La Douce France

One of the benefits of living in Switzerland is that it is close to other European countries, especially France, which is near and dear to our hearts.  Oh France - we’ve been cheating on you this year– we’re seeing another country, and with the excitement, novelty and beauty of this country, we temporarily forgot about you, our first love.

But the past couple of trips to France helped us remember why we fell in love in the first place.  It was a mere 11 years ago that we had another magical year like this one.  In September 2001, we packed up and rented our house, shipped 18 boxes of “essentials” via air cargo (no longer allowed privately post 911), enrolled our sons (9 and 12 years old then) in international school, and boarded all four of us (including our strong willed Corgi, Puck) on a plane headed to Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport to live a year in France.  We moved to Vourles, a picturesque village surrounded by orchards and vineyards about 15 minutes southwest of Lyon.

This past couple of months we’ve been back to the Lyon area several times – once to attend the Marché aux Vins d’Ampuis, and just recently to Lyon for Doug’s work and to visit old friends in Vourles.  Lyon is quite close to Lausanne, only about two hours by train.  The train ride is surprisingly beautiful, the tracks meander along the Rhone River, and in the winter the dark, leafless trees allow you to see the river clearly, which in the winter is beautifully flanked by the snowy foothills of the Jura Mountains.   The trains along that route were not too full, so on both trips we were able to settle into a 4-seater with a table and spread out with our backpacks, books, dictionaries, and laptops.  Each time, the same jaunty, béret’d French conductor punched our tickets and checked our passports as soon as we crossed the French border.  On the train we could hear the difference in French accents– from the slow singsong Vaudoise and Genevoise accents, to the faster, clipped and less lyrical Lyonnaise accent (probably debatable if you’re Parisian). 

The Marché aux Vins was a dream for Doug – nearly 200 Northern Rhone wines presented in one location – vigonier from Condrieu, and syrah from Côte Rôtie, St. Josèph, and Croz Hermitage; The Côte Rôtie ‘s are at the top of the list; big spicy, earthy wine from the impossibly steep slopes just outside of Ampuis.  Doug was in wine heaven.  Being a lightweight, I tasted about five wines, went back to our chambre d’hôte across the street from the wine tasting to take a nap, came back to taste about a couple more wines and then sat (resting my bum knee) to have a nice conversation with another spouse who also couldn’t taste any more wines.  We left with an invitation to come to a private tasting at the Ogier winery the next day.

Our chambre d'hôte in Ampuis - Domaine Barge

The following day we found the Ogier winery in Ampuis, where we tasted some of their 2011 wines.  This time there were no crowds, just a big box of truffles (the chocolate kind) meant to taste with their L’âmes Soeur, my personal favorite (maybe it was the chocolate).  We left with several bottles of their wine, a bag of free truffles, and some incredible côte l’agneau (lamb chops) and merguez (spicy sausage) from a farmer selling his meat outside the tasting.  He casually offered us a bite of his grilled lamb as we walked out the door and we were hooked – it was the best lamb we’d ever tasted.

This past weekend we headed back to Lyon for Doug to give a talk at his former hospital and to visit André and Marie-Odile, good friends from our days in Vourles.  Their daughter and son-in-law have a bakery about an hour south of Lyon, and we spent Saturday morning at the bakery – “helping” out by playing with their young grand-daughters, cleaning the pétrin, the large industrial sized bread dough mixer (Andre’s job), and selling bread and croissants to customers in the bakery (Marie Odile’s job).  Doug was missing in action most of the morning.  We discovered later that he was “observing” their son-in-law Sébastian (a master pastry chef) the entire morning, getting samples of pastries with the change to every new type of pastry. 

 Just one of several amazing dinners by Marie Odile

 Sébastian and the perfect baguette

 Les délices!

 Chocolat Royale

 André cleaning the pétrin

 Homemade chocolate for Paques (Easter)

 Can't tell which is sweeter!

 We ended the weekend with an excursion to the Marché de la Création in Lyon, a several block-long open-air exhibition of original paintings, sculpture, and artwork that is held every Sunday morning along the Saone River in Lyon.  Luckily for Doug, we will have limited suitcase space when we return in early July – there were so many that I would have loved to buy.  After a final spectacular home-cooked meal by Marie-Odile, we said our goodbyes, with promises that they will return to visit us, and headed back to Lausanne with Andre’s homemade jam and honey, some borrowed French books, and a few croissants and pain au chocolate from Sophie and Sébastian’s bakery.  And to top it off no jet lag, just an amazing weekend in France.  C’est la vie!

 Laurie and Marie Odile at the Marché de la Création

 Old Lyon (view of Fourvière Cathedral)