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?

Coq au Vin

We just finished a meal that was surprisingly good.  I mean, really good. Surprising for at least two reasons.  First, we had made coq au vin a few years ago in Michigan with a slow-cooker recipe and it was notably underwhelming.  Second, when I decided to try again tonight, based on the stuff in our fridge, I just read a couple recipes online, and then winged it for somewhere in the middle.  That kind of thing doesn't usually go so well for me.  

But this was delicious, and so I wanted to write down the recipe and thought I might as well post it here, for my own reference, and anyone else that is curious.

1.  Saute in a big saucepan with olive oil:  1-2 chicken breasts (cubed) and 4-5 fresh mushrooms (sliced) for a few minutes until browned.  Also with 3 medium cloves of garlic, some salt and pepper, and some "Herbs de Provence".  (I would guess Italian seasoning would also do the trick, but I'm sure French food people would kill me for saying so.)

2.  After a few minutes, add:  2 carrots (sliced and peeled) and 1.5-2 fresh tomatoes (diced).  Simmer for about 5 minutes.

3.  Add 1/2 cup red wine.  We had a Cote du Rhone on hand.  I also added about 5 fresh basil leaves, torn into smallish pieces.  Simmer for 20 minutes.

4.  Add 1 cup of chicken stock or bullion equivalent.  I also added about 1-2 tablespoons of flour to thicken it.  I have no idea if that did anything.  Simmer for 15 more minutes, then serve.  It was really yummy.

BREAD:

I happened to match it really nicely with an ad hoc bread.  It was an herb focaccia.  I made it using the 5-minute artisan bread recipe (boule recipe with herbs mixed into the dough) that we have posted on before.   I pressed it flat and after 30-minutes of rising, I used my fingers to press divots in it, basted some olive oil over the top, and sprinkled Herbs de Provence, garlic powder, and salt.  Also yummy.

Bon Appetit.

Un Petit Voyage a Chambery

We're a bit behind on our little excursions, but a few weeks ago, we took the train to the closest biggish city to our own, namely Chambery, capital of the Savoie department, which is where we live (akin to a small state, or maybe a big county).  Two of our friends from our training this past spring in Colorado are studying French there, in preparation for work in Burkina Faso, and we were glad for a chance to visit them.

Mostly, the kids were glad to get to ride the train, as seen below.

 We have had an uncanny number of rainy days on the days that we are not in school and this was one of them.  However, after a lovely lunch at Don and Janet's apartment, we took a little tour of the city.  The old town is very cool and here is some of the towers and the chapel of the old castle of the Duke of Savoie.

The small walking spaces of old Europe are probably my favorite feature, because they speak of a time before cars and highways.  However, they are notoriously difficulty to photograph with any satisfaction.  Maggie is in this picture to give a little feel for how narrow the street is.

This little timbered "covered bridge" crosses the walking street.  I guess Chambery used to have a lot of these, but they were largely removed as a fire hazard, but this one has remained.  The city is an odd mix of old juxtaposed with new, and it sounds like much of this is due to damage from WWII, with new buildings built where old ones were bombed.

A well-known feature of the town is this fountain with four elephants.  When it's on, water comes out the trunks of the elephants.  Apparently, it commemorates Hannibal crossing the Alps with elephants, but I don't know more of the story than that.  There was a carousel adjacent on which Maggie took a ride with great delight.

Maggie with Don and Janet.  Thankfully, Ben napped right up until the time for our return trip.

And lastly, a bit of graffiti as a brief commentary on modern french religious belief:

"Hiking the Mountain" with the Kids

On Wednesdays, there is no school in France.  I guess this is nationwide.  Maggie doesn't go to school, and as our Centre follows the public system (so as to allow us to take care of our kids), we don't have class.  So we generally split the day, with one of us taking the kids in the morning while the other studies, and vice versa in the afternoon.

This past Wednesday, the first activity of the morning was taking a "hike up the mountain".  About 5-10 minutes behind our house, there is a hill with a shrine of Mary and Jesus at the top.  It's called "Chapelle Notre Dame de Vignes," which I love.  Our Lady of the Vines.  How appropriate.  You have to walk through the adjacent nursing home parking lot to get to the top, but it is just high enough to have a great view of the city.  You can see the statue from our house, and so Maggie was excited to get up to it.  She did great and walked the whole way.  Ben walked until the steepest part at the end.  Here are some picture from the top.

This is a view looking over our house toward the opposite valley we see out our window.  In the bottom left, a little up the hill is the old medieval town of Conflans, and you can see it's chateau just below it (maybe, if you click on it to enlarge it).

I texted Rachel from the top, and she leaned out the window and waved, and Maggie could see her, which was fun.

 Coming back down, Ben graciously allowed a moment sans pacifier for a photo.

A bit of fun with French

Every language has their fun points, and most speakers of said language are probably unaware of them.  Here's a few from French thus far:

1.  Pourboire:  I don't know the etymology of this word, but it is the word for "a tip", i.e. what you leave a server (if you leave one at all here in Europe).  It's a compound word:  For-drink.  I can imagine two possibilities:  The first is that you are leaving a pourboire as a thanks "for your drink".  The second is that you are leaving a little something for the server to have a drink later on.

2.  Pain Perdu:  I had actually seen this at Mimi's, the yummy breakfast place near Rachel's mom's in Arizona.  It's the french word for French toast.  I mean, it can't be "french toast" to the french, right?  It literally means "the lost bread", meaning that you usually make pain perdu out of the old stale bread that has been otherwise lost.  A nice little redemption picture, really.

3.  Love, as in the tennis score:  During Wimbledon, I was reading a bit on the origins of tennis.  It's actually an old game, and is thought to have originated in France.  The scoring of "love-15-30-40" is a bit lost in legend, but the most feasible explanation for "love" (i.e. a score of zero) is the french word l'oeuf. (which actually sounds quite similar...)  It means "the egg", or as we might say, "a big goose-egg."

Life...Goals

It's funny how some life goals come about.  These days people talk about a bucket list.  I wonder if they just choose things at random for their list, or if there is meaning behind each item.  I'm sure if I had made a list at age 20 it would have looked much different than a potential list I would make today.  For example, 50 states.  I got to accomplish that lovely goal last May, but before meeting Eric I doubt it was much on my radar.  Seven continents are probably on the list, too, but not every single country in the world.  Too many countries, not enough time, other things I'd rather do.

Anyways, after we had Ben in Kenya in 2011, Eric and I started joking about how we could have each of our children in different countries...no wait, different continents!  The more we talked about it, the more realistic it seemed, since about 2 yrs after Ben's birth would put us in France, around the right time to have baby #3.  I hate to say it was our good planning, because I really think instead it's God's good providence, but ....

April 9, 2013.  Goal (soon to be) attained.  Probably no more kids after this because really, when are we going to find ourselves in Asia/South America/Australia/Antarctica?

The Mystery of Fromage Blanc

Classic first phrase in french:  Qu'est-ce que cést?

"What is it?

The fromage (cheese) of France is world famous, and we've been learning some about it here in France.  For instance, certain cheeses have propriety names.  One cannot call your cheese Roquefort, unless the sheep who gave the milk for it ate from grass within a hundred miles of a certain group of caves, or something like that.  It's largely the same way with french wines.  We have several local proprietary cheeses, and we have enjoyed trying them out.  They aren't really cheap, but they are less expensive than if we would buy them in the US (which we never would, because of their expense).

But this is not about those cheeses.  This is about "fromage blanc", of which you can get a small bucket-full at a local store here for less than two euros.  It's literally "white cheese", but what does that mean?  We had heard that it could supplant yogurt, sour cream, whipping cream, ricotta cheese, and maybe some others.  So we had to try it.

We bought a mini-bucket yesterday and today added into some chili.  It is halfway between plain yogurt and sour cream, but thicker than either, and a bit cheesier than either.  Oh, the versatility!  Fromage blanc, you will be seeing more of us.

Which brings me to two somewhat random associations:

1.  Andrew Peterson's song of the Alien Cheese Juice.  This was found as a live version on his "Appendix A" where he sings that the queso at little mexican taquerias is really a mystery mind control device.  He sings "Mexico remembers the Alamo... In the temple of the Incas, there is a fountain flowing cheese dip.  Then they smuggle it to Texas, and they trick us with the free chips... What is that white stuff on my nachos?  It's too thin to be just cheese.  It's too thick to be just milk, in its sublime consistency."  (not exact quote)

2.  In high school, I once did a school project with a few friends where we filmed an advertisement for a product called "Creamy Cool Shave".  It was an aerosol cream that you could shave your face, shave your legs, spread on your toast, or just enjoy straight out of the can.  Who knew it was in France all this time?

Brûlée

A pair of french experiences:

I played guitar for our local church service last Sunday.  It was a mix of Francophone songs as well as English songs translated into French.  And as in all cultures of the world that I have experienced, they seemed to like their translation of "Shine Jesus Shine" quite a bit.  I understood some of the words and was particularly struck by the line in the chorus "brûler, Esprit, brûler", which is the translation of "Blaze, Spirit, Blaze".  Where have I seen that word before?

The prior Tuesday our family went shopping at the local Lidl store, which is within a 20 minute walk from our house, and is akin to its European cousin, Aldi.  It's fun to search around and see what you find.  Perhaps the best find of that trip was this:

That's right.  Crème brûlée for home consumption, for use "avec au sans" the acetylene torch.  These two little desserts were sold for a grand total of 1.29 euros.  They came in their own glass ramekins (I guess you can't torch plastic), and each with their own little sachet of sugar.  We were excited.

Next challenge, our oven has two knobs, and this took us a little bit of work.  The settings are #1-9, and (as we have learned) the timer has to be on in order for the oven to kick in.  The French instructions seemed to be asking us to "brûlée" the oven, which probably meant broil, but maybe just cook.

The result is here.  It didn't have the burned class of a true crème brûlée, but that may have just been as a result of us not broiling, or maybe not cooking it long enough.  Oh well, it was truly tasty, and now we have two little glass ramekins on our shelves. 

Annecy

Language school classes started today, our two week anniversary of arriving in France.  It promises to be a busy year in many ways.  But before classes started, we had a lot of time to get settled in and enjoy exploring the surrounding area.  So last week, we decided to take a bus day trip to Annecy, a scenic town about 1 1/2 hrs away by bus.

We were initially thinking that we could take trains around to the local villages but it seems that most people use the train system to get farther away (Lyon, Paris, Geneva) and the bus system, kind of like Grayhounds, to travel within an hour or two.  The kids were REALLY excited to get on the big bus (but not quite as excited as they'll be, I'm sure, when we take our first train trip since they are big Thomas fans).  The drive was rather winding but pretty, stopping in a lot of small towns before arriving at the lake on which Annecy sits.  It's a medieval style town with old buildings, cobblestone streets, canals, and tons of window boxes full of flowers!

First order of business was finding some lunch.  Our teammate Sarah came with us and it was great to get to know her better.  She ordered apparently the world's biggest hamburger.  Eric and I "adventurously" tried the menu du jour and plate du jour (can you guess what that means?  Menu and plate of the day...French lesson #1).  He got a salad nicoise, salmon tartare, and a yummy pear tart.  I got the roast beef, quite good.  French cuisine seems to be expensive, but we are determined to try a little bit this year!

Then we walked around the streets, full of shops and cafes.  There are two main canals running through the town, giving everything a very scenic look.

Then we walked to the lake.  There were boats to rent (motor or paddle), tours, etc, and a few areas outside of the main part of town where you can swim, but we just enjoyed the view (while Ben slept in his stroller) and Maggie played on the playground.

Her FAVORITE activity of the day was finding a carousel in the park.  Of COURSE she didn't need me to stand next to her, big girl. :)

There is also a castle up on the hill overlooking the city (most French towns seem to have castles, an awesome feature of France I must say). We walked up a very steep hill to take a look.  We didn't go in, since admission is charged, but enjoyed the view of the city from the hilltop.

 

In all, a very successful and fun day!  It started raining just as we got to the bus stop to head home, and I think it rained for the next 5 days or something, so we are glad we went when we did.  Just one of the many sites to see when you come visit us. :)

Bon Vue

For several days (after the initial heat), it has been chilly and raining.  Clouds covered the mountains, making for some nice views as seen below.  (Note: Conflans, mentioned in the last post, is seen up the hill between the tall pine and the shorter pine on its left.)

 This morning, the clouds cleared just enough to see the effect of those clouds on the rain:  Snow-capped peaked.  This one is taken right out our window.  There are two other sets of snow caps on the left and right.  Click on the images to get a bit bigger shot.