How to have a fantastic Valentine's Day lunch in 8 easy (?) steps

1. Drive 15 kilometres on windy, snowy mountain roads from Gap to Rabou, a little village of about 75 people.

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2. Park the car next to the tiny town hall and look for the trailhead sign. Wonder if the 20 minutes walking time to the auberge was estimated in summer or winter.


(Those tracks? They're from the inn's owners' 4x4. This is the only road in, mes amis !)

3. Start the trek, armed with one ski pole each (better than nothing, non ?)

 

(See that cabin in the background? It's coming up, about 10 minutes down the path...)

4. Stop along the way for some icicle fun.





5. Slip and slide downhill to the half-way point, the stone bridge and little cabin.

 

 

6. Catch breath. Then start walking uphill... and up and up and up, until voilà !

 

 

You have arrived at the Auberge de Moissière, which dates back to the 12th century (!!!) and features an inn with room for 14 guests and a restaurant.

7. Proceed to spend the next three hours eating the most amazing lunch of all time. I didn't want to single myself out as the tourist by taking photos of my plate, but it was simply incredible:

apéritif cocktail
+
amuse-bouche (basically a pre-appetizer appetizer)
+
appetizer
+
main dish
+
half a bottle of wine
+
cheese plate
+
dessert (OK, three mini desserts!)
+
coffee
+
digestif (a shot of strong alcohol to help you digest)
=
three hours à table
=
one amazing Valentine's Day date!

You can see all the pictures of the day here, and visit the Auberge de Moissière's site here.

(And if you come visit me, I might just take you there for lunch!)

P.S. No, I didn't forget Step 8: Hike out back to civilization. And yes, the path did seem a tad bit slippier after the apéritif, wine, and digestif. Just in case you were wondering.

Sweet!

 

Alpes 1, the radio station François works at, recently had little packets of sugar printed up (50,000 of them!) Since the French are all about coffee, these sugar packets will surely be an effective form of free advertising around town.

Alpes 1 sucre, coming soon to a café near you... if you live in Gap, that is.

J'apprends à skier!

Last Sunday, I had my very first ski lesson! I have to admit that I was filled with more dread than excitement as we drove the 30 minutes or so to Chaillol, a local ski hill. Anyone who knows me (or who has ever eaten at the same table as me) will be able to tell you that I am pretty darn clumsy.

So I figure take one clumsy non-skiing Canadian, add a bunch of snow, a pair of skis, and a mechanical apparatus or two... sure recipe for disaster. Mais non! To my great surprise, here are the things I didn't do:

- break something
- cry
- fall down constantly (only twice!)
- panic on the T-bar lift thingy (ok, just a little...)
- need to be rescued by helicopter

Here are the things I did do:

- learn how to stop (very important)
- make charming banter with Jean-François, my ski instructor
- ski hand-in-hand with J-F as to avoid faceplanting (ooh là là!)
- look somewhat sporty in my snow gear, Roots toque, and sunglasses
- promise J-F that I would remember to thank him when I was on the podium after winning gold at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics (swoon!)

So all in all, a very positive experience. Bonus: I was even able to get out of bed the next day without my legs crumbling underneath me. I am actually only a little bit sore, but in a good "I excel at winter sports" kind of way!

Without further ado, here are some pictures of our journée de ski. I won't lie to you: the "look how high up on the mountain I am" photos were all taken by François. I didn't stray from the bunny hill all afternoon. But aren't the mountains gorgeous?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favourite part of the whole experience: the après-ski crêpe!

2008: What a year!

So I think, over the last twelve months, I've changed just about everything a person can possibly change!

Let's review, shall we?

A year ago at the beginning of January, I was living in Vancouver, working in ESL, dating a cute Frenchie, surrounded by my family and friends, and all about Starbucks and sushi. Fast-forward to January 2009, which finds me living in France, married to aforementioned Frenchie, far from home, and having traded in the London Fogs and wasabi for wine and baguettes.

Can anyone say, "major lifestyle change"?

In the interest of being concise, I have put together this photo collage to share some moments of 2008 that really stood out. With all that took place, it was hard to choose!

 

(Click on collage to enlarge)

From left to right and top to bottom:

February: Having some Inukshuk time as a break from packing up my West End apartment.

Mid-March: Going to Austin, Texas with my mom to visit my grandma. Three generations!

March: Spending a week with François chez his brother, who just happens to be lucky enough to live in NYC.

End of March: Arriving in France and visiting François' village, Pommiers.

April: Reuniting with Laure & Sophie during a visit to Paris.

June: Packing up (again) and moving to Gap in the French Alps.

July: Cheering on the Tour de France !

August: Spending time in the South of France. The reason why we look so happy is that we just then decided to get married!

September: Celebrating my birthday with sushi in Paris.

September: My parents come to visit!

September 20: Making it official!!!

September: Honeymooning in Nice and Italy... with my parents but minus FQ.

October: Back to Italy, this time to Torino... with my new husband.

November: Fall colours in the Alps and our new (to us) car.

December: Joyeux Noël!

Whew! I think it might be hard to outdo 2008 in terms of eventfulness, don't you? All the same, I am looking foward to 2009 and all the adventures it may bring.

Bonne année tout le monde!

Première Neige à Gap

Here is the view from our bedroom window this morning:


I'm actually quite excited about the snow! But if you check back with me in a few months, I can't promise that I'll be feeling the same way...

Emily vs Winter in the French Alps... should be interesting!

September, wow!

September 2008 has surely been one of the busiest months of my life! I have zillions of photos to post on here and just as many stories to share with you about all my adventures over the past few weeks. In the meantime, let me whet your appetite with a few choice photos from the "September of Em"!

As you can see, I was here, there & everywhere...

Paris...

Nice...

Italy...

and somewhere in-between...

!!!

Birthday brunch and beyond!

Spending my birthday in Paris was one of the better ideas I've had. Needless to say, it was fantastic!

My day started out with brunch at "Breakfast in America", a good old American-style diner. As we sat down at our red vinyl booth and opened our big plastic-coated menus, Laure said, "I feel like I'm in an episode of "Happy Days!" I couldn't blame her...




Please note the grille-pain at our table so we could toast our toast exactly the way we like it! That was way too fun. Equally awesome? The old-school Michael Jackson tunes on the stereo, the deliciousness of perfectly-cooked bacon and (most exciting of all...)

Dr. Pepper. In a can. With a bendy straw.

(I am no longer a teenager. Far from it. But yes, I drank pop through a bendy straw at breakfast and enjoyed every moment of it!)

So after the gluttony that was brunch, we burned a fraction of the calories with lots of window-shopping and a little bit of buying and then a walk through the Palais Royal gardens near the Louvre.


Next up was a matinee of "Mama Mia" at the movie theatre and then an evening of champagne, take-out sushi (yum!) and dancing to ABBA in Sophie's living room. So fun!

More photos of my birthday celebrations and my week in Paris soon...

And now off to bed, as I'm going to meet my Mom and Dad at Charles de Gaulle airport bright and early tomorrow morning. Then we're off to Pommiers for a few days, to a dance festival in Lyon, to Gap and surroundings... followed by a week or so in Italy. All this before the month of September is up!