Annecy

Since it was raining AGAIN, we decided to take a drive up to Annecy for a change of (wet) scenery. We wandered around the lake, ate some crepes in a cafe, rode a merry-go-round (twice), and fled when it started to get really cold.

ducks

Zoe and I went to the Rocheplaine park to feed ducks.


On our way out, I saw that some company has been contracted to remove some of the rocks perched above the roundabout. You can see the climbing cliff at the upper left of the top photo. The base of the cliffs are now fenced off, and climbing has of course been shut down. It looks like they are doing a pretty terrible job though: many white rock scars now dot the face from rocks getting crowbarred off. I have a feeling that a lot of bolts will need replacing. Color me unimpressed.

Update

Not too many updates recently, as we have been pretty busy, as well as a bit stranded with the lack of diesel. We went to the gas stations three times over the past few weeks, but they were either out, or closed! Nest time we will do as the French do: at the first sign of a strike, head for the gas station to weather the storm. After a pre-reconnaissance on bike on Monday, I managed to get 50 euro worth of fuel. Nice.

In other news, I finally cut Alex's hair, having learned the secrets of fine coiffure via the YouTube Haircare Institute. I was actually prepared for an emergency trip to the hair place for him, but it turned out great! I will post pictures soon.

happy birthday Zoe!!

Zoe and Alex sick!

all weekend... and it rained the whole time, too!

Strike

We are now having a hard time finding diesel for our car, and the ATM machine in town is out of money (armored car service on strike, apparently). At least is obliges us to bike to work! I don't really understand what all the noise is about. There must be something else at work besides moving the retirement age to 62, because that really does not sound so bad!

A bike for Zoe

The nanny had told us that one of the other children that she watches has a new bike, which was the object of much Zoe desire (and the source of some disputes, apparently), so we decided to look for a bike with training wheels for Zoe this weekend. After trying out five or size bikes, we bought this fine machine.

Despite the fact that it was raining, we had to go test it out immediately. She insisted on riding up the gentle hill that takes you to the park "BY SELF", which was going fine until she ran out of torque and started rolling backwards down the hill.


That's the first part of me saying "Uh oh" at the end, and running to stop her.

Once in the lot, she amazed me with her speed and bike handling.


She did manage to wreck once, when she attempted a turn at high speed and ended up toppling over. This was followed by tears and daddy hugs, and a puzzled look when I asked her if she wanted to go home. She backed away from me as if I was insane (for having the temerity to suggest that she stop riding her new bike, I assume), threw a leg over the bike and sped off. I think she's going to be a professional cyclocross or mountain bike rider. After twenty or thirty laps around the baby park criterium, we headed home for cupcakes.

Down jackets

I've been looking at replacements for my now not very lofty down jacket, but have been unable to find anything decent. Chloe's excellent Moonstone jacket is still in great shape, eight years later, and is my benchmark for excellence. It had fleece lined pockets and a comfy, insulated hood back when those features were pretty rare. Unfortunately, Moonstone appears to have gone out of business, so I've been looking at Mountain Hardwear and Patagucci. I thought that "fill power" was the only important number in assessing the quality of the the insulation, until I came upon the web site of Valandre. Valandre is a French company that makes some of the lightest and highest performance sleeping bags in the world (with an appropriately elevated price). I've probably mentioned them once or twice before. In any case, they make jackets too, and when I was browsing their web site, I came upon a page that they had created, which was devoted to information about their down:

http://www.valandre.com/graygoose.php
translation

Things I did not know that affect the quality of the down:
the age of the animal,
the quality of food,
how the goose was raised,
the BREED of the goose!

Zoe

Champbaran

Today we went to Champbaran with Lolo, Vero, et cie to look for animals (we saw a couple of stags), walking around, and gathering chestnuts. It was a lovely almost-fall day






I had a late lunch of oysters and 18 month old comté (but not at the same time).

Valrhona Caramel Class

Special Guest Blog by Chloe!!
Thursday was Valrhona Caramel and Chocolate Day-a full day of instruction on working with chocolate and caramel by a Valrhona certified patissier. Originally I had planned on attending the same class a year ago however Alex decided to make an early appearance and nixed that plan (going into labor was a good enough excuse to warrant a full refund at least!).

After an hour and a half drive Franck, Chantal, and I arrived at the Valrhona factory and cooking school. It was a surprisingly discreet looking building-no huge neon signs proclaiming VALRHONA, only a simple logo on the side of the building. We went into the school and were immediatley led to a cafe for espressos and chocolate (Valrhona, of course). Our instructor arrived and after introductions (which I vaguely followed) we went into the laboratory- an incredibly well equipped kitchen with marble countertop, multiple freezers, refrigerators, convection ovens, and a temperature controlled "Chocolaterie" (16 Celcius) for chocolate making, tempering etc.




Sebastien, our instructor, had us introduce ourselves and recount the Valrhona recipes we had made (everyone else was a repeat participant) and whether or not we were successful. I felt out of my league right away as everyone discussed the various entremets, macarons,and other pastries I had never even heard of. My baking chocolate chip cookies sounded rather lame in comparison (although they are pretty good).

We quickly plunged into the caramel making after a quick explanation from Sebastien. Caramel is not hard to do, but requires some nerves-sugar is melted dry in a pot and quickly turns a golden brown color and needs to continue cooking without burning. Cream is then added, bubbling and hissing violently as it comes in contact with the hot sugar (do NOT peer into the pot as the cream is added), afterwards butter is stirred in to achieve the creamy texture for a good caramel cream filling. After tasting our caramel cream it was onto the next caramel concoction-a chocolate caramel ganache filling for macarons. The principle was the same but with the added deliciousness of chocolate stirred into the caramel. Again, the recipe was verified by extensive tasting (including by Sebastien who told us the Valrhona pastry chefs put on about 5 kg a year. This was confirmed by Franck and Chantal who were very surprised to see the Sebastien had put on at least this much weight. A hazard of the job....)



We continued in this way until lunchtime-everyone taking turns making the caramel, using the pastry "poche" to lay out the macarons, tasting the various pastry doughs, chocolate ganaches, and caramel creams. Making pastries is exhausting work and after the combination of caffeine and sugar I was ready for lunch!

"Hiking", Centre Ville

Zoe and I went "hiking" today, which turned out to be a short walk up to the play structure at the MJC.



And then did a little painting


Later, we all went into town in search of things to faciltate the production of future chocolate delicacies today. I was also trying out a new camera - A borrowed D90 with the stabilized 16-85mm lens. We stopped for coffee and tea at Pain et Cie


And then on to the pedestrian bridge over the Isére

Guilty pleasure of the day

Empire State of Mind: Jay Z featuring Alicia Keys

The school run

I was dropping Zoe off when this pulled into the school lot:

A ride to school in a Ferrari 348 -- not bad.

All we need is for people to show up with Stokke strollers, and it'll be just
like the peninsula!

on my own

Chloe is off to caramel school at Valrhona, so I have the kids. When I dropped ZZN off this morning, they had a table with cards bearing all of their names. Other kids were affixing them to a big blue card holder on the wall. I saw Zoe fiddling with what I assumed to be a random namecard and stick it on the wall, but it was indeed hers! I was very surprised that she recognized her name... I wonder if a teacher's aide handed it to her while I wasn't looking.

update: I made cards with lots of random three letter names on it and she really does recognize her name!

Clemenciere via Narbonne

another nice ride

Happy Birthday, Alex!!

Romeyer

We went climbing with Julien and some of his friends at Romeyer: very difficult, but great to be outside.


On the way back, I saw an absolutely stunning orange limestone cliff face. It is the Rocher de Cambau, and is just begging to be climbed!

Stickers

I went shopping with Zoe to buy clothes for her and alex today, and also made a stop at the Troc place, since I have driven by it many times and never stopped. It is basically a warehouse full of mostly crappy furniture. I did, however see a very nice bonetier and an homme debout. These are sort of smaller, more practical versions of the armoire. I particularly like homme debouts because they have a drawer in between two smaller compartments: very practical. They also had this majestic sculpture of Serge Gainsbourg

I'm not sure if that's a flask or a microphone in his hand.

Next was a visit to the art supply store, where Zoe caught sight of a sticker display and immediately grabbed a packet of stickers, jammed them into her mouth, looked up at me with wide eyes and asked "Dat's Zoe's?". Fine. I started paying for the watercolors, pens, pastels and her stickers, when she realized that there were even more stickers... and those stickers had BEARS on them! Unfortunately, I had just finished paying. I also did not have any cash at all, and couldn't pay for a one euro sticker packet with a card. Zoe had the packet firmly in her hand, and after a brief tussle which rendered the stickers ours, we came to an agreement which involved going out to the car to find change, coming back and paying for the bear stickers. On my way home, I had a the terribly cynical thought that the placement of the children's sticker rack next to the register might not have been an accident.

Mont St. Martin

A short hike with the kids on the Boucle de Sabot. Zoe walked all the way up without even asking to be carried, so she is making a lot of progress on the hiking front.

Quest for Camera

Very narrow now:

Fuji X100:
+fuji lens
+enough res
-to damn wide!

Nikon 3100:
+light
+decent res
+inexpensive
-can't drive older Nikon lenses, MF a pain

Nikon D90:
-a bit heavy
+can drive older Nikon lenses

Nikon D7000:
+excellent pixel count
+can drive older Nikon lenses
-pricey
-heavy

Canon 550D:
+18 mp!
+not too heavy
+not too expensive

Sony Alpha 55:
+Light
+10 frames/second
+Excellent sensor (same as D7000?)
-Reasonable lenses for alpha mount are overpriced

ok, not narrow at all.

WEEKEND IS HERE

after a long week of shooting 10-20 micron crystals. Too tired for even a lunchtime bouldering session.