one point everyone sitting started getting up to stand

rachel and i both thought (probably from our damaging sxsw experiences) that another band was starting and everyone was going to see them

we found out later, people who wanted to see us were unable to and everyone was simply making room

the audience was so wonderful; they loved the performance

everything in nantes uses old buildings

one of the larger venues was an old textile factory

more posts later!

~carlos