Lyon (Oct 30-Nov 1): Food

We hopped on a train on Saturday and headed northbound. In less than 1.5 hours, we reached the 2nd largest metropolitan area in France: Lyon. We are here to eat some piggies, en français cochon, at restaurants called "bouchons."

Sunday morning, we walked about 1 hour toward the district "le Croix Rousse" where the silk industry flourished in early 19th century. We enjoyed the lively Sunday market, had a nice coffee break, joined a long queue to buy a baguette (where there is a line-up, there is always some good food!), and accidentally found a chocolatier Bouillet. As soon as I noticed they have a boutique in Tokyo as well, I again joined a long queue to get some colourful macaroons and some traditional sweets from Lyon called coussins. Japan, although it is quite far away from France, boasts finely established French culinary scene. It is not a fluke that the Japanese pastry chefs keep winning the world competitions, most recently the World Pastry Championship held in the US. So when France meets Japan, it cannot go wrong.

We then headed into the district "Presqu"île" and visited "le Bouchon des Filles." Unfortunately, they were completely booked out for lunch and dinner. Our will to eat piggies got stronger and stronger. It was raining quite heavily, and Chana was miserably wet although she had her rain coat on. We walked in search of a bouchon, and we reached "Aux Trois Cochons" not too far from where we were staying.

Nathan, bravely, started with a salad with thinly sliced pig ears sauteed with garlic. I started with a normal dish, French onion soup. Both were delicious.

Nathan bravely ordered something called "Double Gras" or double fat intestines, with a cake of potatoes, similar to Latke. I ordered "Parmentier au Queue de Boeuf" which resembled a shepherd's pie. Of course I did not know what parmentier or queue was, but it was delicious. It turns out that any potato dish is called parmentier, which is good to know, and queue is a tail, which is also useful to know.

For dessert, we ordered something called "Cervelle de Canut" literally meaning silk-weaver's brain. It was a creamy white cheese (just like plain yogurt) with some chives and garlic. If you like Dur (Persian yogurt drink) or Mast-o-Musir (Persian yogurt dish), you will like this too!

We highly enjoyed the meal, but it will take some time to recover from it. We could not even eat dinner that night, and our macaroons saved their lives from being eaten up all at once. Thanks to the end of the daylight savings, we were able to enjoy the 25th hour of the day just laying in bed, waiting to turn into cochons ourselves.

It's getting cold~!

This morning, the temperature was just below zero, and it has been a routine for the past few days that Nathan gets up and turn the heat on before we actually wake up. There are radiators in each room, and we heat up our bedroom, kitchen, entry hall, and bathroom. We keep the doors closed to the other two rooms that we barely use, but it still takes a long time to heat up the apartment. It is fine for me as I grew up without a central heating, but Nathan is constantly cold even with a thick sweatshirt on. I am knitting a pair of socks for him in alpaca, with a hope they will keep his toes toasty.

The surrounding mountains at lower altitudes are turning their colours into bright yellow, orange and red, while the top of the mountains particularly Belledonne is white. A part of the Chartreuse which I call "a cupcake," now looks like as if it has been dusted with some powder sugar. I cannot wait to go skiing. I guess the last time I skied was in Whistler in 2003!? My skiing career started with my mom and dad at the age of 13. My dad put me on the lift after sort of teaching me how to stop, and said, "Now, go down the hill." That's where I got the idea, you can kind of do it if you do it anyways. So far, so good, Dad. I am still alive!

"Les vacances de la Toussaint (All Saints)" started this Monday, and students are off school until next Thursday. In search of free internet, I am again at the McDonald's which is FILLED with children. I wish the wifi connection at the library was reliable and faster. Nathan and I are thinking about visiting Lyon for the weekend if we can still find an accommodation. The trains are still affected by the strike, so careful planning is a must. I thought about driving, but finding gas might be a problem.

Nos Droits 3 and hope no more!

Oh, this is quite interesting.

I met with Nathan for lunch to take care of the "move-out notice" business. I had already had a sandwich earlier, so I just asked for a crêpe au sucre et au citron. The server refused my order. During the lunch hours, you have to eat something before you get to eat a dessert, apparently. Luckily, I was able to order a cup of coffee. The server removed my table mat, the cutlery, and a glass to drink water as if to say I did not deserve them as I was not paying enough. Weird...Why did you not let me have a crêpe then?

This is actually the second time that happened to us. We went out one night after having dinner at home, looking for some yummy dessert. We sat down at the second oldest cafe in France :), and asked for some ice-cream dessert. The server was nice enough to let us stay there, but she hesitated when we placed the order.

We have to figure out how this works. I thought the customer can eat whatever s/he wants at the restaurant, but apparently not here.

I demand a bowl of ice-cream tonight at home.

Nos droits No. 2

I finished the second month of intensive French courses. I really enjoyed the second month at CUEF. We had two teachers who were quite different from each other. The female teacher we had was quite energetic and she focused a lot on our enunciation and articulation. The male teacher was super low key, but he focused on the topic I am interested in such as health, environment, etc. Of course the young-lings in class were quite bored with him, but we cannot always do exercises like "let's write a funny story with your neighbour and share with others." For November and December, a Brazilian classmate and I will be taking semi-private lessons with the above mentioned female teacher. I am on a mission by Thursday to be able to say "les yeux" properly.

The courses are costing quite a bit of money, but we really need it. For example, today, I had to go to Agences Départementales pour l'information sur le Logement. It is an association for tenants and landlords. You can probably guess what is going on.

Our current landlord is not happy that we are leaving only living here for three months. Here in France, for a furnished apartment, it is the right of the tenant to stay for minimum of 1 year, but the tenant also has the right to cancel the contract at any time with 1 month advance notice. We told our landlord in person of our move-out two weeks ago, and we sent him a written letter by registered mail. He has not received the letter (now waiting to be picked up at the post office), and the move-out notice comes into effect when he receives the letter. And the post office will keep the letter only for two weeks.

At the agency today, I was able to express what the problem was and to follow what the person was telling me. She said that our case is very "delicate" and we may have to go see "un huissier=a bailiff (gees, I do not know this word in English either)." I had to think to myself "Awesome, I just survived some gush of legal terms!" at the same time, "Wait, why do I have to do this!?!?"

I demand a bowl of ice-cream tonight.

Nos droits [On rights and entitlement]

So the grève (strike) is back again. It is for the same reason (the retirement age, benefit, etc.) as the one-day strike in September, but this one is continuous. Ever since President Sarkozy came into power, there is something called "service minimum" even during the strike. At first I thought it was exactly the same as the "essential service" but not quite. The service minimum guarantees that the companies or institutions have to offer their services at their minimum capability. So for example the trams are running, but not in its full capacity.

However, on October 7th, when I was trying to go home after my classes, there were no tram nor bus. The employees walked off the job that day at 9AM, following an incident that took place on the night of the 6th. When you get on the tram, you are supposed to validate your ticket or the pass, but even if you don't, you can still get on. So sometimes you run into "controllers" who ask to show your validated ticket/pass. Apparently, some group of youth who were caught by the controllers started the violence. The youth group thought they were discriminated for being asked to show their ticket, as the controllers do not necessarily ask everyone on the tram.

I feel that the demand for one's right is very strongly expressed in this country:
+Well, I am not against the strike that is happening now, but it is also true that many countries are facing the aging society and the pension problem. The argument such as "it is not fair that others only worked until 60 when I will have to work 7 years longer" is not so strong when your life expectancy is also longer than those predecessors. I am sure that there are many other reasons for the strike that I am not aware of, so I have no right to say anything.

++Well, It is sort of understandable why the trams and buses were canceled completely because of some violent passengers, but what about those who paid for the service? Isn't there a better system than having a random check which could trigger an issue of "why are you picking on me?" Why not having controllers always on the train and on the tram stop?

+++Well, I am okay with the grève. That's OK. Go for it. We live in a democratic society. I am okay that I had to walk 40 minutes from the university to home. That's OK. Go for it. We live in a democratic society. But those who acted violently after not paying the fare and claim they were discriminated? That's a bit odd, isn't it? AND most importantly (for me) people who do not wait to get on the tram while there are people getting off! Those who do not realize there is a long queue for the food stand! I don't think that is included in our rights, is it?

We need to read Thomas Hobbs again.

Annecy

On Saturday, October 9th, three of us headed to Annecy, located 1.5 hours north east of Grenoble by train. The scenery resembles somewhat like Venice with canals running through the town and somewhat like Banff with a glacier clear lake with snow capped mountains surrounding the lake.

The town was celebrating its 39th Retour des Alpages, festival featuring their traditional farming culture and society. The entire city centre called "vieille ville" turned into its venue, and the tiny streets were filled with farmers, peasants, animals and tourists like us. We grabbed a glass of traditionally pressed apple juice and a bag of roasted chestnuts, and walked through hundreds of extremely joyful and happy people. For lunch, we enjoyed a tortiflette, a potato cheese casserole from the region looking at the Lac d'Annecy. We had a lovely day, and we cannot wait to visit there again and do a proper visit of the town.

Having a dog when traveling is a bit of a pain, but it also gives you a great advantage. People will talk to you. Chana, with her mohawk and long ears, she gets commented and smiled at quite a bit, and when she wears a "Head Collar," people will not leave us alone. As some of you may know, Chana does not know how to walk properly as humans want her to. She pulls, sniffs, lunges towards some amazing discovery…and it is very annoying to walk with her particularly in the crowd. We have often used "head collar" also known as "gentle leader" which gives us a better control on her movement. Unfortunately, this tool is often mistaken for a muzzle. People do not hesitate to ask "why does she have to wear a muzzle?" or more directly, "does she bite?" Each time, we explain using our limited French, "she pulls and it is easier for us to walk, blah blah." It is a race now, whether we learn how to explain this better in French or Chana learns how to walk properly!

Here is a shot of Chana with her head collar, and her friend donkey who also wears one.

Progresses

1. Recépisée

We now have the official document that proves we have applied for our Carte de Sejour. It took seven weeks instead of ten days, but we are happy that it did not take any longer than two months. Well done! Our recépisées are valid until the end of December. We are now waiting for our medical appointment.

2. French

My French class at CUEF is going well. I still think I am in the wrong level, but one can always learn something. One thing for sure is that I am getting more and more confused. Do I capitalize the week of the day in English? When do I insert a comma?

As I usually shop at butchers, bakeries, or veggie stores (what are they called?) I get to speak with the store clerks, which is a great opportunity for me. When I was buying green beans (des haricots vers), I had no idea how to specify the amount. I said "quelques" for "some" as I showed her my hand. She said, "une poignée de haricots." I will never forget this word as I learned in real action.

The other day, I wanted to buy two pieces of sausages (is this how you say in English?) I said "deux saucisses" and the clerk said something like "deuxiéme." I made the peace sign to indicate 2, and we had delicious saucisses aux herbs for dinner. The question remains though. What did she say? I asked my teacher about this, and he thinks what I said was correct. Hmmm, I have to go back and make the same order to find out.

I remember doing this in English. a head of broccoli, a stalk of celery, a murder of crows... I need to learn counters.

3. Moving

We will be going to the real estate agency to sign our apartment contract tomorrow (Friday). Wish us luck. If everything goes well, we will be moving in mid November!!

Busy weekend for Chana

October is here, and the weather has been just lovely. Chana was groomed for the first time on Friday, and she is giving pretty eyes to everyone who passes her by.

On Saturday, we brought her along with us shopping for some (human) clothes, coffee break, and dinner at "La Ferme à Dédé." This restaurant specializes in the regional food (Dauphiné and Savoy regions). I had ravioles dauphinois, which are miniature version of raviolis filled with cheese. Nathan had Andouillette, sausages which contains a lot of things. They were both delicious and the atmosphere was great. Chana lay under our table well behaved. We would like to go back and try "tête de veau" next time.

After spending a day in the civilization, we were craving for some fresh air. On Sunday, we headed to the Vercors, the mountain which lays on the east side of Grenoble. We took a bus for one hour, and found ourselves in a small village called "Villard-de-Lans." It kind of resembled Karuizawa, Nagano or Jasper, Alberta. From the village, we headed toward Le Vallon de la Fauge, a former glacier valley. We did not make it to the peak of the mountains, but we got to see some happy cows. Chana loved hiking, but not so much the bus ride. I hope the passengers enjoyed her singing.