Well it's been a while since I have updated my blog now - lots has happened so this is a rather long entry. We spent a week in Burgundy cat sitting, have moved South close to the alps and I am currently in Switzerland.
I loved our time in Burgundy. The small village we were in (Vaux) had a very laid back and friendly feel to it.
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| Our home in Burgundy for a week |
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| The village 'lavoir' (wash house) opposite where we were staying |
Whilst we were there we discovered a few local artisans; a man who made wooden things in miniature and another passionate artiste who made wooden spinning tops.
Dijon wasn't far, so we took a trip there, and managed to hunt down the 'lucky owl' that is on the outside of the Cathedral. Sadly he's not looking so lucky now, after years of being stroked, he's kind of lost his face.
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| The faceless owl |
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| Me, trying my hardest not to wipe the smile off the owls face...oh, wait a minute... |
Close to Dijon we visited a cheese factory, which specifically makes 'Epoisse', a very stinky cheese which is actually banned on the metro in Paris due to its unfortunate stench. We had a little tasting session, which involved 5 x cheeses and a glass of wine. I was impressed with myself for trying all the cheese, even the stinky ones, they were ok, but I'm not sure I am quite converted yet. Alex on the other hand loved it.
Close to Vaux we found a small village, Taize, which had been set up by Brother Roger (a Monk who had walked from Geneva) as a retreat centre for young people. It had been recommended to us because it also has a pottery selling pots that they make there. We weren't really sure what to expect, but we loved all the pots which all had exciting natural glazes - www.taize.fr
A week ago, we picked up our visitor. Joseph had been in Switzerland for a week, so hopped over the border to come and visit us in France. To make sure he had a good welcome in to France, Alex whipped us up a feast, which included a French cheeseboard - my favourite (complete with stinky Epoisse).
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| Joseph and the amazing technicolour cheeseboard |
On Monday we packed up our things in Burgundy and waved goodbye to Pepper and Spice, heading South to La Chambre, our next destination.
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| Pepper and Spice snuggled up by the fire |
We arrived a few hours later in our next house we are looking after with this wonderful view of the mountains...very different to our previous locations so far on our French trip.
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| The view from our new house in La Chambre |
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| Joseph getting back to nature and chopping wood in the alps |
We have now been here a week, and already done and seen lots of amazing things.
We visited Valloire, a busy bustling ski resort not far from us, however it is not quite the ski season yet, so it wasn't quite so bustling when we hit it the other day...stunning scenry though, and it even started snowing for us! The roads changed drastically from motorways to windy uphill struggles, where we drove through clouds and finally arrived at the top - where people actually appear to live.
In Chambery, we saw a life size elephant sculpture, apparently built in 1838 to honour Benoit de Boigne's feats when he was in India.
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| Elephant Fountain - Chambery |
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| Some hearty graffitti |
Lyon, the gastronomical capital of France (apparently...we didn't eat there on our trip...I'll have to update you as to whether it lives up to its reputation in my future visits), is about an hour and a half away from us. It is a massive City. We spent a day there, but I still feel as though we barely touched the surface. We mainly wandered around the old city, which is full of 'traboules'; secret passages that link streets and buildings together. You wander through a door (which looks like you shouldn't really be wandering through it) and find yourself in an open courtyard area, filled with natural light, flooding in from the open roof. I felt as though I was being naughty looking in to other peoples lives and entering their homes, but it was all legit, promise. We had a map which showed us where all the entrances were. Some of them were pretty hidden as we didn't find them all, but we did manage to find one of the longest ones (as our leaflet informed us).
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| Inside a traboule (secret passage) |
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| A restaurant hidden inside a traboule |
One of the other exciting things we happened across whilst in Lyon was a giant vending machine. It was amazing - I possibly got a little too excited about it. You could order all sorts of things, and it was the size of a shop window. You chose your item, and then a massive robot arm collected it, and pushed it in to a metal box, which then delivered it to the drawer. I am not sure this is a particularly French thing, but it was exciting nonetheless. Here are Alex and Joseph enjoying their purchases from the magical vending machine.
It appears that the French love their 'Tromp L'oeil' (paintings on buildings/walls that look real). We found an amazing one in Lyon depicting famous Lyonnais people through history. Here are a couple of the scenes on the building...from a distance (and even close up) they look really realistic, and the shading of all the shadows etc make it look very impressive.
Walking up a few hundred steps to to basilica notre-dame de fourviere, we explored the Cathedral which is massive, and has a downstairs which was even more impressive than the ground level. We also got to see a view of the City of Lyon.
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| View of Lyon from the top of a long flight of steps |
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| Ampitheatre - Lyon |
On Friday our travels moved to Switzerland. We hit Geneva, to drop Alex at the airport to fly home for a few days. Joseph flew home yesterday, so we smashed out all the tourist attractions on Friday - this included climbing a lot of steps at St. Peter's Church to reach the top towers and gain a panoramic view of the City; seeing lots of old buildings; soaking up the atmosphere in the old town at dusk and visiting the Bohemian quarter. It took me a while to get in to Geneva, but I felt as though it definitely came alive at night. The Bohemian area was nice and had a more eclectic range of people wandering the streets...it did feel as though we also found the Genevan red light district.
So, after dropping Joseph off at the airport as well, I have now headed north a couple of hours to Baden, close to Zurich, where my friends Vicky, Steve and Felix live and have come to hang out with them for a few days. My french world has suddenly turned German.
