Empty Attic!

04/10/2012

Bonjour mes amis!

We're already headed toward another weekend, and I haven't even shared yet what we did last weekend...

Friday night started with having our friends, Eva and Johannes, over for dinner.  We had a relaxing evening with a multi-course meal, and I managed to make a BBQ Pork Roast in the oven.  I had to use some Heinz bbq sauce, rather than our favorite...KC Masterpiece...but it still tasted good.  Eva brought a moist chocolate cake to share for dessert, and we had fun talking and comparing cultures.

Saturday morning started with Cheese Omelettes and instructions for Jewel Jr. to go buy the baguettes and other bread for the weekend from the Boulanger.  You see, Bakeries here are closed on Mondays, so we have to buy and freeze our bread for over the weekend.  Since we don't agree on our favorite Boulanger, Jewel Jr. told us he was going to surprise us with which shop he went to.

In the meantime, Dr. J and I took the tram to go meet our friend, Karin, who told us about a

"Vide Grenier"!

What's that, you ask?  Well, for Americans, it's called a Garage Sale, only in France, the sale is not held in a garage, or even a yard, and Vide Grenier literally translated means, Empty Attic!  The city closes off a street or square, and people bring in their "stuff", and arrange it on tables, and there's many sellers there in one place.  There's a few things we can use in this apartment, and I love to look for treasures, so we went.

Here's a few pictures from our Excursion...

*This is a friend of Karin's, and she sells things to raise money for the orphans pictured on the poster behind her.

 After a short tram ride back, we stopped for a coffee!

It was a somewhat successful morning...
I bought a small leather bound French book, and a soup pot.
Dr. J was disappointed...he really wanted to find us a crockpot...they're just not too common here...

It was a gorgeous day.  We wandered a little more in town afterward, and here's a few more photos...

I'm still admiring the Architecture here!

A Restaurant we want to try sometime...must have a Reservation...it's popular!

Fall is just starting here...see the red leaves creeping along the building!?!

I still can't get enough of the Entryway Architecture!

Saturday night, we were invited to go to a Dégustation de vins AKA Wine Tasting, with friends.  It was held at their neighbors in a nice, quaint little outdoor room that was quintessential French for me...beams, baskets, pottery, a fireplace.....ahhhhhhh!  We enjoyed little sausages and breads, and sipped nice white wines from the Alsace Region of France!

Afterward, we wandered a little bit and I took these pictures in the backyard of the Hosts...

Isn't this such a sweet back door entry?

The Homeowner is a skilled Landscaper!

After the Wine Tasting, we walked back to our friend's house and enjoyed a lovely Veal Dinner with multiple courses, and Remi shared one of the nice bottles of wine he bought from the Vintner!

We had a really great weekend!  I have more to share tomorrow about what we did on Sunday, so come on back y'all!

By the way,   remember that we sent Jewel Jr. to the Boulanger on Saturday morning for baguettes and bread?  Well, I was stumped over the rest of the weekend because one of the breads he bought seemed like it was from HIS favorite place, and one of them seemed like from MINE.  Well, Monday night, he finally admitted  that he had actually gone to both places!!!  Haha!  Clever boy, don't you think?

Have a "Jewel" of a day!
Jan