Fourth Form of Madness

Annecy turned out to be a great place to crash out. I got up the second day there, all intending to read my book and perhaps do some writing by the pool. I lay back in my deck chair and looked out across the pool at my feet and the lake below. An hour and half later I found myself still looking out. I had gone into a catatonic stare, which is very relaxing. I didn’t feel bad though, I spoke to one of the American exchange students staying at the house and she said she finds herself doing the same catatonic stare when she sits out by the pool trying to write French literature term papers. Her Boston uni (umm I think she may have meant Harvard there) has an exchange program with Annecy university (or some town close). Her and a bunch of her friends from uni are all staying around Annecy with host families. She couldn’t believe her luck when she saw where she was staying and is wondering how she is going to complete her course work with a view like this.

For our last night in Annecy we drove up to the lookout where you get this amazing view of the second cleanest French lake in it’s totality. As luck would have it, there was also a Fondue restaurant at the top of the look out. Our fondue search was over. A big plate of stale bread and a huge vat of what looked like thirty blocks of melted cheese was delivered to our table along with a plate of meats and salad. Husband and I skewered up and began dipping our bread in the molten cheese, which promptly softened the bread and coated it with bubbly cheese. First piece delicious, second piece delicious, third piece might vomit as awfully rich. Regardless, we pressed on and consumed almost the whole pot of cheese. Not mentioning names, but one of us had a very upset afterwards and it was a very quick drive back down the mountain.

Then it was good-bye alps and hello…………Switzerland. That’s the good thing about travelling, some times you even surprise yourself. We were travelling along admiring the French countryside when all of a sudden up sprang border control. I thought it was another toll collection but thought otherwise when I saw the big France written on one side of the road and Switzerland, written on another side. All of a sudden we were in the Swiss line and being waved through the border. This is by far the easiest border crossing we have done. Our minds flashed back to Vietnam where on crossing out of their country they searched all our backpacks and fired twenty questions at us and we were leaving into China.

Back in Switzerland, we were very excited and I immediately broke out into a verse of my Heidi song which husband agreed never gets old. I snapped off as many photos as I could around Lake Geneva that included the red and white flag. To celebrate the occasion of a new country, we decided to stop and eat at a Swiss restaurant (motorway chain called AutoGrill hee hee) and check our Swiss bank account (go to the autoteller and get some money out hee hee). Husband purchased a swiss t-shirt to mark the occasion and also because we hadn’t done any laundry for a while and he didn’t have clean t-shirts left. Then it was on the road again in search of the French border.

There was a bit of a nervous moment as we drew into the French checkpoint. A car had been pulled to the side and there were about 3 French border police going through every item in their car. It was then I wondered if Australian’s needed visas to go into Switzerland and I was wondering how the excuse “…but the nice Swiss border control person said we could go into Switzerland” would hold up? Husband stopped the car right on the border to wait for the French border control cavity search. Then we started hearing excited shouting from behind us, it was the French border police telling us to hurry up and cross the border and stop holding up the traffic behind us. We complied and once again we were in France and it almost felt like we had never left.

Onto the Jura region and husband had a yearning to relive his farm boy years. Actually I have always fancied myself as a country gal, proving once and for all day dreams are not based on reality. Jura is beautiful farming countryside with a couple of lovely lakes, waterfalls and mountains thrown in. It is meant to be good tramping countryside, I think I would even tramp here it is so beautiful and doesn’t have snakes (must check this last point before agreeing to French tramping holiday experience). We are currently staying in a magnificent cedar and stone farmhouse called Ferme Auberge Du Rondeau. Breakfast this morning consisted of mostly products from the farm including a pot each of their natural yoghurt. I thought I was going to take one or two spoonfuls and then try and make husband eat my pot as well so as not to appear rude. No need, it was amazing and not like the natural yoghurt we get. I wolfed mine done and checked husband’s pot was empty.

Following breakfast, we drove to Arbois, mostly to checkout the surrounding countryside and to tour the home of Louis Pasture. After an hour of driving we arrived in Arbois just before lunchtime to find that the Louis Musee was closed until 2pm. Something to remember if you are ever touring the French countryside, most things close between 12 and 2pm for their lunch break. And Australia calls herself the lucky country….. 2 hour lunches that is what will be my vote decider in the next election. No problem there was a much written about restaurant, Le Balance Mets et Vins (translates as something like the perfect balance been meal and wine), that we were keen to try. All local produce especially local vinos. We thought we were having the cheaper Menu du jour but as we found at out bill time, we were experiencing the much dearer and elaborate Gastro Menu. One translation error I was very happy about.

We started with a taste of Vin Jaune (yellow wine which has been fermented for 6 years and 3 months without being disturbed). I would have left it for another few years, I swear I have drank nail polish removers less harsh than that. Next we had little mini starters in shot glasses which had something like leeks chopped and soaked in the Vin Jaune resting in a crème and topped off with a slab of pig fat. Surprisingly it was quite delicious. Next I had scallops in the best orangey cinnamon juice I have ever tasted, whilst husband enjoyed asparagus in a lovely green sauce. Husband and I then enjoyed Coq au vin with morelles (local mushrooms). Delicious although I did spare a thought for the one less rooster that would not be greeting dawn tomorrow. Then came dessert. Husband went for the reliable profiteroles, I went for dessert of the day which seriously was the best thing I have ever tasted. It was like a chocolate and mango crème slice with a scoop of rhubarb ice cream. It was whilst eating this extraordinary dessert that I decided that the best meal in the world (for me and it is open for argument) would consist of Japanese cuisine for entrée, Thai for main and French for desserts. No body can hold a candle to French pastries and I have done the research on this trip to substantiate it.

We rolled to Louis Pasteur Musee for our guided tour, in French, and for which we were the only two participants. We all had fun trying to understand each other. To be fair husband played a very useful role as translator and commented on my ability to say “wee” after everything the woman said. I like to be agreeable. Returning to the car, we found that despite husband’s best efforts, we still could not give away the camera in France. He had left the car window down on the driver’s side with the camera in the back of the car on the floor for the last three hours. Obviously the French are too honest.

We returned to the farm, where luckily we had booked in for dinner. Eating was starting to feel like an endurance sport and trust me I had gold nailed for Australia. Not letting the fact that we were still full from lunch stop us we embraced the experience and devoured 5 courses of fresh farm with matching wines. We did start with a lovely dandelion wine which was delicious. There were fresh farm meats, which made me feel instantly bad for the goats and wild boars we had seen earlier in the day. For entrée I had an amazing courgette tart with the infamous French pastry. For main husband and I shared the wild board stew and my favourite, gratin dalphinoise (potatoes and cream). Thanks to husband’s French skills we were able to negotiate our way out of the cheese course (and a possible coronary insistent) and go straight to dessert. By this time I was asking husband to look up in his phrase phone app how to say “I seriously need my stomach pumped”. Then we retired to our cedar smelling farm house room to lay on our backs and groan.

The next day it was a mammoth drive to Champagne region where we are intending to hang out for the next 4 days. We have managed to find the most wonderful B&B in a converted cellar overlooking a winery. It is just outside Epernay (you can’t image how many times we have done the Kath and Kim “Look at me look at me look at me Epernay” joke). We are going to spend this time working our way though the champagne cellars of this region. Now we are off to Epernay for dinner and to steal some wifi so we can post this blog!