There was music in the streets (of Lutry, near Lausanne)

Happy autumn! The mountains behind me are turning a soft yellow now and there's definitely a chill in the air. My teeth were chattering a bit on Friday night at Oktoberfest night here in Geneva. Unlike Munich's many beer gardens, Oktoberfest here was held in a bar called Lady Godiva. Some revelers came dressed in their Bavarian dresses and lederhosen. R and I went there to meet a new friend I met last weekend - despite the crowds and not having each other's mobile #s, we found one another and had a great time.

Saturday night we went to Lutry, near Lausanne, for the Lutry Fete des Vendages. It was fun - there were carnival rides, food stands, and music. In the same night, we had great German sausages and the best pad thai and chicken and shrimp satay. The Thai stall was run by 10 Thai women who run a catering service in the greater Lausanne area.

Besides food, there were tents with musical acts - and outside, there was Guggenmusik, a German term used to describe Carnival marching bands who dress up in crazy weird costumes. I think these are the Fasnacht bands which play during Carnival/Fasnacht in Switzerland and Germany. One of the bands, Guggenmusik 3 Canards from Fribourg was spectacular. A small circle of people had encircled them when they were sort of setting up but as soon as the brass section started playing, all of us started to back away by 2 or 3 feet. Were they ever loud! But I absolutely LOVED the music - it got everyone dancing and singing along in the streets.

Sunday we drove a few towns away to check out a mushroom exposition. I have a growing passion to learn more about mushrooms - so for me, it was mushroom heaven because I could pick them up, look at them, smell them and read if they were edible or not. The mushroom club members had picked over 300 kinds of mushrooms (over a 3 day period) which they arranged by family - it was an impressive collection. There was a mushroom that smelled like jasmine, another one like coconut, and another one like anise. And there were pink, purple, red, brown, yellow, black, orange, even green mushrooms! There were mushroom experts to answer questions and lead us through how to identify which family mushrooms came from. The coolest part - we got invited to a mushroom walk in the forest this upcoming Friday with the club and their mushroom expert! I can't wait!!!

The week in review

Bonjour a tous! This weekend sped by so fast - to be honest, I have no idea where all my time goes. I had to reflect back and think about what I did this past week - usually, I'm gardening, going for a walk, reading, cooking or doing something close to home. But it just happened that we had many things to keep us busy.

Friday - R and I joined Glocals.com (think Meetup.com) and went to our first event. It was an Indian dinner cooked by a Glocals member who hosted the event at his house. The food was good but it was not really Indian. More French with some Indian influences. Anyway, there were about 10 people there, including the host who's Indian and works at CERN. I met some nice people and am going to hang out again tomorrow night with one of them.

On Saturday, R and I went to the inauguration of our town's new elementary school (preschool to age 12). My friend Midori's husband is on the town council and was there to give a little speech. The new school has a really nice, bright open feel to it. The classrooms are cheerfully decorated and the school is set away from the main road. The project was completed on time and under budget! And to top it off, there was an amazing buffet after the speeches and music. I wish I had taken pictures of the 3 buffet tables laden with verrines (little appetizers served in little glasses), the roasted leg of pork, and the copious amounts of cheese, desserts, wine, bread, and plates and plates of prosciutto, pate, sausages. Needless to say, I was in sheer heaven!

Saturday night, we went to a birthday party for a friend who turned 60. He is quite possibly the youngest 60 year old I've met. He's a French doctor who has climbed Mt Everest, ran 3 marathons (including the NY one) and although he has raised 2 boys of his own, is now helping to raise his girlfriend's 2 young kids.

Sunday - R's older brother was on his way from Italy back to the NL and stopped by for dinner. I met Martin last November for the first time but had not met his girlfriend before. Anyway, they're very nice. We had an evening bbq and then ate leftover birthday cake from the night before. Is that tacky? Maybe, but you have no idea how great that birthday cake was.

Monday - R and I took a walk and found a path lined with mushrooms. We saw a mushroom that looked like coral and another dark gray one that looked alien-like. And later that night, we watched Will Smith in "I am Legend", a far cry from his days as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Tuesday - I went across the road into 2 open meadows to pick more fairy ring champignons. I saw 2 villagers picking there last week and decided to try my luck. I cam home with 2 bags of mushrooms which I later dried in the oven. The neighbor advised drying them first because drying them intensifies the flavor and you can keep them longer (and also these mushrooms can be reconstituted back into their original shape and texture by sauteing them in a little water and butter.

Wednesday - R and I went into GVA so R could take his CISCO exam. While he was taking the exam, I went to Geneva's Natural History Museum and spent some time looking at taxidermied birds and mammals. There are so many beautiful birds out there with amazing feathers and colors.



Thursday - Market day! R and I decided to walk down (and then later back up) to get some exercise. At the market, we got 8 leeks (2 Euros), 3 plump figs (.60 Euro), and half a kg of chanterelles (3.70 Euros and quite possibly the best deal ever for chanterelles). Tonight, a minimalist penne pasta with carmelized leeks, salt & pepper. Tomorrow, something with chanterelles. Life is good...if only know I can find myself a job here!

All dressed up and walking around in my garden

"Come quick!" yells R from the living room. Running to the balcony window, I peek outside to see this beauty wandering around the backyard:




He's all dressed up and taking a stroll, not really minding us as long as we stay far enough away. He is gorgeous! Look at that color! Wikipedia tells me he's just a Common Pheasant, of the Mongolian Ringnecked type. But to me, he was a delight! After watching him for about 10 minutes or so, he flew off in a huff, scared off by Poubelle, our always hungry adopted feral cat.

This afternoon, we decided to go to Chezery-Forens, a small town with its own fromagerie which my Japanese friend told me about a while ago. There, I bought some fromage blanc, 2 liters of raw milk, a bloc of bleu de gex (a mild blue cheese). Sitting and drinking some warm raw milk now (meaning, non-pasteurized). YUMMM.

And the 2 pics below are from a walk we did in Chezery before visiting the fromagerie. I know I keep on saying how beautiful the surroundings are here in our little part of the world. But really....it was so gorgeous today. The flowers, the old farmhouses, the beautiful rolling hillsides.

Learning to drive (again)

A beautiful sunset tonight with the clouds, sky, and moon in a million shades of orange, then pink and purple. Today I went to Auto Ecole Tony, a driving school in my town in order to sit in on one of their classes. After 18 years of successful (and non-incident) driving in the US, I've decided to get my French driver's license and learn how to drive in France. For someone who loves the freedom of driving in Boston, I miss having a car and knowing how to navigate traffic and where to go. They say Boston drivers are horrible - well, I didn't fear for my life until I met French and Swiss drivers. The road lanes are smaller here, and in our neighborhood, more twisty and turny than I'm used to. And the drivers are crazier!! Wish me luck as I learn how to drive here.





And here's a photo of my "backyard", the rolling countryside behind our house where R and I often walk and where the creamy cows often graze. As you can see, it's still quite green, but in a matter of weeks, I think autumn colors will start to show. On our evening walks, R and I can't help but notice all the fruit trees in our neighborhood that are heavy with fruit. Everyone seems to have an apple, pear, prune, fig, peach, or quince tree. There are even chestnut (chataignes) and walnut trees - just the other night, I picked my first walnut; the outer fruit is green and when you cut it open, the walnut reveals itself. To get at the meat, you'll have to crack the shell.

And at the end of September or early October, I hope to pick my first quinces. Down the hill from the garden, where mushrooms are now sprouting in the horse fermiere (manure), we have an old quince tree next to the 6 adult cherry trees and the blackberry bushes - the quinces are still green but I'm looking forward to making these apple and quince tartlets, from La Tartine Gourmand. I've been spending some time reading her blog and recipes and for me, it is food/photo porn. She is French but now lives in Boston and writes for the Boston Globe too! I haven't tried any of her recipes yet, but I will definitely make something one day soon!

South of France over Labor Day weekend

Last year's Labor Day weekend, R and I drove up to Maine and Old Orchard Beach with May, Chris, Aidan and Isaac. This year, the family and Maine were not an option, so R and I decided to take a tour of the Provence and the south of France.

In July 2000, during my first European Tour with my Mom, I visited the Provence and Cote d'Azur including Nice, Montelimar, Nimes, Avignon and drove through fields and fields of poppies and lavender. This time, it was too late in the season for poppies and lavender (they cut them in August), but we'd definitely see grapes in the vineyards. So we started driving south on Friday 9/3, first to Grenoble and from there, we took N85, La Route Napoleon to the south of France. The route is named after Napoleon because he took this route (from south to north) in 1815 when he escaped Elba and headed to Paris.

It was a merveilleux trip - we saw a different part of the Alps, the gorges du Verdon (the Grand Canyon of France), the Mediterranean Sea, quaint villages, vineyards with heavy bunches of grapes on them, Roman ruins, a papal palace, and felt inspired by the charms of Arles and the Provence.

Some favorite photos/experiences of the trip:

Moustiers-Saint-Marie. One of the most beautiful little French towns I've ever seen. It is set high in the mountains - do you see the white star strung between the 2 rock faces? We walked up to the chapel pretty quickly but much more slowly down- the stone stairs have been treaded on so many times over the years that they are slippery, esp. wearing 10 year old Tevas with no tread on them!


It was a beautiful drive up to the Gorges du Verdon...considered to be the Grand Canyon of France. This picture shows the calm waters of the river Verdon - as you can see there were many tourists on canoes, pedal boats, etc in the blue/green waters. In Castellane, the waters are a little bit more rapid and from there, you can sign up for rafting, canyoning, water hiking trips.


This view of the Vieux Port in Marseille is taken from the Parc du Pharo. Marseille is a mix of old and new. It's either the 2nd or 3rd largest city in France after Paris and Lyon. And more than my town and Geneva, it is a huge melting pot of peoples from North Africa, Turkey, Portugal, Spain.


A view of the islands from the Boulevard Cornich John F Kennedy. It was about a 40 minute walk from our hotel in the Vieux Port - we were there searching for Le Rhul, a restaurant that specializes in bouillabaise, a famous seafood stew dish from Marseille. At Le Rhul, they serve the broth first with a large basket of crusty bread and a huge bowl of rouille (aoli with lots of saffron) and then the fish which was pretty fresh. At 48Euros a person (with a minimum of 2 people ordering it), it was the most expensive meal we've had in France since we arrived. It was fresh and good, but sadly it didn't live up to my expectations.




Avignon's Papal Palace and the Pont d'Avignon. Love the playful elephant sculpture.




And I couldn't resist visiting Arles to see my first Roman ruins - this amphitheater was built in 90AD and seats 20,000 people. The ancients came here to view chariot races and gladiator games, most of them gory and where gladiators fought to the death. Now it's occasionally used for corridas (bull fights where the bulls are not killed at the end).


When Van Gogh lived in Arles from 1888 to 1889, he painted a few masterpieces..including The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night. Well, the picture below is of the same cafe, now named Cafe Van Gogh and we ate dinner one night across from it. What you don't see is the many tourists taking snapshots of it while the diners are trying to eat and avoid the flashes in their eyes. What's your favorite Van Gogh painting? For R, it's The Starry Night which is housed at MOMA. Personally, it's hard for me to choose. I love his play of colors, the texture, the dimensions, and his organic way of painting. A life cut too short at 37.

Tastes of summer and autumn

Just returned from a quick evening walk outside - the sun is setting earlier and tonight it was pitch black by 9pm. There's a sharpness to the air now and though our valley is still remarkably green, I think we'll see a stunning blanket of autumn colors here in a few weeks.

As it's September, the tomatoes in the jardin are ripening. I returned from the south of France to find 15 sun-ripened tomatoes. In Arles, I tasted a sublime ratatouille and wanted to re-create it at home. I was also hoping for some big plump eggplants and zucchinis but alas they are too young still.

What's a girl to do with so many tomatoes? Tomato sauce came to mind, but recently I saw some mouth-watering stuffed tomatoes and of course, I wanted to make them when I got home. The result = super yummy, moist, with every bite tasting like summer. The tomatoes are incredibly tomato-ey. I wished I had made much more so I could have it for a midnight snack.

• Take 5 medium tomatoes and slice them in half.
• Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes and mince the scooped out part.
• Mince some garlic, shallots, onion.
• Cook about 2 cups of arborio rice until it is al dente.
• In a saute pan, saute over low heat the garlic, shallots, onion until it is translucent and fragrant.
• To that, add some spinach and petit pois (green peas), a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Season to taste.
• When the rice is done, mix in the vegetable mixture.
• Then scoop your rice into the tomato cups - I also drizzled some olive oil and some more freshly black pepper onto the tomatos before baking for 10 minutes at 175Celsius.

Autumn is my favorite season and every year, my sis and I make our annual apple picking/apple eating trip out to Stowe, MA. Things I love about this tradition: I love the drive out there, the apple orchard is so beautiful with long grassy lanes, the apple cider donuts, the Boston Honey the small store sells, the big tall apple trees with the biggest apples at the top of the tree (you have to use ladders to get those!), spending time with my family and baking crisps and pies afterwards. And the best part: the smell of apples, trees, and grass in my hair after a day out at the apple orchards. So for dessert tonight, I made a really simple apple and nectarine crisp using French apples and nectarines I got at a farmer's market recently. The interesting twist to my crisp? I used cormeal and almond flour to achieve a crunchy golden brown topping!