We can DEFINITELY recommend IYO restaurant in Milan, dahling
Travels with my nephew
I’m happily child-free, and have five excellent niblings (the collective noun for nieces and nephews).
About ten years ago, I made an extravagant promise that when they were in their early 20s (ie, became interesting ????), I’d take each of them on their own two-week trip anywhere in the world.
I was pushing hard for the “cool uncle family champion,” and I was pretty sure that this would close the deal.
Well, these chickens have come home to roost. Ten years have zipped by, and now they’re cashing in their chits, ready for adventure.
Adventure
Seamus — Mossy — was the first to commit and book time. He loves football (“soccer” to some in the world), so he planned time in Europe, going to see some of the big games.
The itinerary was excellent: Dortmund vs Barcelona in Dortmund, PSG v Le Havre in Paris, and Inter Milan vs Roma in Milan, and with art and eating and wine and adventures scattered in between.
Nervous
No, don’t get me wrong. I was a little nervous about this.
First, I don’t really know Mossy. Yes, I see him and everyone when I’m visiting Australia, but that’s a pretty contained and limited experience. Will I like this guy?
Second, what do I know about a 19-year-old? I’m 57, so … how’s that going to work? What are we going to talk about?
Finally, Mossy was in charge of planning and managing the logistics. I am lucky enough to live with a person who is outstanding at planning trips, so I’ve been spoiled. Just how chaotic and random was this going to be?
Well, spoiler, it was all pretty fantastic. Mossy nailed the planning, is a cool young guy, and we found our rhythm and got to know each other on a different level, all whilst eating all the carbs a man can dream of.
Here are three things I’m reflecting on … perhaps good for travel, perhaps good for life
Find reasons to create together
We did a cooking class in Milan (pasta, tiramisu, ????), but my favourite thing to do with Seamus was drawing. He’s pretty good, I’m not really, but I’m also fine with being not very good (at so so so many things).
My favourite thing was drawing each other, when the rule was you couldn’t lift your pen off the paper, or look at what you were drawing. (Thank you, Austin Kleon.)
But here’s another project … see if you can guess what city we were in.
Don’t panic, find the next plan
We did have a few logistical challenges, mostly trains running late and not making connections. Our trip from Dortmund to Paris went from 3 trains and 6 hours to 7 trains and 13 hours.
Mossy was brilliant at staying cool, and just figuring out the next plan. Plan B, then Plan C, I think we ended up on Plan J finally … yeah, it was a complicated day.
But it all worked out. We ended up only being 30 minutes late for Le Train Bleu restaurant in the Gare de Lyon (a great recommendation from my friend, master coach and Paris-ophile, Karen Wright), so there was a reward for persevering.
Be where you’re at
At Le Train Bleu, Seamus started with fois gras, followed that with steak tartare, wrapped it up with crepes suzette flambeed at the table, and drank some glasses of champagne and Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
If you’re looking for a French meal, this would be it. ✅
I admire that capacity to squeeze the most from a moment. We’ve all heard the saying, “when in Rome…” but to do that requires a degree of setting aside your own patterns and preferences, and to put the new experience above the familiar.
I found that a little harder to do. That said, I did try to order a couple of glasses of champagne at a bistro, and instead got a dish of mushrooms that I’d have never ordered directly.
And this photo happened at the Suzanne Valadon exhibition in the Centre Pompidou. That’s me on the right, obvs.
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