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.

Till the cows come home

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to Saint-Cergue, Switzerland to the Desalpe, the festival where the cows come down from their summer pastures in the mountains to their winter quarters in the barns. It was a blast. How Swiss to dress up your cows and parade them through town once a year to mark the changing of the seasons. We took tons of pictures, but I'll try to limit myself.
It's just so fabulous to see these herds of cows tromping through the streets of this little village with gigantic cow bells around their necks and some with elaborate floral headresses. Where else would you find such a spectacle?
My grandpa was a dairy farmer and I couldn't help wondering what he would think of such a display. Then I thought, dang, he could have made a fortune dressing his cows up once a year and making a grand fete out of moving them to another pasture!

Just to see how up close and personal you could get with these cows I took a little video so you too can experience the cows coming home. The clang of those bells as they trooped past was almost deafening sometimes. I loved the herders with their long sticks and traditional Swiss costumes. Can you tell that I am in love with the Desalpe festival? I'm so glad that we went.
Not only were there cows, but there was a band of alpenhorn players, fondue, wine, caramel de creme, soup de courge (pumpkin soup), and much much more. The parade was joined by a group of Bernese Mountains, some of the cutest dogs I've ever seen. Most of them were pulling little wagons of flowers and stuffed animals. Oh my god, I want one! OK, that is totally impractical since they grow to be over 100 pounds and have quite a short life span (about 7 years, I don't think I could handle that) but man oh man are they cute, well-behaved dogs. And look how incredibly adorable they are pulling those wagons...granted they are the size of a small horse...
There were also some awfully cute donkeys carrying random baskets and packs around. I thought at first they were giving rides to little kids, but it seemed that they were just standing around eating grass letting people pet them. Go figure.

Now on to what you have all been waiting for....the FOOD! It was tough trying to decide what to eat. We indulged our sweet-tooth with a little cone of caramel de creme. The picture to the left is the boiling pot of sickly sweet yummy goodness. Man, those people know what they are doing if the smell doesn't get you the free taste test will. I admit it I'm weak and I caved and shelled out the money for a coneful of confections that melt on your tongue and give you a buttery sugar rush. Yep, there I am indulging in my yummy purchase as I clutch my wheel of vacherin cheese - my other yummy purchase, which we melted in the oven and poured over potatoes for dinner later that night. Not as good as fondue or raclette, but a nice local favorite to try out. And now for more food! For lunch we hummed and hawed, ok I did the humming and hawing, DH knew what he wanted. Finally, we settled on a bottle of white wine and the cheese fondue. Because I knew we were having cheese for dinner I was hesitant about more cheese for lunch, but in the end the cool weather and my love of fondue overcame any doubts I had and we paid our way into the fondue tent. And boy, oh boy was it the right choice.
gosh, I look like such a piggy stuffing my face in all these photos, but I didn't get the nickname hippo for nothing!
Last, but not least just before we were about to leave we saw all the alpenhorn players marching about so we followed them and were treated to a lovely performance. The alpenhorns are so cool. I am amazed at how they make so many different notes come out of that huge wooden horn without any holes, valves, buttons or anything. It's awesome! I also fell in love with the little old man who was doing a colorgaurd routine with the Swiss flag to the alpenhorn musis. You just can't beat that!I do have a funny story, I had a moment of panci while DH and I were looking at the stalls of craft items for sale. Another round of cows came by just as we were browsing through the stalls at what seemed to be the narrowest part of the whole path. Here go the cows streaming by, I have my back pressed up against a table full of handmade merchandise thinking, "Oh lord, these cows are close! What happens if they decide to stampede in my direction?" Just then one of the cows decided to get a little randy. It mounted the cow in front of it! I thought mass chaos was going to ensue. Mooing, clanging bells, and me pushing against my husband trying to get out of the path of the horny beast! I didn't care if I was about to knock two children into the path of the oncoming cows I wanted out of there! OK, OK, in all seriousness no one was in danger and no, I wouldn't have really knocked any kids into the oncoming herd...but, it was a bit frightening nonetheless. My Darling Husband kept harassing me about how I pushed him into the kids standing next to him in my eagerness to move away from the cows. THOSE THINGS ARE MASSIVE! You would have pushed your husband too.

I'm still alive!

I know, I know, it's been forever since I've posted anything. I've been a bit busy lately. Between work and the weather finally clearing so I can get work done outside my days have been pretty full. You thought I was spending all my time asleep on the couch, being the lazy ass I am. Admit it, that's what you were thinking. well, ha. Fooled you.

This weekend we were crazy busy and it was great! Thursday night we had dinner upstairs with our neighbor, Beat, (pronounce bat) Marion is at a wedding in sunny California. Along with stuffing ourselves with yummy sausages we watched the Portugal - Germany Euro Cup match - very exciting. Friday night we had a barbecue for the end of Tango...well, the end of year barbecue for the CERN Dancing club. It was fun and has inspired DH and I to try and plan a nice big "American" barbecue for our friends. We'll see how that goes. What do you think a quintessential American barbecue requires?

Besides food there was, of course, dancing. A few of the classes did presentations. I have to say I am seriously considering joining the Oriental Dance next year. It's kind of like "belly dancing". The women looked so cool jiggling their hips making their bells jingle jangle. I really loved it. I dance all the time at home shakin' my booty...so, why not learn an actual dance where booty shakin' is the staple?!? hmm...I'll have to consider this when I haven't been pouring wine down my throat.

Yesterday, Saturday, we did more gardening and then headed down into Geneva for le fete de musique. This is a very cool festival held every year in Geneva. For 3 days (Friday-Sunday) there are stages set up all over Geneva (mainly in the Old Town) where people play free concerts. C'est formidable! There are the standard fair booths scattered everywhere selling goodies. Only here it's not fried dough, french fries and beer. It's Thai food, Portugese cuisine, Sri Lankan fare, and Jungle Juice. mmmm...jungle juice...turns out it's not quite as exciting as it sounds lots of vodka with what tasted like a splash of orange juice and, they claimed, pineapple juice.

We only went to one area, le parc bastion, where the reformation wall is. There were, I think, 6 stages there and we wandered around listening to the performers, eating yummy, exotic food, and watching the street performers. I loved it. We listened for a while to a James Brown Tribute band - how great is that? In Switzerland you can stop and listen to a James Brown Tribute band and the Swiss were jamming out. They loved them some James Brown. Fantastique!! Following are some random pictures we took while wandering the festivities. There was a group of guys doing some type of martial arts to some funky drum beats, a jazz band, and a group of drummers (from Portugal...maybe...I'm not sure)

OK, so I've been drinking quite a bit of wine this evening. It's a lovely local wine. A cote du Jura 2006 Chardonnay. Wine notes? Wine note, they don't need no stinkin' wine notes. Their French. I can't speak intelligently about wine...especially after 3 ...or...more glasses. All I can say is mmmm...mmmmm...good. Perfect and refreshing on a hot and sunny day. So, I guess I'll just have to find some time in my busy schedule cleaning house tomorrow to post pictures about the Fan Zone and the Holland-Russia match last night.
I raise my glass to you all, or all y'all, if you're from Texas. Cheers!!!