Summer vacation in Alsace and Lorraine

Hunawihr, Alsace, France

When living on the French Riviera, going North for the summer vacation is actually a good plan: Temperatures are a bit cooler but it's not freezing yet and all the people have left for their summer vacation... to the Nice area, we can attest!

We spent the last 2 weeks of July in Alsace, thereby living at such a "contre-courant". We visited family and reacquainted with some old friends. We attended the baptism ceremony of my godson's brother Jonas in the best part of the wine region (Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé). We spent some time in the Vosges mountains (picking blueberries and carefully removing ticks), and we visited some of my best friends in Lorraine.

The newly baptized Jonas in full armor... and slippers

Visited by a stork during the reception that followed the baptism ceremony

"I just love vineyards... and wine!"

A typical landscape from Alsace

Wild blueberries

Picking blueberries right by the "mur paien"/"Pagan Wall"

Panorama over Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines and valley

In the peaceful Vosges mountains at dusk

Catching up on 2010: Brussels

Now that we were ready for Christmas, it was time to leave for our journey that would take us to celebrate Christmas in the Alsatian region with Q's family. On our way down South (!), we had a stop in Brussels, Belgium, and another one in Paris.

In Brussels we were welcomed by David, Léa, and their two sons Nathan (5 yr old) and Jonas (2 yr old). Q is actually one of Nathan's godfathers, so this was an opportunity for some bonding time. Much needed after Q's absence in the US for all these years... Q's sister Sigo also moved to

Brussels in the Fall, so we caught up with her as well, together with Anysia (Q's other sister), her partner Mathieu and our adorable niece Mila. As we g

ot closer to Christmas, we enjoyed having so many wonderful opportunities to get together with family and friends. The spirit of Christmas was still soaring!

We actually flew to Brussels via Copenhagen, and that was a few days before the various blockages caused by snow weather and shortage of de-icing fluids that various airports experienced. After that first flight we had planned to do the rest of our trip by train, as fast trains conveniently run between all these major cities, and a night train runs weekly from Switzerland back to Denmark, with a stop not far from Strasbourg across the border with Germany.

There was snow in Brussels, which is quite unusual. For us it did not really make a difference! We had decided we were just going to travel with the same type of clothing that we wear here...

If you don't know much about Belgium, that's a good intro...

We kept it pretty low key throughout our weekend in the Belgian capital, sleeping in one of the 7 or 8 bedrooms our friends have in their home, playing with Q's godson and his brother by the Christmas tree, hanging out with our friends and our family, celebrating Sigo's 21st b-day, shopping for chocolate (our favorite was Wittamer), dining well at our friend's place, Sigo's place, or at this very nice restaurant newly open in Brussels, called La Buvette. This place is actually owned by one of Anysia's good friends, a young chef named Nicolas Scheidt. Nico also owns the restaurant L'Office in Paris. Two addresses that we strongly recommend if you are in the area! Top quality 3 to 7 course meals for 35-45 euros...

Speaking of Paris...

Catching up on 2010: Preparing for the holiday in Denmark - Part 2

On the weekend following our Thanksgiving celebration and the ceremony by the city Christmas tree, we were glad to join two more Christmas-related events. This was the Sunday before Saint Nicholas (December 6).

Q was invited to listen to a choir in the little church of Tilst, a small town on the outskirts of Aarhus. Q's colleague and friend Annika sang there. It was a fine and novel mix of traditional Danish and English Christmas carols. Some were more of the traditional kind, and others quite rhythmic, as you can check on the movies. And somehow, with a large audience packed into that tiny old church, it was very reminiscent of Christmas celebration in Alsace.

After that, Q joined C at a cookie baking party organized at Maike's place, a German colleague. We baked all kinds of cookies, from various traditions, German, Swedish, Italian, American... Quite some fun times! And we could feel the spirit of Christmas just hovering above us...

Catching up on 2010: Preparing for the holiday in Denmark - Part 1

Happy New Year everyone!
We hope you all had an enjoyable holiday season and transitioned smoothly into 2011.

After some travels in Europe and a challenging beginning of the year (tragic passing of a dear friend among other things) we are back to normal (or so) which of course includes much-awaited blog updates! So let's start first with what happened on our end here since late November, beginning with a Thanksgiving celebration at our place.

With all the snow we got since mid-November, we kinda got sidetracked into wondering whether it would disappear or not. Well, we are getting closer to the anniversary of our arrival here and snow is still on the ground... There's more or less of it as we go, but it's always there. Alright, let's try to not focus too much on snow again here...

Back to late November... On the Saturday following Thanksgiving, we organized a Thanksgiving dinner at our place with friends from work, including two American expatriates that we know here: Lee (who works with C) and Maureen (the wife of Claus, who also works with C). C was happy that we found a turkey in a downtown store. She then tried an unconventional recipe to bake it, piece by piece. The result was indeed as proclaimed: both dark and white meats ended up moist and tender. Even the cat enjoyed the recipe very much, because it meant C had to spend some time in the kitchen to spread the beast apart. Our cutie did not miss any of the action, oh no...

Of course this very nice meal was accompanied by some fine wines and ended with home-made pecan and pumpkin pies... Definitely a success! And altogether a feeling of being "just like home"...

The next Sunday we went to the inauguration of the 25 meter-tall Christmas tree all decorated with lights in front of the city hall. It was cold so we had some of the local glogg (warm red wine with some spices and almonds). We listened to a choir of kids dressed as mini Santas who were singing from a balcony. Then seven or eight kids joined the mayor on some stage and they all turned on the lights on the tree, further marking the beginning of Advent. The bronze pigs from the famous fountain were all wearing a red ribbon around their neck for the celebration...

Another escapade to southern Europe

Mid-August... beginning of the Fall in Denmark ;-)... time to head out to the South of France again!

We hopped on a low-cost flight from Ryan Air (visit http://www.ryanair.com/en ), which for about $280 took us both from our airport in Aarhus to Girona-Barcelona on the Spanish Costa Brava in two and a half hours. Good idea to purchase the “priority” option for a few extra bucks, because since there is no assigned seating, we got priority to choose our own seats: 1A and 1B, with plenty of leg room.

We arrived in Girona on Thursday August 4, around lunch time. We drove right away to the very picturesque town of Tossa de Mar where we had some fish and seafood, washed them with some fresh rosé, before spending the beginning of the afternoon to wander around the old town wall up on the hill overlooking the bay and through the back streets paved with cobblestones. Later, we went to the beach in one of the nearby scenic coves, appropriately called Rosamar since the sand and the rocks are pinkish yellow, Utah-style.

Tons of tourists at what is probably the busiest time of year, but what the heck! it did not make the sights less enjoyable and anyway we were only passing through. Q enjoyed being again in this place where he spent most of his summer vacations as a kid and a teenager, and C agreed that this was yet another version of paradise on earth, albeit one within reach from Aarhus. Now we only wish Ryan Air would keep flying down there during the winter time, because we feel we’d use it!

Our final destination for the remainder of our stay was Q’s parents house in Vinça. Vinça is a village located about halfway between the Mediterranean sea and the Pyrénées mountains. Q’s family has been in the area at least since the 17th century and probably before that... The house has about 10-12 bedrooms and stands by a lake. For those who remember, that’s where we went two years ago for the French part of our wedding celebration.

This time, we celebrated Q’s mom turning 60 on August 7 (and trying to avoid it...) and Mila’s birth in May. So the whole crowd of family and friends was invited and it looked just like two years ago. Like for C’s sister wedding a few weeks ago, we had not seen most of these people since our wedding celebration. It was nice to hear people still call us les amoureux or les tourtereaux! which means something like lovers or lovebirds. Not quite that old couple yet, so that's good! People were blown away by C’s progress in speaking French and kept complimenting her! Mais oui !

Other highlights from our long weekend included a lunch in the medieval town of Castelnou, which sits atop a hill. We ate some catalan specialties like snails in a red spicy sauce and goat cottage cheese with pine nuts and honey. Another great lunch that lasted for hours took place at some dear friends’ house, where they have this insane view on the plain, hills and mountain, New Mexico-style. C also shopped for some leather sandals in Perpignan, which was taken over by people even more than the coast, due to a special 3-day long sale. Q also had some great bonding time going to the beach with his sister Sigo and cousin Vincent, as well as to a concert with his mom to listen to the renowned jazz pianist and composer Michel Legrand (a French guy who has won three Academy Awards).

Stay tuned for another adventure in the South of France (there will be more)!