Summer Luge

THE SUMMER LUGE track in Le Mont-Dore was way faster and way more fun that I thought when I first saw it. Totally surprised by how fast it was (or, more likely, how fast it seemed). Check out Henry's face. In other news, I called the real estate agent who is selling the building below -- it has 12 apartments, is currently vacant, and sits on the edge of La Bourboule. Curious to hear the price. Guesses?

A vendre: 5 floors, 11-12 apartments.

A view of the building from a bit further up the river.

A local cheese shop in town. The Auvergne has several A.O.C. cheeses, including one of my
favorites, Saint Nectaire, which is made about 40 minutes from where we are staying. Cantal and Bleu d'Auvergne -- which I think rivals the more famous Roquefort -- also come from this region.

1886

IMPRESSIVE BEAUTY ONCE again. This country never ceases to amaze me on that front.

Our four-day little stop over in the Auvergne started with a hike up Puy de Sancey today -- the highest point in the Massif Central. [Note: by 'hike' I, of course, mean 'took the cable car']. To be fair, the le téléphérique du Sancy only gets you near the top, the last several hundred meters are by foot up a very steep series of steps and paths. The Puy de Sancy is at a ski station just outside of Le Mont-Dore, a gorgeous little village about 5 km from where we are staying in La Bourboule. After a quick stop for a picnic lunch, we got our tickets for the cable car and didn't get off until we hit 1800 meters -- nearly 6000 ft. At the top we had a stunning 360 degree view -- 1886 meters above sea level. Not exactly Mont Blanc, but pretty impressive anyway.

Point us in the right direction.

Julia got on her tippy-toes in order to be taller than Kerri.
Soon, she won't have to do that.

As picnic areas go, this ranks as pretty impressive.
As sunglasses go, Patrick's rank as pretty sweet.

Bread, cheese, tomatoes. That's about all we need for lunch.

Near the top of the Puy de Sancy

Um...my shoe during a little break.

A little later on in the aforementioned break.

Trying out the timer. Boy do we need a new camera. 5.0 megapixels is
so 2005.

The last 400 meters were the hardest. Almost like a ladder.

Bet You Have Never Seen This Before

OH, HEY, DID I show put this photo up yet? Guess where I took it? (Look carefully). We ate here a couple weeks ago. And the other goods news...the Paris store opens in November!

In case you can't make out the sign, this is on Charring Cross Road in the heart of London. The first Chipotle to open in Europe. While we were there we talked for a few minutes to the guy who is heading up all UK operations and he gave us the details about the Paris store (it's going to be at 20 Boulevard Montmartre).

Who wants to help me franchise these a little further south. Say in the Cannes/Nice area?

To the Massif...

TOMORROW IS OUR final day in the Poitou-Charentes region of France and we will be heading back to the southeast after a four-day stop in La Bourboule -- a mountain village in the Massif Central, the least-well-known of the major mountain ranges in France. While certainly not the Alpes or the Pyrenees, the Massif Central is located in the south-central part of the country (just west of the Rhone Valley) and covers 15 percent of France and has some impressive peaks -- the largest one topping out at over 1800 meters.

After 8 weeks in the flats of western France, the mountains will be quite a change. Oh, and the forecasted evening temperatures of 6-7 degrees (Celsius) is also quite exciting. Nothing beats a cool evening after a hot summer day.

[Note: the school year must be starting soon; this sounded like a geography lesson.]

Rumble Rumble

KERRI WAS ON Skype with her parents this evening when the picture on her computer started shaking. Here's why:

5.9 Earthquake Shakes Washington - Washington Post

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Washington area Tuesday, shaking buildings and prompting office workers to pour into the streets of the capital.

The earthquake’s epicenter was nine miles south of Mineral, Va., and 87 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS initially recorded the quake at 5.8 magnitude but later upgraded it to a 5.9. It struck at 1:51 p.m. Eastern time, the USGS said. At 2.8 magnitude aftershock was reported at 2:46 p.m.
A senior Obama administration official said the White House “shook pretty hard” and that employees evacuated onto the driveway between the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Construction workers also got off scaffolding wrapped around the EEOB.

The official knew of no damage to the White House but said paint or plaster chips had fallen onto carpeting inside the executive mansion.

Employees fled the U.S. Capitol, and House and Senate office buildings were evacuated, as tremors shook the buildings for several seconds.

Earthquakes don't hit DC often so I can only imagine how people reacted (kind of wish we had been there...)

French Tour Continues...

SUMMERS ARE ALWAYS an interesting mix of relaxing and busy for us. Due to the fact that we have to be out of our 'regular' house for 3 months each summer, we get to (have to?) find new places to stay. As I've mentioned numerous times, we try to go somewhere new every year so as to explore as much of the country as possible -- sometimes even venturing outside the country like we did last summer in Italy.

But it's never quite as simple as just finding one place for the whole time because at the end of each summer I have to be back for work a few days before we actually get to move into our house. This summer is no different so we are preparing for two more moves between now and September 3. Yes, two more. Since our stay in the Poitou-Charentes ends one week before we can move in, Kerri did some searching on the internet and found a place for us to stay for four days high in the mountains of the Massive Central -- a village called La Bourboule, which sits at nearly 3000ft. We haven't spent a lot of time in the center of France so a few days there will allow for exploration of a new region -- something that's always kind of fun. After La Bourboule we'll head back home and crash for a couple of night at our neighbor's house (it is vacant as he currently lives in New Jersey) before returning to our place in the first weekend of September.

Four full moves this summer. Plus several nights in hotels during trips with Kerri's parents. Par for the course for us. It's enough to almost make me look forward to the routine. Almost.

Robbed in Paris

KERRI'S PARENTS FLEW back to DC yesterday and we spent the last couple of days with them in Paris. As you can see, Kerri and I got robbed in a cafe near the Tour Montparnasse just before our return home:

Whirlwind Tour

OUR TRIP TO England last week included a full schedule: two days in Normandy, a ferry crossing and a Chunnel crossing, a trip to the university where Kerri and I went to school for a short time (and where Les went to school for one year in the mid-'60s), cathedrals, castles, shops, cafes, and a stop in the Loire valley on the way home. Evidence...

Omaha Beach, Normandy

Normandy American Cemetery Memorial

Omaha Beach in Normandy

Mont Saint Michel

Canterbury Cathedral

Our camera battery ran out, so that's the end of the photos. Kerri has already downloaded the photos her parents took in Windsor, and then back in France during our visit to Chartres and the Chateau de Chenonceau.

It was interesting to be in London during the riots. While we didn't personally see any evidence of the violence (despite going through Clapham Junction), it was on the minds of the people. During our lunch at Chipotle (yes, you read that correctly -- there is a new Chipotle on Charring Cross Road) the UK manager for the company spoke with us about his plans to close early if he thought trouble was near. Other shop owners also were ready to close down in a hurry if anything happened. The newspapers were also in full UK-Tabloid mode, splashing huge photos and dramatic headlines across all the front pages. Perhaps the most over-the-top front page compared the riots to the German blitz during World War II. Perhaps a bit of a stretch, no?

Henry Wanted to Ride

WE'RE BACK FROM a little trip to England and while unpacking and going through photos I'm putting this up at the request of our youngest...he's six.



Two summers ago we put together this from the Alsace region...



Now if I can get our daughter to go more than 1km I'll have a third video ready.

This Earth, This Realm...

WE'VE HEADED TO England for a few days. Not enough time to see too much, but Canterbury, Dover, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Henley and Newbold College -- where Kerri and I went to university for a couple years-- isn't bad for two days. London still on the docket for today -- and we'll hope the riots stay away. Pretty rough couple of nights for North London.

Depressing Chart

FOR THE PAST two years I've been paying grad school tuition in Switzerland using US dollars. That's why this chart is so depressing.

See that high point just before the start of 2009? That's when my payments started. Damnit!

The Atlantic!

AS U.S. EAST-COASTERS, our main ocean playground was always the Atlantic (usually Myrtle Beach, SC). Now we go to the 'sea', not the 'ocean' because we live so close to the Mediterranean. But yesterday we got to experience the Atlantic once again -- this time on the other side, in La Rochelle, France. We didn't swim because we spent the day looking around the city and its gorgeous port. But we'll be back for a day in the ocean soon.

Here's the old port in La Rochelle with two of the three large towers that have guarded the city since the 1300's. The tower not in the photo is just off to the left and is the only surviving lighthouse from the medieval period in all of Europe.

[Fun note: 4 weeks ago a round of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series were held in La Rochelle. The divers dove off...you guessed it...the large tower on the right. A small platform was erected on the top and divers plunged to the water below. Take a look at this great promo clip:]

New Book Out

REMEMBER VIC'S BIG Walk? Sure you do. Vic is our friend who walked from his home in southern France to the home of his birth in Northern England. Yeah, that's nearly 2000 km and he did it just in 70 days, arriving at his birthplace on his 70th birthday.

Well, now you can read about his journey in a new book which has just been released in digital form. You can order it here. It's available in various forms, including Kindle.

Western France Weather

WHILE OUR FAMILY and friends melt in record temperatures back home in DC, I had to hit the stores to find a sweatshirt yesterday. 100+ on the East Coast is not fun -- that humidity sucks the life right out of you. Our family is very much into cool summers so the low 70s we are experiencing now is just perfect.

But I feel for those in high heat and hope things get more reasonable soon.

Sky TV

WE HAVE SKY TV this summer and I've already found a show I simply can't watch: it's a documentary called Beauty Queen at 11 and I got through about 10 minutes before I had to change the channel. It reminds me of what a great film Little Miss Sunshine is.

XIIe Siècle

THE REGION OF France where we are spending the summer is perhaps most well-known as the battleground between the House of Valois and the House of Anjou in the 100 Years War. It's complicated, but the two feuding families both claimed rights to the French throne after the end of the Capetian line of the kings in the early 1300s. The Anjou, also know as the Plantagenet, also claimed rights to the crown in England and were in fact ruling England at the time so the war involved both English and French armies.

Much of this area was already quite established by the time the war began and we have seen lots of evidence of that already. Every little village in the Poitou-Charentes has a Romanesque church that dates from the 12th or 13th century and they are incredible to see. Many are very small -- with only room for 50 or 100 people -- but to know they were erected so long ago is amazing. Our village church was completed in 1189.

We've been exploring cities and villages (like we like to do) and two of our favorite so far are Angouleme and Poitier. I wouldn't call either 'spectacular' in the way Sienna or Avignon are (to pick cities of roughly the same size), but each has some very nice parts. Poitier, for example, has a gorgeous cathedral that dates from the 12th century and was the setting for one of the rounds of questioning of Joan of Arc in the mid 1400s. It also has a market right next door that has been running (almost) continuously since the 1150s. A market virtually every day since the 1150s!!

Rare family shot in Angouleme.

The Chateau in Angouleme.

As the sun is setting over the Notre Dame in Poitier. Can't see us, but can see the cathedral.

Hotel de Ville, Poitier, France

Just a Thought on Beauty

JUST A THOUGHT: There may be countries as visually and beautiful as France, but I can't imagine there is one that is more beautiful. Every year the Tour de France reminds me of this. The last two days in the Alps have been incredible.

Les Twins

I WAS GOING to put up a quick post about digging around in backed-up sewage, but decided to go with a quick video clip instead. The sewage story will have to wait -- assuming I can even bring myself to mention it again. Instead, take a look at Les Twins -- this clip is an impromptu routine that I like even better than they stuff they do more formally (on talent-type shows in France). They really are pretty good.

Top of the Class(es)

THE SCHOOL WHERE I teach received the best Bac results in our département (Alpes-Maritimes). Just saw the story in today's paper. A whopping 96% pass rate -- and it's one of the bigger schools in the region.

Well done!

Breadmakers

THE LAZY SUMMER mornings that the kids have been enjoying since school finished was interrupted this morning by a 6:30am wake-up call. After a quick piece of toast each that Kerri prepared, we hoped in the car for the 10 minute drive down to La Ferme de Chassagne in the nearby village. Our mission: to help bakers at the farm prepare the daily bread.

Last week we went to a evening market in the incredibly cute village of Verteuil-sur-Charente. While we were there we bought some bread and cheese from one of the local producers and got to talking a bit about where they were located, how they made their bread, etc. It turns out that they are only 5 km from our house and every Tuesday and Friday morning they welcome visitors to and 'help' them bake bread. As long as you are there by 7:00am you can see the whole process, including how they heat up the wood-burning oven.

The baker and her 'volunteer' -- a very nice young kid from Germany, treated us very well and not only showed us how they do their work, but let the kids have a go with their own dough.

Just a little house in the middle of the farm with a little sign in the window.

Henry has a lesson in how to knead and shape the dough.

Another family came to help and watch as well.

That's 25 kilograms of pain de campagne.

Julia's turn.

La Ferme de Chassagne bakes about 350 kilos of bread dough (and about 10 varieties) two days per week. It is not a large scale bakery so they don't bake every day. In fact, the main goods they produce and sell locally are legumes and sunflower oil. But today was bread day and it was worth getting up early on a beautiful, delightfully crisp summer morning.