St. Martin de Belleville once again - my friends searching with their avalanche beakers (to prove that I am learning to be a real mountaineer), ...

a dream chalet on the hill, and then the sun and snow on my walkway at home in Lyon!

St. Martin de Belleville - backcountry trip right next to Les Trois Vallées....

St. Martin de Belleville - backcountry trip right next to Les Trois Vallées

I am still a dork.

St. Martin de Belleville - the magic of the Alps! And my awesome buddies Mael and Florian! Also - Crème de Marron = chestnut cream (for crêpes! WOW)

Bénédicte et moi, then my Club Alpin Français (CAF) adventure to St. Martin de Belleville! We slept in a Gite and hiked and skied our hearts out!

Random French fun!

Just a little YOGA in FRANCE to add to the fun! And an ADORABLE pink chair in a shop window, and my ski and artistic friends, along with Agnès...

and Laurent! I went skiing with these two this weekend at Les Sept Laux and they kick butt!

DESSERT! Need I say more??? Yes! Chocolate Fondant, Pineapple salad with sorbet, candied nuts, and a delicious cookie cover, flambéd Grande Marniere..

crepes made right in front of our eyes! They brought the grill over just for this succulent surprise!

Black spaghetti, grease from a cow's backbone to spread on your bread (another interesting french delicacy), delicious light fish and veggies (hard...

to find fish in Lyon without a creamy sauce), and immaculate lamb with potatoes!

Le Potager des Halles encore:

A special Asian soup, poured right in front of our eyes; a gateau (cake) de foie gras (goose or duck liver specialty of France, a taste that I detest and all of the French would want me to leave the country if they knew I did not approve of this "delicacy"), then a regular slice of the mouse-like foie gras, and finally a countryside salad with prosciutto and capers! What a mixture of flavors!

Le Potager des Halles: A famous (expensive) restaurant in the gastronomical Lyon - the menu for us that night: Calve's foot salad (strips of...

cartilage next to radish and bell peppers with a creamy sauce to complete - this made an odd mixture for me. It had the lightness of a salad but then left me startled when I came upon a chewy-crunch that did not seem to me edible. This was something to talk about, and most definitely French, but along with Ox Tongue, I would not say that I am a fan). I figure that if something that you eat matches the texture of something in your mouth, it is not meant to be eaten in great quantities. Of course, why not try it? TRY EVERYTHING if it doesn't kill you! The shock in your mouth is half the fun! And the other half of the fun is to be able to tell about it! But the texture of cartilage from a foot just does not seem so edible to me.

The second dish was another complexity - even CHEWIER escargots in a sweet creamy parsnip soup decorated with truffle oil. This was a sweet and savory mixture that I enjoyed very much, but would have been better served alone and not right after the cartilage. Too many chewy surprises consecutively make you think too much about what you are eating...snails? I love snails! But they do well when they melt in your mouth hidden by a creamy or buttery sauce and do not pop out like a chewy gummy in a icey and fragile sorbet...

more of the menu to come!

(The two bottom pictures are of a miniature restaurant scene created in the museum of miniatures, and then a typical Vieux Lyon building, so Lyonnaise, French (but NOT Parisian!) and beautiful!!!