As promised, here is the video of the Flag Thowers at the Italian Festival in Bourget. The tradition goes back centuries and originates in Siena, Italy. While I call them Italian Flag Throwers, I actually don’t know if they were Italian or French. It’s possible that there is a French Association here that teaches the tradition and performs around France. We are near the Italian border so it’s hard to know exactly where they are from. Either way, they were fantastic to watch. While I’ve seen flag throwing before in Italy, I have never seen the ‘foot work’ of these talented young men.

After a year of planning, designing, researching, etc, my French Alps Tours takes its first guests on a sightseeing tour of the region beginning today! The tour has been carefully designed to touch on the best that the region has to offer. I have personally created this tour keeping in mind the places that has brought me the most pleasure in the two years of living here, as well as focusing on those things that are unique to this region and can’t be experienced in other parts of France.

It’s a very small group but it’s a good start and great way to do a trial run for future ‘adjustments.’  I’ll let you know how it goes.

We have scheduled two new tours for next year: June 4 – 11 and September 3 – 10, 2011. We already have four sign-ups for the June Tour so don’t delay. Put them on your calendar, and come join us for a fantastic tour of the French Alps.    

P.S.  Happy Labor Day to all my American readers!

If you read my blog regularly you know I’m a lover of Italy and all things Italian, so when an Italian Festival came to our area, I made a point of going. It was held at the small town of Bourget, which sits on the Bourget Lake, about 30 minutes from Chambery.  I took two videos of the event. This one is an overview video showing the yummy food and wine they were selling as well as some of the entertainment and demonstrations.  The next video will show you the amazing talents of the Flag Throwers.

August 25th

I turn 52 years old today. OMG! Where has the time gone? I had just turned 50 a couple months earlier when I started this blog (in its very simple form back then).  I know to an outsider, especially someone who would love to live in France, my life looks like a dream.  But as a blogger, that’s what my job is – to give form to your dreams and put forth the best of life.  Unlike many bloggers, I have chosen to keep my life mostly private.  But there have been plenty of highs and struggles – from culture shock, loneliness and isolation, huge difficulties with the language, lifestyle and routine upheaval, relationship adjustments, medical issues, financial struggles, losing my L.A. support network, and dealing with concerns about my financial future.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Moving to a foreign country is NOT for wimps, especially at my age. I’ve even been surprised because I had already moved to Italy and lived there for two years and made the adjustment well, but the difference is that this move was permanent.  There is a huge psychological difference between “I’ll give it a try” and “This is for the rest of my life.”  Additionally, I had a very established life in Los Angeles with a house, friends I had for 26 years, a thriving business, and a six-figure income.  I think all of that made the move even harder because I lost so much and knew so little about France, Chambery, and the culture, having never really spent any significant time here before moving.

One of the biggest adjustments was from a big city to a small town.  I had endless entertainment and social life opportunities in Los Angeles, but in Chambery, other than the summer concerts, there’s not much to do unless you’re a hiker or skiier.  There are definitely no jobs for me here.  The folks in this region are rather reserved, serious, private, and cold (a word they use to describe themselves). The other big adjustment has been going from warm, dry, sunny, southern California to unbearably cold, snowy winters and rainy springs and falls.  There are also so many things I miss about the U.S. that I never even thought about before moving here: ethnic, spicy food; my doctors and dentists; my discount stores; TV channels and radio stations; U.S. indepth news; wine tasting events; daily routine; colleagues; Indie movies;  ‘American foods’; celebrating Thanksgiving and 4th of July; being a $200 flight away from my family; my car; my privacy and independence, not humiliating myself everytime I open my mouth and attempt to speak French, etc.   With the language barriers and few English-speakers in town, it’s been hard to find community.  I haven’t been able to find French classes in Chambery that I can afford or work with my schedule, so learning the language has been agonizingly slow since I work from home and rarely use French. The biggest challenge I’m finding is producing an income – with no jobs in Chambery for me and the difficulties of running a business in France have both proven to be far more challenging than I anticipated.  I’m actually working twice as many hours here for 15% of the income.  And unfortunately, the industry that I spent the last 32 years working in doesn’t even exist in France.

Occasionally, I get an email from a reader who is thinking of moving to France and wants to know the ‘insider’ info of the experience.  I’m sure I’ve popped a few bubbles when I respond with some of the challenges I’ve just outlined.  I never hear back from them because I’m sure they would prefer to dismiss me than deal with these realities which put a puncture wound in their fantasies and dreams.  But I’ve always been a straight-shooter, and frankly, I wish someone had sent me an email outlining the realities of moving to a small town in France, and I would have done a few things differently – things that would have made the move, finances, and transition much easier.

Enough bi*ching.  There have, of course, been plenty of good things about living here.  The videos chronicle those good times.  The traveling has been the highlight and being able to share those experiences with thousands of people has been very exciting and satisfying.  In the U.S. , I would never have had the opportunities I have here attending festivals, seeing so much variety of landscape, being surrounded by history and beauty, and being so close to so much diversity of culture.  The French Alps scenery is astonishing and some of my favorite times are our motorcycle rides in the mountains.  Of course, you can taste wonderful French cuisine and wine here and I love being so close to ‘vineyard life.’  The slowness and calm of a small city is less stressful to live in than the chaos and traffic of a city like Los Angeles. While people are less friendly here, they are also less superficial and shallow as in L.A.  Having never had children myself, participating in the lives of Bernard’s teen and young adult children, has been very special and enjoyable. I’m one of the lucky ones – his children are wonderful and we have very good relationships.  My in-laws are also lovely people who have embraced me warmly. Even though I lost all but one of my contracts from my business in Los Angeles by moving here, I’m trying to look at this as an opportunity to eventually recreate myself professionally by focusing on the things I love to do.  My blogs are attempts at this as are my French Alps Tours and my French Alps Cookbook. I’m also looking into getting my certification as a Tour Manager/Director so I can lead tours for Tour Operators here in Europe during the summers.  Slowly, I’m trying to piece enough income together to pay the bills, but with Bernard turning 50 and therefore retiring in a year, there is some urgency to this plan.

Given all of these realties and challenges, I’ve had to re-evaluate my life, and turning 52 has been a great opportunity to do that.  My last existing contract has offered to increase my work if I can get back to Los Angeles more often to handle additional responsibilities.  I can reduce my taxes by being able to use my many American-based tax deductions if I live at least six months a year in the U.S., and probably pick up some additional contracts by being there, not to mention other types of work.  Bernard retires the end of 2011 so it’s feasible for him to live anywhere.  The other factor is that in my hometown of Fort Myers, Florida where my family still lives, the housing market has crashed.  It has the second highest foreclosure rate in the country. It’s a terrible thing for those people who lost their homes, but also an opportunity for me to be close to family again and for work. So for my birthday this year, I bought myself a house! I found a 2 bedroom, 2 bath home in a small town 20 minutes from Fort Myers and 45 minutes from the beaches and islands. I placed an offer on it and it was accepted last week!  Now I’m waiting for the inspection on Friday and if there are no big repair/rehab issues, it will close escrow in September.  No, I’m not rolling in the dough – I paid $28,000 for this house but I’ll need to put about $3,000  in it to make it perfect.  This hasn’t been easy since the good homes have all gone into bidding wars as you might expect, but I was very tenacious and eventually succeeded.   I hope you, my readers, will be interested in renting it (once it’s furnished) during the falls, springs and summers starting in 2012.   I will be renting it for below market rates.  Thanks to my sister, Sue, for looking at a zillion houses on my behalf and taking photos.  Here are photos she took of the house:

Bernard and I spoke a lot about this and the plan is to live six months in Florida (the winter months, of course), and six months in the French Alps during the summers beginning in 2012.  In this way, I can increase my contracts/income by getting to L.A. more regularly, still see family and friends, and enjoy all the things and people that I miss.  I’ve even found French classes there.  Bernard will have a European community to enjoy (lots of folks from Europe live in Ft Myers during the winters), participate in water sports/activities which he loves, and we can have his friends and family visit regularly for vacations.  Southwest Florida is a resort area with lovely winter weather, boating, islands, beaches, fantastic nature, great seafood and ethnic food, and a very slow, relaxed way of life.  It will be the best of both worlds, while solving many of the problems I’ve been facing. 

By the way, if you’re worried about the blog, don’t be.  The majority of the traveling we do in France is during the months of May through October – the months we’ll continue to live in France.  Additionally, if I start leading tours around Europe and other countries, I’ll have videos of those adventures too.  Florida too has many interesting things to see and experience and a few festivals that rival the ones in Europe.  In fact, there’s one festival that will shock you and I can’t wait to get it on video!  Los Angeles, where I’ll be spending significant time for work, also has plenty of interesting events to visually chronicle for your entertainment.  So I see this new ‘lifestyle’ only improving the blog and expanding its horizons beginning in 2012.

So this is my birthday decision and gift to myself at the ripe old age of 52.  Cross your fingers and wish me luck!  

Here’s a recipe from my new cookbook, French Comfort Food: Recipes of Savoie and the French Alps. Buy it here on my site or on my French Comfort Food site: www.frenchcomfortfood.com .

This is a classic French recipe which I ‘Savoyardized’ with local products. But if you can’t find the Savoie ingredients where you are, I gave you alternatives.
Ingredients for 4 – 6 persons:
- 1 pastry shell, homemade or store bought, or made from a pie sheet from your grocery’s refrigeration or freezer sections
- 1 cup of Savoie lardons (as seen in the video) or 10 slices of cooked, crumbled bacon
- 1/3 cup minced onion
- 5 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups of light cream (or half n half)
- 1 cup of shredded Beaufort or Gruyere cheese
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon of smoked paprika or cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
If you’re using bacon, cook it in a frying pan until fully cooked. Pat the grease off with paper towels, and once cooled, crumble it. If you’re using lardons, you will also need to fry it until cooked and drain off the grease.
In a mixing bowl, stir or whisk together the eggs, bacon, cheese, onion, cream, salt, sugar and paprika or pepper (all ingredients). Pour the mixture into the pastry shell.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes in the oven, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes, slice and serve.

For conversions from U.S. measurements to the Metric System, see:  http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking

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Now that you’ve seen how we got to the top of Mont Blanc, here’s what the views are like once you get there. It is truly a magnificent place with awe-inspiring beauty. It makes you feel very small. Thanks to my nephew, Jon, who took some of this video from the high platforms where my fear of heights wouldn’t let me go.

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My husband, my family who was visiting, and I took a day to visit Chamonix, specifically to take the Auguille du Midi cable car up to the top of Mont Blanc.  The last part of the first cable car was a bit scary. We thought the second cable car up to the summit would be worse but it was actually a smoother ride, albeit VERY high. The views were spectacular and I would definitely recommend doing this (as long as you don’t have a serious fear of heights). Be aware that the air is thin there and we found ourselves having difficulty breathing normally, especially after walking up the stairs to the observation platforms. We wanted to do the train ride to the Mer de Glace (cave under the glacier) but it was closed due to rock slides.

What astonished all of us was that towards the summit we saw numerous people hiking up the mountain and others with their hang gliders waiting for the right winds to jump. We also saw ski trails down the mountain. Keep in mind these are 85-90 grade slopes. Once you start skiing there’s no stopping and you can’t see that far in advance to know if you’re going off a cliff or not.  When we got to the top, we also saw young men and women suiting up to scale down the cliffs.  To me, it seemed like everyone had a death wish but I’m just an old woman with a fear of heights so what do I know!

Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Europe, peaking at 15,782 feet.  Chamonix was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. You can take the Auguille du Midi to the top of the mountain (about 48 euros) or take a train to see the Mer de Glace (glacier cave). You can also take the train over the mountain into Italy for a quick visit of the local small town (without your passport). More information can be found at:
http://www.chamonix.com/welcome,0,en.html

Enjoy the ride up on the Auguille du Midi:

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