USA is out on a full moon

A beautiful day gave way to a beautiful fuschia sunset. The full moon is high tonight—was hoping for a USA win, but Ghana played well. There are so many Spanish speaking countries in the Round of 16, the finals may end up pitting one Spanish speaking country against another.

Today's Good Things

• Received my 4th piece of snail mail. Thanks SD for your letter. I'll write back soon
• My coriander seeds are germinating—I see tell-tale coriander leaves
• Skyping with May and family
• The local Fete de l'ecole and folding paper cranes, balls and boxes with my Japanese friend who was manning the origami table. I folded a fun box—and it got me thinking about decorating a wall of our new "reading room" with a colorful paper crane garland
• Worked on my resume a little and forwarded my resume to someone who's offered to review my resume from a Swiss/international perspective. I'm really grateful and looking forward to hearing his feedback
• Started some weight training and hope to keep up with it. My back's been bothering me lately and I hope this alleviates the pain

Orange glory

Happy birthday to my sweetheart R! We've had a great day so far—I went on a field trip with my new Japanese friend and her baby. Then R and I sat outside in the garden, having a nice leisurely BBQ, followed by birthday fruit tart. Fresh nectarines, strawberries, and kiwis—all atop a layer of French pastry cream speckled with vanilla beans and an almond flour/cornmeal pastry crust.

I got the kind of candles that relight after you've blown them to test his lung capacity—which is still pretty good for my R. Now listening to more of his CD collection—Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday song, Milli Vanilli, Pet Shop Boys, Summer of 1969, and now Der Kommisar in German. Tonight R and I will be celebrating his birthday dinner at the bistro in our village, a place we've been looking forward to trying.


Last night R and I got into the World Cup spirit by dressing in orange. R made his entrance raising the Dutch flag in support of the Netherlands who were playing Cameroon. The hosts had festooned their house in the color of the Dutch royal house—orange balloons, orange caps, funny orange hats (which I'm wearing in the picture below), huge orange sunglasses, orange flower leis, etc. One of the guests even had a giant block of cheese on his head which faintly reminded me of the cheesehead hats that the Packers fans don. Upon asking my guess was confirmed—the guy got it from Wisconsin.

After the hosts realized Swiss networks weren't showing the game, R saved the day by hooking a laptop up to a site that had live streaming of the game. The game was good but I watched from the kitchen, near the table set with aromatic juicy barbecue chicken, satay sticks, tabbouleh salad. The beer, of course, was Heineken.

On another note, my Japanese friend was pretty excited that Japan beat Denmark, 3-1. And she reminded me Le Tour is coming! It's passing by our town on July 11th. I'm getting my yellow jersey out so watch out for me on le tv.

Sunny days

The full moon is two days from now, on the 26th of June. For the past two nights, I've fallen asleep to moonlight streaming into our bedroom and woken up to blue skies and sun. Thank goodness because it's about time the sun decided to come out.

For the past two weeks, it's been raining steadily with only some slivers of sunshine. Some days I was even wearing my down jacket and sweaters, in the middle of June! I stayed out of the rain and worked on my French conjugations, did some driving lessons, and baked. David Lebovitz's supernatural brownies came over so well that I can hardly keep them from being eaten. Yesterday I drove on a real road within a business zone so there weren't that many cars around, but I had to navigate rotaries, stop and restart, and then reverse. I'm used to the clutch and the gear box, so it's getting easier and I hardly stall the car anymore. Yay for that!

R and I finished working on the former bedroom...it's now a reading room with some outdoor/indoor deck furniture. It's next to the guest bedroom which is next on our DIY list.

Real summer is here now to stay until September or so and my vegetable garden and I are happy for that. Because the days are longer here, I'm hoping the cherry, quince, and plum trees will be ready for picking in a few weeks. In the vegetable garden, the 9 tomato plants are doing well, and are slowly climbing up their spiral stakes. The 12 lettuces and single zucchini plant are growing fast as well. When I checked yesterday, two large yellow zucchini flowers had bloomed, and under them were two three-inch zucchinis. About five other zucchini flowers were just starting to bud. As for the three eggplants, they're surviving, but no flowers yet. The seeds I planted for melons, beets, and leeks may have sprouted but they're difficult to pick out because there's also a lot of weeds in the mix. But good news on the herb front: the coriander, basil, ciboulette, and mint are all doing well. When they're full grown, I won't have to buy any of these until late fall. If I have too much, I'll dry or freeze some in ice cube trays so I can use them way past the harvest season.

Today, R and I walked down to the farmer's market—tomorrow is R's birthday and I still need some fresh berries and nectarines to top the fruit tart I'm making. We didn't find berries but we got some fresh baguette and smoked salmon—and had that for lunch in the park by the river.

Tonight, we're going to Geneva again for a World Cup party—the Netherlands vs Cameroon. R's Dutch friend is hosting again so we were encouraged to wear Orange, the Dutch color for the Royal house of Orange. R is not only wearing orange, but he's decided to bring his giant Dutch flag to the party.

What's your favorite thing to do in the summer time? For those of you with green thumbs...how does your garden grow? Are you watching the World Cup and who are you cheering for?

Supernatural brownies and listening to music loudly

One of the benefits of living in a house on a hill in the countryside is that you can turn your music way up. R and I are doing just that right now. R's going through huge collection of music and at this moment Dark Side of the Moon is playing.

I made a simple marinara sauce with farfalle with oregano that I picked from the garden.

I'm having fun dancing while baking David Lebovitz's supernatural brownies. He's the former pastry chef at Chez Panisse who has is now living and baking in Paris. I mostly use his recipes because they are tried and tested with ingredients from France. I loved his "The Sweet Life in Paris" and became a convert after making his recipe for chocolate peanut butter chocolate ice cream.

I chose the most plain dark chocolate I could find. There was a huge choice of chocolate with chestnuts, hazelnuts, curry, mint, etc. I haven't been able to find dark packed brown sugar (or light brown sugar for that matter), so I used something called sucre brut moulu. Crossing my fingers the brownies come out well.

It's R's birthday on Friday. I've found a recipe for a French fruit tart but I will make it with almond flour since I have some in my pantry.

A new friend and on being famous!

A few weeks ago, when I first moved here, I met a Japanese woman who lives in the same village, about ten minutes away. We've been exchanging emails and yesterday we met for the first time. As she's Japanese, I brought some homemade gyozas to share with her and her two young sons. Having moved to France 7 years ago to start a new life with her French husband, she had gone through the same adjustment period as I was going through now. She offered her perspective on expat life, acclimating to a new country, language, and customs. She said it took a while to fully adjust and there were definitely moving pains but eventually you grow less homesick and more in love with your new country. I had a great time at her house and hope to see her and the boys again soon.

On another note France's nationwide celebration to music, La Fête de la Musique, starts this weekend and lasts until the first week of August. To learn more about the Fete's activities in our town, R and I walked down to the local Tourism office. I wanted stationary and R wanted today's paper, so we stopped at La Presse, a bookstore. I didn't find any stationary, but R bought a great comic book about our town and found a picture of me in the regional paper! There I am, posing with the members of the shooting club from last Sunday—the caption under the picture reads: Members of the local shooting club. Not even close to being true, but I'm famous now.

R and I are snacking on some sausages we bought at Les Halles in Dijon—and then we'll do some shopping at the local Home Depot (the house is a work-in-progress). Following that, we'll attend a local fete tonight in town. And tomorrow, we'll head to la fête in Geneva after my driving lesson. Lots of activities for the kids—wish my nephews were here right now. I miss the little guys like crazy.

Microcosm at CERN

On Thursday before attending a World Cup party, I visited CERN's interactive science center, the Microcosm. The Beatles' "Across the Universe" played softly in the background as I stepped into the Microcosm, CERN's interactive museum which explores the mysteries of the universe via physics.

CERN is an acronym for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire. It is home the Large Hydron Collider, or LHC and many top research institutions. CERN's other claim to fame is Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who started working on the concept of the Internet while he was working at CERN. Eventually however Berners-Lee left the physics world for Boston and Cambridge, where he further nutured his idea into reality. Nowadays CERN's computing center has turned its focus on grids to help process and share the immense volumes of data collected during the experiments.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
In 1999 an large international team of engineers, physicists, and artisans started building the LHC in an already existing 27km tunnel (previously used for another big thing). In late 2008 the LHC was finished and experiments began. The LHC covers the Geneva countryside but you can't easily see it because it's 100m below ground! Measuring 27km in circumference, it is really long. So what does it do? It re-creates the conditions that were present at a millionth of a millionth of a second after the Big Bang.

A huge number of smart people work at CERN on the following four main experiments. I'm probably boring most of you to death...so I won't go into too much detail.

ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS)
Has 2500 scientifiques; with a team of 37 pays

CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid). Experiments that search for "dark matter" the void around the planets and galaxies that stops planets/galaxies from flying apart and into one another. We can only see 4% of the universe while the rest is made of dark matter; the CMS detector weighs more than Eiffel Tower.
Has 2500 scientists; with a team of 38 countries

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment). Another experiment studying "dark matter".
Has 1000 scientists; with a team of 30 countries

LHCb (LHC beauty quarks)
Has 700 scientists; with a team of 15 countries

Other smaller experiements include TOTEM and LHCf. Totem watches over the funtioning of the LHC machine, measuring the quality of the proton beam created by the LHC. LHCf detects ultra high energy particles spraying from the LHC collisions. Other interesting things I learned. I'm not an expert here, so again, search the web to dig deeper.

Powers of Ten
On the largest scale picture ever taken (at 10 to the 26th meters), there are 9, 325 points on the picture with each point a galaxy like ours! Can you imagine this? Stephen Hawking, in a recently made documentary, is asked whether humankind should be trying to make contact with others out there. Hawking in response says it's not a matter if aliens exist in other galaxies because mathematically they must exist.

Timeline

• 13.7 billion years ago, the Big Bang gave birth to our universe
• 300, 000 years after the BB, the first atoms were formed
• 1 billion years after the BB, the first galaxies formed
• 4 billions ago, planet Earth was formed from debris orbiting the Sun, our nearest star
• 3 million years ago, humankind evolved and the first humanoids walked on our Earth

From the physics point of view humans and most things that have "matter" are composed of three basic building blocks: the electron, the up quark, and the down quark.

Four Forces of Physics

• Gravity, the weakest of the 4 forces but without it, we would float into space! Gravity pulls matter together.
• Strong force. There could be no life without the strong force. Most powerful of the 4 forces. Carbon is synthesized in stars via SF.
• Electromagnetism keeps us solid; during thunderstorms, charge builds up in clouds then runs to Earth as lightening; Aurora Borealis; mobile phones use these waves.
• Weak force—without this, the sun won't shine; WF causes beta decay, a form of radioactivity that triggers nuclear fission in the heart of the sun. There's naturally occurring radioactivity in granite rocks.

The World Cup party was fun but I was not ready to mingle. I was happily parked on the sofa watching Mexico beat up on the French (2-0).

On Dijon, roadtrip

On Monday R and I started our road trip to Dijon and the Burgundy area one day early. Instead of taking l'autoroute, we took the scenic route through the countryside, arriving four hours later at our bed and breakfast. If you are ever in the Dijon area, I can highly recommend Les Chambres d’Hôtes des Marcs d'Or. The innkeepers are a young gay couple, and their chambre d’hôte is immaculate and charming, situated in a park like setting with a snail pit in the back. Plenty of safe free parking nearby. We would have stayed an extra night at the inn but they were sold out, so we moved to a budget hotel in the center, near Palais des Ducs.

Un peu d'histoire
Dijon is the current and historical capital city of the Burgogne région and Cote d'Or département. You can see its splendor and richness in the old buildings, gardens and parks. Dijon rivals Lyon as a gastronomical powerhouse. I actually think Dijon has a better Les Halles—it's big, beautiful, clean. And the food is really well-priced. I was surprised how reasonable everything was. In addition to mustard, Dijon and the surrounding Burgundy region is well known for its wine and regional dishes such as beouf burguignone, escargot, and coq au vin.

Three days in Dijon and Beaune, one of the small towns on the Routes des les Grand Crus just barely whet my appetite. I left wanting to return to Dijon and Burgogne again soon.


The inn's snaillery, a large round walled space in the garden. When I inquired about it, the innkeeper said it was a snaillery a word he concocted for English-speaking tourists. Originally the snail pit was used by former owners to raise snails for escargot. Now it's just a part of the grounds at the inn. You can sit down there for a quiet moment. I almost wanted to tell the innkeeper about shrinkle a word that my friend J (who's German) made up, which is an amalgamation of shrink and wrinkles...shrinkle. As for usage, you could say "Those vegetables really do shrinkle up when they're roasted." Funny. Are there any words that you've made up which are brilliant. Please share.

Enter the wooden door and down a spiral stone staircase—a large garden opens up before us. This inn opened in 1996 but the house and old barn (where the guest rooms are located) were built in the 19th century and mainly used as a winery. The barn was totally gut renovated and is tasetfully decorated—forget the over-the-top, loud, frilly flower patterns you usually see at Victorian B and Bs. This B and Besides the beautiful grounds, rooms, the inn serves a fresh hearty breakfast. Croissants, fresh coffee, tea, Burgundy honey cake, muesli, fresh baguette, yogurt, and of course, some little pots of homemade confiture. We met a nice older couple Euli and Judith (Swiss-German and Dutch respectively) there who invited us to share in their bottle Burgundy white wine with them.


Rooftops in Dijon and much of the Burgundy countryside stand out for their graphically arranged roof tiles. I like!

R touching the "lucky owl" at the church near the Palais des Ducs. I gave it a rub too for good measure.
In Dijon my favorite place to get ice cream is at the market square in front of the Palais des Ducs. For 3€, you can get a waffle cone with two scoops of one of the best ice creams I've ever had. On a few occasions, I chose cassis (black currant berries) and salted butter caramel. I go crazy for caramel beurre sale. I didn't only eat ice cream in Dijon, I also tried beouf burguignone for the first time. It was savory, luscious, and red, having been marinated in a good Burgundy wine. The meat was so tender you could easily tease it apart with a fork and the meat just melted in your mouth.

Interesting fact:you won't believe it, but R and I found two Teo Chew in Dijon, the owners of a Chinese store/take away place near Les Halles.

Un bon week-end

The Ain-Jura area hosted two exciting events this weekend. Fast cars and a gun gallery, served with a generous helping of friendly locals and good food.

SAMEDI
The 34th annual Le rallye national Ain-Jura took place this weekend in l'Ain and in the neighboring département of Jura. Ce rallye is a professional car rally race with eight timed stages that snake through four different villages in the Ain-Jura départements (with other rallyes hosted in different départements throughtout the spring and summer). R and I drove to the stage in the next village over, perched ourselves at the public viewing area, and watched the race cars queue at the start. In addition to professional drivers with their professional cars, the rally also permits enthusiasts (non-professional, but trained amateurs) to register and race on the course.

Since La Tribune devoted only a few lines to the event, R and I were surprised to find such a well organized, well attended event. Among the hundred plus cars, there were Porsches, souped up Subarus (which apparently have won lots of professional races), VWs, Renaults, BMWs, and more. Living in a small town, we were bound to bump into people we knew. At the rallye we saw one of our neighbors' grandson and the horse farmer who had brought les chevaux over to our house last night.

There are four horses in total, all male and ivory-colored. When they arrived I took a break from my weeding to fed them a treat of hard, crusty bread. Apparently the horses had been grazing up in the mountains for a few weeks, and when the farmer and his helper brought them down, they had not eaten for a few hours and were hungry. The farmer said they'd be able to eat all the grass from our property in 7-10 days. We haven't mowed the hilly parts of the property this year, in anticipation of their arrival, so the entire front part has tall grass ready for munching. It is quite a sight seeing these beautiful animals from my kitchen window.

DIMANCHE
R read something online regarding an open house at a local shooting club. We left the house around 11am and thought we'd spend a few hours at the open house before heading to Fort l'Ecluse for le vide grenier, a big flea market, but it literally translates to "empty attic".

The purpose of the shooting club's open house? It wasn't to attract new members as we initially thought. It was to give the community a chance to learn about the club, meet its members, and learn about different types of guns and how to properly shoot them. Thought of MS today, as she recently fired some guns up in Cooperstown, NY. Up til today I had gone through my adult life without ever touching a gun, or even hearing it discharge. Today's open house was the perfect opportunity for R and I to learn how to shoot one. A bit anxious, I watched some others learn to shoot first, including a woman in her 40s who was learning to use a .22 rifle.

For 1.5€, you get 5 bullets for the .22 rifle. One of the club members gave us a demonstration on how to shoot a rifle, which is different than shooting a handgun. He showed us the proper stance, how to align the sites on the rifle to the target, and how to squeeze the trigger.

I did two test shots sans bullets before the instructor loaded the rifle. For extra safety, I put in ear plugs and noise-deafening headphones. My heart started beating faster with anticipation as I took my stance—I had to remind myself to continue breathing. Holding the rifle braced closely to my right shoulder, I steadied the rifle with my left hand. With my left eye closed, I aligned my sites to the target, then I breathed and squeezed the trigger. The noise was loud but not horrible and there was no recoil.

I fired that first shot..and then a few more. In between shots, the instructor showed me where the bullets landed so I could re-adjust the alignment of my target. In total, I shot 10 bullets, with 7 of them landing on the paper target. To my surprise (because I felt like I was super shaky), the instructor said I had a steady hand and trigger finger. The 5 bullets that landed were clustered along the middle of the target, but a little too low of the bullseye. It was more than I expected and I was pleased I hit the paper target more than half of the time. R tried the same rifle and did great. Throughout the day, a man dressed in military garb fired a cannon that made such a big boom that my heart felt like it jumped to my throat. Afterwards, we had lunch prepared by the club members for only 5€ a person. Ridiculously cheap and good...homemade terrine, crusty baguette, jambon, rice with vegetables, apple tart, vegetable salad, red wine and at the end, some moonshine made with local prunes. At 80 proof, a small sip warms your throat instantly. Everyone was really friendly and we even met a member Ludivic who had spent 7 years in NYC in the restaurant business.

After lunch I watched while R learned how to shoot a .38 Magnum, a .22 Revolver, and two .45 rifles that sparked fire when they discharged. All of them exploded with power and a loud boom and some recoil. Some interesting observations:

• There were quite a few women at the open house learning to shoot for the first time 
• Everyone starts laughing after the trigger is pulled...I guess it's a release of tension while waiting for the gun to fire. Does that make them "trigger happy"? 
• With parental permission, children as young as 13 can learn how to shoot 
• Even though boxes of bullets were right next to each of the guns, everyone was responsible and followed the "rules" which was basically, don't touch anything and don't point the gun at anything except the paper target 
• There were some really intricately carved and beautiful guns in the club's collection 
• There are guns that can shoot a rider and his horse from separate barrels in the same gun.

FOOTNOTES
France is organized into a hundred département, or administrative zones. R and I live in L'Ain, a département numerically signified as 01. More on départements, perfectures, cantons in a future post.

Hope everyone had a bon week-end. Do you have World Cup fever? Did you watch the US vs England game and were amazed by the 1-1 result? Do you have Celtics fever?

Tuesday in Geneva and a selection of photos

R and I decided to start our exercise regimen this week. It's hot and dry in the afternoons with the hottest period between 13:00h and 16:00h. As a result, we start our days early with a morning hillside walk and then end the day with an evening walk after dinner. Besides fresh air, the walks up and down are good for digestion and toning up the legs and thighs.

TUESDAY
While R visited with former colleagues in Geneva, I took a guided tour at Palais des Nations. The tour was excellent—our tour guide holds a Master's in international relations from Tufts. What a small world! He led us through as much of the tour as he could...though many conference rooms were off limits because the UN was hosting labor conferences over the next three weeks. We visited the General Assembly Hall (see photo with flags) and another conference room where a meeting on labor issues was taking place. We observed/listened to the conference proceedings from atop the public observation deck. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and learned a few things too.

• The UN has six distinct bodies
• UN has 72,000 civil servants worldwide. That number only accounts for the people who are responsible for getting things done and for carrying out its duties...it doesn't include diplomats or delegates.
• Six official languages are used at the UN for its intergovernmental meetings and documents: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. If a delegate does not speak/understand any of these languages, they may bring their own interpreter who will interpret from that delegate's language (let's say Portuguese to English). Then the UN interpreters will translate from the standard, which is English to each of the other 5 languages. Although there is sometimes a lag, the interpretation is pretty much simultaneous. Our tour guide explained that there are three Chinese interpreters..and they each take turns speaking and writing down what is said
• Taiwan and Palestine are treated as special entities (with Taiwan officially being treated as a province of China) by the UN, although certain member countries do recognize Taiwan as its own sovereign country
• Each member state has special missions to the UN which is separate than each member states' embassies and consulates
• Peacocks roam about Parc Ariana at Palais des Nations

WEDNESDAY
The horse farmer erected electric wiring around the parameters of our garden to fence in the areas we don't want the horses to eat. Les chevaux are partial to the bark from our poplar trees as well as to old, stale bread..the harder the bread, the better. It'll take the horses three weeks to mow the tall grass in the front yard. I'll post some pictures of the horses soon.

THURSDAY
I feel lazy today but still went for our morning walk. For lunch, we had grape leaves, marinated olives from the market, and leftover galettes noires. Snacking on cherries from our neighbors right now and contemplating spending some time working the garden. Maybe.

Here are some pictures from the past week.

1 - R at Fort l'Ecluse, after we climbed 1,165 steps
2 - Fort l'Ecluse
3 - Me, trying archery for the first time
4 - Le chapeau de gendarme
5 - R sitting down for cafe au lait at Le Tram Bar in a village nearby. Good coffee, cute dog, great day
6 - Fat content cat sitting on a music box in Geneva, at Rue de la confederation
7 - General Assembly Hall at Palais des Nations, in Geneva
8 - Tree-ripened cherries from neighbors down the street. Everyday, we pass by their house and two days ago, we introduced ourselves and got a gift of cherries
9 - Weekly farmer's market. Today we got 2kg of apricots, 3 kinds of cheeses (goat and cow), and 10€ worth of olives)

Fort l'Ecluse: Archery..then 1165 steps to the very top

As the heat subsided this afternoon R and I returned to Fort l'Ecluse, a fort set dramatically in the steep cliff mountainside nearby. By the time we got there, the winds had picked up, and the Via Ferrata was closed to newcomers. I breathed easier knowing I wouldn't have to ascend today. Hoping to summon up some courage one day soon to attempt it.

At the Archery zone, R and I queue up to try our hand at archery. We watch members of the local archery club demonstrate how to use the different bows and arrows and teach people how to stand and hold the different bows. What is the correct stance? Elbows are 90 degrees to your body and your right hand is resting squarely below your right cheek bone. See pictures below. R and I both do well—with most of our arrows landing in the red zone. On my last try, I score big with the arrow landing in the yellow inner circle. 

More on the fort: there's a lower fort and an upper fort and 1165 steps up to the very top. Your reward? A fantastic view of the valley and the Rhone below and on a clear day, you can see out for kilometers. The lower fort is connected to the upper fort via tunnels and terraces. On the climb up we passed lots of rooms and corridors that led to probably more rooms. I stopped a few times to catch my breath as it was a super steep climb, much steeper and longer than the Bunker Hill Monument and maybe the Statue of Liberty climb too (which I did with my sister many years ago).

We're now parked on the sofa with a John Wayne WWII movie after a dinner of homemade pork dumplings and Vietnamese summer rolls. Did I mention that I'm growing coriander, mint, and ciboulette (chives) now?

Fêtes galore

This weekend marks the beginning of summer here. R and I have been seeing signs pop up along the roads like mushrooms, advertising local fêtes planned in the vicinity. At Gamme Vert and other garden stores, I see a steady stream of customers.

Our little town sits in the center of our valley and even though the town center is not big, there always seems to be things happening here. Today we had a very busy day visiting a number of events in town and Saint Claude.

Gastronomical tasting event. There was wine and food from local farmers and businesses. We tried dried saucisson from the farmer who keeps highland cattle a few kilometers from where we live. And I nibbled on crusty bread with different olive tapenades. We bought three pain au chocolate for 2€— formidable.

Palais Oriental. In France oriental usually means Middle Eastern (and North African). There were tables set up with food, tea, and drinks but the highlight of the day was the Turkish, Morroccan, Algerian, and Tunisian dancing shows scheduled for later in the evening.

Fort L'Ecluse nearby has a free Via Ferrata. I am a bit terrified of heights, so I'll happily watch from terra firma. But unfortunately we messed up on the dates and would have to return tomorrow to see the demonstrations on the actual date of the fête. Perhaps a thin metal wire will keep me tethered, but I'm not looking forward to walking a plank or traversing a tight rope with nothing below but tons of air!

Fête d'oiseau is located in another small town close to Geneva. Does this fête have anything to do with les oiseaux or birds? Pas de tout. It's just a small town carnival complete with rides and games. Again we were too early as they were just setting up the different stands.

DRIVING UPDATE
Driving lesson #7. I can pretty much start the car now without stalling. My shifting is still too slow but at least I'm not really thinking about the clutch anymore. We were in a small parking lot, with lots of turns, so I practiced turning and reversing. I want to practice again on the empty road and parking lot close to our house tomorrow.

After the driving lesson R and I visited the Asian market in Ferney-Voltaire. I hit the jackpot! The store is small but has a pretty good selection and reasonable French prices. I zoom in on big jars of sambal olek, tamarind paste, rice paper, vermicelli, ginger, fresh mangosteen, big bottles of fish sauce, rice vinegar, mirin, miso paste, nori, wasabi paste, Thai holy basil, fresh mint, fresh coriander, dried yellow mung beans, dried red beans, and tapioca pearls. They even have baking powder and baking soda, though I doubt I'll need such huge containers of them.

Leaving with my goodies, we journey to Saint-Claude stopping at le chapeau de gendarme, a rock formation created millions of years ago when layers of the earth pushed up, and split, revealing each distinct layer inside. The rock formation is so called because it resembles the triangular shape of a French gendarme's hat.

Saint-Claude is a small town home to a large abbey and some 11,000 people. I was feeling very queasy from the twisty climb up and down to Saint-Claude, so we sat outside at a cafe for a while and hung out with the locals before walking through town.

From what I could see the two main industries were devoted to smoking pipes and eyeglass frames. On our walk we stumbled upon a carnival three times bigger than the one we had initially planned on going to. We watch some teenage boys play a shooting game where they can win things like women's thongs and sexy fur handcuffs. Amused we left to find ourselves a snack and settled on doner kebabs. I got a regular kebab sandwich while R got le Americain which is a steak sandwich topped with fries. One odd thing I spotted is something called Reglisse Americain, American Licorice. The French seem to think it's very long strands of colorful, sweetly flavored licorice. I'm not a fan of licorice..so I walk on.

On our drive back I managed to stay awake (quite a feat for me, as I often get drowsy when I'm a passenger in the car). When we returned to town, we checked out the two festivals near the market square that we had visited earlier. The gastronome event was still going strong, as was the Palais Oriental.

Down the street we followed the rhythmic percussion of Arabic music and joined hundreds of people singing and dancing to the dance demonstrations. There are children dancing close to the front of the stage. And friends and families sitting together, talking and drinking out in the open. R notes that everyone's still well-behaved and there's no bawdy drunkenness. R and I find a place to sit near the front, listening and rocking out to the drums and an instrument that sounds a bit like a bagpipe. A long fine day in France.

Above the clouds on Crêt de la Goutte

Yesterday R and I worked on the driveway again in the morning. As the forecast predicted a beautiful day...we decided to take advantage of the wonderful weather with a hike up the mountains nearby. A quick drive led us to a little parking area at 1400m. R normally parks the car at 1100m and does a longer walk, but yesterday, my thighs/hamstrings were already sore after squatting for hours weeding the driveway. Thus we parked at 1400m and took a small forest trail that led us to a large clearing which opened into a field of pretty cows grazing on the mountainside. There must have been 50 cows up there. Minutes after our arrival, R and I spot an old fox high up who tears down the mountain, dashing into the field of cows and quickly disappearing into them. By the time we make it to the cows, the fox is long gone.

We planned to hike up to the highest point, Grand Crêt d'Eau, a summit which promised a spectacular 360 degree panoramic view of L'Ain and Haute Savoie. We started up 2 peaks, and did not find our peak. In the end, we ascended the highest point we found, Le Crêt de la Goutte. Huffing and puffing up the steep part of the hike, I stopped to take pictures and make the following observations. 

What's springing up in the garden

Springtime is here, though a bit chilly than normal says R. Perhaps it's related to Le Bise winds that raged last night, making big swishing noises and making the chimney tile rattle to and fro. We closed the shutters but still it was quite noisy. Today I took some photos of what I saw out in nature...two beetles doing what's natural, our fuschia peonies in bloom, our sage brush with purple flowers, and me in a small field of poppies about three minutes walk from our house.

The French class at Migro that I had enrolled in was canceled today. Instead I sat in another A2 level class, one that had started April 29. I knew I would have play catch up, but I still sat in the one and half hour class where the teacher was leading through the class through the subjunctive. The subjunctive in French is used, but not as often as in Spanish which is where I had last learned it. Even though I was able to follow most of the class, it was difficult since I haven't covered Imparfait, Passé Composé much less the subjunctive!

After today's Migros class I've decided to enroll at the University of Geneva's intensive French classes le cours d’été which starts on June 28th. From what I understand, the schedule would include three hours of French instruction everyday, followed by two hours of pronunciation, some writing exercises, and then excursions into Geneva to learn about Swiss history, culture, arts, etc. I am so excited and I wish the classes could start sooner! In the meantime I'll be doing self-study in my Barron's French Now book and trying to speak French whenever I have the chance at the supermarket, with the neighbors, etc.

C'est tout et à bientôt!

Roe a deer, a smallish deer

R and I are taking advantage of this time we have together to explore, eat (and me to cook), and listen and learn. Everyday seems to be a bit of an adventure...and today was no different. After working on our seemingly never-ending driveway project for a few hours in the early afternoon, we decided to go for a motorcycle ride. 

The wind shapes many things in our mountainside. Today the wind pushed away the clouds to reveal light blue skies. It had been a few days since we actually saw blue from our house. First stop, the new Middle Eastern store to see if they had fresh coriander. The store itself was large and neatly stocked but it sold mostly canned, jarred, or frozen products. ,R and I bought stuffed grape leaves, Turkish coffee, and Turkish sliced meat. I'm not kidding when I say it tastes like Oscar Mayer baloney. Hoping to find the elusive fresh coriander tomorrow at the farmer's market.

With the snacks in our sac-à-dos, we took the scenic route following the foot of a mountain until we reached signs warning us of falling rocks. We drove past the signs a little further until we reached a barricade in the road. At this point, we selected another road which led us down to the Rhone river. It was a route R had not yet explored, so we chose it, taking in the gorgeous scenery around, above, and below us. The Rhone below, hillside towns in the near distance, and the majestic mountainsides rising above us. As we sped by on R's motorcycle, the wind danced on fields of grass, causing the grass to undulate rhythmically like waves on the ocean. In addition to the ubiquitous cows and sheep grazing lazily on the meadows, we spotted two very cool animals. Rolling down a small hilly road, a deer stood in front of us about 10 feet away. It's the closest I've ever gotten to a wild deer. So very cool. Within five minutes, we saw a fox on the dancing grass about 200 feet away, probably watching a rabbit in the long grass. We had a picnic by the Rhone...totally enjoying the moment. Now we're watching Bruce Lee beat the crap out of some thugs in Rome in The Way of the Dragon. R quote of the day: "They had too much hair and too little buttons in the 70s" in reference to the way the men liked to have their shirts open.

The quest for vinegar, baking powder, and baking soda

Yesterday was my sister's birthday—happy birthday sis! It's the first of many birthdays I won't be there in person to celebrate. Missing my family and feeling a bit homesick this week. So I kept busy in my own way when in a foreign country. Though France is actually not that foreign. Within a 10 minute drive, I can shop at five major supermarkets: Carrefour, Intermarche, ED, LIDL, and Leader Price. If I'm willing to drive 20 minutes further, I can find many more shops. A few of these big chains try to be a one stop shop. Not only do they sell fresh and frozen foods, there's a fromagerie, boucherie, boulangerie inside the store. They further try to cater to the average shopper's every day needs for clothing, electronics, sports gear (even bait), dishes, pots and pans, yarn and thread. The one stop kind of shop may be good for these chains and customers but they are not great for the small independent stores.

With all these shops around, I'm surprised how difficult it has been to find what I think are common ingredients.

Plain white vinegar. There's a whole shelf devoted to vinegar: vinaigre du vin, balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, flavored vinegars with herbs de provence, shallots. But no basic white vinegar. I scoured the oil and vinegar shelves at three different grocery stores before I found it at my local Carrefour. It's called Vinaigre Cristal avec alcohol. At .35€ it seemed very cheap, but I'm hoping it turns out to be what I'm looking for. I'm making Vietnamese green mango salad today and I need the vinegar to make nuoc mam which is the fish sauce that I'll be marinating the mango in.

Baking powder and baking soda. At most supermarkets in the U.S., there's an aisle which holds all your baking needs from baking powder, baking soda, baking chocolates, chocolate chips, Dutch processed cocoa powder to dry yeast, flour, sugar, powdered sugar, and spices. At Carrefour, most of the same items can be found (I learned that through many visits and asking people) but they're spread across different aisles. The sugar is in the sugar aisle while chocolate is in the chocolate aisle. Flour and yeast are in a third aisle. I can't yet find powdered sugar or chocolate chips. And baking powder and baking soda? I've been looking for the little cans of baking powder the past week or so to no avail. Due to my lack of French, I still haven't asked the employees at the supermarket. But thanks to this blog of a fellow American baker who is now living in France, I realized I had seen baking powder in a different form at the supermarkets. Instead of a little metal can, baking powder or levure chimique/levure anglaise are in individual packets. So excited! In her blog, I also found out the French keep the baking soda in the spices aisle. So now I'm fairly confident that I can find almost everything I need. I just have to figure out what it's called, what the packaging looks like, and which aisle to find it in.

Fresh herbs used in Asian cooking such as mint, Thai basil, cilantro (which is called coriander here and in the U.K.). I've planted coriander seeds, which is a perennial so I hope to have coriander for a long time coming.

An Asian market nearby. I do that thing now where I make contact with Asians to say hello (thee are so few of us here) or to ask them about the nearest Asian market. I stopped an Asian man the other day at Migros and asked him if he knew of any good Asian markets nearby. He was only visiting so his Swiss friend told me she had heard rumors that there is one in Ferney-Voltaire, France. I'll try to find that one next though it is as far away as Geneva but maybe it has a bigger selection of food. My wish list, to start—Kasugai gummies, vermicelli, large bottles of soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, rice paper, packages of Mama noodles, packages of chewy squid, roast pork buns, sushi rice, sushi ingredients.

Yesterday R and I spent the greater part of the day searching for French language options for me. We visited and spoke to people at 5 different locations: l'hotel de ville, la Maison Savoie, a social services center, le lycee (high school) which has an adult education center (think BCAE, CCAE), and another center for local immigrants. All fingers pointed to GRETA, a continuing education service which used to offer French language classes, but no longer does at this time. Apparently there is another organization in town that offers classes, but the administrator at GRETA had no idea about the new organization. Today R will telephone our department's prefecture to inquire about local French classes.

After our searches turned up empty R thought we could try visiting American Liz and her husband who live in the same village as we do. Even though she's lived in France for over 30 years, she's still known as "the American Liz" just as R is known as "the Dutch R". And what about me? Will I be given the moniker "the Chinese-American K"?

American Liz is at the gym but her French husband is home gardening and is quite helpful. He says he'll put me in touch with locals interested in language exchange, my English conversation for their French. In addition he would ask his wife about the baking powder (this was before R found me the blog above). And lastly, he pointed us to the house where a Japanese woman lives.

We thanked the schoolteacher and made our way down to the house...the same house that we had passed earlier with a cute kid outside on his scooter. We introduced ourselves to the husband and the kid, asked about his wife and where she shopped for Asian foods. He went inside to get her but she was busy bathing their littlest one. The French home is sacred. So unless you are explicitly invited inside, or have a very close relationship (like we do with our neighbors P and D), you don't automatically go inside. We waited outside for a bit and then he came out and offered me a box of arborio rice from Italy. He frequently travels to Italy and picks up arborio rice which is a good substitute for sushi rice. We chatted briefly about life and work until his wife came out with a very adorable 8 month old baby. The couple and their children were incredibly nice. They moved to town about 7 years ago from Annecy where the wife M had learned to speak French. Annecy has a university and many foreign students so there's actually a good language school there. M and her husband C invited us to stop by anytime (as did American Liz's husband) and we plan to!

On Picard and French air kissing

France, a beautiful country with a complex history, people, and unique food culture. The monarchy, dukedoms, Napoleon, l'art nouveau, the modern French state, a rich and varied terrain, and an importance of food and food culture. Croissants, pain au chocolat, pâté, quiche, escargot, bœuf bourguignon, and I could go on and on. Before I met R I learned and understood little about European history (except in my World History class), much less French history.

To help bridge my lack of cultural understanding, I devoured a book that R lent me which he read himself when he moved to France. Authored by two Canadian expats studying French culture and economy, "Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French" is a good introduction to France and what it is that make the French so French.

How can a country with a 35-hour work week be one of the most productive countries? Despite eating copious amounts of wine, cheese, and butter, how do French maintain such enviable waistlines? Why is life expectancy higher in France, with its "socialized medicine" than in the U.S.? The French seem to have it right, if you ask me. 

It'll take me a rather long blog post to review the book. But in bref, France is the way it is due to history, history, and history. If I've piqued your interest, consider reading this book yourself, and then make a trip to France one day.

PICARD
That's why I find it so interesting, even ironic that Picard has over 820 stores in France, a country with a strong food culture. You haven't heard of Picard stateside? Well I hadn't either until I arrived. After our hike today, I shopped there for the first time, curious to check it out after driving past it many times. Picard is unlike any supermarket I've ever visited. Instead of trying to be all things for all people, it has a simple concept. Provide the best frozen foods. But it's not your average Lean Cuisine or Swanson dinners they're hawking.

In 1906—before the advent of the modern refrigerator and freezer—Raymond Picard founded a factory to produce and sell ice boxes. Since then the company has evolved to selling and distributing frozen foods, and not the ice boxes to preserve food. Since one of my favorite past times is browsing foreign supermarkets, I happily looked in all the freezers, marveling at all the choices and beautiful packaging.  If you're looking for fast, no prep food that you can zap in the microwave or reheat in the oven, Picard has a big selection of what they call cuisine evasion. Here you can find almost ready to eat Vietnamese spring rolls, curry dishes, lasagna, etc. Or maybe you'd like ready made desserts? There's a wide choice, from macarons, petits canelés, moelleux au chocolat and more. What about vegetables, seafood, ice cream, aperitifs? It's all here.

Not a fresh vegetable in sight, but don't get me wrong. I love this store! I think it's funny that France, with its awesome food culture should have such a popular chain. The farmer's markets are great but when you're a busy French mom, Picard is a great option when you want to put tasty, nutritious food on your family's table.

Today we bought frozen spinach, cauliflower, une tarte provence, wild boar, and frozen smoothie pops (cassis and peach/mango). In France, the spinach comes in small blocks so you can reheat just the right amount you'd like. And at Picard the soup comes in block form for portion control. How convenient is that?

FRENCH KISSING
Americans shake hands when meeting new people, and may kiss and hug family members and close friends. Not accustomed to hugging (not done in many Asian families), I've gotten accustomed to it by now. But upon moving to France, I found myself in another culture which has a different way of greeting. Yes, the air kiss, which is practiced not only in France but also Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, amongst other countries.

How many times is the norm? It depends where you're from and on the individual. In my area the norm is two times, but sometimes three. In the south and among really close friends, I've heard it's up to four times! Actually the whole French air kiss is subtle, as you'll see. Here are two situations. What's the protocol for each? 

• You're having dinner with a female friend and her friends of both sexes. If you're female, you'll air kiss everyone present. If you're male, you'll air kiss the females present (including those you are meeting for the first time because they are friends of your friend) and shake all males present. Unless you're from the South or you're related, and then you may also air kiss the males. When you're ready to depart, you'll repeat the above.

• You're going to a concert and you sit next to a nice couple who start chatting with you. Since this is the first meeting and you are total strangers, you'll all shake hands, or perhaps the women will give each other air kisses. But at the end of the evening, you'll say your goodbyes with kisses. See above for protocol between men and women. What happens when you see the couple the next time? You go straight for the air kissing, except for the man on man air kissing.

Case in point: After Picard but before dinner tonight, R and I stopped at the neighbors' for an apero and play "guess the apero", as in guess what it's made from. Tonight it was cherry wine made with cherries from our cherry trees. Since R and the neighbors have been friends for more than 10 years, it's an open invitation whenever they're at home, except on Sundays which are devoted to family time. Here's how the air kiss exchange goes:

R usually initiates by planting 3 kisses on the wife's cheek (I think it's left, right, then left). Simultaneously I receive 2 air kisses from the husband. Sometimes I receive 3 when I leave my chek open for another kiss. Why don't I retract my cheek after the second kiss? Because I'm used to three times (the Dutch are generous apparently so I'm used to the Dutch way of 3 kisses). Then R will shake the husband's hand while I exchange air kisses with the wife. A quick peck on the left cheek, then right, then left cheek. By tradition the neighbors are a two air kiss kind of family....and are often thrown off by mine and R's 3 air kiss quota. Like tonight...my timing was a bit off and I almost kissed the wife on the mouth. A bit embarrassing but also highly entertaining.

During the apero, a friend of theirs, an old schoolteacher in his late 70s, stopped by. Another opportunity to air kiss. Monseiur Clavelle teases my air kissing in a very sweet way and in the end, just kisses me on the top of the head, which made me laugh. Rather than cold and rude, I find the French I meet here to be very warm and welcoming.

TONIGHT'S MENU
Tournesol pan-fried polenta, sliced in thin rounds with sage leaves (fresh from the garden) pressed into it. I served with it with some garlic-ky spinach and steak hache (cut up steak) seasoned liberally with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. For our sweet tooths—an assortment of macarons and a slice of heaven called heavenly called Bisous-Bisous from Brocard in St. Genis-Pouilly. These macarons are better than the ones I tried at the Laduree branch in Geneva. Delicieux. Mmmm.