Carnaval Vénitien d'Annency 2013

Mlle Vénise 2013

Chères amies et chers amis,

I have the most loving, patient, and accommodating husband. I’m not saying I don’t catch his disbelieving blinks and his subtle head shakes when I occasionally suggest what might be considered a harebrained idea. But he definitely proved his love this weekend.

As I watched les prévisions météorologiques (weather report) this past Friday morning, I was counting on his love, patience, and accommodation to still be on board to go to le Carnaval Vénitien d’Annecy the next day. Cold temperatures and snow were in the forecast, and I know how much he loves making his way through crowds, especially when there is snow or subfreezing temperatures.

I went to la gare on Friday to buy our train tickets for the trip, and when I first got there I thought a Powerball drawing was going on because of all the eyes fixed on the overhead screens. No,  je me suis trompée (I was wrong), it was just that I had forgotten that the two-week school winter vacation was starting the next day, and everybody and their brother’s skis were headed for the slopes and points away from Grenoble par train. This did not bode well for the train traffic the next day. I hoped that families leaving the following day would be using their cars to get to the slopes and would not be clogging the trains on Saturday. 

On Saturday morning, I peeked out the curtains to check the weather. No snow yet. I was still a little worried since Annecy is north of Grenoble and usually has more snow. And lately, Grenoble has been blessed with more of the white stuff than my Carolina bones care for. But the train tickets were bought and I was raring to go. I packed some train munchies, and we tucked our heads against the cold wind in the direction of the gare.

Like the day before, the scene at the gare was full of rolling suitcases, skis and snowboards, and warmly dressed voyageurs (travelers). Our train would be leaving on voie A (track A), and we stationed ourselves near the automatic doors to await the dash to find seats when the train arrived. Steve spotted a work colleague who comes from America, and we squeezed through the crowd to say hello. Greg and his wife, Leslie, and their two young daughters, Rose and Tiger Lily, were also going to Annecy for Carnival. I sensed the 4- and 5-year-old girls were thrilled just to be traveling on the train, and I guessed they would be thrilled with what awaited them in Annecy.

The train pulled into the station as we spoke, and we moved with the crowd to board it. The cars were filled and we were off. A mere hour and forty-five minutes later, we were in Annecy. We had visited the quaint ville before (see Meetyou in the Savoie: Heading to Annecy), and we were a little familiar with the lay of the land. It wasn’t long before we came upon the first of the myriad of masked, costumed players wandering the rues.

You may not know that Annecy is known as the Venice of the Alps because of the channels that run through the ville. Playing on this theme, the Association Rencontres Italie-Annecy (ARIA) has organized a carnival there for the past 17 years. While we walked around the town, I took my gloves off more times than I can count to snap pictures of those in elaborate costumes, each one seemingly more beautiful than the last. Most of the participants have made their costumes themselves, and they usually also show them off in the Venice (Italy) Carnival. As you can see in the slide show below, Steve and I took beaucoup de photos, but these are just what my camera (and our frozen fingers) could stand. We captured a fraction of the more than 350 participants!

All the picture-taking drove us inside for a warm, delicious lunch at a small Asian restaurant, and later, du thé et du chocolat chaud (tea and hot chocolate) with traditional beignets (kind of doughnut covered in sugar) at a popular café.

The evening train ride back to Grenoble was filled with other tired Annecy day-trippers, and as we pulled into the station, we saw that we had surprisingly dodged the snow that had accumulated in the Grenoble streets and walks during our absence.  By traveling north, we had instead enjoyed, as the ARIA brochure says, “la chaleur de notre sœur latine!”*

*“The warmth of our latin (Italian) sister!”

A bientôt,

Maureen

You can click on any picture in the slide show to see it up close.

 

An American Corner in the Grenoble Maison de l’International

Red, White, and Blue or is it Blue, White and Red?

Salut, tout le monde,
   A temporary break in the cold, sleety, snowy, windy, and downright yucky Grenoble weather of late prompted me to leave the warmth and dryness of our apartment to check out la bibliothéque in the nearby Jardin de ville. I had never visited this library before, but as a library-card-carrying, paid subscriber to the Grenoble municipal library system, I wanted a look at their book collection, which is geared for les enfants et les adolescents. (Can you guess my French reading level?) 

Hôtel Lesdiguières/Maison de l'International

     At the library, I picked up a couple of contes de fée full of illustrations, necessary for my comprehension (a picture is worth a thousand French words), and headed out the door. Glancing to my right as I negotiated the slippery stairs, I saw a banner hanging above the door of the adjoining building. It read, Maison de l’International—International House. This was a place I had heard of but hadn’t yet been to in Grenoble. Since the weather was in my favor at the moment, I decided to see what it was about. 

     As soon as I walked through the automatic doors, I saw two familiar “faces"—magazines with American English titles, the Economist and the New Yorker—among the foreign language magazines beckoning me from across the room. But before I could reach them, I heard a friendly French voice asking, “Je peux vous aider?” Ah, oui! I pieced together some French to tell her that I had never been there before and wanted to look around. I can only guess that my American accent was slightly detectible because another woman quickly appeared and asked me in English in a British accent if she could show me around the place. After introductions, Kate gave me my own private tour of the maison.

     We started in the reception room full of tables and stands that held information, including brochures about language courses and international associations in the area, for foreigners living in Grenoble. She pointed out that the International House is not a tourist center, but rather it has the mission to provide access to information about international goings-on in town and the European Union, and beyond to everyone. 

    Moving into the next room, we came upon three college-age students busily working on filling book shelves and hanging framed posters in what looked like a newly renovated room in this early 17th century building that was once L'hôtel de Lesdiguières. I said bonjour and my American accent echoed back to me in triplicate as they returned the greeting. They were from American universities, and they were studying in Grenoble and working at the International House for a semester. At the moment, they were preparing this room for the opening of the American Corner in Grenoble the next night. 

American Room library

    I was unfamiliar with American Corners, and with a little research, I discovered that there are about 400 of them in 60 countries. This one in Grenoble was one of the newest members of the club. The American Corners disseminate information about the United States to the foreign public, providing access to current information with books, videos, and the Internet, and information about American culture, history, and government. It seems more like a mini-diplomatic station, but the US doesn’t financially support it; the host country pays for the staff and the rental of the facility, but the US State Department sometimes provides American books and some equipment.

     Steve and I were interested in attending the opening. Some heavy hitters were scheduled to be there for the event, including the mayor of Grenoble, the consul of the United States in Lyon, and the United States minister counselor for public affairs in France. When we arrived the next night, we joined the mass of people who also came for the opening. The reception room, the American Corner, and two more rooms were packed, and viewing monitors had been set up in all but the American Corner in anticipation of the crowd. The three men spoke enthusiastically about this first American Corner in France, and when “The Star Spangled Banner” was played after their speeches, my hand immediately went over my heart and I admit to tearing up. (They, of course, also played “La Marseillaise.”) I was surprised when we were invited afterwards to enjoy some hors d’oeuvres and wine to celebrate. We located some of our French and American friends among the crowd, and we toasted this new addition to Grenoble’s International House.

The Good Old American Days*

Yes, we can!*

*Posters in the American Corner, Grenoble.

    I returned a few days later to see the finished American Corner without the crowd and to take some pictures. It’s a good space, and as an American, it makes me feel welcome here. I think it will be a comfortable place to come and sit down on a snowy day and read the New Yorker.

Salut, tout le monde: Hello, everyone
la bibliothéque: the library 
les enfants et les adolescents: children and teenagers
contes de fée: fairy tales 
Je peux vous aider?: Can I help you? 

    

Nutty over Nutella

5 Kg (11 lbs.) of Hazelnut Happiness 
sitting at an outdoor café table

Chères amies et chers amis,

I was almost caught unawares. Once the Christmas holidays were over, I thought I was home free until Valentine’s Day in the celebration arena. Then I was reminded of an upcoming February holiday I have never celebrated before but don’t intend to miss this year—the 7th Annual World Nutella Day on February 5, 2013!

Nutella® has only been properly celebrated with a designated day for the last seven years, even though it was first concocted by Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker in Italy, in the 1940s. He "invented' it during World War II as a confectionery substitute to appease those with a sweet tooth who were craving chocolate but were facing sugar and chocolate rationing. He included hazelnuts, milk, and a wee bit of chocolate in a spread recipe and built his empire. It then became a favorite in Europe—France accounts for 26% of its consumption today—and America started importing it about twenty-five years ago.

Whole generations have grown up on Nutella, and it appears that no one has ever thought to look at the label and question the healthfulness of the ingredients packed into it. Not until recently.  A California mom finally got around to reading its label after feeding it to her four-year-old child as a daily breakfast staple and was horrified when she discovered the actual contents in the jar. She said she had fed it to her child because a Nutella television ad led her to believe it was part of a nutritious breakfast.

Her outrage led to more shocked moms reading labels, and in April 2012, Nutella-maker Ferrero USA, Inc. agreed to a $3.05 million settlement to end the subsequent four class-action lawsuits filed in the United States accusing Nutella of misleading marketing in portraying its product as a healthy part of breakfast. The four mothers involved in the lawsuits said they were shocked when they found out that the Nutella they were spreading on their kids’ bread was a confection that packed twice as much sugar as a similar amount of jam or syrup. (I guess reading nutrition labels before you put something on your child’s plate hasn’t caught on as quickly as reading forwarded email jokes.)

                                            Courtesy www.nutelladay.com

Fortunately, not everyone is so concerned with the damage that Nutella can do to a body. American-born writers Michelle Fabio and Sara Rosso, who both live in Italy, have created World Nutella Day to celebrate the hazelnut-chocolate concoction and have written a light-hearted book called The Unofficial Guide to Nutella that is packed with recipes, has ideas for Nutella parties, and includes the “10 reasons Nutella is better than a boyfriend.” You can also “like” them on their Facebook page. 

Over the centuries, there have been many memorable couplings—Antony and Cleopatra, Fred and Ginger, Wallace and Gromit, Tony Bennett and k.d. lang, Owen and Mzee, and Wiley Coyote and the Roadrunner, to name a few. Today, I offer another—Nutella—and anything you want to slather it on.

Happy World Nutella Day!