Viva La France

Ahhhhh Dordogne. When we told people that we were heading to the Dordogne Valley in France, the common response was "huh, what, where's that?" Ryan told me as we were driving, "this place better be worth it, no one seems to have ever heard of it!". Well it's been a little piece of paradise awaiting our visit, and in the end we are so glad we got to experience it.

I have to admit, the beginning was a little rough, well okay that is an understatement. We've had a fast learning curve with driving in Europe and have concluded several things:
A.) we don't miss having a car, okay an inkling here and there but in the grand scheme of things cars are highly over-rated.
B.) I had visions in my head of gleeful driving across the French countryside, arriving in time for dinner to beautiful weather and great food. We hopped on a 7:30am tram by our house and were taking a direct train to Geneva, supposed to arrive at 11 am where we'd pick up our rental car and make our short 6 hour driving journey. The only thing missing from my stack of printables was a weather report! Switzerland was hit with a massive snow storm slowing up just about every train in the country. To top that off some poor soul got hit by a train on the tracks where our train was supposed to go, so we were told to get off the train and wait until further notice. All this was happening in French, so we were reduced to acting like sheep and following the crowds...I should have done a little more than bare basics with my French studies last month. So we arrive 2 hours late in Geneva, still hopeful of a good driving experience. We get our cute little French Renault Clio car and our TomTom and set out.
C.) Hire a chauffeur = Buy a TomTom (GPS navigation system). Best $300 ever spent. The best part yet of the drive was our new chauffeur TomTom that Ryan bought for us in the airport. I have to admit I thought it was an unnecessary extravagant purchase in the beginning, but that thought was squelched as TomTom got us thru snow and standstills that backed up for miles. We are convinced that we would not have arrived at all without him. Ryan was thanking me for letting him buy his new toy, and I was thanking Ryan for buying the new toy and saving me the agony of hearing Ryan bitch about poor driving directions I had prepared!
D.)Repeat: Double the Google Map's estimated time......due to snow and Easter weekend traffic we arrived to our destination 12 hours later........yes at 2 am in the morning instead of 6 p.m. like estimated. It rained or snowed the whole time then got dark so we have no clue what the French countryside even looked like! Chance was such a trooper though, and TomTom got us there like a pro.
E.) The Frenchies have a different concept of safe driving: One funny sign we saw was warning us to be safe and follow not one car distance but 2 car distances behind the other cars, while traveling at 130 km per hour down a 6% gradient in an ice storm. We thought that the average smart car is 9 feet long, and they are telling us to "play it safe" and follow 18 feet behind the other car at those steep grades and speed?

F.) The Frenchies are thieves, and Americans complain a little too much without reason. We do have to say that never again will we complain about US gas prices and tolls again.......We filled up ole Clio and paid a whopping 100 dollars for 10 gallons of gas......(close mouth) yes that is $10 per gallon. We went through 3 or 4 toll booths and each time paid either $16 or $24. And I am laughing now at how cheap $3 per gallon or 75 cent tolls sound! These frenchies are taking the bank!
G.) Switzerland really does have a lot of rich people. I didn't realize how many nice cars I see driving the streets of Zurich everyday until we came to France. People drive Porsche SUV's like they are Chevy's.

Saturday morning the skies cleared and we awoke to a new day in France. The valley was so charming, and reminded me a little of the area driving towards the Salt Lick in Austin. Rolling hills, gorgeous houses everywhere. We visited Sarlat, a little medieval town complete with a market and tons of great old French looking buildings. We bought some delicious garlic cheese from some nice lady and snacked on it for lunch the next day with a French loaf. The specialty of the region is Foie Gras, or goose liver, and I am pretty sure that something to that effect made it on to my salad at lunch. Chance liked it but I don't know that my palate will be adapting to that type of French cuisine!

Sunday was Easter, and I hope Chance ingrains this one in his brain cause it will go down in Baganz family history as the best Easter hunt ever. We went to some magnificent manicured gardens, the Jardins de Marqueyssac (check it out at http://www.marqueyssac.com/)........basically cut and shaped box woods everywhere. The place was so big that it took 30 minutes to walk from one side to the other. The children poured in by the hundreds to hunt out the 5 different colored eggs that were placed in a different zone of the gardens. The hunt wound us through the entire estate. Chance LOVED it.......I'd have to say it will go down in history as the best ever. They were real eggs which we thought was peculiar. Then unbeknown to us at the end you turned in your eggs (this is after we tried to feed our kid one of the eggs.......apparently you don't do this).......and got a bag of chocolates. For dinner we discovered the town grocery store....much like HEB (so nice to have some selection back). We bought ourselves a huge rib eye that we grilled at our place and had an Easter feast.

On offer from our hosts is their 16 year old daughter. This has been the best find yet! She came over Monday at lunch to stay with Chance for 4 hours so Ryan and I could tour a castle like real adults and enjoy some incredible French cuisine without having to say "sit down" or "be quiet" between bites. We found a great restaurant and we devoured every bite of our set 4 course lunch menu. Ryan branched out and tried the Escargot as an appetizer and duck for lunch. I'm more on the boring side and stuck with a salad and steak.....tried and true seems to work for me.

The next couple days were spent touring more castles, more towns hanging on cliffsides and eating up the French cuisine. We had two lovely nights out ALONE with the sitter watching Chance. The streets of Sarlat light up at night with candle-lit street lamps and it makes for a romantic experience. And one night in honor of being in France, we watched Ratatouille with Chance.

All in all the French vacation was the way to go. Super relaxing, super charming, great food. It gave me the itch to find a B&B to run in the Texas Hill Country. I'll work on that adventure when we make it back home to Austin.

Where we stayed: http://www.lepetit-manoir.fr/welcome.htm

We Are Sinking

A little German humor

Drew and Andrea's Visit Part 1

Meet my brother Drew and his girlfriend Andrea, who came to visit us from Austin last Friday....



Jet lagged and tired, Chance and I drug them out of the house for some St Gallen sausages to start the day. The week prior had been so gorgeous and I was awaiting their arrival with fingers crossed but the bad weather seemed to follow them in. Nonetheless we still trompsed around in the rain on Friday seeing the old town and discovering a new terrace in which to see views of the city.

This picture is at the sausage place, take note of the Hefeweissen beer Drew is grasping......this first one has sent him in to a Hefeweissen frenzy, apparently Zurich has some quality beer and it is tasting quite nice to the palate!



Saturday we headed for the slopes in Klosters to hang out with Prince Charles and the gang. We thought if the English royalty vacation here, their sledding slope must be a winner, and sure enough it was.



Sunday the more athletically inclined headed to Flumserberg to ski, leaving Chance and I behind to rest and recover (you know, from our hard day of sledding). Andrea even made it on to a red slope (blue equivalent) but I heard she got a talking to by a couple Swissies who didnt appreciate her tame snail like speed down the mountain. At least she couldn't understand what they were saying!



Monday Andrea and Drew got to live like the locals.......we took them to Chance's favorite "Big Park" and played for awhile before later "bathing" like the locals at the swim center during Chance's swim lesson. Drew walked in the swim center and asked if it was a Roman bath!


Yesterday Chance went to school and poor Ryan had to work. Drew, Andrea and I headed south for Lucerne and enjoyed the day touring around that city. In the old town we got to experience evolution in action....or at least the continual growth of man.....


We got to eat authentic Swiss Apler Macaroni, which Andrea likes to call Mayonnaise Macaroni for no good reason I can find :) It has applesauce in it, not mayo.


Unfortunately it rained most of the morning, but on our way out of town the skies parted a little and we were at least able to see that there were mountains surrounding us! We went to a "glacier garden" which was basically a bunch of rock formed by the last ice age.........the cool part of the glacier garden was a hall of mirrors where we got to take some really interesting photos, including the ones at the top of this blog entry.


Today D&A headed for Bellinzona for a night in the Italian part of the country. Lucky little ducks. More posting and pics when they return.

Chance Quote of the Day

Ryan, Drew, Andrea and I were riding back on the train yesterday from sledding. Chance was asked if Gabriella was his girlfriend and he said no cause he wasn't nice to her and then she didn't want to be his friend anymore. He follows that up with "Yeah Jack......When I talk toilet talk to Jack, he still be's my friend.....he's an awesome guy."

Ready for School

On school days our new morning routine is that Chance lets himself out the front door in to the stairwell so that he can put on his shoes by himself while I gather our stuff before heading out the door. This morning I was putting my coat on and heard "OK Mom, I'm all ready!" This is what I found.....

As you can see, he's really in to joking right now. Actually the kid already has the best poker face and can really trick Ryan and me in to believing something that is not true! Luckily right now it is 4 year old humor....not sure I'll be laughing at the poker face in the teenage years!

The other cute thing worth mentioning is that the little jokester has become interested in having some money of his own. He found 3 coins today and put them in his empty piggy bank, so I thought I would introduce the concept of working for money. I told him all about why daddy goes to work, and that daddy has to work very hard to get money like that. I told him that if he wanted to work around the house picking up his toys or clearing the table, etc he too could earn money. Apparently the concept didn't set in. As he put in his change that he earned for putting his dishes in the dishwasher, he says to me "Mommy, can we go to the store now and buy some more money cause I want lots of it to put in my piggy bank so I can buy things." Ahhh we have a lot to learn!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Errrrrrrrrrk!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Euro locker room etiquette is quite different than what we are used to....walking around naked, putting on your make up naked, talking with your friends naked....it's the normal scene. Of course I haven't brought myself to yet partake in such clothe-less communal activities but I thought I would at least brave it and attempt to take a shower at the gym so that I could run a couple more errands. I worked up the nerve and started towards the back of the locker room (where I had never been before) and was ready to take a shower in my nice private shower stall. I then encountered this times 20:

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrk! No thanks! I'll stick to my American Puritan-ish roots!

Remote Control Cars and Ski Lessons

This weekend was fun. Chance earned himself a new remote control car for good behavior so we set off for the head of the lake to give it a spin. Friday we spent most of the day doing that, torturing the swissies as the little car drove in to people's feet, under park benches, and drove up and down the walk path as if being driven by a drunk. So, Chance's steering needs a little work but it was fun to see all the smiles it produced on the faces of the passerby's. We stopped to feed the ducks and swans some crackers. I told Chance "Chance those ducks are so happy you are giving them lunch...I am sure they are saying thank you Chance thank you." He then proceeds to look at me and say "oh mom, don't you know ducks don't talk?" Check out the video of this in the left hand column.

In the past I have sometimes mentioned the complete inability of the Swiss to me mindful of others......this picture captures it all. I was sitting on a park bench getting ready to take a picture, this lady clearly sees me doing this, and without hesitation tells her daughter to go sit on the wall RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Nevermind that she is now in the center of my photo. Unbelievable.

Saturday we headed for the mountains to attempt Chance's first ski lesson. Apparently my planning was a little lacking since we got to the meeting point without skis yet, and not knowing we had to rent skis in the down at the base.....long story short we ended up having to pay the store owner to give us a lift up the mountain so Chance could make it to class on time but once that was behind us, watching the munchkin ski was quite an amusing time. See full video coverage of our day in left column

Good Finds

I'm on a roll with the blogging this week if you can't tell. 3 posts in one week is a record holder for me lately.

My friend Jane recently hired some woman to help her with a wardrobe makeover, basically a "Trinny and Susanna makeover" complete with the English woman and everything. Our budget it too tight for me to do the same thing, but hearing Jane talk about it and the happiness it has brought her led me to go on a clean-out-the-closet frenzy with what little clothes I already do have. This Euro living doesn't allow for much closet space to begin with, so at first I was a little hesitant I wouldn't have any clothes left if I let myself attack the closet. I took it all out, threw it on the bed and tried on every piece one by one and if I hadn’t worn it in the last year it was going to goodwill. I filled an entire garbage bag full of clothes (and if you have ever seen my closet to begin with, hearing me say I filled a garbage bag full of clothes, you might begin to wonder what in the world I have left in that closet)......well I don't have much, but what I do have is wearable, goes together, and in the end like Jane told me (and at first I didn't believe her) you feel like you have more with less.

That leads me to my next subject......the one thing missing from my life lately was a good pair of tall brown boots. Everyone here in Zurich wears tight legged jeans and boots on the outside. I have some black ones, but what girl is complete without brown and black. I've been awing over all the beautiful ones in the store windows, all for a mere starting price of about $400 US. Poor me I'd say every day, I am too cheap to fork out that much..... that was until Chance and I happened upon these beauties on Monday for over half off. I was sold and such a happy woman.

Then on Tuesday when walking around my happiness in knowing I had found a good deal was suddenly squelched when I found these $400 boots for $60. I was crushed. How could I have bought the others with this kind of deal out there? So instead of just getting over it, I had to buy these too. Now I am double complete and I LOVE my new boots!

My next find is so random but in Switzerland apparently people have no idea what Aloe Vera gel is. Last year we searched and searched after getting scorched at the beach and to no avail, we had to use some Aloe Vera lotion which just isn’t the same when your skin hurts. Well today I found some in a coffee store no doubt, how random is that? I had no need for it but thought I would stock up for next time I want to get burned. And lastly I found some CoEnzyme Q10 which I have been searching for and can only find it for about $80 US per bottle....I found it in the same cafe for $7. Oh boy. Do you think I'll be as happy as these people when I start popping these?

So this leads me to my last thought of the day.....I was standing in line to pay for my Aloe Vera and Q10....I could have sworn I handed the lady a $100 bill and she swore I handed her a $50. We went round and round in my broken German, and she says for me to please write my name and phone number down on a piece of paper, and tonight when she counts the register if $50 is missing, I better come back tomorrow and give her the $50 back. Now what store in the states would do that.....they'd probably take your name and number and tell you to come back for your $50 tomorrow if they happened to miscount. The Swiss are just so honest, why can't we be like that in the States. It's kinda sad.

Phew, my hands are tired, and I am sure if you have read this whole post you are about to fall asleep if you haven’t already. WAKE UP, it's over!

Chance the arteest

Sometimes I just sit with my mouth hanging open as I watch Chance navigate the computer..today he was cutting and pasting objects in to a word document using short cut keys, and I thought to myself......how does a 4 year old do this?

Ryan introduced Chance recently to the Paint program. He created this piece of work that I thought was worth putting on the blog (well said coming from an unbiased very proud mommy!)

Now I just need to beg Stirling to recreate it in to a wall sized masterpiece :)