Escape to (or from) Monkey Mountain

The highlight of our Sunday...

After making fun of Joe for more than a year about wanting to play with Monkeys, we finally went to Monkey Mountain in the Vosges. Think big forest with a fence with lots of monkeys roaming around. At first it kind of had a little Jurassic Park feeling that we were being watched, but once we were inside it was pretty tame.

Fortunately there was no inappropriate touching from Joe (like he has apparently done in the past with monkeys from Brazil), but there was one incident where a monkey did escape from the huge area. Patrick saw the monkey running for the gate and tried to slam the door, but unfortunately there was an 8 year old child in the way. Monkey runs between child's legs, and you have a couple of extra hours work for the park attendants to go find the monkey.

Birds of Prey

As part of our group activity on one Sunday, Joe set up an afternoon where we went to see Birds of Prey up in an old castle. Everybody went, including Andrea's parents who were in town visiting. It was actually cooler than I thought it would be, since we saw tons of birds that we never can see up close flying around.

The setting was pretty nice too - high up on a mountain above Kintzheim.

Project Cheese: 44%

Yeah, I've hit 44% of all AOC cheeses. Between picking up a couple of Jim's house the other night, and a stop into the now reopenned (after vacation) 'Le Cloche au Fromage' - I've kicked off several more cheeses. Alas, I lost my lookup sheet, but I think we have Fourme d'Ambert, Maroilles Lesire, and God knows what else. And yes, if I'm not lactose intolerant by the end of this exercise, I never will be.

Flowers of the Week

Again, not too good with the naming of flowers, but I think these are Asters - at least that's what I asked for with a french accent, and it seemed to work.

Sunday Lunch at the Auberge

Duck, duck, goose.

In a secondary project (see 'Cheese Project') to visit as many local Auberges as possible, Patrick, Jim, Cindy (new visitor, more on that later), Jill, Chris, and I all went to an Auberge up in the Vosges. Never really saw (or smelled) so many ducks in my life, but it was worth it. They made their own munster cheese and the ducks were really beyond fresh - Patrick even commented that it was probably the best duck he's ever had (and he's had a lot of good duck in the past year).

Raku from Bitscheim

Sorry, I'm sure I've spelled the town in Alsace wrong, but I can't ask Patrick because he's already told me five times last week. Regardless, we went up to a place very close to Souffleinheim (home of Alsatian pottery) and went to a town that specialized in another style.

Didn't actually buy that style of pottery, and instead went for some Raku. Photo probably doesn't do it justice, but it requires a lot of light to show it off well.

Flowers of the Week

And yes, I have no idea what these are called - I think they're Chinese paper Lanterns, but that would be too easy. Unfortunately I bought them from a different vendor than usual, because the usual one was busy with a rather time-consuming customer in front of me - and I had to move on. Granted we were running a little late that day and it was crowded, but I still don't understand how a frenchmen can spend 15 minutes picking out 5 stems of Lillies - dude, they're Lillies - pick one and let's move on.

Monthly T-Shirt Contest

And we have another entry into the "Oh my God, I can't believe he wore that to work" T-Shirt Contest here in Fegersheim. Long time readers will remember the basic rules of the contest in order to have your T-Shirt entered in the competition (but I'll recap for the new people).

1. T-Shirt must be worn to work.
2. Must have a witness or a photo of the T-Shirt.

Bonus points are awarded if T-Shirt would cause an immediate expulsion from Lilly properties if worn in the US.

I'm still working on the details of the winning prizes (to be announced at the end of warm weather), but no doubt it will involve something with the Lilly Red Book.

Again, Stephane continues to perform (you may remember him from last month's Care Bear fame) with this month's entry.

Bordeaux

Technically this was as close to vacation as we got in August. As the french were taking off two weeks at a time, followed by two weeks in the office, and then another two weeks - we just went to Bordeaux for five days.

We did have a lot of fun though . . .

Bordeaux: Wines of St. Emillion

First stop in the land of really expensive red wine was St. Emillion, which is on the north side of the river and inland a little bit. The entire area is on one huge chalk plateau. So the one vineyard we went to had a huge carved out wine cave under their vines - I'm thinking the floor area would have been at two football fields.

We picked up three bottles from different years of the same winery in order to taste the different harvests in detail.

We also walked around the town of St. Emillion and picked up some Merlot vines - have no idea if they will survive. Alas, the one day it baked in car's back window and the trip home in an overpacked suitcase did not make them very happy - but we'll see.

Bordeaux: The Dunes

Probably don't get the best view of the size of the place, but there is a large sand dune (actually the largest in Europe) not far from Bordeaux.

Unfortunately, it required us to brave the thousands of other french tourists who decided to concentrate themselves into an incredibly small area - but once we were out of the small town nearby and up on the Dunes it was nice.

Bordeaux: Chateau Rieussec

One of the more famous wineries in Sauterne would be Chateau Riussec. Like most of the dirty little secrets of winemaking - the secret is the land (terroir), and a really great famous winery is surrounded by not so famous wineries.

Granted skill is important - but it's kind of funny that you can buy a half bottle of Sauterne in the US for $70, but also buy an entire bottle of Chateau Trillon (which is next door) for $9.

Bordeaux: Fanciest Parking Garage in the World

Usually parking garages are not blog-worthy, but this one we had to mention. Located in the main section of Bordeaux, this parking garage had a underground roundabout, indirect light to highlight the natural stone walls, and modern chrome elevators that would have made a Berliner proud. I wanted to just move in.

Bordeaux: Wines of Sauterne

Stop three in expensive wine country was Sauterne, home of ... the Sauternes (they sometimes make it really easy). You may know these wines from their sweetness and half bottle sizes that you see in the States.

Turns out the french hate the half bottle idea, instead preferring to open a bottle of this little sweetness, and just keeping what they don't drink in the frig for a couple of weeks. Where we would drink Sauternes as a dessert wine, the french prefer to drink them as an aperitif. Similar to the champagne thing, they make big bottles of this stuff - like double magnums - but you have to figure if you're going to open the equivalent of four bottles of this stuff - you better have invited a lot of friends.

We stopped by the cooperative in town, where we were able to taste a lot of wines - they gave us three that represented the range of the Sauternes - sweet, mineral, refined. Need to have a tasting party with those three.

We also met a crazy french woman, owners of the Chateau shown here - I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but these vines are about 60 - 80 years old. Anyway, she was telling us what foods went well with Sauterne - until she mentionned that it went well with Roquefort, the infamous blue cheese. Knowing how difficult it to match a wine with a cheese, I was surprised and confirmed, "Roquefort?". To which she responded, "Absolutely. It's incredible", stared off into space for a few seconds, and then just quietly said, "Yes. Roquefort". I thought she was going to need a cigarette.

Bordeaux: Wines of Margaux

Stop two in expensive red wine land was Margaux - a pretty well known area to french wine afficianados. We stopped at one winery for a tour, but we skipped the tasting, because we thought it was too expensive.

When we drove down the road and stopped at a wine shop, one of the wines he recommended were from the same winery. He also recommended another wine, which is made by a guy who basically throws his yearly harvest away, if he doesn't like it. He also shuns all wine reviews and rankings.

Bordeaux: French Marketing

Now you know why it's so hard to come up with one name for a global product that would sound good in all the different languages of the World.

While climbing the Dunes, Tim stopped to get an ice cream bar - but this was no ordinary one. You might need to zoom in on the picture to get the full effect.

Bordeaux: More French Marketing

And it just keeps getting better...

While sitting in a little cafe in Bordeaux, Patrick ordered a lemonade (aka Sprite) with the name of "Pschitt" - not sure if we have a drink in the US called, "Merde".

Bordeaux: The Cathedral

Not sure what's going in France, but they seem to be on a 'Clean Your Local Cathedral' kick. First it was Notre Dame in Paris, and now it looks like it's Notre Dame in Bordeaux - (actually, I'm not sure if this Cathedral was actually called Notre Dame, but I've got a 80% chance of being correct).

The Cathedral was very nice, albeit, it was not one of the larger churches in France.

Lucia rides bike to work

In a stunning show of perseverance, Lucia rode her bike into work this week on perhaps the heaviest downpour ever experienced in Strasbourg. No doubt wanting to fit into her wedding dress for the February wedding, she has decided to follow in Patrick and my footsteps and ride her bike into work.

Patrick rode in with her to show her the way, so as I waited at work and saw the downpour, I figured this would be the one and only day that Lucia would do it. Turns out when they arrived, in addition to being the most drenched person that I have ever seen, she also had a huge grin on her face, and has already biked again.

The French really do wear berets

At the risk of perpetuating stereotypes that all french people wear berets, this is a rather disturbing picture of Faubert that I had to post (we needed to do something with all those berets after Happy Thursday)

England

For a change, I had to actually travel somewhere other than Fegersheim - had to train some people in Basingstoke, UK for a couple of days. So Patrick and I decided to go up a couple days early and stay in London, before Patrick flew back home and I took the train over to Basingstoke.

I hadn't been to London in a long time, but the one thing that really struck me . . . REALLY pricey. Like Westminister Abbey costing more than 10 pounds just to get in the door. Fortunately, we had done most of the touristy stuff in other trips, so this will be some different places we went.

England: Ye Olde Cock Tavern

Not really much of a story here, except the sign. We were walking around London (looking for one of the sites of the DaVinci code) and came across the sign.

It's not as good as the T-Shirt contest, but it's worth a juvenile chuckle.

England: Accupuncture

Patrick is still having some back issues, so when we were walking around Chinatown (well, I was walking, he was limping like an 85 year old man who was recovering from hip surgery) - we decided to stop at an Accupuncturist.

After asking him some questions about how long he has been feeling this way, and taking his pulse to detect "a weak kidney which is impacting your liver functions", he went for the needles. I think he put in about 16 needles in all, and Patrick says he really didn't feel most of them - except one or two. We even went back a couple of days later for another treatment.

Not sure if the thing actually worked or not - his back still hurts - but we might try to find a accupuncturist in Strasbourg for cheap fun.

England: Kew Gardens

Patrick and I practically spent the entire day at the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens just outside of London. The place was absolutely amazing, a huge collection of plant material of all shapes and sizes. We basically took as many pictures as we could before our memory and/or battery gave out - it was the memory that went first - but not without giving some interesting pictures.

I also decided to play with iWeb on the Mac, so you can go here and see all the pictures we took

England: Stonehenge

Andrea and I drove off to Stonehenge (it's only about 30 minutes from Basingstoke). There's really nothing else out that way other than fields of heather - but it was interesting to actually see something that you have seen in pictures for a long time.

Unfortunately, there's really not much to explain about Stonehenge, since they really don't know much about it. They think it was used for religious ceremonies back in pre-historic times, the whole Druid building them thing is false, and the first stones came from far away Wales, while the others were more intelligently brought closer up north.

BIG Bottle of Champagne

The joys of being a couple hours away from champagne. Turns out champagne (or even regular wine, for that matter) does not come in just one size. The convenient demi-bouteilles (half-bottles) are nice for the two person family. And if you're a wine enthusiast, you'll know that the magnum size (two bottles) have the optimal ratio of surface area to wine volume (OK, let's just say all of the french know this). Regardless, the size of bottles larger than a magnum get to be a mouthful:

Jeroboam (6 bottles), named after the first King of the 10 tribes of Israel
Methuselah (8 bottles), 969 year old Israeli patriach mentionned in Genesis
Salmanazaar (12 bottles), Assyrian King
Balthazar (15 bottles), One of the Three Wise Men
Nebuchadnezzar (20 bottles), Babylonian King

Pictured above is a Jeroboam (next to a normal sized bottle of wine) that I picked up in Epernay.

Cassis

For those of you familiar with the liqueur, Cassis, which is used in Kirs and Kir Royales, you may appreciate this. For about two weeks out of the summer, you can actually buy the fruit cassis that the liqueur is made from.

I did make a crisp out of the first batch, but even after a large bit of sugar they were still a little sour. Still with the mixture of fruit they would be good.

Flowers of the Week: Gladiolas

Pictures don't do justice to this flower of the week - they were really good this time. And as you can see from the picture, they were huge. Even the two french women who tried to cut in line to get the last bouquet grudgingly before me approved (there's no honor at the market sometimes).

The Pan

Some may not understand the significance of this story, but in Patrick's last trip to the US, he brought back Mom's pan. This is a pan that she probably got from her wedding 50 years ago, and she has always used it to make a fruit crisp (as shown here with blueberries). Needless to say it's a bit banged up, but I'm sure it resembles something in everyone's house where it wouldn't sell in a garage sale for 20 cents, but it's still priceless.

Now, I just need to make sure my sister doesn't get the pound cake pan, and I'm all set.

Happy Thursday

Some of you may remember back in December when our team did Happy Thursday (think: monthly Team Building with food). This time the ex-patriates were selected to do it, so the theme was, "What a typical American thinks of the French".

Yes, the political potential was outstanding, but we served french toast, wore french berets, and had a little movie on all the words in the English language that use the word 'french'.

As usual, great fun was had by all.

Recipe: French Toast

For Happy Thursday, we made french toast (otherwise known as 'pain perdu' or lost bread). Got a couple requests for the recipe, so here it is in both English and metric measurements

(English Measurements)

Mix in a large bowl...

1 egg
1 cup of milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbls sugar
1 tbls flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4-8 slices of day old bread, 3/4 inch thick

Soak the bread for 30 seconds in the batter

Cook over medium heat with 1 tablespoon of butter

(Metric measurements)

1 egg
250 ml of milk
10 ml of vanilla extract
30 ml of sugar
15 ml of flour
dash of salt
4-8 slices of day old bread, 2 cm thick