Fête du Citron

A couple years ago, I stumbled across a picture on the internet of some crazy sculptures created with lemons and oranges. It seemed weird but fun. I thought about this picture for a couple years, thinking it would be fun to check it out but never having the opportunity since it was a festival in a little town in the south of France on the French Riviera. Forward to this year, and I finally made it!

What I'm describing to you is the Fête du Citron (Citrus Festival) that is held in Menton, France each year around the time of Carnaval. The small city is known for its micro-climate in which citrus fruits grow at an alarming pace. What does the city do with the extra lemons and oranges? Well they put on a festival with enormous citrus sculptures and a parade.

Every year, the festival has a different theme. This year, for their 85th anniversary, the theme was Bollywood! Sculptures had themes related to Bollywood such as elephants, Indian dancers and a Buddha. The parade performers all had elaborate costumes and floats covered in citrus fruits as well.

Confetti galore!

While the event goes on for two weeks and the sculptures can been seen at any time, the parade only occurs on Sundays. Other special events also go on other days and times. The entire festival also coincides with Carnaval, which can be experienced in nearby Nice and other surrounding villages.

My advice for a nice visit to the Fête du Citron, arrive mid-morning on a Sunday to see the sculptures in the morning. Grab a bite to eat (like some lemon and ricotta ravioli - to die for!), and stay for the parade (called Corsos des Fruits d'Or) that starts at 2:30 pm. It goes on for about an hour and a half, so it'll be time for happy hour on the beach when it's done. Enjoy!

Menton has a beautiful beach on the French Riviera

Annecy: Retour des Alpages

Annecy is a cute and relatively well-known town about an hour and a half train ride from Grenoble.  It sits along the edge of Lake Annecy in the mountains and is known for its little, colorful houses lining tight streets and winding canals.  Every fall, the town holds a celebration called 'Retour des Alpages' or 'Back from the Alpine Pastures' where the local farmers and herdsmen bring their animals down from the summer pastures located high in the mountains.  The town celebrates with a parade of animals, people dressed in tradition costume, song, and dance.  It's a festive and popular parade with people packed together along the streets throughout the parade route in town.  Besides the parade, there are also plenty of market stands to pick up local and handmade goods, as well as sample the delicious, local fare.  During the fall, the tradition potato and cheese dishes like tartiflette and raclette come out. There are also yummy sausages called diot, roasted chestnuts, and plenty of vin chaud or mulled wine. 

Here's a sampling of pictures from my second time at the Retour des Alpages in October 2016.

Day Trip to Vizille

Day Trippin! Today, I took a short excursion to Vizille, a commune south of Grenoble.

I was feeling like getting out of Grenoble and exploring something new for the day.  Being in France, there is so much history to learn everywhere you go.  Well, I didn't really know where to go, and I hadn't gotten any great suggestions, so Google was my friend.  After Googling "chateau near Grenoble," I found this perfect opportunity.  It was a castle, museum, park, and animal reserve all wrapped into one!

My friend Katie decided to join me for this excursion.  We met at the bus station around 1pm to hop on the express Grenoble - Vizille bus.  A quick 40 minute ride dropped us off at an empty bus stop in a place we didn't know.  We got a bearing of our surroundings and decided to walk towards what looked like the center of the village, and quickly figured out we were heading the right direction.  A map showed us heading towards a big castle and park.  We continued along, spying a castle tower along the way and soon arrived at the castle gates.  We went right through and were welcome by a beautiful site of green, grassy lawns stretching out towards the far mountain.  People were strolling around the grounds, a couple boys were kicking a soccer ball back and forth, and swans and ducks were waiting for bread being thrown by an older couple.

We decided to first explore the free museum located inside the castle.  It was a museum all about the French Revolution.  There was a lot that I didn't understand or remember from my history lessons, but it was very cool.  We saw sabres, wall-sized paintings depicting battles, deaths, and liberty, busts, extracts from films depicting the arrival of Napoleon in Grenoble and more.  

This funny painting shows a joker.  He's enjoying himself.

Parts of the museum also showed the history of the building itself.  It was owned by a rich family by the name of Perier, but was also famously the home of several French presidents, the latest being Charles de Gaulle.  I can understand why a president would enjoy this castle and grounds; it was a very peaceful and beautiful place.  

After a couple hours in the well-maintained and interesting museum, we ventured out of the castle for some fresh air.  I really came to understand why a friend had told us to bring a picnic.  It would be the perfect place on a sunny day.  The grounds were really large and varied.  There were perfect pyramid topiaries, large expanses of closely cut grass, and various trees lining the paths.  Our path took us back to an area where animals were kept.  Unfortunately, we were running out of time before everything closed, so we didn't have enough time to explore all the way, but we did see some interesting deer (if that's the right word) with large antlers.  Also on a separate path back towards the entrance, we glimpsed some carved wood modern statues.  

This is a place to which I'm sure I'll return.  I can't wait for the perfect sunny day with blue skies to return with a picnic of wine, cheese, and bread to lounge in the sun with my friends.

A last picture from Vizille (not the castle or grounds but the small city itself).  I came across this painted on the sidewalk... It's a play on words to say "walkway NOT poopway" or simply, "This is a place to walk, not to leave your dog poop."  It's a really problem in some places in France where people let their dogs poop all of the sidewalk and streets since there's not as much grass in cities, but here it was quite clean!

Annecy

My new job has been keeping me really busy.  I've been teaching some interesting topics, and feel like my students have been enjoying them too. I've talked about everything from the street artist Banksy to an event aimed at reinvigorating Colfax Avenue in Denver to internet coming to the Amazon.  Having such a variety of classes this year is really keeping me on my toes.  I also gave out the first graded homework assignment last week, so I'll receive them all back in the next few days.  I'm now on a mission to find the perfect cafe where I can hang out for an afternoon and work on grading!

I feel like I've been working pretty hard lately, so I was excited for the opportunity to join a couple new friends this last weekend to take a day trip to Annecy.  Annecy is a cute little town an hour and 40 minutes north by train from Grenoble.  It's best known for the lake it sits next to and the little canals running through town. 

We arrived around 11:15 on Saturday, and little did we know that a huge festival was happening!  The small street were packed with people enjoying the market stands, food vendors, and music players.  We walked and explored for a while, picking up cheese and sausage samples along the way, before meeting some others for lunch.  It was difficult to find an open table since so many people were in town, but eventually we managed.  Without even ordering, the waiter brought us tartiflette, the menu of the day.  Tartiflette is a regional dish that I've also seen in Grenoble.  It's a heavy, mountain-type food of potatoes, cheese (lots of cheese), pieces of ham, and onions.  It was certainly delicious, but I don't think I could handle it every day.  The tartiflette was followed by a large slice of apple tarte.  Also delicious and a nice dessert.  

With full bellies and happy souls, we continued exploring and went to Lake Annecy.  Along the lake, we could see some golden leaves, showing us that it is indeed changing seasons.  I feel that autumn doesn't have the same feel or smell here compared to Colorado, so it was nice to see a little bit of something familiar.

Eventually we made our way towards the chateau and then to a free exposition of animated films.  We even made our own! By then everyone was starting to drag a little, so we picked up a hot chocolate before hopping on the train for our long ride back home.

It was nice to start exploring this region.  Wherever I go, I think its important to get to know the region that I'm staying in.  Traveling is wonderful, and while I do enjoy going all over the place, when I explore my local area, it makes the place feel just a little bit more like it's where I belong.

Saturday in Ceret

Last Saturday, I spent a wonderful day touring around Ceret and the Pyrenees mountains.

The director of the Maison de l'Europe in Perpignan, where I volunteer, decided to take an Italian girl doing an internship at the Maison and myself on an excursion to see his town and then to explore the Pyrenees and the French - Spanish border.

The Canigou mountain from Ceret

Beautiful blooms

 

We arrived late morning (after some local bus troubles) by means of the regional 1 euro bus (perfect!) and immediately set off on our adventure.  Ceret is known for a few things: its big and diverse Saturday market, its modern art museum, rugby, and cherries.  The director, our guide for the day, loved sharing everything with us as we walked through town.  He showed us where the old city lines were.  We went to the mediatheque which was basically a combination of a fancy library and an art gallery, where they were unveiling the opening to some very cool exhibitions, one in photography and the other in 3D art that was a mix of glass mosaics and metal.  We saw a separate exhibition on 100 years of rugby photography at another stop.  At each place, our guide seemed to know someone, so we met the mayor and the finance guy for the town among many others.

Giovanna and I in Ceret

Giant loofas at the market!

Ceret Saturday market

Showing off Picasso's signature on this fountain in Ceret

Pi (pronounced pee) - k (pronounced ka) - sceau (bucket - pronounced so) = Picasso!! Isn't that clever!!

After two hours of walking, admiring, and meeting people, we were welcomed into our guide's house for a quick refreshment before going to meet his family at a restaurant for a late lunch.  I had a Catalan dish, that was basically an assortment of cured meats, cheeses, and pan à la tomate.  It was customary to take a piece of bread, rub it with a raw garlic clove, then rub it with a tomato, and top it with meat.  It was really quite delicious.  I finished the meal with a delicious fondant au caramel and a taster of sweet Banyuls wine. 

After a wonderful meal, we hopped in the car for the second half of our adventure.  We followed a route into the mountains along the Via Domitia.  The Via Domitia was the first Roman road, and it stretched all the way from Italy to Spain.  You can still find traces of it in the Pyrenees between France and Spain.  That's pretty incredible!  Fun fact: the University of Perpignan is named after this route.  Also in this area, we followed a small winding road, which happened to by Napoleon's road where he cross the Pyrenees on his way to Portugal.  Apparently, he never made it though as there was an unfortunate incident in Madrid where many people attempted an uprising and it turned into complete bloodshed.  But for us, it was beautiful views and strong winds that tried to knock us off our feet at each stop.

Following the Via Domitia

As we followed these routes, we came upon a great fortress designed by Vauban, like many of the fortifications in this area.  The fortress is in the shape of a star, and it seems like it's out of a fairy tale with his gate and moat.  We walked around it and admired the views, being able to see both France and Spain in one view.  Just below this fortress, we explored the border town of Perthus, which is divided right down the middle (longways) between France and Spain.  The town itself wasn't particularly beautiful and we were told that it doesn't have such a nice reputation now (i.e. trafficking and other bad stuff), but it was fun hearing about our guide's experiences there as a teenager and how he'd always go to a certain cafe with his friends on payday and such. 

View from the fortress

Finally, our last stop was to check out the end of the Via Domitia where it changed name to the Via Augusta for those continuing into Spain.  At this point, we also learned about the system of "bornes" which mark the border.  They are large columns each with a number ranging from 1 to 602 to physically show where the border lies.  They were designated in the Treaty of the Pyrenees marking the end of the war between the two countries, and to this day, they cannot be removed or altered in any way by either country.

"In memory of all the men and women who in time of fascism took these paths towards liberty" (Or something like that - it's in Catalan!)

Borne #567

Our incredible guide and friend, Jean-Marie

At that point, we were exhausted and it was time to head home.  So we followed the route back down from the mountains, and saw a beautiful sunset on our way back to Perpignan.  It was a very full day, and it was clear how passionate and excited the director was to show us everything.  I'm very thankful to be able to have experiences like this.

Snow and Sun

Today, I'm catching up on a few different things I wanted to share...with plenty of pictures too!

Two weekends ago was a whirlwind of fun.  It started right after work on Friday evening with an incredible dinner at Le Figuier.  My three-course dinner was mouthwatering to say the very least! I started with langoustine cooked with butter and garlic that I scooped out of the shell.  Second and most impressive was duck cut into strips, rolled together, and put on a rotisserie with a dried fruit and nut compote on top and complemented by baked potato wedges and a mini vegetable quiche.  For dessert, I had a delicate and delicious lemon meringue tart.  Although I probably will never taste such a delectable dinner again, I absolutely plan to go back to Le Figuier.  I can't believe I didn't know about it sooner, but it was special to discover it with their exceptional Valentine's menu.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early to catch a two-hour bus to Font Romeu, where I spent the day playing in the snow.  After hearing about the feet of snow coming down in Colorado and all of the good skiing that ensued, I felt more at home being in some snow, even if it was halfway across the world in the Pyrenees Mountains.  While I still think Colorado has the Pyrenees beat, it was a wonderful day among friends (who were styling some 80's one-piece snow suits they found at the flea market!).

Skiing at Font Romeu

Moving forward to this past weekend, it was too beautiful and sunny not to be outside.  I decided to check out a nearby lake at Villeneuve-de-la-Raho.  Again, I was joined by language assistant friends.  We had fun taking pictures of the nearby Canigou Mountain, strolling by the lake, and basking in the sun.

Basking in the sunshine at the lake.

Villeneuve-de-la-Raho

Well, I think that about sums it up; things that make me happy are 

friends, food, sunshine, being outside, and discovering new places!