I waited over 6 months to post this....

CONGRATULATIONS! To Merrow and C, who got engaged in Switzerland when we were in Europe last fall.

When I met up with them in Annecy, she held up her left hand and blinded me with the rock, then said "You're not allowed to say anything yet."

The happy couple on our last night in Paris. Note that Merrow is totally hiding her left hand in this picture.

There is quite a story behind their engagement, but let's just say it involves: delayed and then cancelled flights, rebooking of both airline and train tickets, multiple international cell phone calls and texts, stress drinking by Merrow, C pulling out the "but I am going to propose, you HAVE to get me there" card, the Swiss Alps, and one "I just repacked my bag, no I do NOT have room to carry anything of yours" eyeroll.

They are getting married in August and I couldn't be happier for them!

(I'm trying to go back and add some more posts about my trip to France before I completely forget all the details.)

Two Days Left In Paris? Merde!

I have reached the frustrating part of vacation where my brain is at "See All The Things!" while my body is at "Nope! Tired! Gonna ignore the alarm and sleep in!" Sadly, the body is winning. Which yeah, I know, there was no was I was going to be able to do everything I wanted to anyway, and it's a great excuse to come back sooner rather than later, and Paris isn't going anywhere (unlike Venice, which will probably sink completely before I manage to return), but dammit, I feel like I'm wasting so much time!

My museum pass is used up. I still have one day extra on my rail pass. I am a little overwhelmed with trying to prioritize what to do.

Things checked off the list so far, successfully or otherwise:
- Climbed the Eiffel Tower and drank Champagne
- Climbed the bell towers at Nortre-Dame, but did not see Quasimodo
- Visited the Louvre, saw the Big Three (Mona Lisa, Manley's horses, Winged Victory) and plenty of other art
- Visited the Musée de l'Orangerie (Monet's Water Lilies)
- Visited the Musée d'Orsay (Impressionism)
- Took a cruise on the Seine
- Spent a day at Versailles
- Visited Chateau  Fontainebleau
- Drank wine and read books in cafés
- Hung out at Shakespeare & Co, the iconic English-language bookstore in the 5th
- Wandered around the Center Pompidou (modern art)
- Stared at some gorgeous furniture and tapestries at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs
- Took lots of artsy-fartsy color photos with the 35mm SLR

Still on the list for this trip:
- Monet's house and gardens in Giverny (tomorrow)
- Wander around in Pére Lachaise cemetery
- Montmartre and Sacre-Couer
- Street shopping along the Seine
- Drag ass out of bed early and go take pictures of the great neighborhood I am staying in

Potentially still on the list, depending on if I decide to buy another 2-day museum pass:
- Go back to the Orangerie and stare at the Water Lilies some more
- Go back to Musée d'Orsay on the night they are open late and hopefully actually get to see the art, not just glimpses of it from behind other tourists' heads
- Go through the Paris sewers (yeah, I know, I'm weird. Blame it on too much listening to Les Miz as a child!)
- Climb the Arc de Triomphe
- Go to the Musée de l'Armée and Napoleon's Tomb (again, weird, blame it on growing up in a military family!)
- Head over to Chartres to take pictures of the stained glass windows in the cathedral in late afternoon
- Maybe, maybe go to Chateau Vincennes in the Bois de Vincennes, a large park on the southeast corner of Paris

Totally going to have to wait until next time:
- Side trips to either London or Brussels (what was I thinking?!)
- Side trip to Strasbourg (sorry cute Israeli coworker who lives there now, I just can't fit visiting you in!)
- Champagne tours in Reims and Eperney, kind of disappointed on this one, but know that I'd have more fun doing it with a friend
- More chateaux, specifically the Chateau de Chantilly, which was also on my museum pass and I totally should have gone there instead of Fountainebleau
- Taking artsy-fartsy black and white photos of Paris with the 35mm SLR

And with that.... On y va! Let's get going, because it's noon already!

A Caprese Kind of Day

What does 14.98€ (around $19 with the current exchange rate) get you at the corner market? Well, this for starters.

Clockwise from top left: 2L milk, 2.52€ - Sauvignon Blanc from Pays d'Oc, 3.95€ - fresh baguette, 0.90€ - fresh basil, 1.35€ - fresh mesclun salad greens, 0.70€ - fresh tomatoes, 0.51€ - fresh mozzarella cheese, 1.12€ - cucumber, 0.70 € - Reblochon cheese (OMG, love!), 1.95€ - tabbouleh salad, 2.04€ 

To be fair, the baguette did not come from the corner market. It came from the corner boulangerie where they have fresh, hot, crunchy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside baguettes twice a day Monday through Friday. They are kitty-corner from the corner market and even closer to my apartment. Dangerous - and delicious!

The Reblochon I am very excited about. It's a cheese I fell in love with when I was in France in 2009, staying in Haute-Savoie for work with Connectors R Us. As far as I can find out, Reblochon is not available in the US. At all. It's made from fresh, whole, unpasturized raw milk - which according to the USDA is a huge no-no. So no importing, and I'm not even sure that the right ingredients could be found to make it, nor the right storage conditions to cure it. I will just have to enjoy it while I am here.

The baguette, tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil combined to make four incredible caprese sandwiches. Two I wrapped up and took with me today for a picnic lunch. The other two became dinner, pictured below. I was too hungry to bother with picture-taking at lunchtime, but rest assured, it looked very similar! Just substitute a green bench and the gardens of a former royal hunting lodge for the table and nighttime Parisian backdrop.

Caprese dinner. With wine. Of course.

Those of you linked to me on the Book of Face may have noticed my earlier comment about hordes of unsupervised teenagers being annoying in any language. Today's trip to Fontainebleau was definitely a mix of good and bad, leaning more heavily towards the bad, so for now let's just savor the food and wine, and I'll revisit that story in a later post.

Climbing the Iron Lady

Things my guidebooks tell me: How much it costs to take the elevator from the ground to the first level of the Eiffel Tower, how much it costs to take the elevator from the ground to the second level of the Eiffel Tower, how much it costs to take the elevator from the ground to the third and top level of the Eiffel Tower, and how much it costs to climb the stairs from the ground to the second level of the Eiffel Tower.

Things the English version of the Eiffel website tell me: How much it cost to go to the second floor or the top by elevator, and how much it costs to climb the stairs to the second level.

Things that NOBODY seems to tell you: That even in the middle of the week in "off" season, you need to book your elevator tickets from the bottom to the top a month in advance, unless you want to take your chances standing in an hours-long line to maybe get a spot. Oh, and also that you can climb the stairs to the second level, where you can then buy an elevator tickets that goes just from the 2nd to the 3rd, with little-to-no line.

Yeah.

Merrow and I started off the day by sleeping in, which was much needed after 3 increasingly early mornings in Iceland. We had planned on this as our non-museum day, so our only real plans involved climbing the Eiffel and wandering around in the city. Now, Merrow was in Paris last summer and didn't make it up the Eiffel; they didn't check far enough in advance to book tickets. And in retrospect, I'm pretty sure she's mentioned that to me before, but it didn't register and so I didn't look at getting elevator tickets until this morning.

First available trip to the top in the elevator is September 27th. No, that is not a typo.

So we resigned ourselves to climbing to the second level (which was kind of on our plan anyway) and taking fantastic pictures from there. We finally got ourselves ready and made it all the way to the café on the corner where we stopped for lunch - wine, bread, and huge salads.

After lunch, we headed over towards the 7eme arrondissement and stood in the short line to climb up. Twenty minutes later we were ticketed, security screened, and ready to begin our butt workout.

Only 700-something stairs to go!

Going up and up, 360 steps to the first level, which has a restaurant, a café, and shops. Over my shoulder is a view of the Parc du Champ de Mars and the École Militaire from the first terrace.

Northeast view from the first terrace

We walked around the first floor for a bit, taking pictures from all directions, and then it was time to go up some more. Another 350-something stairs to the second level, which is actually two stories.

Merrow on the lower level of the second floor.
The red-roofed building in the back is Stade Émile Anthoine.

Looking southwest along the Seine towards the Allée des Cygnes.

As we strolled along the second level, we saw the exits for the elevators coming from the ground level, and the entrance to the elevators that go all the way to the top. And just outside that entrance, we noticed a ticket window. At which point we looked at each other and said "Can we really buy tickets to the top from here?" And the answer is yes, yes you can. We stood in a line that was maybe 5 people long, snagged our tickets, waited another couple of minutes for the elevator, and headed up.

Second level to the top baby!

There is a Champagne bar at the top of the Eiffel, and our plan was to have a celebratory glass there. In true French fashion, though, just as we got there the bar closed for 45 minutes. We decided not to wait around that long, that Champagne from the café on the first terrace would taste just as good. But we spent some time walking around, admiring the view, and checking out the exhibits on Eiffel history on the third level. I think my favorite was a pictogram of the tallest buildings in other countries, plotted against the height of the Eiffel and located in the approximate direction of said countries from Paris.

Clearly thrilled to have actually made it to the top of the Eiffel!

So much for not being able to reserve a time to go to the top until September 27th! I still don't understand why in all of my research I never found anything that said climbing to the second level and THEN taking the elevator to the third was an option. And it definitely was an option, when we bought our tickets we did not have to prove we had previously come up on the elevator, and we did figure out that the signage at the ticket window at the base of the Eiffel (kind of) showed that option. Poorly. In French. Still, we wound up feeling like climbing ninjas AND super sneaky elevator-goers, so I think it worked out quite nicely in our favor.

After about 20 minutes at the top, we elevatored back to the second and then climbed down to the first level. Where we immediately got our Champagne, found a quiet table that overlooked the edge, and chilled out for a few.

 

Happy Kate and Merrow...

...with tired feet.
And yes, we DID climb the Eiffel in sandals.

Back on the ground, with some more random Eiffel shots. I may be slightly obsessed with the Iron Lady.

We headed back towards the Métro stop in the 15th, and grabbed dinner at a sidewalk café before heading back to the apartment. We both had quiche. It was delish. Served with a green salad and, of course, wine. Because Merrow and I can't go anywhere without wine.

So that was our "free" day in Paris. Plans for tomorrow are to go get our museum passes. Six-day pass for me, 2-day for Merrow since she leaves early Saturday morning to meet C at the airport and head off on their own adventure. The museum passes are for consecutive days, so I'll be a whirlwind of museums for the next week. Can already see that I'm not going to accomplish half of what I'd like to do!

Goodbye Reykjavik, Hello Paris

4AM is a really horrifically early time to get up, particularly when you are on vacation. Necessary, though, to get picked at your Reykjavik hotel, dropped off at the bus station, and bussed to the airport in plenty of time to make your 7:30 flight.

Bad news: I should know better by now than to buy the $25 el cheapo suitcase, but I did, and leaving the hotel it fell and threw me off balance which caused me to trip over who-knows-what, and I totally wound up going ass over teakettle onto the cobblestones. Luckily part of what threw me off balance was my backpack swinging around (note to self: use BOTH shoulder straps!) and so I mostly just landed on that. Result: scraped the back of my left hand pretty good, scraped up both ankles, good bruise potential on my shins, and a wicked beating to the pride. At least I stood up laughing!

Got to the airport in plenty of time to check in and hit up the Icelandair lounge for breakfast. Seriously, the Economy Comfort tickets were the best splurge EVER, and will definitely be a consideration when traveling back to Europe! It was actually Second Breakfast for us, as the hotel put out a spread for the early birds that was almost as full (and just as yummy!) as their normal breakfast. I would also like to point out that we did NOT avail ourselves of the free alcohol at the airport lounge. We waited until we were on board and ordered sparkling wine and OJ for mimosas.

And suddenly we were in Paris! The less said about arriving at Charles de Gaul and taking the Métro to the apartment, the better. I got to attempt to dredge up the remains of 4 years of high school French to explain to the non-English-speaking temporary Gardienne of the building that she needed to give me the key and it would be great if she could show me where the apartment was too. And then....we were in! Great apartment. Huge sliding glass doors for windows in the living room and bedroom. It's on the 10th floor, overlooking the courtyard and facing towards the Père Lachaise cemetery. Nice and quiet, very safe building (we need 3 keycodes to get in, plus have a crazy-ass key/deadbolt setup!), and a great residential, non-touristy neighborhood. The only "problem" is that there are too many corner cafés, so I will probably not manage to settle on a local in only 2 weeks' time!

At this point I was incredibly grateful that I had decided to suck it up and go with the building with an elevator, because there was no way in hell I wanted to haul my stuff up any more stairs than I had to. Merrow and I explored the apartment (separate toilet room! teeny dishwasher! 2-in-1 washer/dryer! open up the windows and get a fantastic breeze!) and unpacked ourselves a little. Around 5 we headed out to see what we could do about food and wine before heading to the Seine cruise and Illuminations bus tour I had booked for us.

We found wine at one of the many corner cafés on the way to the Métro. Along the way, we passed so many little local places that just make European city living so different from my normal suburban US-ian life. We had our wine and opted not to order dinner as we were running tight on time. Instead, we went to the local supermarket and bought a container of tabbouleh and some emergency forks (which will live in my purse for the rest of the trip!). Bench picnic for 2 coming right up!

We headed off to our tour, which started with a sunset cruise on the Seine, and then finished with a bus tour around Paris to look at some of the major sites and memorials all lit up at night. Figured it would be kind of cheesy and kind of overrun with middle-aged tourists (right on both counts!) but we also figured it would be a nice way to chill out while still seeing some stuff on our first evening in Paris.

We climbed on a bus for the short drive to the boats. I saw the Eiffel in person for the first time:

First view of the Iron Lady, through the bus window. Merrow says "you'll get much better pics of it later!"

We got to the boat, which was a much more "serious tourist" deal than either Merrow or I were up for. They were taking photos of each group as they boarded the boat, which you could buy after. We knew there was no way in hell we were spending money on that, so we did devil horns and KISS faces. Really, we should probably not be allowed out in public. As we were sitting on board, waiting for liftoff (wait, wrong mode of transport...) we checked out the houseboats moored to the banks of the Seine. I can think of worse places to live!

Me and my houseboat and the Parisian sunset

We cruised up and down the Seine for about an hour. And our expectations were met - relaxing and got to see some cool sights!

Pont de la Concorde

One wing of the Louvre with the Pont Royal

There were lots of Parisians lining the quays of the river, picnicking, drinking wine, and just generally hanging out. Merrow and I took one look at that awesomeness and decided we'd cram that into the schedule too.

Picnicking at the tip of Ile de la Cité

Notre-Dame, in case you couldn't tell by the flying buttresses

We wound up the tour just as it was starting to get dark and so just as the Eiffel Tower lit up the night sky.

Obligatory tilted-to-fit-in-the-frame Eiffel pic

After the cruise was the bus tour. Honestly - not nearly as impressive. But a good chance for us to completely chill out while seeing some sights. The best part though, was the Germans in the back of the bus. The audio guide to the tour had French music playing in between the descriptions of the sights. The Germans decided to accompany said songs. At which point Merrow and I lost it. Our conversation went something like this:

"The Germans are drunk."
"The Germans are singing!"
"The Germans are singing Frère Jacques."
"Badly."
"And in French."

It may have been less amusing if we hadn't been awake for 18 hours at that point.

Almost There: Another Parisienne ADTL Update

One! More! Week!

- Renew passport since it expires less than 3 months after I'll be traveling and it would be great if the countries I'm planning to visit didn't refuse me entry.
- Make sure taking off the Friday before is ok with my boss. Boss is A-OK with me not working the Friday we leave! Which is good, since we need to be at Logan shortly after noon for our flight.
- Research flights with the work travel agent and confer with Merrow that times/dates work for her too.
- Book flights.
- Research places to stay:
        -Iceland  Booked! We are staying here.
        -Paris (one place or two?) One place, because we don't want to move all our shit merde via Métro halfway thorough. Booked and staying here.
        -Alps Done. C and I finally agreed on a hotel, and Merrow said whatever was good with us was fine with her.
- Book lodgings.
- Research transportation options:
        -Airport transfers in Iceland Booked!
        -Airport transfers in France I think the easiest thing is just going to be to buy a Métro ticket for the trip, rather than trying to add it on to the Navigo Découverte.
        -TGV tickets/France rail pass/Paris metro pass France Rail 5-day pass booked; buying the Métro pass there.
- Plan Iceland activities with Merrow.
- Book any Icelandic adventures that need to be pre-booked. Done! We are doing this and this and this and this! And probably not much sleeping.
- Make a list of everything I want to do in Paris. Done. It is loooooooong.
- Edit list to a realistic length since I will be there for 12 days, not 12 years. Hahahahahahaha, this will not actually happen until I am on the plane home and cannot cram in any more activities.
- Determine what on list shall be done with Merrow and what will be done on my own. We have a rough idea of what we're going to do together. Events will probably include climbing the Eiffel tower, lots of café sitting and wine drinking, the Louvre, the Orangerie, Versailles, and we booked this tour for the first night we're there.
- Book any Parisian activities that need to be pre-booked. Wait, do I really need to pre-book "sit in a café for hours on end with wine, crêpes, and a good book"?
- Plan Alps Side Trip activities:
        -Determine what dates to head to the Alps End of week 2.
        -Determine if there is enough time to make a side side trip to Other Alpine Town Sadly, not this time. Which is too bad, because I know Merrow and C would love it, but they are going to have a kick-ass time in Switzerland, so next time.
- Make any Alpine reservations that are necessary. We're going to play it by ear, so all we really needed booked were the hotel and our train reservations.
- Start packing. This weekend. Really. NOT next Friday morning. I am not going to start this trip stressed out.
- Oh, and re-learn French.  :) Merde. This totally did not happen. Let's hope that I can get by on my 17-years-ago memory and a decent translator app!

Parisienne ATDL Update

Just over 2 months to go! Merrow and I have plane tickets, a place to stay in Iceland, pretty solid plans for our Icelandic activities, a rough idea of our Parisian activities, days we will be road-tripping to the Alps (is it rail-tripping if you take the train?), a tentative place to stay in the Alps, and no idea yet of where to stay in Paris.

I also have, in my hot little hands, a brand spanking new passport (which will not be "new" by the time I go as I'm heading back to Israel for work next month) and a 5-day France Rail pass.

- Renew passport since it expires less than 3 months after I'll be traveling and it would be great if the countries I'm planning to visit didn't refuse me entry.
- Make sure taking off the Friday before is ok with my boss. Boss is A-OK with me not working the Friday we leave! Which is good, since we need to be at Logan shortly after noon for our flight.
- Research flights with the work travel agent and confer with Merrow that times/dates work for her too.
- Book flights.
- Research places to stay:
        -Iceland  Booked! We are staying here.
        -Paris (one place or two?)
        -Alps
- Book lodgings.
- Research transportation options:
        -Airport transfers in Iceland
        -Airport transfers in France
        -TGV tickets/France rail pass/Paris metro pass
- Plan Iceland activities with Merrow.
- Book any Icelandic adventures that need to be pre-booked.
- Make a list of everything I want to do in Paris.
- Edit list to a realistic length since I will be there for 12 days, not 12 years.
- Determine what on list shall be done with Merrow and what will be done on my own.
- Book any Parisian activities that need to be pre-booked. Wait, do I really need to pre-book "sit in a café for hours on end with wine, crêpes, and a good book"?
- Plan Alps Side Trip activities:
        -Determine what dates to head to the Alps
        -Determine if there is enough time to make a side side trip to Other Alpine Town
- Make any Alpine reservations that are necessary.
- Start packing.
- Oh, and re-learn French.  :)

Back in the States

Dad has requested that I post something besides the picture of my laundry! And I will admit that I got busy the last week I was in France and didn't update here. Now I am back in the States (and back to my loooong commute) but I will be adding a few more notes and maybe even some pictures. I will most likely post-date though, so scroll back over the past few entries for the new stuff.

The Downside

So the bad part about staying in a ski resort for a business trip....  When I go down for breakfast, everyone is dressed in ski clothes and about to hit the slopes, and I'm there in business casual and ready to drive to work.  In the snow.  Not fair!  Of course, it's probably also not fair that work sent me to France to go skiing at all, so I won't complain too much.

Lest anyone think I am having too much of a good time....

...I did just do laundry in my bathtub!

Skiing in the French Alps

Today I got to go skiing in the French Alps! Olivier picked me up and we met up with Liliane (another coworker) and her boyfriend and brother, so there was a good group of us. We went to Flaine, which is part of le Grand Massif. We only skied Flaine - it was only one day and a cheaper ticket, but I am going to come back for a week of vacation and ski the whole Grand Massif sometime!

I wound up renting performance skis, Safine Infinitys. I'm not familiar with that brand, and Googling only seems to bring up foreign language websites, so I'm guessing it's a European brand? Anyway, the skis were FAST, much faster than I am used to skiing with, but I was able to control them pretty well. There were times my brain just gave in to going fast, and it was awesome, and other times when I tried to control the speed too much, and I definitely fought with them...which all leads me to think it's time for new skis of my own to practice with! My friend L would get along well with the group I skied with - they are all fast and I was definitely the poorest skier out of the group. The slopes over here are green-blue-red-black. I did not ski any blacks (I don't think....) but the reds are nice and steep - long stretches of steep, not just 50 m. They have "mile markers" at the edges of the slopes so you know how far it is to the bottom!

At the top of Flaine

Looking across the top

Stuck on a chairlift, time to pull out the camera!

Tracks!

Photos, Saturday

More pictures!

At the top of Aiguille du Midi, height of 3842m. "Aiguille du Midi" means "needle of midday" because at noon, the sun is directly over the peak of the mountain when viewed from Chamonix. This also explains where there is so much sun glare in all my pictures....

The rounded peak at the very right of the frame is Mont Blanc, height of 4807m and the tallest peak in Western Europe.

Fernanda and Olivier (and a lot of sun glare!) Mont Blanc is the second peak on the left.


Olivier says this is called the "tooth of the mountain."

The very top of Aiguille du Midi, as seen from the observation deck at the top of the cable car. You can take an elevator to the top, but we were cold enough already! Maybe if I am back sometime in summer!

I am not positive, but I think you can see mountains in three countries in this picture: France, Italy, and Switzerland. It's hard to tell though, because despite what I learned from the maps in elementary school, the land does not change colors at the borders of countries!!

Looking from one observation deck to the other. We walked through a tunnel in the mountain to get from one to the other.

Mont Blanc is the rounded peak left of center.


Ready to make our descent from the midstation.

Back on the ground! Chamonix, which is still at 1000m elevation, but seemed so low and warm after being on the top!

Photos, week 1

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Here are some from the first hotel. Le Relais du Mont Blanc, a bed-and-breakfast just outside Magland, France.


The inside of the hotel. The lobby and restaurant are decorated with old skis and climbing gear.


The mountain starts pretty much in the hotel's backyard, shear rockface.

Looking west-ish down the valley from the hotel, towards Magland, Cluses, and Thyez (where work is located). It is a 15-20 minute drive from here to work.



Looking east up the valley towards Chamonix - Mont Blanc.

Valentine's Day in France

This was by far the best Valentine's Day I've had in a long time! Spent the day in Chamonix with Olivier and his wife Fernanda, who both work at the French office. We arrived around 11 AM and walked around the village a little bit. It is a quaint little alpine town/village, pretty much devoted to tourism, so very attractive and open to visitors. We had a snack at a patisserie; I had a raspberry and chocolate tart (mmmmm, delicious!) and hot tea to warm up. Walked around some more and then took the cable car from Chamonix up to the top of Aiguille du Midi.

The cable car goes up in two stages. Each stage takes about 10 minutes, and the cars hold ~40 people. I didn't have any problems with the height or vertigo, thankfully! The first stage is pretty easy and doesn't seem too steep. The second stage though...as you reach the top the cable car basically climbs up the rock face of the mountain. The face is at probably an 80 degree slope (you can see how steep from some of my pictures, but I think all of those are posted on my Facebook) and if I looked directly at the slope, my brain would start thinking we were going to go right into it. Needless to say, I kept looking down instead! At the top are two observation decks, one overlooking Chamonix and the other closer to Mont Blanc. Though clearly, you can see the mountain from both! There is also a small exhibit of how the Mont Blanc was first ascended, and how the cable car to Midi was built. We did not stay very long at the top because it was freezing! Not sure of the temp, but probably -20 or -30. You can see how bundled up I am, and by the time we left the top my fingers and toes were frozen. I'd love to go back sometime in the summer when it's a little more tolerable! Supposedly in the summer there is a restaurant/cafe at the top!

After we got back down to Chamonix, we had a late lunch at a restaurant that serves a traditional fondue. Apparently this is the region in which fondue originated, and the standard "recipe" is 250 g of cheese per person (1/2 lb) melted together with 1/2 glass of wine per person. We had French bread to dip, plus a patter of cold meats (ham, prosciutto, and a local sausage) and steamed potatoes. As an American, my mental image of fondue is Wonder Bread dipped in melted Velveeta, but this was delicious and incredibly filling. Finished dinner, I bought some souvenirs, and we headed back to drop me in Samöens.

In the evening I ate dinner at the hotel. They had a 5-course meal for Valentine's Day. 1: Squash (or maybe pumpkin?) soup. 2: oysters and crawfish (I ate the oysters, but if I'm going to eat something that LOOKS like a lobster, it's going to actually BE a lobster and have enough meat to be worth it!). 3: filet minion in mushroom sauce with gratinée potatoes and roasted tomatoes. 4: cheese course - they roll a cart up to your table with 8 or so different kinds of cheese and you pick out what you want (I have no idea what any of them were, but the one I had was pretty good!) 5: dessert. They had to make me a special dessert, because the planned one had pistachios in it. So instead I had a mini chocolate lava cake with a tiny little scoop of strawberry ice cream. Delicious!

Day 5

12:45 AM French time

So I had a somewhat spotty internet connection at the first hotel/bed-and-breakfast, so posting here was problematic. I've moved to the second hotel now, which is in more of a tourist area, so the internet is a little more stable now - YAY!

I've taken a few pictures over the last couple of days and will post them this weekend, probably in some backdated posts. I didn't actually bring a paper journal with me on this trip (I carried enough other junk with me....) so the blog is my travel journal. It's easier for me to keep everything in the right date order, even if it isn't necessarily easy for you all to read it!

So....the end of the first week in France, and I think things are going well. I am slowly slowly slowly starting to remember more of my French. What I do not remember is how to conjugate any verbs beyond "to be", which makes forming sentences a bit hard. But I can pick up a few words here and there in conversation at work, and read parts of the menu/order dinner! Work is going well, although this is clearly not a group that only works 35 hr/week like we all hear about in the US. That's ok, it's keeping me busy, but it makes for very long days, especially considering that an "early" dinner here is 7:30 pm. Tonight we got to the restaurant at 7:15 for drinks, and I got back to the hotel (a block away) at 11:30!

I am falling asleep at the keyboard now so I'll cut this short with just a couple of links for you to check out. Tomorrow Olivier (the product manager I work with) and his wife Fernanda are taking me to Chamonix to take the cable car up to view Mont Blanc, which is the highest peak in Western Europe. They promise me fondue at the restaurant! And Sunday Olivier, Fernanda, and I are meeting up with Liliane (project manager at work, she is the new French employee who is doing training with me) to go skiing at Flaine! Skiing in the Alps! I am going to possibly be in over my head, but I cannot wait!

Day 2

This will be an extremely short recap of today as it is bedtime, the wireless network is down, and I am writing this on the Blackberry.

Today was better. The French is coming a little bit easier now that I am not so tired, but still not good enough to carry on a whole conversation or even to form a complete sentence.

There is a gentleman from an English business unit within my company who is also visiting the French facility today and tomorrow. He is staying at the same hotel, so I had company for dinner tonight.

So....now it is late here, it is snowing, and I am headed to bed. No pictures today, but I will try to take some more tomorrow. Bonne nuit.

One last thing

Oh, and the rental car I have - is a bigger SUV than the one I drive at home. This is Europe, home of the SmartCar. I feel like SUCH an Ugly American driving this thing!

End of Day 1

French time 9:15 PM

So I just posted several things in a row, but I finally figured out how to get internet access in my hotel room, so I am catching up.

All in all today went mostly well. The flights and getting to the hotel went off without a hitch. I couldn't fall asleep this morning (though almost did this afternoon) and so I'm pretty tired right now. Work was fairly non-stressful - had a tour of the factory, met lots of people whose names I do not remember, met with the Quality Director/Manager, entertained some guys with my inability to work a car. Everyone seems very nice so far.

Dinner was on my own tonight, which was okay because I am close to dead tired and didn't want to be out late. I'm staying in a B&B that serves dinner as well. It is run by a husband and wife, and she does the cooking. Oh. My. God. I am in heaven. Three course dinner, and that's only because I was too stuffed to have dessert. Pea soup (at least, I think that's what it was). Salad with some type of zesty oil dressing. Pork tenderloin with wild French mushrooms in demi-glace, risotto, stewed celery (sounds weird, tastes like applesauce), and a cooked artichoke heart. And of course, French baguette, with a local red wine to wash it all down. Delicious delicious delicious!

HOWEVER. There is definitely a language barrier here. My high school French is not just rusty, it's a big ol' pile of corrosion. I can understand maybe 1 word out of 10 or 12 (and they're not useful words, just "with" and "now" and "how's it going") and while I can mostly plan out a sentence in my head for what I want to say, somehow I can't get it out in French and just stick with the English. So I have a long way to go on that.

But over all, today was good! And now, I am heading off to sleep. Aahhh, sleep.

Bonne nuit!

La voiture automatique

French time 5:05 PM

How the hell do I put this thing in gear? Or even get the parking brake off??


This is not a great picture, and I will try to get a better one tomorrow, but I had lots of fun trying to start my rental car today. There were 3 guys out front of the building smoking and I practically had them in hysterics. (One of them did help me!) So this is what we learned today about starting an automatic transmission car in Europe.

1. The car will not turn over unless your foot is on the brake.

2. The lever on the right hand side of the steering column that is the same size as a gear shift in the US? Yeah, that's the wipers/windshield wash. Repeatedly trying to shift with this will only make the onlookers laugh harder.

3. The little lever at the top of the steering column that looks like an out-of-place turn signal lever? Yeah, that's what you shift with.
3a. R = reverse. At least this is intuitive.
3b. N = neutral. Also intuitive. But important to know, the car will not turn over unless it is in neutral, nor will it allow the parking brake to be set (more on this later).
3c. A = automatic shift. Revs a bit much when it does so, but at least it does not involve Kate trying to get out of first without stalling.
3d. M = manual shift. No, there is no clutch. Yes, I can manually shift the gears with the short levers on either side of the steering column. I will be trying this once I'm slightly more comfortable with the whole driving in a foreign country thing, because it seems like all the fun of manually shifting without all the mucking about with clutching and stalling. Win-win for everyone.

4. There is no release lever for the parking brake. Do not bother looking for one. Just put your foot on the gas and the brake will release.

5. So you made it through 5 roundabouts and 2 small villages without killing yourself, the car, or any innocent French citizens. What, now you want to park the car? Use foot brake to stop, put car in neutral, and hit big "P" button in center of dash console to set parking brake. Do not absentmindedly hit red button directly below "P", unless you feel the need to turn the hazards on.

Arrival

11:45 AM French time

I am in France!

The trip over went well with no problems. The flight from Newark to Geneva was only about 2/3 full. There was a woman seated next to me when we boarded, but she switched seats before takeoff, so I had the row (2 seats) to myself and was able to have a little more room. Managed to sleep for about 3.5 hours. We took off late, but had a great tailwind and landed at 7:05, 20 minutes early.

For 7 AM on a Monday morning, the Geneva airport was empty. I waited about 5 minutes to get though customs and then maybe another 10 for my luggage. Got picked up at the airport and dropped off at my hotel. I was able to check in and get my room, which was great. I am unpacked already. Tried to take a nap but am still too keyed up from arrival, so I gave up and showered instead. Getting ready to go into the factory for the afternoon.

My room is very nice with a country ski chalet motif. A little on the small side, but then again, this is Europe, everything is on the small side. The shower is awesome, and I might decide to stay just for that!

This is the room, looking from the door.

And the rest of the room (I told you it was small!)

And the view from the window.