France - Days 7 & 8

After a very long hiatus from my these posts, I'm continuing on with days 7 and 8 of our France trip from last October. (If you are new here you can find the rest of the France Journey through out my blog: Days 1 & 2, Days 3 & 4, Days 5 & 6) I'm determined to finish these posts by the end of February!

Day 7 - Wednesday, October 6, 2010

We rolled out of our slumber back in Chambery at about 10 am, Wednesday morning. Nathan and Joanna's apartment had such heavy blinds we could barley even tell it was daylight out when we finally forced ourselves to rise. We spent the morning putzing around eating yogurt, cereal and enjoying each other's company. By noon we decided it was about time to do get out and about. Even though we were warned that French clothing wouldn't fit our *ahem* Large/Tall frames, we hit up a local store called Kabi.

After a short walk from Nate and Jo's apt. we got to the store and immediately realized they were having a MASSIVE sweater sale AND they had clothes in our size! After about 2.5 hours of trying things on we walked away with basically an entire new wardrobe for Josh. You have no idea what kind of feat this is...it is impossible to find clothing to fit him that is also fashionable and that day he left with like 3 sweaters, and 3 jackets. A.maze.ing

The only un-amazing part was a very embarrassing situation at the cash register where the woman checking us out didn't speak any english. She wasn't like most french people who say they don't speak english, but really do. She ended up having to page someone to come to the front and translate what was going on. (apparently we didn't have the right amount of sweaters to get the buy one, get one deal they had going on). Eventually, things worked out and we walked out with only a slightly bruised ego from having .01 French speaking skills.

After shopping, Nate, Josh and I went to the velo station (bike rental shop) to pick up some bikes for the rest of our trip. We had a little bit of trouble finding bikes tall enough for Nate and Josh considering they are the one's pushing up the national height average, but in the end we all pedeled away on super cute and matching light blue cycles. Mine with a special little basket on the front.

These bikes opened up an entirely new France for me. We decided to pick up some bread on the way home and Nate took us the scenic route. We zigged and zagged across traffic to a little car-less area where old, brightly colored buildings stood tall on either side of us. French women strolled in pairs eating ice cream in high heels, vendors stood outside by their shops beckoning passerbys into try their wares, Old men walked their dogs along cobblestone streets and fountains provided background music to the scene. And the best part of it all, I got to carry the baguette in my basket on the way home. I felt like i was living in a dream land. It was perfect. This first bike ride is still one of my strongest memories from the entire trip.

That night Josh and I went on a special dinner date at a crêperie, so josh got ready and Nate took some pictures of him.

So handsome!

Headed out to dinner!

Hey there handsome. :)

I was really excited about my crepe.

The place was packed and Josh and I discovered that it is strange for someone to wait for a table at a restaurant if there isn't immediate seating. I guess this is due to the fact that there are so many food choices within walking distance and also because most French dinners last several hours, but we waited anyway! Awkwardly in the alley outside the restaurant right by the windows where people were eating because there was no entry area. 


We got a table within 20 minutes and I enjoyed crepes filled with hamburger, egg, onion and mushrooms, while josh ordered one with goat cheese and Lardon (the same stuff that was in tartiflette). He asked to add tomato but, some how it ended up coming out with ham in it instead. The BEST part of 
the meal though was dessert which consisted of delicious nuttella, banana and whipped cream. Yumm!


After dinner we headed back to N&J's apartment for a little hang out time and a late night Pirates of the Caribbean viewing. Life was good.


Day 8 - Thursday, October 7, 2010.


Thursday, October 7, 2010 is a very special day. For Thursday, October 7, 2010 was Joanna's 27th birthday! We woke up to the smell of Nate making french toast...out of a french baguette...in a french kitchen...with a french mustache...OK I may have made up that last part about the mustache...but either way it was an awesomely french way to make french toast with a french baguette. FRENCH!

At breakfast I gave Jo her present I carted over from the US - Real Simple magazines and a pair of earrings - only to find out that my Mother-in-Law had brought her all the same Real Simple magazines a few weeks prior, and that Jo already had a very similar pair of earrings...sigh. Great minds think alike i guess. :)

After breakfast we all got ready and headed out for a quick bike ride around Chambery. Again - amazingness abounds and I have no pictures of it all because I was so worried about not being hit by traffic while aggressively riding my bike around the busy streets. Also, i didn't want to look TOO much like a tourist with a rented bike and a giant camera around my neck all the time.

After our fun bike ride on matching bikes we grabbed a quick lunch at a sandwich shop. As usual we ended up getting duped into buying more than we realized because we couldn't read the French signs.

Taking our lunch to a nearby park I had me and Josh's sandwiches in my awesome bike basket. While trying to keep up with Nate and Jo I carelessly ran my bike through a huge pot-hole and watched in slow motion as my awesome sandwich came flying out of the bag, then out of the box, landed on the ground in front of me and i swiftly ran over it with my bike. I may or may not have cursed like an American sailor at that point...so much for blending in.

me right before I ran over my sandwich.

Lunch was beautiful. We parked our tooshies right next to a fountain in the middle of a busy park. Little Ayla ran around picking up leaves and showing us then throwing them into the fountain. (haha!) The whole lunch was very peaceful and the weather couldn't have been more perfect in early fall.

Once lunch was over we continued to ride our bikes around time and did a bit of shopping. I found a good deal on a pair of shoes and we found some good christmas presents for our family around the Old Town area of Chambery.

The happy family in the old-town area of Chambry. 

Later, I went back to Kabi while the rest of the crew went home for a quick nap. Looking back - I wish I wouldn't have done as much shopping (surprise!) I wish we would have spend more time riding our bikes, walking, hiking, doing cliche toursity things like going to museums, or taking tours, or even just sitting and reading outside in a park.

After sufficiently doing some damage to our shopping fund, we went back to Nate and Jo's apartment for Taco Night with some of their friends to celebrate Jo Jo's birthday.

Their friends brought Settlers of Catan over for us to borrow later that evening and play just Nate, Jo, Josh, and me. Apparently this was a HUGE deal because the guy who lent the game to us is very particular about his game. So particular that all the pieces were packaged in color coordinated Altoid boxes and pill bottles. Exhibit A.

We may or may not have taken this picture so we could remember how the game was supposed to go back in the box.

After the shock/amazement of his Catan packaging set in we had an epic battle till late in the evening with yours truly taking home the big win. (are you even remotely surprised?!)

We finally crashed around 2:30 am and set our alarms for a 5:45 am wake up call for Josh and I to make it to the 7:00 am train to Annecy the next morning.

France - Days 5 and 6

Day 5 - Monday, October 4

On Monday we woke up super early (6am) to head to Beaune.  I wore my new brown hippie dress that I purchased in Interlaken and we caught a bus while it was still dark out to make it to the train station in time. Nate wanted to encourage Josh in speaking French and nudged him towards buying the tickets for our bus ride. He counted out the proper amount of Euros and coached him to say “Deux billet, si-vou plait” (two tickets, please) to the driver when he got on. Turns out the price per ticket had gone up and josh didn’t have the right amount pre counted out. It got all awkward and funny with about 50 French people watching us bumble about at the front of the train with our giant packs and non-French speaking-selves. 

The train station was PACKED for so early in the morning on a Monday. We assumed a lot of the traffic was due to students returning from a weekend excursion trying to make it to class on time Monday morning. 

We purchased tickets (with a bonus discount because we still fell into the 25 and under category!) and jumped on the train.

With one stop in Lyon we grabbed a quick espresso and pan au chocolate on our layover and then went on to Beaune. The second part of the trip was about 3 hours and Ayla entertained us with some adorable singing and general sweetness.

Our hotel in Beaune was a historic looking chateau directly across from the train station. It was so quaint and cozy inside. Our shared room was on the top floor and inside the room we found that it had two levels inside. (Upstairs 3 twin beds and a few windows overlooking the red roof tops and downstairs a double bed, TV and bathroom). The furnishings weren’t fancy, but it had such a feeling of home and comfort that we were cool with it.

Once we dropped our bags off we decided it was time to explore and grab lunch! We roamed a few sparsely populated streets taking pictures for a while.

Then we stumbled upon a bustling café , and in true Michael style, we decided the restaurant based on the amount of people already there. Gobs of people = Awesome Restaurant. This restaurant was no exception. We ended up being seated in the back room next to a HUGE group of very loud and rude Asian tourist and another group of lunching French women.  

Here is where we had some of our favorite food of the entire trip. Josh ordered croaque madame (Ham and cheese with egg) and I ordered Beof Borgunione with a diet coke served in the fancy glass bottle.

After lunch I had my awkward moment with a French Woman and then Josh and I dropped a LOAD of money at one of the local wine stores. Totally taken in by her “Our whites in this region are the best around” schpeel after already committing to 3 reds.

Then we went on to do the most touristy thing we had done yet – a wine cellar tasting. We paid 10 Euro and got to visit the cellars under the streets of Beaune and tasted 17 different wines! Nate and Jo had a conversation in French with a semi-toothless portly Sommelier in which I’m pretty sure he insulted all Americans. Regardless - this was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip to France.

Those numbers = the wine's vintage! Crazy!

Before leaving, we of course had to buy some more wine and maybe a few Christmas presents (thank goodness for Ayla’s stroller carrying all of our goodies!) When we left the celler it was cold and POURING Rain outside! (So much for the weather.com 70 and sunny prediction) We got soaked sprinting to a nearby awning to decide what to do next. Baguettes and espresso were in order to warm us up! 

Afterwards, we were faced with the hard decision of walking back in the rain about 10 mins to our hotel to drop off our stuff before dinner or waiting around in the downtown area for 3 hours till we were hungry enough to eat. (I don’t know why there wasn’t an option number 3 of waiting for the rain to STOP and then walking back…but I digress)

Let’s just said 10 mins later my mood was more than sour as we got back to the hotel. I was cold. I was tired. I was sopping wet. I was first back to the room and didn’t have a key so I just had to stand in the hallway waiting for everyone. I had ruined my cute brown dress and realzed that because it was just one night, I packed light and didn’t have a reasonable change of clothes…ARGH! The more upset I got about the situation, the more upset I got at myself because I was in France and ruining everything with my crappy attitude! It was an endless downward spiral to the pit of cranky despair. 

When the door was finally opened I huffed to the upstairs stripped out of my cold clothes and put on some warm PJs and laid  on the bed listening to the rain beat the hell out of the roof top.  Josh came and snuggled with me on the tiny twin bed and we dozed off to the storm. It was quite a poetic moment of morose comfort.

The remainder of the afternoon we killed time in the hotel room looking out the window at the rain, reading, Watching TV and speaking in hushed towns while Ayla took a nap. 

The rain died down and we headed off to dinner around 7 and went straight down to the heart of town to see what types of restaurants there were. 

Most of the patios and restaurants were empty because French people don’t dine until 8 or 9, so we were out there with the other tourists and the old people. There was a strip of 5 restaurants in a row off the main circle and I was entranced by one that had bright white Christmas lights strung all around it’s entrance. 

The place was empty save for a petite blonde woman standing behind the bar. Joanna asked for a table and we plopped down at one of the many open spaces. I’m not going to linger to much more on our experience here because, let’s just say the twinkle lights outside were the only good thing about this place. My Pasta was bland, Jo’s Beouf Borgion was burnt and Josh’s pizza was only saved by the fact that he ordered it with two fried eggs on top. (Yup, eggs on pizza.) 

Josh and I left a bit early to grab a bit of dessert at one of the other cafes in hopes that their food would be better.

We thought splitting a nutella waffle would be good. We both pictured a big waffle covered in warm nutella and possibly topped with whipped cream. What we got was 2 (not one to split, as I had ordered…I think she was confused) plain Belgian waffles with a small packet of nutella each. Lame-a-tron. 

(Side bar: Sorry to complain so much, but the last part of our first day in Beaune was probably my least favorite part of the trip. This is in stark comparison to the first part of our day in Beaune being my some of my favorite memories!)

Back at the hotel was also much better as Joanna and I read through the welcome book left on the night stand and made fun of their poor English and the fact that they offered babysitting services. (never heard of that at a hotel before!) Then Josh and I giggled like children till about 3 am trying to see who could unroll the toilet paper on the iTouch game fastest. Good times.

Day 6 - Tuesday, October 5

Nate, Jo and Ayla headed out early on Tuesday because they needed to get back to Chambery for a Doctor’s appointment. We grabbed a few pastries with them before they left and promptly went back to bed till about 10 am due to our late night of crazy game competitions. 

Around 11 we headed out to wander the (again cold) streets of Beaune some more. We found several new areas that we hadn’t explored and looked a few shops till they closed down for lunch (yup…shops close during lunch time).

Josh came to his hunger/shopping breaking point when I was paroozing some jewelry and we quickly found a nearby restaurant with a good lunch Menu (not the thing listed with all the options, but French restaurants often offer Menus which are basically the daily special that includes an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. Kinda like the Chilis 2 for 20 deals…except more sophisticated and awesome)

I ordered pizza and josh ordered the menu which included chicken, noodles, mushrooms and cream sauce. Kinda like a marsala, but not really. We grabbed a couple of dessert pastries on the way back to the train station and then jumped on the train around 1:45.

The trip back was uneventful aside from us taking these really "cool" photos holding a bottle of wine that was older than both of us a gypsy asking us for food during the layover in Lyon.

Back in Chambery we stopped by yet again another boulangarie to grab a baguette to go with dinner. The woman tried to speak English to us and told us the total was nineteen fifty…even though we knew she really meant ninety-five cents. 

That evening Nate and Joe made an awesome Lardon and goat cheese quiche with salad for dinner. We stayed up late talking and playing Euchre.

It was so good to be back around them.  They have seen both Josh and I at our worst and still seem to always love and forgive us. They were a friendly warm welcome after our cold cranky days in Beaune. They really are life-long friends, that just so happen to be related to us. 

France - Days 3 and 4

Day 3 - Saturday, October 2

Saturday morning Josh and Nate woke very early to ride with Doug and Sarah on the shuttle to the airport for their 8:30 am flight. Around 7:30 Josh returned to the hotel room and woke me from slumber to get ready for the day so we could head to Chambery. Sadly that morning while getting ready I blew-up my awesome (and expensive, might I add) hair-straightener by using an adapter instead of a converter by accident.


Before we left Geneva we stopped quickly by our first French bakery to pick up breakfast for the road. It was a quick stop, but i've discovered a little bit what Heaven might be like.

Ayla was just as mesmerized as I was. 

When we reached Chambery I was amazed at the size of the town. For some reason, I had always pictured a quaint little village and you could walk from end to end in about 2 mins. As it turns out, Chambery is much more than a village, or even a town, for that matter. It is, in fact, a bustling city nestled among mountains and filled with high rises, honking cars, shopping, and restaurants galore.

Awkward 1/2 picture of Josh showing a bit of Chambery.

After unloading our luggage at Nate and Jo’s apartment, the boys returned the rental and we grabbed our wallets and headed to the market. About a 15 minute walk through the busy Saturday streets led us past a rather large demonstration and on to the packed marketplace. Live chickens, ducks, and geese for sale on the left and tomatoes, squash, peaches, and colorful flowers for sale on the right. It was like the Franklin farmers market on crack.

Hundreds of vendors with every type of bread, cheese fruit and vegetable you could imagine. We picked out some bright pink Dr. Suess like flowers for the apartment.

I was impressed as Nate and Jo both took in stride the chaos of the shouting vendors and customers pushing to inspect each apple, bean, baguette. They ordered cheese, meat, bread, tomatoes, potatoes and various food for the coming week in French.


We saw the elephant statue, which is a major Chambrey landmark right in the center of town by the bus

We made salami, tomato, and racqulette cheese sandwiches and washed them down with some wine for lunch. I snapped a few pictures of cute Ayla

If that's not good marketing I don't know what is!

 and then all of us decided a nap was in order.


3 and a half hours later we groggily woke up and Ayla decided to be adorable some more.

Josh and I got ready for our first dinner out in France. Since Nate and Jo weren’t on vacation they weren’t going to be eating out as much as us so I felt compelled to learn a few simple phrases in French to be able to communicate. (Not much of my French 101 stuck from college other than pronunciation, but that was mostly because of my singing diction class). I asked Jo how to say “Table for two,” “I would like…” and most importantly “one pitcher of wine, please.” And with very specific directions for how to get to the restaurant Josh and I headed out on our adventure.

The walk was longer than expected and Josh started to get nervous the further we went and JUST when we almost settled for something other than the recommended restaurant we found Vivaldi. A French-Italian jewel tucked among the plethora of French cafes along the pedestrian street we were strolling down.

Entering the restaurant, we weren’t sure whether we were supposed to just wait by the door, or walk straight up to the first worker we saw and ask for a table. Luckily after only a short period of awkwardly standing in the door way, the Matradee walked up and welcomed us with a warm and inviting smile. I nervously asked for a table for two in French. It felt like EVERYONE in the restaurant was staring at us American giants as the host ushered us to a nearby high-boy table.

Still nervous, I mumbled my request for a pitcher of water (learned later I should have asked for a carafe of water, even though the container was the same as a pitcher of wine). Upon being asked to repeat my request I was afraid my pronunciation was wrong so I crumbled and asked if the server spoke English. He responded kindly and said “Yes. But, you are lucky I’m your server and not someone else!” The rest of the evening went smoothly with me peaking at my small French-English phrase book from time to time still attempting to communicate in their language. I ordered a pizza with various meats and peppers on it. Josh ordered pizza with Frois Gras on top. My take on Foie Gras = semi spiced Velveeta cheese. I wasn’t a huge fan of the pâté version, and we never got around to trying the solid form everyone raved about. Maybe next time.

Nearing the end of the meal we still had over half our pizza left and we weren’t sure if it was acceptable to ask for a to-go box because we didn’t see anyone else carrying leftovers with them. We ended up seeing one other couple carry out a pizza box and so I attempted to ask for a box in French and our server all but laughed at me because I apparently didn’t say anything close to coherent. Se la vie! In the end, we got our box and meandered hand in hand back to the apartment.


That dinner was lovely and is one of my favorite memories from our trip to France. The whole experience of having to overcome the language barrier and fend for ourselves, just me and Josh was so much fun. We both had a blast the entire time. People watching. Sipping wine, devouring tiramisu and espresso and embracing the struggles of communication along the way.


We rounded out the evening with more wine and late, late, late night conversations with two of our best friends in the world, Nate and Jo. As the time ticked on and the Hour hand got closer to the morning hours than the night I was reminded how much I missed them and how lucky I was to have married into a family who is fun, hilarious, and genuinely loving people.


Day 4 - Sunday, October 3
Sunday morning we all pulled ourselves out of bed after a the late, late, late night and got ready for church. On the walk over Josh and I were coached on what to do if someone came in for the cheek kiss and I secretly was hoping someone would embrace me in this very European welcome for friends. The service seemed to be a good one. There was a simple worship band consisting of a guitar, an old Casio, a flute, violin, and tambourine. A few tunes were familiar (“Jesus, be the Center” and “Amazing Love”) and I was able to sing along in English. The entire service was in French (obviously) and I would be lying if I told you I was 100% alert the whole time…nope. I was so sleepy and could barely keep my eyes open so I had to read my Bible to stay awake.


After the service we were introduced to several members of their church. Everyone was amazed at how much Nate and Josh looked alike and I even had one nicer old man welcome me with the double cheek kiss! (Yes!)


We ate cheeseburgers for lunch and then found ourselves craving a nap again. A few hours later we woke up to ayla being cute again.

That night we stayed in since the next morning we would be headed out for an overnight trip to Beaune Joanna made a local dish known as Tartflette. It consisted of potatoes, onions, lardon (sticks of bacon), and a regional cheese you can ONLY get in France melted on top. Pair that with a baguette and you got yourself a bunch of Michael vultures soaking up every last drop of flavor from the baking pan with their bread.

Tartflette

One of the best wines we had while we were there. 

We spent the evening playing Euchre and TRYING to make reservations for the next night in Beaune and without much luck over the phone. (We had several people tell us to not call them back because they were going to bed!) Eventually, we found a deal on a family sized room at a hotel right next to the train station for a GREAT price on pricelince.com. After shouting “Buy my hotel room now!” in unison with pressing the “bid” button we all did a little happy dance when it accepted our ridiculously low offer. Yay for priceline!

Figuring we should actually try and get to bed at a decent time since we had to catch an early bus to make it to the train station for our 7:30 am departure we hit the sack at 1:30 am excited for the coming day.