See ya, snow...

The snow is pretty much all gone (again), so I'm left with a handful of pictures from this last storm to share. You'd never guess looking out the window now that we got about a foot of snow less than a week ago...









[Cat burglarin' santa got into the boulangerie! HIDE THE MACARONS!]



A la prochain friends...

L'Escalade and market Sunday...

So a little over a week ago we finished out our crazy non-stop weekend with the Thoiry Sunday Market and an early afternoon trek into Geneva, Suisse for one of their biggest annual festivals, L'Escalade. The Thoiry market was chilly but beautiful that morning, and it seemed even more packed than usual.



[Cat burglarin' santa with a view...]


[Renversé et Speculoos.]

After finishing our shopping and and catching up with friends, we decided that we should go into Geneva to be a part of the L'Escalade fun, despite nearly falling asleep in our renversés that morning. I especially wanted to go since I had never seen it, whereas Dan had gone last year. So what is L'Escalade exactly? It is a weekend long festival commemorating the Swiss's ability to defend themselves from a surprise attack by the Savoie back in 1602. This defense was successful because of the smart wits of a village woman who saw Savoie offenders climbing the walls of the city, and poured the hot soup that she was making out her window onto the offenders, thereby giving the Swiss time to ready themselves...or at least, that's what I've been told. For us it means going into Geneva, being super cold, drinking delicious vin chaud and vegetable soup to keep warm, taking pictures of all of the medieval dressed folks, lots of lanterns, trying to not step in horse poo, and a bonfire in St. Pierre's Square. If you'd like to read more about L'Escalade go here.



[I have no idea what this is about...]







[Ice skating rink...]



[Yumm.]



[St. Pierre's Cathedral...]




[St. Pierre's Square and waiting for the bonfire...]


[Vin chaud...]


A good and chilly time was had by all in our group, but by the end of the night we were so tired that we were falling asleep standing up. We left a little early and were able to avoid the inevitable tram-turned-cattle-train scenario that is customary for Geneva events, had some chocolate chaud and called it a night.

A la prochain friends...

Cat burglarin'...

As most of you know, I come from the city of Brotherly Love - Philadelphia, PA, USA. It is a city of extreme passion for our sports teams, a love of cheesesteaks and pretzels, and unfortunately, a lot of crime and violence. From a young age (even when we weren't living IN the city) I was taught to put my keys between my fingers when walking at night, to avoid certain streets, and to not answer the door when home alone. And after having moved back to the city post-college for 5 years before our move abroad, it's made certain aspects of french living more difficult to integrate than others may have experienced in their introduction to expat-ness. For example, when people stand too close to me in Migros, I instantly am on my guard and check to see if my wallet is missing from my purse, because I'm obviously about to be jumped. (Obviously.) But one thing that living in Philly didn't prepare me for?

Cat burglars.

Yep, cat burglars. Like as in a sequel to "Home Alone" cat burglars.
As in releasing sleeping gas in your window cat burglars.
Who then steal your stuff.
And then leave.
Crazy, right?

What I find even more bizarre is that now that the city is getting festooned for the coming holiday, the most common decoration that I've seen on houses?


Yep, cat burglarin' Santas.
You've got a weird sense of humor french people.

A la prochain friends...