Market day; also known as I wanna be like Vincent Price...

Well, it appears that all of France is back from vacay, because the market was busier than it's been in a long time. As we've gotten more and more settled into the town it's become so much more than just the day we buy the majority of our food for the week, but it's also become a real social event where we get to catch up with friends whom we may have not seen during the week.


It's also the day Dan and I have pain aux chocolat for breakfast with espresso. Best way to start off a Sunday...


But this day at the boulangerie was different than all the rest, because there was a surprise hiding in the counter...



...MACARONS!

This may seem silly that living in France I consider it to be a surprise to find macarons at the boulangerie, but we actually haven't had any in the 6 months + since we've been here because none of the boulangeries in our area carry them. This runs quite contrary to what I had envisioned in Chicago on February 11th of this year, where I thought the streets would be lined with macarons of every color...apparently this is only in Paris. :( Needless to say, I am obsessed with macarons, and we definitley brought home several of those delicious little devils since this was one of the few times a year our boulangerie makes them...

What is this you ask? Did we happen to procure anything at the market to ward off Dracula? Funny thing you should mention that because we totally did...


Yep, it's a braided garlic thing with about 12 garlic bulbs on it, and it comes with a hook so that you may hang it up to ward off vampires (OR, *nerd alert* zombies from the Vincent Price classic, "Last Man on Earth," *end nerd alert*) while you make your pasta.


[Newest recruit to Vincent Price fandom...]


We tried to have our Sunday lunch outside, but despite the cooler temps the flies were out like crazy. Even putting my bug repellent fan courtesy of Momma and Poppa Jaffe on the table next to our food couldn't deter the flies. Nature was all kinds of crazy yesterday as even the gang of bees who usually keep to themselves were all up in our grill, so we took our lunch inside. (Sidenote: I'm seriously considering bee boxes on the patio as I think it's time these bees earned their keep, rather than merely loitering like our patio is a Wawa parking lot...)


So, once inside, Bug Killing Ninja Dr. Hadron went on the offensive. He has gotten so good at killing the flies that he no longer has the need for such primitive tools as a newspaper or fly swatter, but uses his hands to grab them out of thin air...it's quite Karate Kid-ish, and I can't wait for him to start grabbing the flies out of the air with chopsticks...


And all the while, the Phanatic looked longingly out the window and dreamt of doing belly-rolls at the World Series for a third year in a row...


And I finally got my macarons and espresso. :)

A quick shopping trip to Ferney...

[The market, closing up shop for the day...]

After two straight weekends filled with Triathalon and triathalon related activities, we were so excited to take it easy a bit this weekend, though, that didn't really happen. After sleeping in and a short run for me on the mountain, we headed into Ferney for the last few minutes of the market in hopes of getting some olives, Mirabelles (one of my new favorite end of summer fruits), and some confiture...



[It's been awhile since we've been able to do our weekly mirror picture...]


[Mirabelles - big in France...]

Mirabelles are a fruit of the plum family, along with another fruit called Reine-Claud...Both are big here this time of year, and we were hoping to pick up some confiture with either of them in it, but alas, we were a little too late to the market that day...there's always next week.


[The Phanatic always gets the chicks...and then drinks their wine...]

We also (we = not me) started to work on getting Dan's bike back in action after "The Curse of the Bike Rack" incident last week, so while the boys worked on the sick bike Kim and I watched some "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" - with the Phanatic.


[We're comin' for youse Braves...]

This of course brought my inner Philadelphian out - tuff glove and all...what can you expect with the Phils two games out of first place...

They're coming to get you Barbara...

...fall that is. Or maybe the bugs in this case. Regardless, fall is on it's merry way, and I couldn't be happier. Chilly hoodie filled nights, pumpkins at the market, potential Halloween costumes and talk of Fantasy Football has filled our house on several occasions in the past few days, which means that the only things missing are pumpkin beer, hot apple cider and football.


Oh yeah, and the sky lately has been just beautiful, especailly at night...


And Mont Blanc showed itself two days in a row...

...I think it's happy fall is coming too...

Lausanne Triathalon Part 2; also known as "The Curse of the Bike Rack..."

So, continuing on, we begin the second half of this post with the final leg of the triathalon, the 6 mile run...



Pic via Kim.

I was the lucky girl who got to catch and hold on to Jerry's sweaty running shirt when the temps hit about 90 degrees...he claims it's wet from pouring a cup of water over his head, but we all know it's gross boy sweat. "Sister-In-Law Prize of the Year 2010" goes to moi...

*Note: I am the ultra cool allergic kid who is wearing a personal bug repellent fan and two bug repellent bracelets due to what we think is called "Skeeter's Syndrome." Essentially since I didn't travel at all until I was 26 years old, I have ZERO immunity to bugs in others areas of the US or Europe, and have gotten terrible allergic reactions over the past month or so in Omaha, Nebraska, France and Switzerland...luckily Kim isn't showing the lower portion of my legs in this picture because not only is one calf three times the size of the other, but was red and blue and purple, and according to Derek, resembled a Black Widow Spider bite...which makes it quite painful to walk if not hard to walk and generally hard to have fun...sheesh. Maybe I'll grow out of it like the 1 year olds who typically suffer from this condition...but I digress...


[Dan coming up to the finish line...]


[Dan crossing the finish line...YEAH!]


[Jerry crossing the finish line...YEAH!]

*Note: For some reason I don't have any pictures of Derek from this race, which I blame on the fact that he was entirely too fast. He finished sub 3 hours, which in my mind means he technically cannot be caught on film...


[The Brothers Duggan postrace...]


One of my favorite pictures from the race - this official stole Jerry's umbrella, which he was recovering under after having JUST finished the race, and the guy literally took it away and moved it two feet to the left...of which Jerry followed it...the Suisse are just so particular!




[Dan, Jerry and Derek post-race...]

Official race ending times:
Dan: 3 hours, 10 minutes, 10 seconds...
Jerry: 3 hours, 15 minutes, 51 seconds...
Derek "too fast to be caught on film" Strom: 2 hours, 57 minutes, 8 seconds...


[The Brothers Duggan...]

So the race is over, time to load the bikes up on the bike rack and go home, chillax, and get our grill on. This is what that scenario looked like in the AM on our way out to Lausanne, thanks to a picture taken by Kim...


Then "The Curse of the Bike Rack" took hold about 20 minutes from home on a Suisse highway at 120 kmph...

It went down a little something like this...
SWOOOOOSSSSHHHHH.....
Honey: Holyyyy....
Dan: Jerry the bikes are gone, Jerry we lost the bikes, Jerry the bikes are gone, pull over Jerry, PULL OVER.

And all we could see were Dan and Jerry's bikes, on a very crowded, fast, Suisse highway, go flying behind the car at great speeds towards the traffic behind us. I never knew expensive racing bikes would bounce that much.


So, Jerry pulled over. Dan and I went running down the highway, about a quarter of a mile, after the bikes. Jerry's had come apart from the rack and landed on the shoulder, with some scratches. Dan's however, still attached to the rack, lay in the middle of the left hand lane with A LOT of cars coming towards it. With how bad my leg was hurting and swollen from my allergic reaction you would have thought that Dan's bike was a red and white polka dot tea set for how fast I got down there. Lucky for us (and the other drivers on the road), the car right behind us was far enough back that they were able to swerve and miss Dan's bike and the over the top of the car bike rack...


The next car, thank God, slowed to a stop just in front of Dan's bike, and threw on his hazards. We were able to pull his bike off to the side of the road while still attached to the bike rack, unlock it from said bike rack, and wheel both Dan and Jerry's bikes to the other side of the road...


And somehow, for the most part, the bikes are fine. Dan will probably need to get his handlebars and definitely his seat replaced, maybe a little work on his brakes and a new clip pedal, but the wheels of both bikes were intact enough to wheel them across the highway while running...


We were incredibly lucky.




[Yeah, taking apart a bike rack on the side of the highway in Suisse just after having finished a classic Triathalon in 90 degree heat...just what they wanted to be doing right about then...]

And I will NEVER trust an over the top bike rack EVER again.

Lausanne Triathalon, Part 1...

Sunday morning: The big day. We started our caravan out to the Lausanne Triathalon early in the AM, complete with rockin' pre-race mix tape tunes including AC/DC, Eminem, Queen, and, er, Justin Bieber (Editor's note: Seriously? JB? Are we a bunch of 15 year old girls here?) It was sunny and gorgeous, and was only going to get more sunny, more gorgeous, and way hotter.


[On the way to bike check-in...]




On our way to the bike check-in, we had a stellar sighting - the fabulously creepy outfit guy from last week's Geneva Triathalon was doing the Sprint Tri again this week! Yeah!


Derek and Jerry getting ready to set up in the transition area...


Dan too....


Good bye hugs....


...and good luck kisses...
[Kamikaze cuteness photo as always taken by Kim]


And so we get ready to begin...1 mile swim (1500 meters), 26 miles (40 kilometers) on the bike, and 6 mile (10 kilometers) run...Ready...ALLEZ!


The guys were luckily all in the same group, which made it a lot easier for us to keep track of all three of them. That's them in the swim above...



More of the swim. And keep an eye on those two swans on the left...


They must have been pissed that despite swimming in this lake everyday further than 1mile, that they were not given a sweet technical shirt like the guys got...so they decided to ghost swim the race...directly across the swim course...(Being that the swan is beating that guy, I think I can further classify this under swan athletics/acrobatics, don't you?)


[Transition area...]






On to the bike...Dan's easy to pick out because of the bright yellow shirt...


Jerry on the bike...



Jerry was smart to bring presents when he arrived to France in the form of "GO JERRY! JERRY ROCKS!" hats and t-shirts...Kim and I were very excited for our gifts...



Crazy steep hill with a 10% grade...this wasn't the worst part, just where we were cheering them on...





[Geneve's not the only Suisse city with a flower clock...]

Coming next: The conclusion of the Lausanne Triathalon, as well as "The Curse of the Bike Rack..."