Returning to Europe with pets

[Old Daffodil]

There are a lot of medievil towns along the sriver and they usually have a castle or other historic building to visit in the town somewhere as well as some interesting shops.This one was Mayenne and we visited the castle there.
Weather was better when I took this photo.

[june]

Lovely piccys and nice to hear from you....

[KKOB]

Nice to see that you've finally cracked posting pictures on here.  

[Old Daffodil]

Thank you, I hope that all is going well with you! :)Have a good Christmas!

[Old Daffodil]

We were staying near to Lyons recently and it is a lovely city. The Soane and the Rhone rivers meet at Lyon.
This time of year people put cinnammon coated candles in their windows and at light the scent of cinnammon and the lights shining out make it very pleasant to walk around especially if you buy a vin chaud (mulled wine) from a stall and have a pastry!There are also roast chestnut stalls.
The festival of lights was on this week and there are many light shows against the buildings, the whole city is involved.I saw a telephone box that looked as if it was full of butterflies,just an illusion of lights of course! It is easy to walk around and see the shows or you can catch a metro or bus. The Lumiere brothers developed what became the modern cinema in Lyon and there is a museum here. They were working for their father who was a photographer and although others were developing moving pictures,they were the first to show them to a large audience and not just at home.  
There are many restaurants to choose from and there are beautiful buildings and museums to visit. Silk used to be moved around the town under covered walkways and the walkways between the buildings are still there if you fancy a wander.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PurWSe9lklM&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h8lS_Av5dw

[Old Daffodil]

Mulled wine is good to drink outside on a cold day and I made some.
I bottle of fruity red wine
4 cinnammon sticks
orange zest, not the pith
4 tablespoons of granulated sugar
2 cardammon pods
5 whole cloves
 
To put separately in the glass cup third of a bottle of cognac.

Simmer all the ingredients apart from the cognac until the sugar dissolves(don't boil)and a steam appears when you lift a spoon out. Strain, and pour on top of 2teaspoons of cognac. This is served in a glass which has a metal holder in the street markets.
Yule log which is a sponge cake coated in chocolate icing is very popular and is often eaten as a dessert.Some of them are really elaborate designs and very realistic. Profiteroles are popular too.
There are about 400 cheeses to choose from and one I like is Beafort,it is creamy with a hint of honey, really good in a toasty or fondue.
We ate out at one restaurant and they gave us grapes to dip under a chocolate fountain, that was fun and tasted good.
I have not seen Christmas crackers for sale in France, perhaps they do not have them as we do in Britain.
The dogs are fine and having plenty of walks but have to be kept on a lead now we are not in the forests so much.

[Old Daffodil]

A couple of weeks ago we visited the medieval village of Perouges which is not far out of Lyon heading towards the Alps. The village is built on a hilltop overlooking the Ain river plain and was famous once for producing cloth and there are hooks still in the walls where the cloth was hung. The streets are cobbled and the village is still very medieval in appearance so is used for a film set sometimes. Children play in the school playground which is about 500 years old. There are flower boxes about the houses and it is very pretty. As you can imagine it is very perfect looking and a big tourist attraction.
There were a group of singers performing what I think is called Polyphonic singing which is lovely, just singers no backing of any sort.I think the group were from Bulgaria but it is practiced in countries like Georgia and Macedonia as well.

[Old Daffodil]

Earlier this year we stayed on a boat on the Canal du Midi over towards the Pyrenees and Spain. The canal was built so that boats were able to go from the Atlantic Ocean to the Meditteranean without sailing around the Spanish coast where Barbary pirates would attack and the Spanish demanded high taxes. Women were among the thousands of people employed to build it not just for labouring but engineering skills as well.
Along the towpaths thousand of trees are growing and it is a lovely place to go for a walk or bike ride. The trees provide shade and the leaves dropping into the canal sink and help prevent the water draining away.
I met a man whe went truffle hunting with his dog(truffles are a sort of underground mushroom)he showed me how his dog found the truffle and dug it up.They seem to like growing under oak trees. Apparently the smell is similar to an armpit!!!"These things can sell for a thousand euros a kilo. They must be mad!Black ones start about November and white ones are about June time.Black ones are cooked and white can be raw.A French lady told me to put the truffle in a screwtop jar with some eggs and make an omelette with the eggs and it would be flavoured with the truffle,but not to leave the truffle in for more than a day as they go off like mushrooms.It was lovely.You can eat them with pasta and lots of other dishes as well.

[Old Daffodil]

Hope to see something of Paris for Christmas/New Year. Joyuex Noel to everyone.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=eiffel+tower+at+++christmas+youtube&docid=303683208438&mid=00D6AC0A66316309613000D6AC0A663163096130&FORM=VIRE7#:D

[Old Daffodil]

It is the time for skiing in the Alps and we met people who were heading off to Courcheval for a week on the slopes.Some of them had been to Palendoken in Turkey to ski and they said it was good there but had very little to do in the evening in the way of enterainment.

We have arranged to stay on a boat in Paris, this  meant the dogs are able to be with us.The boat belongs to the daughter of our neighbours in England and they brought it across the channel and moored it up in the centre of Paris at the moment they are away though so we are using it. Luckily we are able to heat it and are very comfortable.