It's a small world after all

Today was a brilliant, warm, sunny kind of day on my mountainside. I'm not sure about you, but it is so nice to see the sun again after a few days of cloudiness. But as soon as we drove past Fort l'Ecluse, the couverture over the Geneva valley was apparent. Undeterred, we drove to the Vin et Gastronomie fête in Armancy (still in France but on the other side of Lake Geneva). We were invited by a vitner from Morgogne who makes delicious wine that R likes.

We arrived hungry so we quickly found the oyster, or huître, vendor and had 12 yummy oysters on the half shell. Some people hate the texture, but R and I slurped the dozen down, enjoying the fresh briny taste. Some people like sweets, I *love* savory and salty, or better yet a mix between sweet and salty like caramel sel beurre ice cream.

Tasting the oysters today brought me back to a beautiful end-of-summer day R and I had in Wellfleet, MA. I wanted to show R the Cape, so we stopped in Wellfleet before heading to the beauty and carnival that is Provincetown. In Wellfleet, we were strolling over a small bridge over low tide of a bay (I think). A dad and his two sons were digging for oysters under our footsteps. Curious, we said "hello" and were soon after invited down to try an authentic Wellfleet oyster. It was probably one of the freshest, most delicious things I've ever eaten. The scene couldn't have been simpler - it was just a man with his knife and the oysters. No lemon, vinegar or Tabasco needed.



Anyway, after today's oysters, we took a quick survey of the vendors and their goods...there were about 30 or so tables where vitners were offering degustations or tastings of their wine. Other vendors were selling local jam, honey, pâte de fruits, sausages, cheeses. Then we decided to have lunch. The meal was pretty good and super filling. Banish the thought of minuscule French portions! In the countryside, it's only hearty fare with generous portions served by friendly people.

Even at a simple fête, it was a multi-course meal with:

• an entrée (also known as appetizer in the U.S.)
• plat principal (which is confusingly called an entrée in the U.S.)
• a cheese plate
• dessert
• coffee which is served with small little chocolates.

The dining hall was packed - but luck brought us to sit next to a friendly couple who offered to share their bottle of wine with us (and we repaid their friendliness by offering to share our bottle with them). Soon after, we found out their daughter has been working in Boston for the past 5 years. R has the GIFT OF GAB, so he held up most of the conversation with the husband while I tried to talk to the wife who knew a little English. But apparently, I know more French than she knows English! So we spoke in French. I love that I'm picking up French well enough to follow the conversations and able to speak a little bit, albeit with a thick American accent.

Looking forward to our trip to the NL, Luxembourg, and Belgium this week! Second year in a row we'll be spending Thanksgiving and the day we met in lovely Holland. Hoping the weather is more dry this year than last!

6 months abroad

On November 12, I celebrated 6 months of living in France! R and I took a ride to nearby Nantua where there is a lake with a little beach. In the summer, we came here a few times to sunbathe by the lake which is surrounded by mountains. On that fall day, it was unusually warm, so we took a long walk, appreciated the warm weather but wondered if the nice weather wasn't a sign of global warming, and ate kebabs while watching the sun set.

I've learned so much since arriving and altogether, it's been an eye-opening experience. But as Thanksgiving and Christmas draws near, I'm getting more homesick. Thank goodness I have a trip planned for Boston in less than a month!

Until then, I'm going to be a busy girl. Last night, R and I went to another Glocals event hosted by a Dutch guy...his event? Dutch spekpannekoekenavondsmulfeestje which means Dutch bacon pancake savoring party! Say that fast 3 times :)

It was a fun time; the only requirement was to finish at least 1 giant pancake. R and I brought 2 bottles of cider (2.5% alcohol) while others brought Dutch beer, Belgian beer, and more cider. I managed 2 ginormous pancakes while R had 3 and a half. So yummy and filling - not a diet food, but if you could have smelled the bacon and the apple. And to top off the pancake? Dutch stroop, or syrup. There was also confiture, sugar, Emmentaler (Swiss cheese). But the best part was the company...a group of 6 fun Dutch plus 1 Colombian woman and me. It was a good time and I hope to see this group again soon!

Today I'm going to another mushroom outing with the mushroom club while R gets new tires for the car. Sunday we're going to Geneva's Escalade parade which celebrates the defeat of troops sent by the Duke of Savoy by the Genovoise. And Monday or Tuesday, we are going to the NL via Luxembourg and Belgium to visit R's family and ailing aunt.

A walk in the forest near Bellydoux

Heavy rains lifted early this afternoon, so R and I decided to take a drive and find a beautiful place to walk. I chose Bellydoux because it would be a nice drive and possibly a nicer walk. We found a trail on the lower part of Bellydoux (pronounced Belly-doo) near Le Semine. Up in the mountains surrounding us, the trees had a pretty dusting of snow. I could feel winter coming..boo :( But the waterfalls were a nice surprise!


Despite what the sign says below, we saw no hobbits!

Muffin and fall foliage

Muffin, the kitty (aka Muffin Face), enjoying unusually warm weather and taking in the fall foliage (as seen from our backyard). Muffin started coming around in September and now is a frequent visitor to the house. He even knows how to knock on the door to get our attention...he eats everything and is very lovable. However, he and Poubelle (who also comes every other day) are sworn enemies. Oh..I hear Muffin knocking on the balcony door now...

Muffin and R enjoying time together. Here Muffin supervises while R works on the gate.


Muffin and R cuddling.

Two sweet donkeys we passed on our walk - here's R giving them some Granny Smith apple.


And who wouldn't love this sweet miniature horse? He had the cutest beard and soft kind eyes. I wanted to take him home with us.

Loups-garous

First, I was the Idiot and then Cupid and afterwards, just a simple villager in love with a werewolf who turned human. The little girl had me laughing my butt off, and everyone was suspicious of everyone else. Puzzled?

Last night, R and I attended an awesome event in the Paquis neighborhood - a Loups-Garous party. If you don't know what that is..it's a French social game in which villagers are haunted by werewolves. Each person is dealt a card which contains his/her secret role - either a villager, a villager with special powers (such as a Prophet, Witch, Cupid, Village Idiot, Hunter, or Little Girl), or a werewolf. There are 3 werewolves and many villagers. The werewolves' identities are revealed to each other; but the villagers cannot discriminate between plain villagers, villagers with special powers, and werewolves. The objective is to figure out the villagers posing as werewolves and lynch the werewolves before they eat you and the rest of the village up! The fun part is that it's a very social game in which suspicions, lies, pretending fly around; but in the end, only logic will help you solve the puzzle!

In English, the game is called "Werewolves"; other variations of this type of game are Mafia and Murder Detective.

I played Murder Detective years ago at a birthday party and though it was fun, I loved the Werewolves game much more. For one, it was hosted by the most jovial Japanese man who had played the game a number of times and liked it so much, decided to host his own event at a friend's house. His props, music, and the signs he gave for each character were hilarious! Especially the one of the "Little Girl" which was a wink and a sideways tilt of the head. Anyway, there were 16 of us including the host, who played the narrator/moderator.

Here are the general rules in case you'd like to play! Maybe we can organize a game when I'm back in Boston in December or January! Let me know if you'd be interested.

Autumn in Annecy

Speleo and other pics

Beets and a lonely Charentais melon harvested on Oct 11, 2010.


Mushrooms picked on Oct 15, 2010 with my mushroom club.


Our bountiful chataigne harvest one fall day.



Tarte aux pommes from Fete des Ecoles. It smelled so good, we ate it in the car as the rain came down.

Spelunking initiation day. The first pic of R going into the hole is hilarious! It looks like it was a tense situation.





Smiles of ecstasy from having emerged from the grotte Felicite!

Red Cross and new discoveries

Second day in a row of sun! With temps in the mid 60s (felt like 70), I was in a good mood despite a horrible night's rest. R and I camped out on the sectional couch again. The window frames and windows we had stained and lacquered in the master bedroom upstairs were still not dry yet.

Busy busy day. R and I volunteered at the local chapter of Croix Rouge Francais (Red Cross). We met the branch President Janine a few weeks ago through Helene, sister of one of our neighbors. Today R and I helped stock the branch's epicerie, a little grocery store where clients can buy groceries at a huge discount.

The food had just been delivered by other volunteers from Bourg-en-Bresse where the Red Cross' food bank is located. Janine and the delivery guys had already unloaded items for the refrigerated and freezer sections. There were hundreds of boxes of milk, zucchini, turnips, celeraic, croissants, cheese, quiche, yogurt!! So what was left? We helped her stock the shelves (and I say so myself, we left that epicerie looking awesome!) I unpacked "Holland Style" rice and potatoes, chocolate dessert while R stocked the shelves with canned peas, green beans, sauerkraut, carrots, baby food, etc, etc. Due to the large Muslim clientele, he had to organize the items so as to separate items containing pork from other items. Then Janine and I unpacked huge sacks of carrots and potatoes and repackaged them into 1kg bags of each while another older sweet man repackaged bananas into 1kg bags. It was fun...and I felt good and useful, even if for 2 hours. Tomorrow, we've been invited to help out at Resto du Coeur (restaurant of the heart).

Most things are priced/valued at 1 or 2 Euros. But that isn't the price that the client pays. E.g., if something is priced at 1Euro, the client pays 10%, or .10 Euro cents. Depending on family size and circumstances, a family of 2 may be able to purchase up to 50 Euro of food, but in the end they will only pay 5 Euros. There were some French clients, but most were spoke little French (and were Muslim). I felt for them..as I too am a foreigner and it's hard learning a new language as an adult.


Made 2 discoveries today:
1. Found Farine de ble - type 65 at Leader Price (a discount grocery store..think small Costco)! David Lebowitz (Chez Panisse's patisserie chef who now resides in Paris) says this is as close as you can get to All Purpose Flour. I hope to make chocolate chunk cookies tomorrow..and I hope to have a better result than the last batch I made using Type 45 flour.

2. As it was a gorgeous warm day, I drove up Le Plateau du Retord for a hike and maybe to find some mushrooms. We had a great view of the valley basin..but the cold windy weather up there chased us away. Seeking warmer pastures, we descended to Billiat and found a nice country road with absolutely gorgeous views of the Juras, the Vuache, the Parmelan mountain, and a crystal clear view of the Alps and the Mont Blanc. But the best part? After a bit of walking, while I was busy looking for mushrooms, we happened upon a field of white looking root vegetable resembling a carrot. It smelled like a radish, so I took a small bite and it tasted like a daikon, but as I've never seen a daikon with its greens on, I wasn't 100% sure. I picked a young one and HUGE one - I just Googled it now and it's confirmed. They are daikons! I knew you could eat the roots (my mom uses it a lot in Chinese and Vietnamese cooking), but I learned today you can also eat the greens. What shall I do with the daikons? I fancy some daikon radish cakes.

A photo of the daikon "cake" I made using above recipe and served with spicy hoisin sauce. So yum.

I DRIVE!!!!

Feeling triumphant tonight! One of the things on my bucket list for a while has been learning how to drive stick shift...amongst others like skydiving (not sure when that will ever happen as I'm AFRAID of heights), living abroad, learning to speak another language fluently, etc.

Tonight I drove down to auto école and grocery shopping all by myself! Woohoo.

Maybe I'll drive part of the way to the Netherlands in a few weeks...anyway, R and I went to Lyon last Tuesday and had a wonderful dinner at the restaurant at Institut Vatel (a world-renown hotel management school).

Menu:

Aperitif (only R, as I don't really drink alcohol)
Amuse bouche
Entree
Plat Principal
Cheese plate (with choice of 25 different cheeses), or fromage blanc with creme and sugar on top
Followed by a chariot of desserts (but it was more like 3 chariots of desserts and another table).

By the time the chariots came out (2.5 hours into dinner), I was so full. But I couldn't resist and tried 3 different tortes. I was laughing so hard at seeing the desserts because the choice and quantity was RIDICULOUS.