Christine in Strasbourg, France

Because you can't visit France too often.  Some pictures of the buildings of this lovely French city.

 I also ate while visiting.  But no food pictures this go round.  Only good food and pictures.

Christine

Christine and Carol at L'Auberge de I'Ill

My mom and I also went to Fancy Lunch.  In France.  Because we can.  It is only 90 minutes away.  A lovely drive (when it's not raining).  I found a new for me restaurant to try.  And they are all new for her.  The amuse bouche and dining room:

My main entree (I'm blanking on the meat, but it was delicious and over risotto, which I love--mom do you remember?  Leave in the comments if you do.  Danke er Merci.):

The wonderful lamb my mom ordered (which I wish I had ordered):

We also chose fromage (cheese) from the well stocked fromage cart.  I loved it all.  And tasted 5 options.  My mom tried a couple of them.  I was nice enough to share my choices with her.  (See, I really am nice to share French fromage.)  The large one in the middle was my favorite.  If I have to chose one.

The first mini desserts, which we each received our own (this is with the ipod not such a great photo):

The macaron was the best I have ever had.  I have had a lot.  Many times in France.  I'm not quite an expert, but I'm trying to be one.  I could eat them all if given the chance.

My mom's dessert, mousse:

I had the chocolate choice, gelato, brownie, and more gelato.  I'm sure you all are shocked.  Just shocked.

Christine 

Christine in Chamonix, France

If you can't spend Christmas at home*, I suggest skiing in the French Alps.  Chamonix is a beautiful city, near the boarder of Switzerland and Italy.  In fact, you can ski 3 different countries and 6 different mountains in the area.  How great is that?  For this trip, I stuck to the French Alps.  I skied at Brevent (2,525 meters- 8,284 feet) and Domaine de Balme (Le Tour) (2,270 meters-7,447 feet).   The sun shined at Brevent.  This made for lovely skiing conditions.  I prefer to ski in the sun, since I hate being cold.  The mountain had amazing snow for the 2nd time going there.  Loved skiing that day.  And the restaurant on the mountain had excellent tomato soup.  Best I've had in Europe.  And I've had my fair share of the soup.

Not my best picture ever in terms of framing for the top of the mountain.

Skiing above the clouds.

Le Tour had power though.  If you ski, then you know that most everyone wishes for a powder day.  It snowed all morning at Le Tour.  I won't lie, I had trouble skiing in the poor visibility.  You have no idea what the condition of the snow is right in front of you.  But I loved skiing in the powder after I could see it.  So much fun.  A tip I learned- lean back a bit to keep your ski tips up (over the powder).  So there are no pictures of Le Tour.

I stayed at Gustavia.  This hotel is Swedish owned and operated.  They are quite nice people.  Who love to party until 2 in the morning.  Interestingly, they celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve.  At 3pm they watched the Disney movie Donald Duck.  They do this every year.  The bar was packed with people.  Some could not even see the tv; that's right they just listened.  Apparently the Swedish think that Donald is like them- a pull yourself up from the boot straps, can't keep me down type.  They said the busy season is actually the summer time.  They can keep summer, I want snow.  Lots and lots of snow.

I managed to have 2 types of fish on Christmas Eve.  Not quite like my family tradition of the 7 fish, but I tried.  And mine included oysters, which I like.  The hotel served a turkey dinner for Christmas.  But the dessert was lousy.  Some kind of English plum pudding or something terrible.  To the British people that may read this:  put butter in the cake/pudding batter.  Don't serve it as a garnish to add to make it taste better.  It doesn't help.  At all.  I'm just sayin'...

Waiting for the bus, there was a picture that I will paint some day:

Those are the real mountains.  They just look fake.  And this is my obligatory church picture.  ha ha

Christine

*I did have the chance to Skype with my family and it was wonderful to see you all.

Christine in Strasbourg, France

I learned yesterday that after you eat a 7 course lunch, you do not have to eat again for the rest of the day.  Good to know.  But first, a mountain view picture from the drive.

Back to eating.  I ate the tasting menu at Restaurant Buerehiesel, my first 1 star restaurant in France.  This time I took the menu with me so that you could know what I ate.  Of course, it is in French.  So I will kindly translate.  You are welcome, my 2 followers.  It include:

-Blue lobster jelly and roasted tomato tartare of beef heart coriander
-Fried frogs legs
-Roasted sea bass with fennel mousseline has olive oil and shellfish swimming
-Apple sweetbreads sautéed boletus Rhône-Alpes meuniere capsvinegar veal jus
-Bareges lamb roast, shoulder confit with chermoula, hummus, artichokes in oil and juice of sweet spices
-Plateau de fromages (cheese platter-just sounds better in French so I'm keeping it as such)
-Strawberry juice reduces Alsace capricette, verbena ice cream 


I enjoyed my 2 1/2- 3 hour lunch.  And a special thanks to my mom for buying me the French guide book.  It's how I found the place.  Very useful present.


The Restaurant:

Some pictures of buildings in Strasbourg, France (last time you received photos of Notre Dame, so I refrained this time):

And finally, a sheep herder in the rain.  I'm not making this up.  This is what happens in Europe.  We may not have had a small hurricane, but we did get a sprinkle in Germany.

Christine