Fete des Vendanges Russin

Hey, hey, hey! after months of silence on the blog front I've finally found a free minute to sit down and post something. I know, I know all my fans will be ecstatic! er...wait...what fans? Anywho, here's a little bit about the Fete des Vendanges (the Harvest Festival) held in Russin, Switzerland that we attend this weekend. I'd heard of this festival before, but had never managed to get there. Then when I was looking up different wine festivals, in order to tempt my sister and brother-in-law to come visit next September I stumbled upon it again- and we actually made it there!

we went with some friends who had never been either. We took a rather long way to get there since we missed the road we were supposed to turn on (thanks mapman!) Eventually, we got to just outside the town and discovered that the road was blocked. We parked at a church and kept our fingers crossed no one would care and started walking. We heard a band and followed the music. The road started winding up the hillside and we all sighed when we realized we'd have to trek all the way to the top to get to the festival. We kept telling ourselves it was just good exercise to prepare us for all the yummy food we'd get at the festival. We passed vineyards full of lovely grapes, hanging there just beckoning for us to pick them. Not really the best photo...but what can you expect I wanted to get to the food and wine!

Russin, the town where the festival was held, was packed with people. Kids with balloons, parents with bottles of wine, or glasses of Mout.

Sadly, we missed the 22 Yodelers who had performed that morning, but we were in time to catch the tail end of a parade with floats. My favorite was the float full of full-grown Smurfs (or schtroumpfs as they are known in French) and a giant Schtroumpf house! Loved it. It made me laugh when the people covered in blue make-up saw a friend and would jump off the float and give the obligatory 3 kisses (les bises) leaving their friends faces smudged with blue! OK, so we really only saw 2 floats, but we followed the smurfs along and they led us to one of the best parts of the festival. A big flat-bed filled with crates of different varieties of grapes there for the taking. We each grabbed a bunch of grapes and chowed down.


Oh they were so yummy! It's amazing how sweet some of them are considering the wine that they produce. Here's a photo of the Doc trying to decide which type of grape he should grab a bunch of. He went down the whole line sampling every single type until he found the one he wanted to carry around with him. My choice was the Syrah. Not only do I like the wine, I also like the Syrah grapes!

Also in the same place was the famous Mout. The very first pressing of the grapes with absolutely NOTHING added to it. Just pure grape juice. No alcohol, no sugar. It was interesting. Nothing like what we would think of as grape juice and nothing like wine. It had a bit of an aftertaste and was quite sweet, but not too bad. The hubbster liked it quite a bit - then again, it was sweet so of course he liked it. hee, hee.
We around through the crowds exploring the festival. We watched some dancers all decked out in traditional garb dancing near a giant milk can.

I don't know if you can really see the dancers in the photo amongst the crowd. They had green hats trimmed in red on.

there were also your typical fair games and rides for the kiddies. One that we particularly liked and debated whether is would be allowed in the US or UK these days (such litigious societies), was this sort of swing. The kids would stand up in the center of it and bend their legs to make it swing higher and higher. It was started off by some guy pushing them, of course. It was great. I SO wanted to do it. Sadly, I was too old and too big for them. Besides, I'd rather throw my money away on food and drink rather than purchasing over priced ride tickets, know what I mean?

Anyways, it was good fun. we had some good food - Tartiflette - so we didn't really branch out there, since we know we love Tartiflette. Ah, it's getting to be good, cool autumnal weather. Perfect for warm comfort foods like Tartiflette, fondue, and all the other cheese heavy Swiss/French dishes that are so common to this area.

Well goodness, this post has taken me ages. Now I remember why I hadn't done one in some time. If I don't get a move on we won't eat dinner till 10pm! Later gators.

Nyon, Switzerland and the American Market

so, I wouldn't say it's really been a relaxing weekend, it's been quite active, but it' s been a good weekend. Today we went skiing in Crozet this morning for about3 hours and then we had a nice afternoon around the house. It was a gorgeous day and we took a monster walk with Ally. An active day, but really enjoyable.
Yesterday we went shopping at the outlets in Aubonne, Switzerland - I was trying to find a dress for the upcoming wedding and the hubbster needed a new shirt for same. Then we stopped in Nyon and wandered around the town. It's quite cute actually. We meander through the streets, stopped in a couple of shops, walked by the Chateau de Nyon (it's open other times of year for tours but not now), found the American Market (the real reason my hubby wanted to go there) and then headed back home. On the way stopping at yet another mall, hitting up two hardware stores in search of charcoal or charbon as they say in French (not charbois, as we asked one store employee who looked at us like we were crazy - oops). so, it was busy busy, but although it is always tiring going shopping it was nice because we had no time constraints we could take as much or as little time as we wanted.
Here are few photos from Nyon.


I really like the view of Lake Geneva and the alps from the Chateau de Nyon.
Now, a few words about the American Market. As you might have guessed from the name it is, indeed, a store that sells American food. I just walked around in awe. Not only were there shelves full of good ol' goodies from the US of A they cost a freaking FORTUNE. I would NEVER ever in my life in the United States consider paying such outrageous sums of money for that stuff...but when you live in Europe and you can't find it anywhere else you are tempted to pay a small fortune for those little things that remind you of home. For examply you could get a box of graham crackers (nabisco) for 14.10 swiss francs - that equals $11.85! Who on earth pays that much for a box of graham crackers? But I was tempted. I ended up walking away, but there was a part of me that was ready to fork over any sum for those precious graham crackers. They had so many things I didn't realize I missed till they were there staring me in the face. It's like when you used to have something as a kid and you haven't had it in years and suddenly it's right there in front of you. You just suddenly want it, there' s no rational reason why but you just think, "I have to get it." Actually, we were very good. Despite all the temptations we only came away with one purchase. Karo syrup. You just can't find corn syrup anywhere...or at least I haven't been able to figure out what it's French equivalent is. There are few recipes I'd like to make that call for corn syrup so I bit the bullet and shelled out 8 swiss francs for it. Crazy, but I figured it would last a while. Besides, I know you can make it from scratch (I looked it up on line ages ago) but facts are facts I'm never going to get around to making it. So, I bought it.

I wish I had taken some pictures inside the store, but I was so caught up in the joy of all those American treats! Crisco (which I wanted but just could NOT bring myself to pay $10 for a small can), poptarts, fundips, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, margarita mix, Cheerios, Jello, Ranch dressing, Newman's own dressing, shake and bake, the list goes on and on. I'm glad we found it for those times we just feel homesick and need a little shake and bake goodness! all in all a fun day.

A relaxing weekend

So, it's 9:30 am and we've already been to the vets. Ally has been limping for the past four days and yesterday it was pretty bad so I broke down and made her an appointment. Naturally, she wakes up this morning and is pretty much fine. Barely a limp to be seen. We took her in anyways just to have it checked out and, as we thought, there's not much the vet can do. She gave us some pills for the inflammation and if it starts up again we're supposed to take her in for x-rays. If it's arthritis they can locate where it is with the x-rays. The hubby and I were both rather shocked to realize that our little puppy is nearly 6 years old! This August she'll be 6. while that's not ancient by any means she's getting older so she'll probably start to have more aches and pains.

Oh well, my mind is at ease that nothing horrendous is wrong with our dogs leg, so now I'm going to change and we're going to head off to the shops to search for a wedding dress...and maybe a hat as well. I mean, it IS an English wedding. Hopefully, we'll have more success than we have had clothes shopping in the past. It's difficult determining which European size you were. And, I don't know, the styles and fit just seem different and I have trouble getting used to them. I mean let's be real, I'm no fashionista. I'm most comfortable in loose jeans and t-shirt. but it's fun to dress up every now and then or to go shopping for a nice outfit.

so, I'll let you know how we fare. gotta run.

brief update

So, I'm getting used to the new do. If I want it to look all smooth and sleek like it did after visiting the hairstylist I have spend some time with it...but so far that doesn't bother me. Give me a couple more weeks and I'll be saying, "aw, forget it. I'm not spending 20 minutes blow drying my hair!"
The kids at the theatre are really funny about my haircut. Some of them look at me and say, "you look different. What did you do?" Others shout, "You got your haircut!"

In other news I'm currently on a travel kick. I've planned a small trip to Venice in May. I'm really excited about it. I've wanted to go to Venice for ages and I just thought, "right, I'm going to do it. There's never a good time, so I'm going to choose a weekend and we're going." so that's what I did. Yay! Of course, it wasn't that simple. I looked up flights, found some awesomely cheap ones but didn't book them because I needed to make sure I could take that particular Friday off from work. then when I went to book them the flights has gone up. Not too much, so I thought screw it we're still going. Then last night I sat down to book the flights at around 7:15, but then we were late for dinner with our friends so I said, "I'll just do it when we get home. No big deal." 5 hours later when we got home and I sat down to book them the flights had doubled! Can you believe that bull? Doubled in 5 hours! What crap. I was so mad I felt like breaking something.

so, my darking hubby found a different airline, with slightly cheaper tickets and we said, "Screw it, we're going." so about an hour ago I booked our tickets. Hooray! Venice, here we come. 3 days and nights in Venice. Should be good. We're going to stay in this little apartment you can check it out here: www.cagarzotti.it It actually turns out to be cheaper than most of the hotels I looked at and we get a whole apartment all to ourselves - with a kitchen and everything. Plus it's right in Venice not off the island. It should be a good trip. i'll try and be better about sharing photos and stories immediately after we get back instead of 3 months later...but I can't promist anything.

OK gotta run.
ciao!

ahhh, I did it!

I finally cut my hair! And I love it. This will probably just be a quick post while I'm waiting for my cookies to get out of the oven. But, back to my hair. I've been thinking of cutting it for over a year. In fact, since after our wedding in September 2007. After the wedding I did cut it, but not too drastically, just shoulder length. Then I didn't get my haircut again until this morning - not even a trim! yikes, I really needed a haircut. How terrible my ends were -it's almost too embarrassing to write about...but not quite.

there's my first attempt at taking my own photo! I didn't set the timer for long enough. Here's a better one.

I'm still getting used to the not quite long bangs that often fall in my eyes. but I'm sure I'll figure out a way to make it work for me. Actually, knowing me I"ll probably just tuck that bit behind my ear or pin it back with a bobby pin. Which sort of ruins the idea of the style...but well..that's me!

I really like it and funny enough it's still just long enough that I could pull it back into a dinky little pony tail! hee, hee. it looks ridiculous, but I could do it if I wanted to. I'm sure tomorrow I'll cry about cutting all my hair off, but today I love it. Then again it looks terrific and my hair feels so smooth and soft because a professional styled it. Wait until the first day I try to style it myself. I'll probably start throwing things and screaming. Won't that be a treat for the hubby?

Here's a photo with it more off my face. This is probably how it will end up looking more often than not - like this

What do you think? Sometimes I look in the mirror and think it makes me look like high schooler again...and I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Ah well. For the moment I'm really in love with it and myself! I wanted to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe to go with my new haircut. but I'm a good girl and didn't. I already paid a decent amount for the haircut, like I'm going to fork over more money today! What a tight fisted dork I am. Gotta love it. So, hope you all like my new do. Stay posted to see if I'm still enamored with it over the next few days! hee, hee, hee seriously, every time I pass a reflective surface I stare at myself. People at the mall must have thought I was totally vain! I guess I am a bit!

life's little dilemmas

I don't know what to do. We have been invited to co-workers wedding in April in England and a part of me would really like to go and another part of me shudders at the thought of spending so much money for a two day trip to go to a wedding of people I don't know all that well. On the one hand I work with her and I have met her fiance, we've had drinks before and socialized at theatre events and stuff. On the other hand it is a bit hard for me to justify the expense when they're not really close friends. I mean I wasn't even sure we were going to be invited. I could understand if we weren't considering...well I guess I met them a year and a half ago. It doesn't seem that long.

On the plus side we'd get to go to Telford, England - somewhere we've never been and stay in a very cool looking haunted hotel. Down side it would be a very quick trip without any real option of making it into a longer trip. We'd both have to get back to work asap. hmmm...the hubbster is being really great about it all. He knows the couple somewhat and is willing to go if that's what I want, but wouldn't be fussed if we missed the event either. Great, that means it's my decision and I HATE making decisions. Especially when there is money concerned. I can't help it I can be a real cheapskate at times. It's so selfish that part of me thinks, well if we spend the money to go to the wedding then that's one less long weekend elsewhere in Europe that we'd be taking. But, then I think maybe a weekend in Telford, England would be fantastic and I'd really miss something. Just because it's not on my list of places to go in Europe doesn't mean it wouldn't be a really nice weekend trip. Plus we'd get to party down at the reception.

Oh the other thing is that it is Black Tie! Yikes! I can't figure out if that's a plus or a minus. It's a plus because it's always fun to get all dolled up. A minus/plus because I'd have to buy a new dress and while I love getting new clothes there's that whole parting with my money thing again (do you see the Scrooge trend emerging yet?). It's not just having to buy a new dress it's that clothing here is super expensive. And the hubby would have to get some new clothes too. I looked it up on-line and it does say that men can wear a dark suit with a white shirt and black tie if the Black Tie wedding is in the afternoon. The wedding is at 1pm, so I'm figuring he'd be safe enough in his suit. It's dark grey...do you think that counts? Gosh I hope so because we really can't afford to buy him a new suit. The wedding would definitely be out if that were the case. Then again, it would be pretty cool for the hubby to get a suit here. When we move back to the States he could be like, "Oh this, yeah. I bought it in Europe." Or "Oh I picked this up in Italy" wouldn't that be sweet? OK, OK it's just a dream, but it would still be pretty rockin'. Admit it, you think so to.

Well, I'm tired. I need to get to bed. think of me tossing and turning trying to figure out what to do about this wedding dilemma: to go or not to go, that is the question. I'm sure I'll figure it out, I just hope it's soon...

Fur real?

Can I just say how weird it is to see so many ladies in downtown Geneva swathed from head to toe in fur? And I'm pretty sure it's not fake fur, it's the real deal. I could be way off here, but I just feel like you don't see that in the States. Maybe I just haven't lived in the really affluent areas of the East coast...It's just I feel like in the United States if you walked around draped in real fur someone would through red paint at you. Or at the very least be rude to you. Here it's just normal. Fur coat, fur hat, fur trimmed boots...whatever. When I'm on the bus in Geneva I sometimes watch these women sauntering along in their skin tight pants, stiletto boots, fur coats, and big old Russian looking fur hats and think where am I? And also, where did they get all their money and how can I get some of? I mean, it's hard enough living in this area the way things cost I can barely buy myself a new pair of running shoes without breaking the bank!

Well, enough about that. It just made me laugh a little at all the fur walking around Geneva on peoples backs and head! Maybe it's just another part of my repressed American upbringing rearing it's head again...it just amazes me, that's all. Fur.

La Thuile and Courmayeur, Italy

Skiing on Saturday was definitely tons of fun. It was a gorgeous, if cold, sunny day. We skied with some Italian friends who knew the resort pretty well and we just relaxed and had a nice time enjoying the day. It's so much fun to say, "Oh yes, we went to Italy for the day to ski." I never in my life thought those words would come out of my mouth! Sometimes I still find it mind boggling that so many different countries and cultures are so close at hand. Just imagine if instead of the United States, each state was a different country! That's what living in Europe is like, kind of.

Anyways here are a few photos of our day.
This is a very cool fort on top off one of the slopes that was from World War II. No one really seemed to know much about it, such as was it the French or the Italians who built and used it? The hubby and i thought we might try and return in the spring or summer when you can hike through the mountains and check it out then. It looked like you could go inside it or at least up on to the ramparts (or whatever you'd call them). Pretty cool. Around every corner you run into a little bit of history.
sadly my connection keeps cutting out, so I'm just going to post what I have.

La Thuile

We're off for a full day of skiing in Italy! Should be fun, but exhausting. As bad pet owners we're leaving the dog cooped up all day long in the house...but what can we do? So, we're off and hopefully the weather will be good and I can manage a 3 hour bus ride without having to pee my pants! Sounds like we have a fun day ahead of us....

Oh my it's been ages since I last posted! Well, since my last post I got over being sick (tonsillitis, sinus infection, skin infection) was healthy for a couple of weeks then got sick again. Now I am recovering from a bad bout with the flu. So far, 2009 is not my year. Thankfully, I was feeling well enough to go skiing yesterday and we had a great day.

We went to Les Gets and it was beautiful. I need to remember this one in the event we have visitors in the winter time who don't ski. It's a great place because there are lots of trails for walking, and a small area where kids can go sledding. Besides, it's a cute little town surrounded by the Alps - gorgeous scenery. That's one thing I regret not doing with my family here - really getting up into the Alps. We did go to Gruyere, which is up in the mountains, but it's just not quite the same as visiting some of these little ski towns and walking around (or skiing) in the Alps. Oh well, we'll have to do it next time they visit.

This afternoon Ally and I got outside to run around the yard a little and the neighbor kids were out. They are so funny. I can only understand about half of what they say and they sometimes try to speak English. The little boy, Canton ( I think that's his name), said, "Please. give me kisses." In English. He's about 4 years old. I blew him a kiss. Then their dad came out - just like my hubby he likes to grill in the snow, men are the same the world around I guess. And he let the kids come over the fence into our yard (well, technically our neighbors yard) to play with the dog. I was quite gratified that the father (I can't for the life of me remember his name) told me my French had improved and that I had a very good accent. Not like your typical North American. That made me feel pretty good as I've been a bit down lately about my progress with French. It's just that you have to make such an effort and sometimes you just don't feel like it trying anymore. I guess you just have to push through that feeling of "what's the point" and keep trying or you'll never succeed. That's a lesson that my head understands, but the rest of me rarely follows!

It's been nice this winter that we've had snow. If it's going to be cold I'd rather have the snow to go along with it. Besides, running around in the snow, throwing snowballs, making snowmen just makes you feel young and alive again. Granted I colder quicker and my energy doesn't last like it did when I was a kid...but, for a god 15-20 minutes you go back in time! hee, hee