Restaurants in the Middle of Nowhere

I guess I felt like updating my blog today. In the summer it becomes almost unbearable to stay in Lyon between the heat and the pollution, on the weekends you must get out of town. For this case we are a bit lucky, or you might even say spoiled, since Val’s father lives in the Alps. On the weekends you will tend to find us swimming or biking at Lake Annecy, walking in the mountains, or eating lunch in a small restaurant hidden in the middle of the mountains.
I have no idea how people find these restaurants. They must be passed down through word of mouth. There is no direct route to these restaurants and most of the time it involves unpaved roads. But on Saturday and Sunday don’t expect to walk in and find a seat. Without a reservation you are shit out of luck.
The restaurants typically are situated along a hiking trail so people can hike in, eat lunch, and then head back off into the mountains. The food is very traditional and most of it comes directly from the land around the restaurant. There is one set menu and if you don’t like it don’t comeback. To begin, they serve you a huge plate of chacuterie (cold cuts), no doubt coming from the farm raised pigs not far from where you are sitting. Next you eat lamb or sheep depending on the day which is usually served with some vegetables such as, cauliflower in a white cheese sauce. Then the green salad and a huge plate of selected cheeses arrive. And of course, don’t forget the dessert which is often fromage blanc (white cheese with sugar added) or a tarte. It is almost impossible not to over eat.
However, it is not only the food that lures you to these hidden jewels, it is the picturesque scenery. The terrace has a 360 view of mountains, cows, and lambs and in some restaurants there is even a lake included in the price. And no worries after you eat you can walk off all those calories on one of the many trails that disappear into the mountains. If you are a vegetarian you are screwed!

Traveling in Corsica

We just came back from Corsica a few weeks ago. For those of you who don’t know the island, it is located in the Mediterranean just below France. It was originally inhabited by the Italians and later taken over by the French. Today the Corsican language is basically variation of French with a strong Italian accent. Like the Basque, Corsica would like to separate from France. Personally, I have no idea how the island would survive without the aid of France. Tourism plays a major role in the Corsican economy which is extremely popular with Italian, French, and German tourists.
There are two ways to get around in Corsica. The first way is to own or rent a multi million dollar yacht and travel from town to town by water. Unfortunately, we don’t fall into this lifestyle category. The second was is to bring your car by ferry or rent a car. We choose to fly and rent a car. The island is about 120 miles long and takes about 5 hours to cross due to small 2 lanes roads which at some points are unpaved. During the winter you can actually ski on this island but the summers are hot and dry.
We started our journey in Bastia. Bastia is one of the biggest cities on the island. It is not very impressive so we only stayed the night and left in the morning. However, dinner in Bastia was rather interesting. We sat down to eat at a little restaurant and at the table behind us; a woman started throwing up everything she had just eaten. It was a perfect way to start the vacation. I decided not to order the shrimp.
From Bastia, we headed to Cap Corse, this side of the island is really desolate. You drive right along the cliffs over the water, similar to driving Highway 1 in California. The coast line is really beautiful. We arrived in St Florian that evening. It claims to have one of the most beautiful beaches along the Med. coast. The town was really alive. At night everyone was out in the streets eating ice cream and listening to live music.
The next day we headed to Calvi another small town that is alive during the evening. The port is beautiful. We stayed in Calvi for two days. In fact on a little tour just outside of town we found a little hidden beach where a woman and her son built a small restaurant. The woman was so nice she sat and had coffee with us for about an hour. We showed up early in the morning just to have a coffee and ended up staying all day on the beach.
That night we went to a restaurant in the mountains recommended by a guide. It was rather interesting. It was supposed to be a dinner slash theatre. We arrived and a man in his mid 70s gave us a couple of glasses of orange wine. The he took some cards from a couple next to us and tried to do a magic trick which he ultimately failed. After he had us sit down at the table and started to cut ham of the shank which he then proceeded to throw at you. You had to be quick with your plate or else you were screwed. He even would place a piece of ham on a plate and throw it to you. At first we thought this was funny but after about an hour it got really old. The man kept drinking and drinking while trying to perform stupid songs and throwing plates and food. By the end of the night we were watching an old drunken man throw plates out the window onto the street. That was basically the whole show. Needless to say we were not impressed and will not recommend it to others.
Next, we headed down through Ajaccio and Propriano. We ended up staying in a really small town in a hotel with a view of the sea. It was really nice. We bought a bottle of wine and some food at the local market and eat dinner on our terrace overlooking the water.
The next morning we headed to Bonifacio. In Bonifacio we took a boat tour out to a small island. The tour took us through caves and gave us a little history of the region. We spent a few hours on the island snorkelling and exploring.
The last town we visited was Porto Vechio where we did a little wine tasting and a lot of swimming. The town, like all of the towns has a small port and an old town. The old town is very much alive at night with views extending to Sardina and Italy.
The only thing that bothered me about Corsica was the heat. It is extremely hot, hitting over 100 degrees during the day. Needless to say we beat the heat by swimming on average 3 times a day. After our first night in Bastia in a hotel without A/C I decided we would either have A/C or a pool going forward. It was helpful. But in the end, we decided to camp for the last 3 nights. We had brought a tent and blankets and some really nice sleep pads. Camping ended up being the best way to beat the heat. Each campsite had a pool and full facilities. We set up our tent in the shade and at night it was similar to Sacramento, perfect for sleeping out doors.

The New Apartment

I just realized I never discussed the new apt. We found one and it is beautiful. We have been living in our new apt for just about 2 months now. We both love the place. It is about the same size as the apt we had in San Diego. It is difficult to beat the SD apt but this one is pretty close.

It sits at the edge of the Old town called Vieux Lyon. The front room is equipped with an ornamental fireplace, high ceilings and huge windows extending about 6 feet high looking down onto the street below. The floors are traditional wood both light and dark grained depending on where you are standing. The main bedroom includes a small bathroom with shower and sink. As you enter the room some of the old rock structure has been left exposed to give character and decoration. The second bedroom is small but cozy fitting a double bed as well as a computer desk. The main bathroom has a full-sized bathtub and double-sink countertop. With plenty of room left over for a stackable washer and dryer. In the hallway there is a walk-in closet as well as a full regular closet. The rooms do not really include closets so they are used for everything. At the front door there is a toilet (the only toilet in the apt) recently remodelled with a small hand washing sink. The kitchen has also recently been remodelled and features beautiful cabinets with stainless steel fixtures and magnetic closures and the counter top includes an integrated faux-marble cutting board. We of course had to add a new oven and dishwasher along with all the light fixtures since the French take everything with them.

The view from the apt is inspiring. The apt sits at the corner of three streets and a tourist alley. To the north side you have the street below and the tourist alley which is alive with people walking all day long especially on the weekends. It reminds me of a television, I love to sit at the window and watch the people go by. Some day, I may even see someone I know. You never know. To the west there is a big tree-lined hill. Lyon was originally a fortified city built between three hills. The hill we sit next too is Fouviere. From the window it almost appears as if you are looking out into a forest and just above the forest lays the famous Fouviere church. At night it is incredible to look at with all the lights and its gold trim.

Oh, and I forgot to mention location. Being in the center of the biggest renaissance quarter in all of Europe there are lots of things to see and do. The beautiful gothic churches that sit in the center of the quarter are worth the visit. The famous Lyon Traboules (hidden alleyways) extend the interior of the apts buildings between streets give view to the beautiful architecture that characterized Lyon in the renaissance. At night the quarter is alive with restaurants, bars, and theaters. And of course my favorite Irish pub is a 2 minute walk down the street.

Customer Service or should I say lack of

Ha-ha, that is a good one. I am cracking myself up. Customer service is practically non-existent. We have written to companies only to have them reply with a mean and sarcastic response. During our moved we had planned to take our internet account with us which seemed to be easy enough. All you do is fill out a form online and send it by mail to the provider. Well they apparently lost the paper work and closed our account proceeding to bill us for the closure fees. We wrote several emails to them (it costs 35 cents a minute to call them) and every time we received a different response as if they didn’t keep the history of the email we were sending to them. The worst part is I sent back the box, since they closed the account I had no choice. 3 weeks later we inquired to see how our account was doing and they said it was stalled because they hadn’t received the box yet. Well, I checked with the Post Office and apparently it was delivered 3 weeks earlier. They conveniently located the box after Valerie called them.

So today marks 2 months and we have yet to receive Internet which sadly enough includes the phone and the television as well. Supposedly they have straightened it all out on their end but I am not holding my breath.

I bought a television online as well. I will never do this again in France. When I purchased it, they site said it was available and in stock which means delivery in 10 days. They got back to me a day later asking for credit card verification which is understandable since the TV was expensive. The following day they sent me an email saying everything was good to go and they immediately withdrew the money from my account. Well, 1 month later I still had no TV, even though they had my money. I wrote them several times (once again the cost of the call is 35 cents/minute) to demand delivery of the TV. Apparently the TV wasn’t really in stock. Finally, towards the end I threaten to cancel the order and demand reimbursement. Well the following week I received the TV. Funny how that worked.

French food rant after weekend in London

As I mentioned in my last post we were in London last weekend. Well, let me start by saying London is great. If you can put aside the crappy weather London has a ton of things to do. And for an American, it gives a taste of home because there are so many similarities between London and the states.

First, I enjoy living in France and there are a lot of great things to see and do but my main pet sometimes I miss the food diversity. Now you are thinking to yourself, France is supposed to have some of the best cuisine in the world. There is no doubt about that and I love the french food. But, the food is not diverse. You can get French food or more French food. If you want something international I suggest going to another country because the options are few and the quality is suspect. For example, if you want good sushi, Indian, Chinese, Mexican or Italian, haha, good luck.

I love to eat sandwiches but every sandwich shop here in France has the same 6-8 types of sandwiches either served on baguette or panini. There is no exploration. Why, I don't understand. I would love to see just once a sandwich with some avocado on it.

I miss Starbucks. I don't personally love Starbucks but I love the concept. I can choose between a regular coffee, an espresso, mocha, etc.. and then I can choose the size. On top of that the Starbucks may be located in a Barns & Nobles so I can sit with my big regular coffee and read a book for an hour. The French love coffee but for some reason they only want a small espresso which lasts all of 2 minutes.

London offers all these things. Quality Indian, Asian, Italian food, and great sandwiches. You notice I don't mention the english food here. Overall, I can't complain since last weekend we flew to London for 45 euros round trip. Valerie is unaware at the moment but we will be doing this more often so I can get a small taste of home.

The night before our trip to London

Last weekend we took a quick trip over to London. Valerie found some cheap flights on EasyJet that were only 40 euros/person. So we figured why not go over on Saturday morning and return on Sunday night. Short but fun. Valerie had never experienced a pub in London so she was really excited about going to one.

Well it turns out that we were invited to a dinner on Friday night before our trip to London. Our plan was too leave early before midnight and not drink too much so we would be ready for our trip in the morning. Well, this is easier said than done when you go to have dinner at a friend’s place.

When we arrived we started with a beer and then came another beer. Ok, two beers isn’t bad but with dinner I drank two glasses of wine. This is usually not a problem either but after dinner I had to follow-up with a whiskey and then another which I immediately made my way to the sink to dump out since I was already feeling a bit over the top. Ok, it sounds like a lot but the real problem came with the fondue. The fondue was made with a whole bottle of wine which is rather unusual since normally it calls for only about 1 glass and I ate a ton of fondue. Going back to my college years when I could drink almost a twelve pack of beer and be ok the next morning, I thought to myself I can handle this.

We left around midnight. On the way back, which thank god only requires taking the metro, I was loaded. I hadn’t been that loaded in years. When we returned home Valerie immediately passed out. Me, I laid in bed spinning and then in the bathroom getting rid of dinner.

The next morning, we woke up at 8am to go to the airport. Of course I woke up with a tremendous hangover. All I wanted to do was stay in bed but we had to go. To make matters worse Valerie was driving and we were late so the whole way to the airport I felt like I was going to throw up and let me tell you taking an airplane hung over is no treat either.

The whole day in London I felt just miserable and we were walking non stop around the city to see the sites and shop. Of course, Valerie didn’t feel perfect either but she felt better than me. She still wanted to experience a pub. By around 6pm I was feeling better so we went to a pub and drank about half a beer. After the pub we went to have some Indian food and I was even feeling hungry again. We had a big taster plate and a glass of wine each. About half-way through the meal I started feeling nausea again. Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was the spicy food, I am not sure but towards 10pm I was done. I told Valerie there is no way I am going to walk into another pub tonight so we went back to the hotel and I slept. By Sunday I was back to my normal self. But never again will we go to a dinner party before taking a trip.

Snowboarding in Chamonix

Well, I finally got too experience one of my snowboarding/skiing dreams, “Snowboarding in the Alps”. Actually we went last year but we only had time for one day and the conditions were horrible. It was snowing so hard you couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of you. With no time to react, every time a bump appeared in front of me I would launch off the top and fall face first down the mountain. Needless to say I was very sore the next day.

This year was totally different. We spent the weekend in Chamonix at one of Valerie’s friend’s chalet. Chamonix is about 30 minutes from Valerie’s father’s home. So we spent the first night at her fathers which is located in the valley below Mt Blanc. In fact the weather over the weekend reminded me a lot of Sacramento. There was absolutely no sun in the valley due to fog. However, 20 minutes up the mountain the sky was blue, sunny and the snow was abundant.

It just so happens during that particular weekend there was a promotion at the station we went to offering woman a free lift ticket. I have never seen a deal like that before and it covered the whole weekend. I believe salomon was hosting it otherwise I can’t imagine how the ski resort could survive losing that kind of money. Anyway it always seems to be the women never the men. It just so happened that there was four of us total; me and 3 girls (oh la la).

Not forgetting the mountains. When you travel up the chair lifts in any of the resorts around Chamonix the view is magnificent. You see Mt Blanc, the mer de glace (glacier), and about hundred other white cap mountains that seem to stretch miles or kilometers as the Europeans would say. It is truly inspirational. Normally you would also have a beautiful view of the valley but unfortunately, it was covered in fog that day.

Ok, I think I am a pretty good boarder but the whole day I was trying to keep up with these 3 girls on skies who were tearing down the mountain. Not only that they were trying to get me to go on black diamond runs that have bumps about waist high. This is not an easy task for a snowboarder. I personally like boarding in the bumps but when they look more like a wall in front of you I tend to find myself on my ass more than my board.

Midway through the first day I was already feeling dead-tired and ready for the lunch break. I must say there is nothing like a hot wine to help you relax at lunch. Sitting in a lounge chair with a sandwich in one hand and a hot wine in the other staring at some of the most beautiful mountains in the world is really living. In the US we would spend most of our lunches at Le Chamois at Squaw Valley drinking beer and eating pizza which still ranks as one of my favorite ski breaks however, there really is no view. Maybe Le Chamois foreshadowed my future.

Anyway, after a day of skiing it was time to experience the nightlife of Chamonix. There is no shortage of nightlife in this town and most of it speaks English. It is like a second home for the English. Life is good when your currency is stronger than the rest of the world.

The town is alive at night. We ended up starting with a bit of champagne and having a not so traditional after-ski dinner of crepes (normally you eat fondue or raclette) but since the owners of the restaurant were giving us free appetizers we felt obligated. After, we went to the bars. There are a lot of good bars so we tried to go to as many as possible. After 4 we realized that was all we could handle. Luckily the chalet we were staying at was within walking distance.