First Advent Breakfast

Four-wheeling and Mud!

We went to Lompnieu this weekend. Lompnieu is a small town between Lyon and Geneva where we have a stone farm house that has been in the family for several generations. We have been fixing it up over the past 2 ½ years. The house was built in 1820, and like many houses of that region, has a barn attached to the house. We mainly heat the living part from the fireplace that has a pumping system that distributes the hot air to all the upstairs rooms. We would like to someday fix up the barn into a livable part of the house, but for now we mostly use it for storing stuff, David's lab, and a toolshed, but there is lots of possibilities for expansion. We have already built "Wintz Hall," a large floor on the first level. (Mr. Wintz is the one who designed and built the floor last summer, with the help of Mr. Nance, my dad, David, and I. Click Here for pictures of the construction last June.) Anyway, we had a really fun four-wheeler ride! Redneck (that's what we call the big one-360 c.c. 4WD with front-end differential control-a real monster) got stuck for the first time in the mud. Ladybug (that's the smaller four-wheeler) did manage to get through, but only by going around some of the mud! Click Here to see the Video, or save file by right click Here. Those who know me know I don't go anywhere without my camera :) Hopefully the camera will be fine inspite of the mud that got on it! The view was gorgeous on the ride up as well!

Concert!

We went to the symphonic orchestra of Lyon today (Orchestre national de Lyon). It was called a "Concert expresso" (expresso concert) and instead of being in the evening, it was during the lunch hours, and only lasted about 45 minutes. The theme was the year 1862. Pieces from several composers of that year were played, such as Berlioz, Debussy, Wagner, and Johann Strauss. The music was beautiful and restful. The auditorium was packed! My guess is about 3,000 people!

A Big Surprise!

About three weeks ago we received in the mail an enigmatic letter signed "Notre Guide Mystérieux" (Our Mysterious Guide.) It was a coded message, with the instructions to send it back decrypted via email. The decoded message turned out to be an hour: 9 o'clock. Soon after replying with the answer, we received another letter. The answer to this one was a date: 11/11. After sending the response to this one, we once again received a letter, this time the answer being a place. So we now know the that this "guide mystérieux" wanted us in "Ternand," at 9 o'clock, on November 11^th.

We were clueless as to who it might be! The letter had all been in well written French, containing references to the Bible, and obviously very thought through! It took us a long time to decipher some of the messages. One part of the enigma translates well into English: It went, "I am a north-African fruit, that grows in clusters, and without seeds". The answer was a date! That's how we knew it was talking about the date of the event. We were understanding the messages, but were still clueless as to who it might be. I tried tracing the email address, but all I got was that they lived in Lyon, and used Wanadoo.fr as their ISP (The IP address led me to their mail server instead of their computer).

The day arrived, and we were a bit nervous. From something the last letter said, we suspected that it was some friends to who's house we were going to that afternoon.
We arrived at the place designated, a restaurant out in the middle of the beautiful Beaujolais region, and a man came out to us. We showed him the paper, and he said. "hmmmmm, yep, this is the place" (In French of course). He brought us inside where we found a table set for 21! Now we were completely baffled!

Daddy started wondering if it was one of those sales techniques where they get a bunch of people together, and try to sell you some kind of time-sharing condo! Then we heard a whole bunch of honking as a whole bunch of cars arrived. It turned out that Alex was our "guide mystérieux", and that it was the whole church organizing this as a goodbye and thank you party to our family! Daddy had turned the church over to Alex about a month before, so this was their goodbye to him as a pastor, also to our whole family as we will be moving to Moscow, Idaho.
It was not only a breakfast! It was-in French fashion-an all day event! They even cancelled our appointment with some friends we were going to visit that afternoon. We were completely surpised that it was they! We never dreamed it would be Alex or the church sending us these messages! After breakfast, we visited a chateau, and then went on to a Beaujolais winery, tasting some of last years "Beaujolais Nouveau," and getting to see how they make the wine! Following this, we had a long French style lunch with many courses that lasted until until 5 p.m.! By that time it was getting dark, and we finished the day by going to the medieval city of Ternand and looking at the view. Ternand is a historically catholic town. During the Huguenots Wars of the 16^th century, Ternand was attacked and defeated by Huguenots forces!

A Delicious Meal

We just finished a truly exquisite meal! The flavors an experienced chef can put into a sauce is simply incredible! My dad's first training was as a chef, and he has been getting back into cooking lately. He bought a set of copper pans that he says makes all the difference. I cannot tell you the recipe of tonight's meal, for I am bound by secrecy :), but I made a blog recently on which I am posting some the the meals he does, so you can at least look at them. Once in a while, there may be recipes, and I just posted a video of him cooking "Canard a la Marseillais", explaining everything he is doing. The name of the blog is, "An Experience in Gastronomy". The url is www.gastronomy.foucachon.com

Paris!!

Last Thursday I accompanied my dad to a breakfast/conference for business owners that was hosted by the people who do the accounting for the American School of Lyon. There were only about 15-20 men, and it was really fancy and professional. It was held in a conference room on the top floor of the new KPMG building in Vaise (Lyon). The speaker was talking about the importance of having a qualified manager for your business. I can't say I understood everything because they were using technical language; and it was in French! After that I accompanied my dad to Paris on the TGV (high speed train) for him to get his finger prints done from the Canadian Embassy. (It's for his Visa, they want to make sure he doesn't have a criminal record dating from our time in Quebec! :)) It was fun to see Paris again! We live in France, but we don't get around much for sightseeing! I think the Wintz family, who were he for one year, saw more that we have in seven years! As we walked around I was able to get a few pics.

I think the man in the smart car has been there for a while!

Cold Water!!

We were emptying our pool today because we have to take it down (it's an old out-of-ground Pool). David and I got two strong siphon's going which we directed into the gutter. We left it thinking it would empty just fine. A few hours later we saw the neighbor in front of our gate, and he told us that his garage was flooded! It turned out that not all the water was going into the gutter, but some was going strait into his back yard, and the gutter apparently was overflowing! Of course we stopped the siphon, but there was still about ¼ of the water left. After a few hours we thought it safe to start the siphon again, except this time I had to get IN the pool up to my knees to do it. IT WAS COLD!!!

What Shall it Be?

"To write, or not to write," that is the question! How shall I start? Well, I suppose I will commence by saying "Hello, and thank you for visiting my blog!" I plan to keep this blog updated with entries pertaining to my life or life in France, however not exclusively so. I hope you enjoy the various blogs, picures, videos, music, etc. that I post!
Dominus vobiscum - the Lord be with you!