AA

Fun Fact:  We visited a winery this weekend called Cave du Roi Dagobert.  Dagobert was France's king many hundreds of years ago and was probably a perfectly good king.  During the French Revolution, the revolutionairies wrote a song rediculing Louis XIV.  Specifically, the song inferred that Louis XIV was such a lush that he wore his underpants backward.  Not wanting to be hanged for insulting the king, the songwriters substituted King Dagobert's name in the place of Louis XIV's.  According to our hostess at the winery, however, everyone knew who the song was really about.

I've come down with AA ...

James recently diagnosed me with AA (Activity Anxiety).  He's not totally wrong.  I get a little stressed out thinking that we'll be coming home in a few months and there is SO MUCH to do and see here in France. 

To add to my AA, I recently went to a meeting, hosted by the Americans in Alsace Association, where the topic was "Day Trips in Alsace."  Now, I have an anxiety inducing list of museums, hikes, villages, restaurants, monuments, roman ruins, churches, scenic vantage points, winerys, breweries, fromageries, boulangeries, etc., etc. that I want to see/do before we come home.   Luckily, my mom is coming to visit in a few weeks so I can fulfill some of my day trip AA during the week while James is working.

Dabo + Diana's:
The AA was in full swing on Saturday.  I was intent on getting out of the house and checking something off my Alsace day trips list.  Our friends Michele and Francesca Diana wanted to go somewhere as well.  You may remember our Italian friends, the Dianas, from a prior post - they live in Luasanne and are having a little girl in May.  Much to my surprise, Michele suggested driving to a town that was not on my list.  Silently hoping I wasn't sacrificing a "check something off my list" afternoon in vain, I went along with his suggestion.

We ended up going to the lovely village of Dabo in Alsace's neighboring region, Lorraine.  Dabo is at the base of this huge rock that has a church perched on top of it.  Here's what it looks like from about 3 kms away:

Here's what it looks like when your standing on top of said rock:

Congrats to Laura and Ryan:
Can't pass up this blogging opportunity to say CONGRATS!!!! to Laura Passaglia and ... drum roll ... her new fiance Ryan McCarthy.   Laura and Ryan got engaged last week.  Here's a pic from the good 'ole law school days because I'm feeling nostalgic:

Carnaval de Strasbourg
It seems as though every village, hamlet, and creche (see below) hosts their own Carnaval in France.  Today was Strasbourg's big Carnaval and it also happenned to be one of the nicest days so far this year.  My AA-infected self left the house before James and Conor and found us a table at a cafe right along the parade route.  I even got a little sunburn as I waited for the boys, ate my tarte a l'ognion, read the New Yorker and pretended to be in sheer bliss while at the same time trying not to attack and throttle all the chain smokers surrounding me. 

Conor loved the parade and didn't get scared once:

Conor Update:
Lots of good Conor news.  First, he celebrated his first Mardi Gras Carnaval at the creche (daycare) a couple weeks ago.  The party was at 3pm which is when the kids normally have "Le Goute" (i.e. the afternoon snack).  Conor went as a frog in honor of his adopted French nationality. Here's Mr. Grenouille (i.e. frog en francais):


I'm a very serious frog business man.

 You might be wondering what the face paint is all about.  I was wondering this when I showed up for the party and he was covered in black marker.  Apparently, the 9 year old older sister of one of the other kids didn't think he had a costume (which I brought with me when I came to the party) so she decided to give him glasses and turn him into a "business man."  She assured me the marker came off with water.  Which it did.  It also came off very easily onto my clothes. Regardless, he's the cutest business frog ever, wouldn't you agree?  Here's some other pics of the Man with his creche colleagues at the party:




This is about half the kids at the creche.



Apparently, Conor was really hungry the day of the party. At the beginning of the party, he ate about 4-5 crepes that one of the mom's had brought.  Then, I couldn't put him on the ground to crawl around and play because he insisted on eating every little crepe crumb he found on the ground - as if he hadn't already ate a stack of crepes.  That's when the director of the creche started called him "The Vaccuum."

We also celebrated a belated St. Patrick's Day by lounging around the house in some awesome St. Paddy's day gear that Uncle Jeff sent Conor for Christmas:

He looks so angelic in his "No Pinching" t-shirt.  I wish I could add the lines no biting and no pulling off mom's glasses - two of Conor's favorite pasttimes, especially first thing in the morning:

Finally, in developmental news, Conor can stand unassisted by his baby walker!  He did it without much fanfare the other day.  He was holding onto the walker one second and, the next, casually took his hands off and stayed standing for several seconds. 

Mr. Cool saying good-bye for now:



Don't Mess With Me.



Mon Petit Fils

Conor sharing his car with his friend Max.

Fun Fact: La choucroute garnie explained.  "Choucroute" is the French word for "Sauerkraut" or "Surkrut" in Alsacian.  Choucroute is about as ancient as Alsace itself and is the regional, culinary specialty.  First, "le chou (the cabbage)" is grated and preserved in big jars with a bit of salt, gin and cumin. Then, it is cooked and served with a wide assortment of sausages.  There's no escaping this dish if you're planning on living in or visiting Alsace.  For those still planning on coming to visit, here's a picture of what's in store for you:




We're in an in-between phase here in Strasbourg.  It's not very warm yet but the snow is melted and I'm cautiously leaving my gloves and scarf at home when I venture out.  It's lighter earlier in the mornings and darker in the evenings, making waking up at 6:30 am with Conor a lot easier.  I'm excited to start taking Conor to the gorgeous park that is right outside of town, but it's just a bit too chilly still.  You can tell that people are heading outdoors more to enjoy the warmer weather and its making me excited for the Spring and Summer months that are right around the corner!  The main square, Place Kleber, gets sun exposure all afternoon and I'm planning on more than a few days sitting there with a good book.

It's been a relatively mellow few weeks as we've stayed close to home in anticipation of a lot of travel and visitors coming up in April and May.  Here's some of the stuff we've been up to locally ...

Independent Vintners Wine Fair (Salon Des Vins des Vignerons Independents):
A few weeks ago, we went to Strasbourg's annual Independent Vintners Wine Fair.  James and I received a bunch of free tickets (from having made friends with local vintners during all the wine tasting we've done over the last few months) so we recruited a few others to come along as well.  We didn't know what to expect but we were definitely not prepared for the madness that awaited us.  Imagine a convention center with row after row of stalls, each hosting a different vintner, and each giving generous tastings of free, delicious wine.  Also, picture thousands of French wine-lovers frantically tasting and buying as much wine as possible.  In order to accomodate all of their wine purchases, most people were pulling carts with cases of wine stacked on top.  Some carts had wine stacked as high as 8-10 feet high. 

All we had was Conor's stroller (i.e. the Hummer) which we filled to the brim with wine.  Luckily, he prefers to be carried anyway :)

Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany
The day after the wine fair, we tagged along with our friends Vivian and Luc and took Conor to the Porsche museum in Stuttgart.  I'm not usually all that enthused by fancy cars but it was pretty cool to see all the classic Porsches in prinstine condition.  Architectually, the museum is also quite impressive.  It is brand new - just opened in 2009 - and is adjacent to Porsche's company headquarters.  Apparently the Mercedes Benz museum just down the road in Stuttgart is even more impressive.

James was in full dad-mode toting Conor around the museum and having car talk.  We got some fun pictures:

Conor and James discussing their favorite Porsche models.



Conor asking me very sweetly for a convertible.



Conor taking me for a drive.

Colmar:
A couple of weekends ago we took a day trip to Colmar, the second largest city in Alsace.  Conor made a friend on the train on the way there:

Colmar is a beautiful, typical Alsacian village with lots of buildings built with the traditional exposed-beam architecture:

Colmar has a neighborhood that is called "Petite Venice" because of the canals.  It was cold and dreary the day we visited but it looks like a great place to go have lunch on a sunny day.
Tomi Ungerer Museum:
The next day we visited the Tomi Ungerer museum which is right by our house.  Tomi Ungerer was born in Strasbourg and, even though he's still alive, has built himself a museum featuring his paintings and drawings.  His themes are pretty diverse: kids literature and illustrations, political satire (especially satirizing the United States), scenes of Alsace, and erotic drawings.
Here are a few examples that I liked (sorry - in the interest of keeping STRASblog G-rated, I did not include any examples of his erotic drawings but they are easily searchable under Google images for anyone that might be interested):

I especially liked this last drawing because ... our mouse is back!  For weeks, we thought we had this unpleasant problem under control.  No little mouse droppings anywhere, no suspicious scraping sounds in the wall, no sightings.  But, the other night, we had some Italian friends over to watch a soccer game and I made enchiladas.  Maybe it was the delicious smell of Mexican food that lured it back, but right after we finished eating, the univited guest darted through our kitchen in plain sight of all our guests.  As I stood on my chair, James cornered it in the kitchen and watched it escape through a hole in the wall.  We have sinced patched up this hole and, fingers crossed, haven't had any more uninvited guests in over a week. 

By the way - the enchiladas turned out great thanks to an easy enchilada sauce recipe that I got from my Mexican-American friend that lives here.  Mexican ingredients aren't widely available in this part of the world so its an ex-pat enchilada sauce recipe.  I copied it below for your cooking pleasure.

Mon Petit Fils:
All of you are well aware that Conor is my son.  Not my grandson.  However, I recently learned that for most of the time we've been living here, I've frequently been referring to Conor as my grandson and not my son.  Here's why - "mon petit fils" translates, literally, to "my little son."  Since Conor is, in fact, still quite little, I thought this was a good way to refer to him.  However, the phrase actually means grandson, something I learned in our French lesson the other night.

Conor Update:
Here's Conor in his new carrier that my neighbor lent to us:

I wouldn't say he loved it.  In general, he doesn't like anything that has straps or restraints, preferring to have the freedom to jump, lunge, crawl, etc. from everywhere and every height.  He did love that he could reach my poneytail and pull on it as hard as he could while we walked.

Conor's teeth are really coming into their own - here's a peek:
 

Two Front Teeth!!



Ex-Pat Enchilada Sauce Recipe:

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup New Mexico or California chili powder ( I just added Paprika to my taste, not 1/4 cup, since at the moment I didn't have any of these chilies)

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups water (preferably the water you cook the chicken in)

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion salt
salt to taste

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in flour and chili powder, reduce heat to medium, and cook until lightly brown, stirring constantly to prevent burning flour. Gradually stir in tomato sauce, water, cumin, garlic powder, and onion salt into the flour and chili powder until smooth, and continue cooking over medium heat approximately 10 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Season to taste with salt. 

Paris Times Two



Conor sends everyone a big hello!!

Fun Fact: Did you know that Alsace (the region in which Strasbourg is located) is famous for enormous birds.  It's true.  Storks.  In French they're called Les Cigognes.  Apparently, they almost disappeared from this region in the 1980s due to high tension wires and pesticide use but thanks to some local bird lovers, they're back.  They construct enormous (Smart car sized) nests on roofs and fly around the quaint little Alsacian villages.  They're not fierce and certainly less objectionable than pigeons.  If you visit Strasbourg, you'll witness that every souvenir shop sells a wide variety of made-in-China storks of every type - stuffed, magnetic, ceramic, wood-carved, chocolate, etc.
As usual, it has been a very busy couple of weeks with lots of visitors, a spectacular weekend trip to Lausanne, Switzerland and TWO trips to Paris!  We've also battled and won a domestic war against a mouse.

Jordan's Visit to Strasbourg:
Jordan came for a very fun visit at the end of January.  He flew into Basel on Saturday morning and Conor, James and I picked him up at the airport.  Conveniently, the way back to Strasbourg from Basel takes you down the "Route du Vin" (the wine road) so we stopped off at our favorite winery on the way home. 

We had a great couple of days in Strasbourg but the highlight was that Jordan and I were able to escape to Paris for a night (thanks James for watching Conor for the night!!!).  We dropped Conor off at daycare in the morning and were in Paris only a couple of hours later.  Here are some pics of us cruising around:




View from our hotel in Montmartre




Sacre Coeur



Moulin Rouge

Jordan's friend and former "Hi, This is Barcelona" tour guide, Dolores (aka Dols), totally hooked us up and basically planned our whole trip for us (thanks Dols!). 

Shameless Plug:  If you or anyone you know is going to Barcelona, you should really consider booking an atypical tour through Jordan's tour company:  http://www.hithisisbarcelona.com/

Dols found us our hotel, made us reservations at a delicious restaurant, and showed us around the Marais neighborhood on Sunday.  Here's Jordan, Dols and I admiring some pretty amazing looking French pastries:

We also visited Dols' apartment which has a stunning view of Sacre Coeur.  See for yourself:

Back in Strasbourg, we had some quality downtown at home.  We made some good dinners, watched (and loved) "The King's Speach" and played with Conor.  Much to my delight, Jordan loves Conor (who wouldn't you might be asking yourself ... he's so darn loveable ... but Jordan is not a baby person by nature). 

The Mouse:
Just before Jordan's visit, James and I saw a mouse dash through our kitchen.  Neither of us had seen any evidence of mice before the little guy decided to run in front of us.  But, from that point on, we started hearing it (them) in the wall behind our bed and I found a few droppings. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. Needless to say, I started a full fledged anti-mouse assault which has included laying traps, closing any and all openings into the apartment and blasting the inside of the walls with poison.  We've been mouse-free for almost two weeks now. 

Lausanne, Switzerland:
Since I was busy hanging out with Jordan before we went to Lausanne, I didn't have time to do any research or learn anything about the city.  All I knew was that it was on Lake Geneva.  How lucky because it was great to be so pleasanty surprised.  Lausanne is beautiful! 

We stayed at our Italian friends' Michele and Francesca Diana's new house.  Meet the Diana's (they're expecting a little girl in May):

They have a beautiful apartment in a converted farmhouse with a great view of Lake Geneva.  This is the view from their house at sunset:

On Saturday, the Diana's took us on a drive all the way around Lake Geneva.  Did you know Lake Geneva is also called Lake Leman (Lac de Leman) in French?  The French don't call it Lake Geneva because that would be admitting that the lake is more Swiss than French.

Regardless of what you call it, the lake and all the villages around it are spectacular.  Here are some pics:



Can you see the French Alps in the background?

Us with Michele in the village of Yvoire

We had a delicious lunch in Yvoire, a medieval village on the French side.  The village speciality is freshly caught, fried perch in a citrus butter sauce.  So delicious!  Conor also enjoyed his lunch:

After lunch, we drove back into Switzerland and made it to the Lavaux wine growing region ... just in time for sunset! (Warning: lots of pictures to follow)

The terraced vineyards grow on the hills above the lake making for some pretty spectacular views.  The main wine grape variety grown in this are is called Chasselas - it's sweet and perfect for sipping lakeside while the sun sets.

The next day, back in Lausanne, it was warm enough to stroll along the lake and eat lunch outside.  After seeing all the sailboats in the harbor, James decided he may want us to relocate to Lausanne permanently.

Anji and Jim's Visit:

Anji and Jim (James' sister and dad) came to visit Conor this past week.  Conor was incredibly excited to hang out with the both of them:

A nice benefit of visiting Conor is that they also got to spend some time with James and I.  The second-to-best highlight was that we went to a performance by Strasbourg's Philharmonic Orchestra.  My violin teacher got us a couple free tickets so we decided to make a night out of it.  The orchestra performed three pieces but the last one, a Beethoven piece, was incredible because of the violin soloist who ... for lack of a more cultured way of saying it ... kicked ass!

The highlight of their visit was ... another trip to Paris!  We got up early and TGV'ed it to Paris and were in the Louvre by about 2pm.  Conor wasn't super impressed by the Venus de Milo:

Nor was he all that impressed by the actual palace of the Louvre:

But he did like playing with the Guv (aka Grandpa Jim) in the French painting's section:

The next day we walked around Paris and enjoyed delicious croque-madame sandwiches at a cafe near the Eiffel Tower. 
Conor Update:
Two more teeth!  After sleeping like a crazy baby for about a week, James and I had several theories about what was going on.  Maybe he had gas, maybe he wasn't eating enough dinner, maybe there was a full moon.  But, while we were wrestling around on the floor one night, I noticed that his front, top two teeth had come through.  Since then (knock on wood) he's been sleeping through the night!

Conor has also become very mom-attached. He follows my every move.  It's quite cute most of the time, except when I really need a moment to myself, like to use the bathroom.  He's also started biting me.  And only me. He'll start by giving me a kiss on the cheek and then, all of a sudden, clamp down with his four little razor teeth.

That's How I Roll :)