Autumn in the Alpes

It is finally fall: my favorite time of year! Well, it was my favorite time of year. Unfortunately, I feel that I must report the sad fact that autumn is much less festive here in Europe. It is still beautiful, but it doesn't have the same feeling as autumn in the States. Growing up in Mississippi meant long, hot, sticky summers so as soon as there was the slightest drop in temperature it was time to break out the scarves and cinnamon scented candles. Not only that, but autumn marks the beginning of a lengthy holiday season. It all starts with Back to School excitement, Labor Day weekend, then everyone gets in the Halloween spirit, then we have Thanksgiving, then on to Christmas. It's simply an exciting time of the year!

Not so much here in Europe, specifically France and Switzerland. The summers here are much shorter than in the southern states and therefore everyone is sad to see them go. Instead of getting pumped for hats and boots they mourn the loss of their booty shorts and bikinis. I do not share in this sentiment and never will. I have seen almost no fall decorations in stores or in people's homes. Maybe this is because they don't really celebrate Halloween and of course, they don't have a Thanksgiving holiday here. I suppose I can do without Thanksgiving because I prepared myself before I ever came, but no Halloween?! It's been a struggle.

To me, autumn is the most magical time of year, next to Christmas, of course! I have yet to find one single fall scented candle. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?! I understand that not everyone is into #pumpkineverything but I didn't realize it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Oh wait, there is no hay, even though this is the land of cows. You'd think there might be one hayride or pumpkin patch... something? Nope. I even see people in horse drawn carriages in my village and are they in the fall spirit? Of course not.

Luckily, mother nature understands that it is fall. In Mississippi, it always seemed to take FOREVER for the weather to cool down but we do not have that problem here. I am already scraping ice off of my car windshield some mornings. I am fine with that. The leaves on the trees are golden, red, and orange, and the fog rising off of the mountains in the mornings is a gorgeous sight to behold. I can only imagine (and imagine, I must) what it would look like around here if people were in the Autumn-Loving-Spirit, as I strongly believe they should be!

Oh well. Just because the rest of France doesn't know how to enjoy this time of year doesn't mean I can't! I may be lacking in scents and decorations but I can still do some fall baking.

A few weeks ago I decided to make some Pumpkin Maple bread! It turned out great, but finding the ingredients was a bit of a challenge. Canned Pumpkin? Forget about it. You gotta buy a pumpkin and prepare it like they did in the olden days. Honestly, it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be but in the end it tasted no different than good ole canned pumpkin. Oh, and brown sugar? I don't think the French really understand what that is. Their idea of brown sugar is like rock crystals that are brown. Okay... I eventually found what I was looking for but it took a long time and it was called something weird that I can't even remember.

Luckily, the recipe did not disappoint! It was quite a hit!

I ended up having some leftover pumpkin and decided to make some Pumpkin Spice doggy biscuits for Elvis and Izzy, which were also a hit! 

I also made a Roasted Apple Pumpkin soup last week that turned out really well, but I didn't get a picture. Forgive me. 

Until next time, my faithful readers! Happy Autumn! 

-Alli

A Day in Annecy

Bonjour, mes fideles lecteurs! I randomly received this week off of work so I am staying in Zurich with Toby. We are on holiday from school and my host mum is on a business trip in Italy, so Guillaume took the kids to visit family in the north of France and I came here to Switzerland. Therefore, I have some time to give you guys a little update on life in Le Pays du Fromage! Aka, the land of cheese. Between living in France and frequently visiting Switzerland I am constantly surrounded by the world's best cheeses and I love every minute of it.

A couple of weekends ago Toby came to France to visit me and we spent the day in Annecy, which is one of the most beautiful places I have been so far! It is still in the Rhone-Aples and about 30 minutes from Contamine.

Looks like a dream come true, doesn't it? 

We spent the day wandering around the town trying on hats, drinking espresso, and of course, eating cheese! 

This, my friends, is a traditional dish known as "Tartiflette." Hot, creamy cheese and potatoes. Heavenly. If you're ever in France or Switzerland it is a must try! Write that down because you'll want to remember. 

Isn't he cute? Sippin' his espresso like he is not a big deal. <3 

It was a beautiful day and a bit crowded, but not as crowded as some places might be. Its a bit of a "hidden gem" for France. Your average tourist will go to places such as Paris, Bordeaux or Chamonix, not necessarily Annecy even though there is so much to see and do. I highly recommend putting it on your list of places to visit. You won't be disappointed. There are crepes around every corner, street musicians. shopping, cafes, a castle, and a beautiful river. Its the perfect place for a romantic weekend excursion. 

It was a very leisurely day and we didn't do anything "major," just enjoyed ourselves. However, I did give the entire street a little laugh at one point. We were walking and talking and I noticed that Toby was not beside me. I turned to my right and saw no Toby. I turned to my left and while there was no Toby there was a Mime literally an inch from my face! I screamed so loud that everyone stopped and started. The Mime was quite embarrassed and started bowing and backing away and the everyone busted out laughed, including Toby who was several feet away and had been waiting to see how long the Mime could follow me until I noticed. Apparently the look on my face was priceless, but I have to say I think the look on the Mime's face was probably better because he wasn't expecting such a "loud" reaction. Ha! He even said, "pardon" which is totally breaking the rules of mime. He was probably afraid that I was about to beat the crap out of him. 

It was a great day and as I stated above, put it on your list of places to visit!

French School

Tomorrow morning will mark the completion of my first two weeks of French school! I attend Greta-Lac l'ecole in Annemasse, which is about 20  minutes from where I live. So far, it is going well but it is much harder than the French courses I took at university! I have class every Tuesday and Thursday from 8am - noon with only a 15 break halfway through the morning.

What is it like? Well, the first day was so overwhelming! If you know anything about me then you know that I like to be early for everything so I left an hour before class would start. Finding parking is NEVER easy here so I wanted to make sure that I had ample time to park, find the right building, etc. It felt like the first day of college all over again, except nothing was in English and the parking is even worse than on a USA college campus. Imagine that. Finding parking here, and in Switzerland, is worse than finding parking in downtown Miami. I hate it. Luckily, I have gotten MUCH better at driving my new car so that relieves at least some stress. Anyway, I had no trouble finding a parking spot even though it was almost in a ditch, and I easily found the correct building. Allez moi!

When I entered the building there were tons of other students waiting and soon after we were all gathered in a large classroom together in front of 6 professors. They introduced the professors and then called our names to join the professor teaching our level. I was assigned to Marie-Agnes, a sweet middle-aged lady from Bretagne. After we were assigned to our professor we were bustled to our classrooms to begin class. My class had about 10 students on the first day and I was the only American, and I say "was" because since then more students have been added to our class who were in higher levels and found it too difficult so they moved down. Anyway, we immediately dove into the course which is 100% in French. We are not allowed to speak English at all in the class. Not even to one another on our break. We have to go outside if we wish to speak in a language other than French.

When I took French at university my teachers used English to help explain things to us, but they do not do that here. Part of the reason is because we will learn faster if we have to work harder, and we all come from different countries so we are not all native to the same language. If our professor used English to help explain things it would't help someone whose native is Spanish or Italian and vice versa. We have students from Brazil, Spain, Italy, Taiwan, Portugal, Canada, etc. It is a very diverse class but we all have two things in common: 1) None of us are native French speakers, and 2) we are all Au Pairs!! Yes, that's right, its a school full of Au Pairs! There are a few exceptions but about 98% of the students are au pairs from around the world who have come to France or even Geneva, Switzerland. Most of us, however, are in the Rhone-Alps, France. Greta-Lac is the only language school for many, many miles and since it is a requirement to attend French School for our visas, some of the students drive an hour or so so get to school. If they don't drive they have to take a bus or train and in the rural areas this means it will take them even longer to get to school. I feel sorry for those students, and especially the ones who were promised that they would be taught how to drive a manual car and their host families backed out on the deal. There is one girl in particular who I feel very sorry for because her family does not seem very nice and with them going back on teaching her how to drive has put her in a tough spot. I think I have learned enough that I could certainly help her.

The hardest thing about the class (aside from NO English) is that our professor does very little writing on the board for us. Writing helps me so much and when she talks for 15 minutes without writing anything sometimes I start to get a headache. Haha! Overall, I like the school and every day gets a little easier. We are a smallish class, most everyone is as nervous as I am, and our professor is very kind. I'll be fluent before you know it! HA!