A foggy morning

We had a quiet day today in the Alps. The weather was wet and foggy this morning. Late this afternoon it is cool and sunny around Anne and Gilles home. We went to Crolles to shop at the greenhouse and then the Casino grocery store. We bought lamb rib chops to fix for dinner and Mark made a Tres Leches cake this afternoon. Anne and I both decided to read this afternoon which is code for taking a good long nap. I have been reading Malcolm Gladwell's book What the Dog Saw. This is a collection of articles he wrote for the New Yorker. We made our plans for visiting Berengere in Copenhagen. We leave on Wednesday arriving in the evening. We will attend a piano concert on Thursday evening and will be staying at the French embassy where Berengere lives. We are hoping to kayak on the weekend. Berengere said the weather could be sunny to raining so we will pack for all conditions. We will leave most of our things in Lyon and take a small backpack on the plane. This will help us get into Copenhagen quickly. We will stay in Lyon when we return on Wednesday and Thursday, then back to the states on Friday.

Returning from Annecy

Mark and I went to the beautiful lakeside town of Annecy in the French Alps. Gilles' nephew married yesterday and Gilles and Anne went to the wedding and loaned us their car so we could explore the Village of Annecy and the drive around the lake. What a great trip. It appears that French weddings last a long time. The ceremony was to start around 3 pm, it did at 4 pm. Then they had the reception for 300 people at the Chateau of the nephew's wife's father. Later a dinner for 150 people and then dancing. Anne and Gilles let us know they would likely not be home before 2 am. They got home at 3:15 am. Mark and I explored the town with the castle that has been converted to a museum. It was purchased by the town for 10 Francs. They have a natural history section that explains how they clean the lake water that had been badly polluted from industry. It now has the cleanest water in Europe. The lake waters flow through a river and canals through the city. Very romantic. The museum includes landscapes which show how differently artists viewed the alps over time. In the beginning the alps were depicted as dangerous. Over time the Alps were viewed as a friendly back drop to activities of living in the alps. Several examples of alpine furniture to hold clothing and the tables of beds of everyday living. The last section was modern art.

We walked along the shore in Annecy before leaving for Talloire, a very chic beach along the lake. While in Talloire we noticed hundreds for paragliders above us. We climbed the mountain by car then hike to the launching pad for the flyers. Spectacular.

Les Adrets France

Mark and I arrived in France on Sunday. We are staying with Anne and Gilles at their new home in Les Adrets a small Villiage in the Belle Donne range of the alps. They built an energy effient house that has views of the mountains in the Belle Donne and Chartreuse ranges. Stunning! I am blogging on Gilles' computer which of course has a French keyboard. That makes my typing a bit slow. Our friend Noelle came from the Bordeaux region to hike with us. We saw Chamois and moutain sheep along with many beautiful flowers including orchids. It is early Spring in the Alps. Yesterday we spent the day in Grenoble having lunch at a cooking school and walking around the town. Two days ago in Crest we toured the medival tower that overlooks the village. Gilles garden is being attacked by slugs and some of his bee hives are dying. We went to the bee store yesterday to find a new queen for one of the hives. We will visit a brewery this afternoon.