Weekend Excursions, Part Trois

Two days, two trips. First of all la Grotte de Choranche.

With blind reptiles, who could not enjoy the colorful lighting.







And on Sunday: the Chartreuse Monastery.



One is not allowed to visit, so this is as far as we got.

La Brasserie du Fantin Latour

Grenoble Math Camp

We are in Grenoble! Instead of boring you with stories about how F's bag was delayed four days, and how we would still not have the luggage if it were up to customer "service" of Air France, we would like you to enjoy the pictures of our first hike here.



We went hiking with our colleague (who is also visiting and part of our "math camp") and her SO.

Grenoble

I left Bonn a little bit earlier than planned, and added a last-minute visit to Grenoble to my itinerary. Look at the view from my hotel room! That is so much better than what I had in Bonn!

I am actually working hard here. Hopefully we will finish up our project, because I am not planning to do any more research after this semester. Doing only research is exhausting!

Bored?

After two Saarland-posts, I am sure all of yous are more than ready for us to move to our next destination. But wait! We have just discovered this wonderful Délices de Tête at our French supermarket. It is just a calf's not a bull's head, but oh so delicious.

For those of you wondering about when we are leaving the Saarland and where we will go, we can tell you that we are wondering the same. Still no word from USCIS about our visa application, and negotiations about our lease of a 3000 sq ft house with Steinway grand piano are also still ongoing.

So who knows, maybe we'll get to enjoy the délices de tête for much longer than we think...

Great Homemade Foodz

The French supermarket still absolutely amazes me. We got the most wonderful ingredients, mostly originating from the Alsace, and made this great Chicken Normandy.



We paired it with the cider from Normandy, that was also used in the sauce.

Metz

After visiting Belgium, we went to France to sniff some culture at the Centre Pompidou in Metz. And yes, that is A, unable to resist being a part of any artwork.

Sunflowers

We encountered this field full of sunflowers on our way to and from la douce France.

It's a Sign!

This holiday, we had the best weather when we were in the car.

Dinner at the Camp Site's Restaurant

We were a little afraid that it would rain again on Sunday, so we decided to have dinner in the camping restaurant that day. We had quiche Lorraine and salad as starters...



... smoked pork with fried potatoes and even more salad as the main course...





... and of course tarte aux myrtilles for dessert.



The dinner made Christiaan smile:

Camping

Hiking and Lunch

No pictures of the wonderful barbecued sausages and salad on the first day, as it rained quite a bit. The next day the weather did not look great either, but we went to La Schlucht anyway. Christiaan had been here before and was looking forward to going back to a restaurant that he had been to twenty years earlier. Sadly, it was closed, which was not too surprising given what Christiaan was telling us about the food: green beans that were preparing and left on a stove for multiple days before serving, amongst other specialties.

For lunch we had wine and beer (pictured above) and some great tourte:



Operation hike and lunch successful.

Market in Gérardmer

We went camping with Ellen and Christiaan last weekend in Vosges. On our first day (their third) we bought dinner on a market in Gérardmer. We bought cheeses, sausages for the barbecue and wine from this dude, who was enjoying his own wine and hitting on Ellen and Anke: