A Huguenot Tradition - Advent Breakfast

The French are not big on breakfast. Often very light like a Croissant with coffee. However there are four breakfasts in the year which are exceptionally special. There is a Huguenot tradition in France of having a special advent breakfast that my father grew up with and then did with us, and that I am now continuing. It is often not a huge breakfast, mostly because we would otherwise be late for church, but it is always very special and unique. There are a few things that always accompany it, such as a tangerine with a candle stuck in it, as well as Papilottes (which we didn't have this time since you can't get them in the states. Papilottes are a Christmas-only chocolate that is wrapped in a foil with a joke inside and sometimes a little firecracker.)

Other than those, it varies from time to time. This morning we had eggs, toast, and breakfast sausage; a donut (with coconut on top), fruit cake, a slice of pound cake, a chocolate cigar, peanut butter cups, and hot cider (and of course the orange).

Here are a couple photos of our first advent breakfast:

Milton on the Vaudois

This poem was written by John Milton concerning the persecution of the Vaudois (Waldenses). Milton, along with Sir Morland, used his gift of prose to try to stop the Duke of Savoy from massacring these French Huguenots.

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones

Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;

E'en them, who kept thy truth so pure of old,

When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones,

Forget not: in thy book record their groans,

Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold

Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll'd

Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans

The vales redoubled to the hills, and they

To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow

O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway

The triple tyrant; that from these may grow

An hundred-fold, who, having learnt thy way,

Early may fly the Babylonian woe!

John Milton, in The Waldenses: Sketches of the Evangelical Christians of the Valleys of the Piedmont, Alexis Muston

Sabrer le Champagne

My uncle had David B. "sabrer le champagne". It's when you hit the neck of a champagne bottle in such a way that the neck of the bottle comes off neatly. He hit it at a bad angle after cheers of "harder", and, well...the rest you can see!

This is total immersion to French culture

4 stitches, some bandages, and some French cheese later:

France

we're leaving tomorrow morning with several more bags than we came with

It has been a crazy, but very full and blessed ten days!!

I'm connected through the free wifi at the McDonald's that was walking distance from our old house

I've taken over 3,000 pictures so far, walked through Lyon several times, especially enjoying the medieval section and the Roman Amphitheater, bought several books, and was given 2 full boxes of books (mostly relating to philosophy and religion) from my uncle, eaten many amazing meals, many of which were enjoyed with extended family over several hours, and thoroughly enjoyed all the beauty around me!! And most of all, I've been able to spend some good time with my grand-parents, and with my Suzanne, Alex, Matt, and Timmy, though not nearly enough!!

I forgot how fast they drive here, and how narrow the roads are!! (now I realize why I have tended to drive faster than most Americans..)

a few pics:

Roman road

A bridge over Le Rhone

We are standing on some remains of the Roman Amphitheater, with a long exposure (13 seconds). We had to stay really still

Le Rhone, 15 second exposure

Calvinus Beer

Right near Saint Peters we found a pub that sold a very interesting
beer : Calvinus beer. (www.calvinus.ch) :) An organic beer made in memory of John Calvin by the Frères Papinot.

Doug Walter

Doug Walter Live a Lyon! Come and join us!

Morel Mushrooms

Daddy found Morel mushrooms in Lompnieu! These mushrooms are very expensive, and go well with countless gourmet recipes. This was quite a find!

Bordeaux

We just got back from Bordeaux. The ride down was gorgeous! It's amazing how much variety there is in the French countryside within so short a distance. It's kind of like all the different landscapes you have in the U.S. packed into the size of Texas. We really saw this phenomena going down to Bordeaux. The countryside is very rocky, and reminds me of pictures I've seen of Scotland. They raise a lot of sheep, and make Roquefort cheese with the milk. Roquefort and this other kind of cheese that was really good (but I forget the name), are their two specialty cheeses. Both are made from sheeps' milk. I feel tempted to go on about the cheese after reading the latest Credenda Agenda (great magazine by the way), but I guess I will stop here. :)


We arrived in Bordeaux and stayed with my Uncle and his family. My father and my uncle have several things in common besides having the same last name. They are both pastors, they both married an American wife (and speak English as well), and they are both church planters in France:) The big outing we did was to go to the "Dune du Pyla", the highest sand dune in Europe. It is 117 meters high, and is composed of soft, white, fine sand. We had a ball running up, and it was even more fun running down! On the way up, you basically had to take two steps to go the length of one real step. It was a wierd feeling! The view of the Atlantic ocean from the top was amazing, even though it was somewhat hazy. Coming down that dune was of course the most fun! It felt as though you where running down the side of a cloud, if that makes any sense.


We went on another outing as well; we drove to St. Emilion. St. Emilion is a cute, picturesque, very old town with impresive architecture. We arrived a little late in the day, but still had time to go to one of the wine shops, and taste some of their wines, and but a couple bottles. In an earlier post, I mentioned Haut Brion wine. Well, I saw the real Chateau Haut Brion wines here. The prices ranged from 350 euros (year 2000) to 1448 Euros (1961) There was also the real Chateau Margaux, year 2000 selling at 490 Euros. You wouldn't want to spill a glass of one of these wines!

Three Good Bottles of Wine

I just acquired 3 fairly nice bottles of wine to add to my collection. Auchan is having their "Foire au vin", so I took advantage of that to buy a few while they had a large selection. The first one is "Château Haut-Maurac" 2001 which is a Cru Bourgeois from the Médoc region. It has the 2003 silver medal from the "Concours Mondial Bruxelles". The second is a "Château Larrivet Haut Brion" 2002. I was hoping it was one of the Château Haut-Brion wines, or similar, but it seems to be somewhat of a lesser wine than that one. The real Château Haut-Brion wines cost over 150 Euros anyway! The third bottle is a "Château Labégorce Margaux" 2002. The French Magazine, Le Point had this to say about the Château Labégorce's 2002 vintage: "Mild spices, white flowers, black-currant, bilberry. No dazzling woodiness, but a sumptuous fruitiness supported by a compact tannic background. Very long in the mouth and extremely elegant. This wine would hold its own if placed amid the crus classés." (source)

David's Birthday + Lompnieu

We went to Lompnieu on David's birthday. There was lots of snow! The four-wheeler had trouble getting up the path, as you can see from the pictures. We tried several times, and kept getting stuck! We finally made it through (but barely) by cutting across a field. I also tried snow shoeing. I think this was my first time, unless I tried it back in Quebec. It was great! The sun was shining and the snow was fresh! It was absolutely beautiful!
David spend a good bit of time in his lab. He is trying to make bio diesel. He is lacking Methanol, and is trying to make do with ethanol, but that makes it a lot harder. Anyway, that's what I gleaned from what he said:) chemistry is not my thing! (I like balancing equations, but that's about it!)
We also had a spectacular snow fight! We made two teams, Daddy and Val, agaist Deborah and me. (David was busy in his lab) Each team built a snow fort! It was a lot of fun, the only problem with this kind of thing is that both sides claim victory:) When we left, Flicka "took" our fort:)

Snow!

We are getting snow! Big fluffy flakes! It's quite a change from the weather we had last week in Florida! :)

Hey Wintzes, do you recognize where this is? It's where the pool used to be. Quite a change...

Last Church Service in Old Building

New Years!

We spent New Years in Lompnieu, and had Alex and Suzanne over for the "révillon". As you can see, we had snow! it was beautiful, especially when we went up into the forest!

8th of December in Lyon

Click HERE for more pics of December 8th.

First Advent Breakfast

Four-wheeling and Mud!

We went to Lompnieu this weekend. Lompnieu is a small town between Lyon and Geneva where we have a stone farm house that has been in the family for several generations. We have been fixing it up over the past 2 ½ years. The house was built in 1820, and like many houses of that region, has a barn attached to the house. We mainly heat the living part from the fireplace that has a pumping system that distributes the hot air to all the upstairs rooms. We would like to someday fix up the barn into a livable part of the house, but for now we mostly use it for storing stuff, David's lab, and a toolshed, but there is lots of possibilities for expansion. We have already built "Wintz Hall," a large floor on the first level. (Mr. Wintz is the one who designed and built the floor last summer, with the help of Mr. Nance, my dad, David, and I. Click Here for pictures of the construction last June.) Anyway, we had a really fun four-wheeler ride! Redneck (that's what we call the big one-360 c.c. 4WD with front-end differential control-a real monster) got stuck for the first time in the mud. Ladybug (that's the smaller four-wheeler) did manage to get through, but only by going around some of the mud! Click Here to see the Video, or save file by right click Here. Those who know me know I don't go anywhere without my camera :) Hopefully the camera will be fine inspite of the mud that got on it! The view was gorgeous on the ride up as well!

Concert!

We went to the symphonic orchestra of Lyon today (Orchestre national de Lyon). It was called a "Concert expresso" (expresso concert) and instead of being in the evening, it was during the lunch hours, and only lasted about 45 minutes. The theme was the year 1862. Pieces from several composers of that year were played, such as Berlioz, Debussy, Wagner, and Johann Strauss. The music was beautiful and restful. The auditorium was packed! My guess is about 3,000 people!

A Big Surprise!

About three weeks ago we received in the mail an enigmatic letter signed "Notre Guide Mystérieux" (Our Mysterious Guide.) It was a coded message, with the instructions to send it back decrypted via email. The decoded message turned out to be an hour: 9 o'clock. Soon after replying with the answer, we received another letter. The answer to this one was a date: 11/11. After sending the response to this one, we once again received a letter, this time the answer being a place. So we now know the that this "guide mystérieux" wanted us in "Ternand," at 9 o'clock, on November 11^th.

We were clueless as to who it might be! The letter had all been in well written French, containing references to the Bible, and obviously very thought through! It took us a long time to decipher some of the messages. One part of the enigma translates well into English: It went, "I am a north-African fruit, that grows in clusters, and without seeds". The answer was a date! That's how we knew it was talking about the date of the event. We were understanding the messages, but were still clueless as to who it might be. I tried tracing the email address, but all I got was that they lived in Lyon, and used Wanadoo.fr as their ISP (The IP address led me to their mail server instead of their computer).

The day arrived, and we were a bit nervous. From something the last letter said, we suspected that it was some friends to who's house we were going to that afternoon.
We arrived at the place designated, a restaurant out in the middle of the beautiful Beaujolais region, and a man came out to us. We showed him the paper, and he said. "hmmmmm, yep, this is the place" (In French of course). He brought us inside where we found a table set for 21! Now we were completely baffled!

Daddy started wondering if it was one of those sales techniques where they get a bunch of people together, and try to sell you some kind of time-sharing condo! Then we heard a whole bunch of honking as a whole bunch of cars arrived. It turned out that Alex was our "guide mystérieux", and that it was the whole church organizing this as a goodbye and thank you party to our family! Daddy had turned the church over to Alex about a month before, so this was their goodbye to him as a pastor, also to our whole family as we will be moving to Moscow, Idaho.
It was not only a breakfast! It was-in French fashion-an all day event! They even cancelled our appointment with some friends we were going to visit that afternoon. We were completely surpised that it was they! We never dreamed it would be Alex or the church sending us these messages! After breakfast, we visited a chateau, and then went on to a Beaujolais winery, tasting some of last years "Beaujolais Nouveau," and getting to see how they make the wine! Following this, we had a long French style lunch with many courses that lasted until until 5 p.m.! By that time it was getting dark, and we finished the day by going to the medieval city of Ternand and looking at the view. Ternand is a historically catholic town. During the Huguenots Wars of the 16^th century, Ternand was attacked and defeated by Huguenots forces!

A Delicious Meal

We just finished a truly exquisite meal! The flavors an experienced chef can put into a sauce is simply incredible! My dad's first training was as a chef, and he has been getting back into cooking lately. He bought a set of copper pans that he says makes all the difference. I cannot tell you the recipe of tonight's meal, for I am bound by secrecy :), but I made a blog recently on which I am posting some the the meals he does, so you can at least look at them. Once in a while, there may be recipes, and I just posted a video of him cooking "Canard a la Marseillais", explaining everything he is doing. The name of the blog is, "An Experience in Gastronomy". The url is www.gastronomy.foucachon.com

Paris!!

Last Thursday I accompanied my dad to a breakfast/conference for business owners that was hosted by the people who do the accounting for the American School of Lyon. There were only about 15-20 men, and it was really fancy and professional. It was held in a conference room on the top floor of the new KPMG building in Vaise (Lyon). The speaker was talking about the importance of having a qualified manager for your business. I can't say I understood everything because they were using technical language; and it was in French! After that I accompanied my dad to Paris on the TGV (high speed train) for him to get his finger prints done from the Canadian Embassy. (It's for his Visa, they want to make sure he doesn't have a criminal record dating from our time in Quebec! :)) It was fun to see Paris again! We live in France, but we don't get around much for sightseeing! I think the Wintz family, who were he for one year, saw more that we have in seven years! As we walked around I was able to get a few pics.

I think the man in the smart car has been there for a while!