Meilleurs Voeux!

Poor Little S stayed sick through most of the New Years festivities. He had what seemed like a bad upper respiratory infection. We don't know what it was in fact because all of the doctors were either on vacation or overbooked. We tried to get him in to see someone but it was impossible. I think the entire country was ill. Anyway he seems prone to this type of thing so we had all the medicine in the cupboard already. The poor guy slept for about 16 hours a day. He was not himself at all.

Otherwise for us this year New Years was really nice if not calm. Since we trade off doing it up with our friends each year we had our turn at inviting everyone to our place this year. We were a small crowd this time. I guess that's because French people tend to spend New Years with their parents eating for hours over a large meal. Most of our local friends were off visiting their family in Paris and elsewhere. We still had fun though with just five of us!

On Saturday the 30th we had lunch with our contractor and his wife at their little rented apartment next door to our house. They did it up really nice with a scrumptious rack of lamb, girolles in a sort of port sauce and dessert with champagne. Meanwhile our crew of friends began arriving from Mâcon and Grenoble so we had an excuse to escape. It was a lovely lunch but it felt like they never wanted us to leave the lunch table! They are so hospitable. They even invited our friends in for champagne and dessert and ended up offering them the keys to the spare room apartment downstairs for the weekend. This worked out great because no one had to sleep on the floor in our house. Besides there was a nice indoor shower for the girls.

That evening I made grilled chicken quesidillas for everyone to celebrate our move to Mexico (not that we don't eat Mexican food three times a week anyway or anything...nahhh). Anyway it was fun to introduce some of the food we will be eating while talking about our plans with everyone.

On Sunday the 31st we all went walking by the lakes of La Buenaz not far from our house and 20 minutes up from Evian where you have a lovely view of the water bottling plant, uh err I mean Lac Léman on the drive up. Beunaz is a favorite little walking spot, a quaint pixie forest nestled around two small lakes. It's always a challenge finding the second lake which is hidden off a poorly marked trail behind a lot of trees. Anyway this was the first time I'd ever visited in winter and without the leaves on the trees and it's a lot easier to find the second lake without all the foliage. Everyone thought Dee and I were mad to say we had trouble finding this lake when it was obviously RIGHT THERE, duh!

Here are some photos from our walk in the forest. The dogs had a smashing time skating on the frozen lakes. Ella, Dee's setter kept running back and forth to the other side. It was funny watching her skid like a cartoon dog.













On the way home we stopped by the shores of le Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) to wash the dogs and throw some stones. We were amused and a little shocked to see a couple of drunk guys skinny dipping in the lake right there at the park. I don't know what they were thinking. Not only was it only 3 o'clock in the afternoon on New Years Eve it's was just barely above freezing ! I think they'll be finding themselves sneezing and coughing for the first few days of 2007. They didn't seem to find it at all cold and they even continued walking around barefoot for most of the time they hung out with us trying to impress us with their stone skipping skills and bare butts. Sorry naked drunk guys we have lots of practice skipping stones on Lac Léman and my husband has an extremely nice butt thank you very much!






That afternoon we started preparing our meal. It wasn't complicated. We made a very traditional spread: roasted and stuffed farm chicken, garlic roasted new potatoes, roasted fennel w/ balsamic vinegar & toasted pine nuts and had desserts of carrot cake and fruit salad.* The whole thing started off with an apéritif with our neighbors in the living room. They didn't stay for dinner just cocktails and a few little nibbles. We pawned off our homemade rum concoction on them, something we'd laboured over in the kitchen and most likely will never be able to remember the exact recipe for it ever again. It was so good that our sweet and dainty 85 year old neighbor asked for "more of that very good fruit juice please" Little S was feeling lots better but still coughing a lot so my friend Dee thought to massage his chest and lungs. This is a popular treatment for bronchitis in France and she had watched it being done by a professional once during her years as a nanny. It worked almost too well and poor Dee suddenly found herself with a lap full of mucus and vomit, yuck!





I forgot to get a photo of our pretty table and all the wonderful food. Here's a photo of afterwards; the well stuffed guests and their empty plates.



I have some resolutions this year but I think I'll mull over those on my birthday in a few months. I'm just thankful to have made it through 2006 in one piece. What a year!

*almost all of these recipes came off of Simply Recipes.com