Hotel Le Cognarel Provence

... accompanied with some spiced gingerbread toasts. At first the goose fat was just too rich to eat before I realized I was expected to smear it on the toasts first and - WHAM! - a revelation of flavor. I swear I heard angels singing. Sometimes with French cooking they will separately place multiple items on a plate that may seem odd to eat individually. And if you do you are missing the bigger flavor picture. You are expected at times to match certain foods and divine flavors ...

My parents love the mountains and have always gone to the Alps for their summer vacation since we were born. As a kid and a teenager I always joined them with my brother and sister. But I haven't had the opportunity to do so (except for in 2005) since I moved to the US.
So this year being devoted to traveling and time with friends and family, I joined them for two weeks and a half in Orcieres, a town in the ...

... in again) then, when you think you are on top, there is an elevator to take.
Now this in one crazy destination! At 3807 meters above sea level you can imagine the feeling. It was cold and sunny. There were quite a few crazy ice / rock climbers up there for us to watch when we weren't gawking at the view. It is amazing the engineering that went in to providing public access to the area. There are tunnels through the mountain so you can access ...

The alarm clock worked and Kristen and I got ready for a full day of skiing in Serre Chevalier. After having breakfast with my uncle, aunt and father we got on the road for the Southern Alps. Getting to Grenoble (1968 Olympic Games) was no problem, we had left early enough to avoid traffic. The snow was lower than what we expected for the month of March and the signs in Grenoble were warning us that chains were required to go to the "Col du Lautaret ...

... we even knew exactly when we had to be there unlike other parts of our trip to date.Despite this we didn't book any accommodation. So imagine my surprise when four days ago I started trying to find some accommodation and kept getting ``sorry we are full due to Terra Medre''. Who would have thought having two major food festivals which brings suppliers from all of the the world and where each individually have brought in more than 200,000 spectators each would have ...

Leaving Cannes we picked up the Route Napoleon at Grasse, straight away we could see how good this was going to be. The further we went the steeper the terrain, we encountered a few slow moving coaches which provided a little entertainment (got a video somewhere ...

... trezim si deschidem geamurile (alea cu obloane de lemn :)), surpriza: in fata geamului, in spatele florilor colorate din geam, alpii in toata splendoarea lor. Aer in piept! Coboram la micul dejun intr-o sala de mese care arata a muzeu mai degraba, ornata cu tot felul de obiecte rustice foarte vechi, si amenajata ca un han, si cu un semmineu urias. Adica URIAS, cred ca ard copaci intrgi acolo. In spate e o terasa si iesim acolo pentru cafea, dupa ce ...

More information on this campsite can be found here. Beautifully located campsite with quite good facitlities at about 1500m altitude and one of the best views on the Lac Serre Poncon. Located very near the small Lac St.Apollinaire. Start of some great hikes right at the entrance of the campsite. The hikes are rather steep at the start.

... the town - set on a steep hill - great cobbled streets, fantastic Christmas Markets, great pubs (one in particular served beers in towers - yep towers!), and Lausanne is also home of the IOC and the Olympic Museum - the sculptures were awesome. We also headed around to Montreaux, driving along the lake with vineyards growing up the banks. Montreaux's Xmas Markets were equally amazing, the traditional food fantastic (picked up some more Saussi Seau), it's also of the homes of Freddy ...

So this weekend I got to cross one thing off my list of things to do in life. I've fulfilled my bougie (bobo in France - for bohemian bourgeois) aspiration of skiing in the Alps. A group of us stanfordiens left Paris on Thursday night to go to La Norma in the Savoy region of France (ie. southeast, near the Italian border). In all honesty the overnight bus ride there (and eventually back) was horrible - excruciatingly hot, long, and the ...