Grenoble

Today we headed off to Grenoble to see some old friends of ours, but not before enduring more crappy Lyon driving and my forgetting something at the hotel. While I was waiting, I saw a procession of Spanish musicians heading off to the conservatory

We had lunch at an interesting place in St. Egreve with tables outside under Cherry trees. It was really great to see everyone again, but a little bittersweet since Chloe and I both miss France and our friends quite a bit.


Given a stable long term opportunity, I'm not sure we wouldn't move back.

After lunch, we headed back to Lyon for our 8:00 dinner reservations at le Caro de Lyon; one of our favorite restaurants anywhere. Dinner was superb as usual





We all had the 30 euro menu which included scallops and a pine nut/spinach pastry as well as various delicious desserts.

Les Puces

After an early start, we realized that 1)we were almost out of diesel and 2)It was Sunday, which meant that most of the gas stations were closed and 3)It was election day, so even fewer people would be out and about. Happily, we found an open service station after driving to two "24 hour" stations which did not accept VISA. Along the way, we saw a camel!


In researching the trip, we saw that one of the biggest antique fairs in France happens at a place in Lyon (Villeurbanne, actually)every Sunday, so naturally we had to go check it out. Unfortunately, the trip down to Lyon took a little longer than expected, and as usual driving in Lyon is a total nightmare, so we ended up arriving pretty much just as things were getting packed up.

The first thing that you are greeted with upon entering the area is a huge asphalt lot, sectioned off into little encampments of people selling mostly junk.

However, on one side of the lot there is an enclosed building

which is also sectioned off into small stores separated by walls made of wooden slats. Inside, there were several places with really nice things. We saw a beautiful farm table for WAY too much money (2800 euro)

and some other nice things




Kenji bought a Chinese jar, of all things. Here he is on his way back from his purchase:

We still hadn't had lunch by this point, so we made the mistake of eating lunch at the cafe in the main building. The saucisse frites plates I ordered had bright red sausages!

We headed back to the hotel and rested for a while, since we were still a little jet lagged from the flight. Gail had found a flyer which advertised an "Antiques City" north of where we were, so after a little more resting we took the tram to the Cite des Antiquaires. The Cite is an entire building full of shops holding very high end antiques, with the added advantage of being able to ship internationally. Its in an ugly, hoodlum infested part of Lyon but well worth the visit.

There were two farm tables that we were particularly interested in:



at 1500 and 1800 euro, but the shipping charges would double this price, so we gave up on the idea.

We were originally going to walk back to the hotel but decided to tram it after seeing the packs of criminals. On the train, Chloe and I overheard an amusing conversation between a girl and her boyfriend in which she demanded to know why he niqued cette meuf while he was in angleterre. I'll leave it to you to figure out what that means.


After returning to the hotel, we headed out to the quai to look for food

but Chloe and I quickly ran out of energy, and settled for bread, epoisses and watching the presidential election coverage on TV. Segolene Royal and Sarkozy were the candidates selected by La France for the final election in two weeks. Amazingly, voter turnout was 84.6 %. Compare that with the past US voter turnouts for federal elections:

2004 55.3 %
2002 37.0 %
2000 51.3 %
1998 36.4 %

La Bourgogne

After a large breakfast at the hotel, we headed out towards wine country but stopped in Avallon first after seeing several signs for antique shops. One shop had a lot of nice things and my parents ended up buying some pillowcases and a fancy carafe for water. Kenji impressed the propetier by rummaging through a box full of glass stoppers and finding the perfect stopper for the carafe... and proceeded to brag about it for the next twenty minutes. There was a picture of a beautiful cherry table for not too much money, but sadly it wasn't in her shop. I talked to the owner about the vote tomorrow, and she said that although economically ("because of all this", she said with a wave of her hand towards her shop) it would make sense for her to vote for Sarkozy, she was too worried that he was like a French Bush, and was probably going to vote for Segolene Royal or Bayrou instead.

On the autoroute, we saw signs for a town called Saumur-en-Auxois so we exited the freeway and reprogrammed the GPS. As we descended a hill, we were greeted with the impressive site of a huge turret and an ancient citadel. The turret itself has a deep and troubling looking crack running down the side of it. After finding a parking spot, we walked under the main arched entrance

and bought some of the excellent local cheese called Epoisses, some baguettes, and another local specialty: a chocolate cake



The church looked like most of the other churches to me, but this one had a big net set up to catch the flaking plaster and bird crap before it landed on the heads of the churchgoers

Personally, I would take care of that with spike strips or a pellet gun, but I dunno, maybe shedding blood in a church is frowned upon?

We continued on towards some of the turrets

had lunch on the wall


and then headed back to the car.

We started heading for wine country and stopped to take pictures of the mustard fields. Chloe and I both managed to walk through stinging nettles, which we felt for the next hour or so!



Next came the famous town of Gevrey-Chambertin, which I don't really want to talk about because the wine bottle that we bought there -- the most expensive that we had ever bought, and the ONLY Grand Cru that we have ever bought -- was stolen at our Hotel in Lyon. The town was great, but it still pains me to talk about it.

We drove through other famous villages -- Vosne, Nuits... And stopped at the Andre Zilltener winery, where we checked out their cellars and then did a wine tasting.


The rather extensive tasting left my mom and I drunk, and we ened up buying three bottles of wine. Interestingly, the woman running the tasting said that most 2003 bourgognes will be ready much earlier than other years because of the extreme heat. I've subsequently heard a different story from my friend Franck though. His version, which he gets from a bourgogne wine maker, is that in 2003, the big name vineyards were the only ones who had the clout to schedule harvests before the harvesters went on vacation. These grapes were harvested at high temperature, so the fermentation began quickly and strongly, making many 2003 wines "ready" much earlier than other years. The other vineyards had to wait for their harvests, and in between the first harvest and the second there were major rain storms, which meant that the grapes were harvested at a lower temperature.

From Chambolle, we headed to Beaune to look at the hospice





Despite some of the drawbacks of living in the 21st century: global warming, long commutes, unaffordable housing, I'm SO glad I'm living in a time where these kinds of surgical implements aren't used:

No, those arent for woodworking: those are BONE SAWS and HAND DRILLS!
In case you were wondering, this is where you drill a hole in a head

presumably to drain the humors. yeek!
They did have some very cool spigots though

mmmmm.. vomiting goose water!

The crew:


The apothecary was very cool:


again, even though that is a charming font, I'll take the poison control center and the stomach pump rather than the colle de poison, please.

there was also some kind of fancy tapestry


From Beaune, we headed to Autun, but quickly realized that we were going to be pretty late for our dinner reservation at at Bib Gourmand restaurant called "Les Chenets". After a high speed and admittedly nauseating dash back to Vezelay to get changed, we had a wonderful dinner,



and spent the time in between dishes trying to figure out which of our fellow patrons owned the $120000 Benz out front.

WHEW!

Charles de Gaulle, Vezelay

We arrived around noon at Paris-CDG and headed to National to pick up the car that I had booked through AutoEurope.com. Picking up the keys was a breeze, and for once the car rental agents didn't try to rip us off with insurance etc. We fired up the Nuvi with our newly acquired France SD card and headed out onto the open road with our TDCI Ford Focus wagon. I was immediately impressed by the torquey engine, good brakes (as good as the subie or better) and decent handling. Why doesn't Ford sell car like this in the states? Oh yes, because Americans would prefer 8 mpg to 40 mpg.



we drove to Vezelay, checked into the Hotel Poste et Lion d'Or and explored the town a bit. Vezelay is perched on a hilltop from which you can see for miles. The voting posters were up on metal stands near the town hall with pictures of all of the candidates. They varied from the somber picture of Jose Bové in a crowd of people -- the sun setting somewhere off camera in front of him, to the model headhost of Segolene Royal, to LePen flipping off someone who had just taken his parking space
.

The church was very... churchlike.
.
Being the picture of decorum, I loudly clomped down the stone steps to the crypt and much to my embarrassment realized that there was a monk praying there!
.

Outside of the church, there is a lovely "balcone" with flowering horse chestnuts and beautiful stone walls


and we wandered around until the sun began to set











We had an excellent meal and stumbled up to our suite. A busload of Japanese tourists was also staying in the hotel and one as I walked past the front desk, I saw the somewhat comical scene of a drunk japanese salaryman loudly and insistently trying to teach the confused desk clerk how to say goodnight in Japanese: "Oh YAAAH SOOO MEEEEE NAAA SAIII".

off to France .. wheeeeee!

We met my parents at the airport for our 3:55 flight to Paris today. Since SFO can be such a mess these days, we ended up spending a lot of time in the airport cafes, watching the planes take off and land




The flight itself was among the most cramped and uncomfortable I have ever experienced; my knees were clicking as I walked off the pain and it felt like my lower back had been hit with a pillowcase full of doorknobs. or at least oranges.