France Again

This ex-pat thing is a bit like college in that there are a wide assortment of people here who aren't "home," who are eager to explore, and who are not really tied down to the white picket fence. No kids, no spouse (or at least not one who is here) and no soccer games/bake sale/yard-to-mow to keep them from just picking up and going exploring. Fortunately, I'm running into those people and we are throwing phrases around like "how about Turkey in February?" or "maybe we could ski Zermatt next month?" It's awesome!

A little more tame, but certainly just as fun, was my trip across the water this weekend. Right across the lake from me is France, including Alps, the Euro and the famous water of Evian. With the autumn weather still holding out and an open Saturday, it was time to go for a little visit.

Fortunately, I had warned my travel companions that, according to the internet and some Swiss friends, there really isn't anything to actually DO in Evian. I can now attest that that is true. But, we found that strolling along the lakeside, eating tarticlette (not a low-cal lunch) and looking for the famous water fountain were just about all we needed to enjoy ourselves.

And, it was a great day for me to practice my French, since none of my friends spoke any. One of my shining moments was translating the huge seasonal sign posted on the hillside that said, in my mind, "The Largest Christmas Mouth in the World will be in Evian on November 28, 2011." Which just goes to show you how one tiny little letter can change a whole sentence. "Bouche" is mouth. "Buche" is Yule log. Ooops. My friends were all ready to come back later to see the Great Christmas Mouth (sounds sort of like a Charlie Brown special), but when they found out it was just a big Yule log, they lost interest. My French teacher laughed so hard she cried when I told her about the great Christmas mouth. She is looking forward to telling her family when they have a Yule log over the holiday (apparently it's a cake???)

After our return boat ride, we did some wine tasting in Lausanne and ended up at a great restaurant for dinner. Yay! I finally got to eat out! And, it did not include tuna pizza. Voila! Again, my interpreter skills were put to the test with the wine list. There was a red that I took to mean "from the House of the Spleen of the Hunted Game." Needless to say, I did not recommend it. I looked it up later and apparently it meant "from the House that Chases Away the Blues."

My friends don't really trust my French anymore. Ya think?

Vive la France

My breakfast of Special K and three-week old milk (it turns out that UHT is a wonderful thing!) was probably not the best way to start my journey to the gastronomic capital of the world, Lyon, France. But, as it turns out, it was fitting foreshadowing.

I arrived at the train station early so I could buy my ticket, only to find out that the ticket window did not open until 8:00 and my train was at 8:01. Tried the ticket kiosk, but, alas, you cannot buy international tickets there. hmmmm. My travel companions had the same problem, so we solved it by getting kiosk-printed tickets to Geneva with the intention of buying our Lyon tickets from there. Too bad the line at the Geneva ticket windows was so long that we didn't get to buy our Lyon tickets until the very minute that our train was leaving.

So, rather than having a long lunch in Lyon, we walked around Geneva for two hours waiting for the next train. Not all bad, since I likely won't spend much time touring Geneva (profit hath no honor in his hometown). We explored some of the quaint alleys (right) and hiked up a hill to a church. (I think you will hear me say that a lot ..."I hiked up a hill to a church"...as that seems to be what every town and city in Europe has. A historic church on a hill.)

Finally time to catch the train to Lyon, we loaded up on sandwiches purchased at the train station. I think the others were disappointed, but I LOVE train station sandwiches. Seriously. This one was "jambon cru," which is sort of like prosciutto. I was secretly glad that we were getting train station sandwiches.

Our first stop in Lyon was at Les Halles de Lyon. Apparently this is a foodie's paradise. It is an indoor food market. It is said to be where all the top chefs in Lyon go to choose their best ingredients. It was pretty amazing. Cheeses (left, most I've never even heard of!), meats (including whole dead rabbits, with fur), fruits and vegetables (nothing crazy there), oyster bars, wine bars, desserts (that truly looked like works of art), chocolate, olives, and beautiful breads.

The most intriguing and morbidly fascinating spot in the entire place was a wine bar that had entire deer legs clamped onto the bar. You ordered your wine and then the bartender would take a knife and serve you slivers of meat he sliced directly off the leg (with hide and hoof still attached, mind you). I opted to go around the corner (out of view of the deer legs) and get a glass of Tattinger champagne at the tamer wine and salami bar.

After the foodie exploration, we hiked up the hill to the (you guessed it) church(es). We stopped by St Jean (right) where an enthusiastic band of young people was playing marching band music in the square. Then, we took the funicular up an even bigger hill to the most famous landmark in Lyon. The Basilica of Our Lady of Fourviere (Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere) was, of course, beautiful, but the view was even more amazing. We could see all of Lyon. Nearby was the Tour Mettalique, a mini version of the Eiffel Tower, which was built only four years after its more famous sister. It's now essentially used as a TV relay station.

A bit below the church and tower was an amphitheater, parts of which dated back to Roman times. We walked down through the ruin and I thought it was pretty cool that the theater is still used. They've augmented it with a few platforms for lighting, but other than that, it is all stone. I think you would have to bring some major couch cushions if you intended to sit through an entire performance on those seats, though.

More walking back down to the city where we found the Bartholdi Fountain, an amazing creation depicting a female charioteer (naked, of course...this is Europe) with four devil-like horses. For the Americans reading this, Bartholdi is the same person who created the Statue of Liberty. Supposedly, the fountain represents France controlling the four great rivers of the country. The horses have claws coming out of their hooves. A bit freaky. Not a good day for hooves for me! First deer, now creepy horses.

Knowing a European dinner lasts two hours minimum and that our train would leave at 7:30, it was time for us to settle down to a famous Lyonnaise dinner. Hmmm, where to find a non-tourist restaurant that was open at 5:00? Hmmmm, nowhere. After quite a bit of walking, asking and hopefully poking our heads in asking "ouverte?" we ended up headed back to the train station. My fellow travelers stopped by the Halle to pick up treats for the ride home. Meanwhile, not keen on the hairy deer legs, I found my favorite European version of fast food...a turkish kebab shop... up the street. One doner to go, please!

So, the end of a day exploring the epicurean center of the world found us perched on a railing in the train station eating out of to-go bags. Perhaps not what we had in mind, but an amusingly ironic way to end the trip.

Friday Night Date

Don't everybody get excited. My Friday night date is with the laundry and a glass of wine. I have to say that, after three weeks, this is not entirely unwelcome. It is my unwinding time from the week and, believe me, there is something very comforting about knowing you will have clean clothes, towels and sheets for the week.

The necessity to do laundry got me out of the office early today, by 5 p.m. (17:00 to you Swiss), only for me to come home and find that the laundry room key the building supervisor puts in my mailbox each Friday WAS NOT THERE!!! Waaaaaaa? Somebody stole the laundry room key! Fortunately, she has extras. Unfortunately, she was not going to be home for almost an hour. C'est la vie. Time to have a glass of wine and figure out what to have for dinner.

I'm going to France tomorrow for a day trip (beats Nevada, which was the only foreign day trip I could make from home). I think it's going to rain all day. But, there are worse places to spend a rainy day...hmmmm, Nevada comes to mind again....

Saturday in Photos

Not any interesting stories this week, but thought you would enjoy some pictures from Saturday...

Started the morning with a trip to the farmer's market (at right) for bread, cheese and some beautiful veggies. For those keeping track at home, the new cheese for the week is Appenzeller. Delicious! Really nutty flavor. I'm a fan. In fact, I like it better than Gruyere. Although, there are about 75 different cheesemakers who make Appenzeller and all have their own recipes, so I may never get this exact cheese again.

Then it was off to the train station and a day trip to Lausanne. Another farmer's market, some window shopping in the alleys and a really steep hike up the hill to

city hall (below)

where there was
a street band playing

just below the cathedral.