Parapente

Prior to leaving France, we decided to join a group of students in one of the region's attractions:  Parapente, or in English, paragliding.  Apparently, this sport was invented in our alpine region of France, where the combination of the heights, and the lakes (which provide some kind of thermal updraft), make this sport possible.

We had often seen these parachutes while driving around, so we figured we'd give it a try.  Overall, to sum up the experience is a bit long and complicated.  The weather was a bit iffy, and there were a couple injuries in our group, as well as delay for everyone.  I won't give the whole story.  Needless to say that, for us, it was an incredible 10-minute ride from the side of the cliff down to the landing ground.  Here are a few pictures:

Our friend Hudson at the top of the take-off area.  Lake behind him.

Eric after lift-off.

Lac d'Annecy in the background.

The two of us after safe landings for both of us.

Wrought Iron Around Albertville

It's time again for "Make Your Own Photo Souvenirs."  When my parents visited, they had a desire to make a themed photo collection.  They did a great series of Irish doors a few years back, and were looking for something similar.  Nothing really materialized, and so after they left, I put together a group of pictures for Wrought Iron.  

The following are a sample of the 25 or so pictures I selected.  They are all from our little town of Albertville, including the medieval neighborhood on the hill, Conflans.  Enjoy.  

Taste-Test: Fromage

As we have alluded to before, French food has an intrinsic attachment to its land.  That is why, for the most part, French wines are named not for their grapes (such as Merlot, Pinot, Chardonnay), but for their region of land (Bordeaux, Bourgogne, Cotes du Rhone).  It's the same thing for cheeses, and a few other products.

There are of a lot of French cheeses that have earned the right of their proprietary name being protected by the government.  We have a couple local examples of this.  Our favorite is the Beaufort, which is about 15km from Albertville.  If you're going to call it Beaufort, your cows have to graze on this certain side of the mountain.  If not, the cheese police will come after you (I guess).

But cows do graze the other side of the mountain.  And cheese is made from them by basically the same process.  What to do with such disgraceful bovine products?  Hmm...we can't call it Beaufort...how about Beaumont?

And voila, we have Beaumont cheese, which sells for about 70% of the price of Beaufort.  French food tradition would suggest that it cannot be the same taste, since the taste is linked to the land, and the land is (though albeit nearby) not the same.  I must admit that, growing up happy on American generic products as I have, I was skeptical of any significant difference.

Rachel's family is visiting, and they bought some Beaufort.  We then realized that we had some leftover Beaumont in the fridge.  Taste test!  The Beaumont is at the top of the picture, and the Beaufort is on the cutting board at the bottom.  As well trained medical scientists, we created a blinded study by cutting the cheeses into the same shape.  I closed my eyes and Dr. Rachel fed me the first one.  

However, immediately on tasting, I could sense a difference.  I had a suspicion that this wasn't the real Beaufort.  I rinsed a bit to cleanse the palate, and then Rachel gave me the second.

This time there was no doubt.  The second piece was much creamier with a much stronger Beauforty taste.  I told Rachel my results.  I was right.  She did the same, as did Aunt Lois, in a non-blinded fashion, and the result was unanimous.

Sorry, cows on the other side of the mountain.  The cheese is good, but it's not Beaufort.

Our Wee-Home Whilst in Paris

Some of you have heard us mention our digs in Paris.  Great city - Famously expensive.  Rachel discovered Housetrip.com, where you can rent people's homes, mostly studio apartment, for your stay.  At the last minute, the tiniest (and least expensive) place opened up, and we grabbed it.

Here were the photos we saw online:  As  you can see, it's a one-room studio with a loft, and a couch downstairs, with a kitchenette and bathroom to the left.  Note the fish-eye lens.  I don't think this is used primarily to make it seem bigger.  I think it's impossible to photograph the room while inside it with a normal lens.

But you can't beat the location.  We were "A".  The Louvre is "B" and Notre Dame is "C".  Google mapped the A-B-C route as 30 minutes walking. 

So, what was it actually like.  Well, the building has the most awesomely irregular stairs.  Ben loved to slowly climb them each day.  The wood was totally polished.  Our flat was on the 3rd floor (by the American nomenclature).

Note the lack of anything of anything level.

Here's a regular view in the front door.  The back of the room is right there.  Maggie slept on the couch, and Ben on a duvet cover on the floor next to her.  So, every night at 8pm, Rachel and I retired to the loft to study, read, and plan by the light of a single lamp until we went to sleep.  It was actually quite nice.

The bathroom wasn't insanely tiny, and the kids loved playing in it.

You can see here the back of the front door.  Note the window.  It opened into a 4'x4' space, where one could see the sky if you looked straight up a few floors.  I'm in the "kitchen" here, where we cooked breakfast every morning, and a couple dinners.  The TV table folded out to become a dining table, but then I was trapped in the corner by the table and ladder until eating was done.

So, all in all, it was perfect for our family, and we're thankful.

Less Famous Glimpses of Paris

We certainly filled our days in Paris with the most famous of sites.  There really are just so many famous places there that, in four days, it's hard to move on to anything else.  

But, in contrast to the more classic Madeline views, we thought we would try and provide some views of Paris that are not so ultimately familiar.

Looking up the Eiffel Tower from the 2nd deck.

These two in the subway chairs.  Ben loved them to the point of we wouldn't sit in them for just a couple minutes, because he was apt to cry when leaving them.

This is from in front of Sacre Coeur.  We had been told that there were a bunch of street performers there, and there were.  This guy was the best.  He was juggling a soccer ball on the concrete platform below.  Very impressive by itself.  Then he started spinning the ball on a little pen, stuck it in his mouth, climbed the lamp post, and swung from the light, with the spinning soccer ball outstretched with a great view of Paris at dusk behind him.  Click on it to enlarge.

If you asked the kids for the highlights, they would probably mention quacking at the ducks here.

Or maybe playing in the nearby playground in Luxembourg Gardens.

 This is looking out of Musee d'Orsay at the Louvre, on the opposite side of the Seine.

 The immensity of the Louvre was staggering despite expecting it to be huge.  This was looking out a window of one wing, looking at the other wing.

Notre Dame Cathedral turns 850 years old next year.  I think my favorite part of the exterior is the endless statues.  Here, above the doorway, there are just rows and rows of statues.  Do we know who they all are? Is it lost to history somewhere?

On a few of the bridges across the Seine, people take a lock, bind it to the bridge, and toss the key into the river, generally as a sign of undying love for someone.  This was the most lock-encrusted.

In this case, the rainbow came right before the rain.  The Hotel de Ville, under the rainbow on the left, was 2 minutes walk from our place.

Thanks to Nicholas Cage and National Treasure 2, I knew that there was more than one Statue of Liberty. We saw 3 in Paris alone.  I think this one didn't really count, because it was a model, but I think it's been here in Luxembourg Garden since the early 1800s.

From inside the Louvre pyramid.

I guess this is pretty famous, but Saint Chapelle's stain glass really was breathtaking.

Given the soft spot in my heart for buskers, I thought it was great when 3 accordions and a sax boarded our train for Versailles and started playing.

Madeline's Paris

Well, we're back from our little foray to Paris.  It was a good and tiring time, and we'll probably put up a couple of posts on it.  For a general perusal of some of the famous sites of Paris that you probably already know, I thought we could do it through the eyes of Madeline.

To try and prep Maggie for this trip, we would read her copy of Madeline and point out some of the places that we were going to see.  Other people have done this kind of thing on the web already, but here you go:

First off, the cover shot, with the Eiffel Tower, the one Maggie was most excited to see.

It was blustery, but we did go all the way to the top.

Place de la Concorde is actually on the inset in the front of the first Madeline book, but I couldn't find a copy of that one, so this illustration is one of the later books.

And here, our photo of the same.

 "Invalides", or what Maggie calls "The Golden Dome".  I guess this was a home for wounded soldiers.  In Madeline, this is where the girls were "sometimes very sad".

We didn't have time to go into the courtyard, but we walked around it, while waiting for the Rodin museum to open.

Luxembourg Gardens: The girls took their walk "in rain or shine"

This is us sitting by the pool, with the same mansion behind us.  The kids loved the ducks as well as the nearby playground.

Maggie chasing the pigeons.

 Notre Dame is where the girls go walking "in rain"

This is the closest en face shot that we have.

Tuileries Garden, between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde, is where Miss Clavel decides that it's a fine day to visit Madeline.  You can see the Louvre in the background with its big arch.

Here's the Louvre from the other side of the arch.  We didn't take a lot of pictures in the gardens, because...

 ...we were doing this instead.

 

Sacre Coeur, in the background here, really is beautiful.  "Madeline loved winter, snow, and ice."

Thankfully, no ice for us, but rather a carousel, Maggie's absolute favorite.  Ben went on too, but just wanted to keep switching animals.

Place Vendrome is where the girls "frown at the bad". 

 And the thief knew what he was doing, since these shops are expensive.  Rachel found earrings starting at 13,000 Euros.  I saw diamond skeleton Halloween earrings.  Really?