Les Scènes du Week-end {28}

It was a busy, fun & festive weekend.

Saturday FQ & I headed to Lyon

for some shopping & Starbucks {hooray!}

before spending the evening chez ses parents à Pommiers.

Sunday I was in full-on Jack O'Lantern mode

with my lovely niece.

Ready for the pumpkin/decoration/costume photos?

On y va ! {= Here we go!}

FQ on le métro à Lyon

moi & my {rare, so very exciting} chai tea latte

my niece's Jack O'Lantern plan

her uncle cutting open la citrouille

scoop scoop scoop

draw draw draw

et voila !!!

eeeek !

my nephew Martin = cutest devil ever

festive/creepy lunch-time table décor

So boo boo boo &

Happy Halloween to all of you!

Les couleurs de l'automne

It's only been a week or so here in Annecy 

that it's starting to be quite chilly, especially at night.

Résultat ?

The gorgeous autumn colours

have really made an appearance.

J'adore les couleurs de l'automne...

I snapped this photo the other day down by the lake.

It amused me how the orange leaves on that beautiful big tree

were just next to the bed of pansies that still looked decent.

Dear Tree,

You are gorgeous.

Keep it up!

Dear Pansies,

Aren't you a spring flower?

Um, it's fall {& not far from winter!}

Nice to see you anyway.

Dear Rue de France Readers,

Thanks for stopping by.

I wish you a lovely last weekend of October!

bises,

E

E & me {Halloween decorations}

Less than a week to Halloween,

 which means it's perfect timing to have a few decorations at home.

The only problem is that France is not très Halloween.

Luckily Erin sent me a lovely care package 

with some great things to decorate festively.

Any guesses which photo is chez nous?

Les Scènes du Week-end {27}

This weekend my belle-mère (mother-in-law) came to visit.

So Saturday & Sunday =

sleeping in

+ super yummy restaurant

+ Salon de thé 

+ swoon-worthy sunset.

Voici les photos...

my belle-mère brought me this lovely orchid

outdoor patio of the restaurant we went to (trop froid to sit outside though!)

pretty decoration at the entrance of the resto

church tower in the centre of Annecy-le-Vieux near the restaurant

lovely alpine décor at the tea-room

moi & my mother-in-law at tea-time

I ordered this fabulous cake of blueberries on a shortbread-type crust

my mother-in-law had Earl Grey tea

& I had the most delicious chocolat chaud ever

after tea-time we took a wee walk along the lake at the beginning of sunset

Happy Benjamin Day!

Happy Birthday to you, Ben!

It's my nephew's second birthday today.

Last year, his first birthday celebrations looked something like this: 

 A year later, of course, he's a bigger boy.

This weekend his birthday party will take place  
chez ma soeur in Canada.

I'm sending you XOXOXO... & wishing I could be there...

E & me {stop signs}

This week's E & me is the same... yet different.

You know what?

I have a feeling that Erin's photo was taken 

in front of her son's French immersion school.

That explains why it's 

all awesomely nerdy in Canada's two official languages!

My sign, however, is not even in French.

Le sigh.

So, linguistically-speaking,

one hundred points for Canada & zero points for France.

At least there are pretty fall colours in each photo, non ?

Les Scènes du Week-end {26}

We had a wonderful weekend trip to Chamonix

avec mes parents.

The weather was gorgeous, sunny & warm during the day.

It made it hard to believe we were up in the mountains 

& that it is mid-October.

 

That being said, we could see 

the beginning of the beautiful autumn colours in the woods

& the stunning Mont Blanc glacier shining in the sun.

It was wow, wow & wow.

So without further ado, here are the photos I promised you.

Take it away, Chamonix!

the train station

café, église, forets, montagnes

us being tourists with the guides de Chamonix mural

there was A LOT of cheese in town

speaking of fromage, my mom & I shared a fondue Saturday night... YUM

winter's already here in the shop window displays

this ad made me laugh... "prêt à..." = ready to...

as I mentioned above, forest + mountains + glacier + sun = WOW

at tea-time, I treated myself to a pistachio macaron

Sunday before leaving town, we hit the MBC, a Canadian-founded microbrewery

*********

 

So as I write this post,  

my parents are on the plane back to Vancouver.

I'm feeling sad & missing them already.

I have beaucoup de photos of their time en France 

to share with you soon.

 

In the meantime, I'm headed to aquafit class at my gym

to hopefully burn off at least a few

 of the fondue/macaron/brewpub calories from this past weekend...

Bon lundi tout le monde !

Moi, ma mère & le lac

The other day, my parents & I drove around le Lac du Bourget,

which is located not too far from Annecy. 

 It is the largest & deepest lake located entirely within France

& is impressively beautiful.

{We're not too shabby either, non ?}

This weekend is my parents' last few days in France during this visit.
Le sigh.

But we have fun plans for the next few days.

We're going to Chamonix, 

so stay tuned for lots of mountain/glacier/fondue photos next week...

Bon week-end !

E & me {turkey}

So remember how I was so happy to have a Canadian Thanksgiving 

avec mes parents here in les Alpes last weekend?

Well, the meal was delicious,

the company was delightful

& the bonus?

For this week's E & me,

I can compare Erin's turkey

with la dinde my mom made!

Speaking of bonuses, here's a nerdy one:

English turkeys say "gobble gobble"

& their French counterparts

"glou glou" 

!!!

Les Scènes du Week-End {25}

This past weekend was pretty exciting.

We were back home after our quick exotic trip 

to that place I need to tell you more about 

& my parents were back in France 

after a week away in Ireland.

Here in Annecy, it poured rain all weekend. 

But you know what? 

We were so happy to see each other again 

& to watch the "Retour des Alpages" on Saturday, 

{a traditional parade that celebrates the end of summer 

& the fact that cows have been moved down 

from the Alpine pastures to their barns for the winter}

that we didn't really mind the crummy weather.

As for Sunday,

it was Thanksgiving in Canada 

so my mom made a delicious meal here

& my parents-in-law came over to try 

traditional turkey dinner for their first time ever.

I'm pretty sure they enjoyed everything 

{except the cranberry jelly... their loss!}

 The first snow of the season fell on the Parmelan Mountains above Annecy.

Like I said, it rained all weekend in town.  It's still pretty; though!

The parade involved soggy cows with decorations & guys in traditional outfits.

 

 

Speaking of soggy & decorated, there were also geese...

... & gorgeous Saint Bernard dogs.

One of my favourite things was the traditional music on the giant wooden horns.

On Sunday, FQ & his dad were ready to eat the Thanksgiving feast.

And my mother-in-law & my dad were ready to drink a few festive glasses of wine.

Moi & ma mère aussi... cheers!

My favourite thing about the weekend was my mom's homemade pumpkin pie.  Miam miam !!

Three steps taken one week ago

So it's been a little quiet around here on Rue de France, non?

My last two posts were in the E & me series,

which is always fun to create with my dear friend Erin.

But that means an entire week went by 

{in-between our comparative toaster & cash posts}

without any other blogging.

I usually like to update more often than that.

Le sigh.

However, I have an exciting excuse!

You know what?

Exactly a week ago, last Thursday, my day was quite eventful.

Step One:

Wake up at home in Annecy at 4 a.m.  

{Ugh.}

Step Two:

Drive to the closest airport, which is of course in Geneva.

{Switzerland!}

Step Three:

Catch an early-morning flight to a place I'd never been to before.
{Whee!!!}

moi just getting off the plane at our destination

You can see from the picture where we went, n'est-ce pas ?

We spent five days there.

It was amazing, overwhelming, incredible... & bloody hot.

I took about six million photos.

I'll start sharing them with you soon, ok?

Until then, bisous !

E & me {cash}

In last week's E & me,
we compared the toasters we use in our cuisines.

It turns out that there is a lot more difference between 

what we use to make toast for breakfast

than the cash we use to buy

baguettes or English muffins.

 

Don't you agree?

The coins aren't very different &   

the bills are a similar blue.

Although what Erin has in her wallet
features handsome hockey players, eh?