Une Fille Américaine à Lyon: La synchronisation est tout

The last weekend before Justin left to go back to the United States, we decided that we would drive to Geneva for the day and grab lunch in Switzerland since it is only a two hour drive from Lyon (we are so fancy like that). We invited a young man named Justin from our Ecully Ward to join us. I must say it was both confusing and convenient to have conversations like, "Justin look at the beautiful countryside. Justin, can you hand me the dogs leash?" It was like a two for one thing!! Justin is from Las Vegas. He is studying at the Culinary Institute of Paul Bocuse, a very prestigious and well known chef and founder of the school here in Lyon. He will be here for the next three years and is away from all his family and friends and I have taken to him perhaps because I feel we are all a little displaced and could use some adopted family. Before I continue the Geneva story, I have to tell about the of the first time, I guess it is really the ONLY time, Justin came to have dinner at our house. (Not my finest moment!) Justin has neither confirmed nor denied whether or not he will ever again accept an invitation to dinner.

The preface needed to this "side" story is that several weeks ago we went to Paris for the day to have lunch with a business associate of Mike's (again, another fancy lunch...I'm just showing off now!). We arrived back on the train in Lyon around 7:30 p.m. I realized that I needed to go to the grocery for our Sunday dinner and so we hustled to the Carrefour just 20 minutes before they closed. I have mentioned the shear size of the Carrefour before but until you see the massive scale of the grocery it may be hard to understand why getting in and out in 20 minutes is a difficult thing to do. I whipped through the store quickly grabbing several packages of meat and some pasta before rushing to the check-out. I have prepared veal scaloppine a few times since arriving in France but these cuts of meat were ones that I had picked up from the market already breaded or from the butcher shop, both sources required that they just be grilled in a hot pan for 6 minutes and then VOILA they were ready. At the end of the day the Carrefour didn't have the pre-breaded kind so I just picked up a bulk package of veal and shoved it in my cart. **Side story to my side story--I do that a lot** Until now, I have had several objections to eating baby cow but I have to admit I kinda like it. I guess baby cow is pretty tame in comparison to some of the things that I have seen here in France. I will probably be able to do an entire blog on the meat departments, but I am already in the middle of a diversion that has taken me off topic. Let me just say that at Carrefour there is a section of "cheval"(that is horse meat...good thing I covered some basic farm animals in my Rosetta Stone course or I wouldn't have known that!!) and there are brains, livers, hearts, intestines and just gross stuff!! I can handle the veal more easily.

When we were at church on Sunday, I thought to invite Justin over for dinner since I had bought that bulk package of veal and I knew there would be enough for all four of us. When Justin came over, he arrived around five and I had planned to visit and then cook around six. In our pre-dinner chat, one of the topics we covered was what Justin had learned that week in school and to my horror, he had studied for a week on the preparation of VEAL!! I was already very intimidated to have him over and cook for him and now this!!! We started with a little appetizer of cantelope and then moved onto the "salad course" of tomato and mozzarella (we ALWAYS eat in courses at our house....NOT! I was trying to be fancy and French, both things I am not!) and while the guys were outside eating and chatting I went in and decided to start the veal. We actually do take a lot of our meals out on the balcony and that is VERY French. Can I just say and I am not being modest, it turned out AWFUL! I made my own breading by blending croutons and adding herbs from Provence that I had actually bought FROM Provence the previous weekend. I soaked the meat in a bath of milk and then eggs and then dredged it in the homemade breading. It sounds good so far right? MISTAKE #1: The meat was not as thin as the meat from the butcher since I had just grabbed the "bulk" packaging that was left out at the end of the day. I had nothing to pound the meat thin, so instead I just pressed forward and decided I would just "cook it a little longer". MISTAKE #2: I overheated the oil, it was smoking, and can I just say that the breading was burned and falling off the meat...the meat was tough and I'm not entirely sure it was cooked through. It was disastrous!! There was no back up plan, nothing else in the house to cook and thus.... MISTAKE #3: I had no choice but to serve the meat!! If it had been just the boys and I, we probably would have broken the Sabbath and eaten out. I'm just glad no one got sick!! Before Justin came over, I said to Mike that I should just have Justin cook the dinner but he informed me that was rude. I'm not sure what is worse....breaking etiquette rules and eating a well prepared piece of meat that Justin had just spent 60 hours learning how to prepare and cook OR eating burnt crusted, tough and maybe in some places raw, veal! For dessert, I just brought the pre-made ice cream directly from the freezer and in the carton to the table with bowls and spoons where everyone could scoop their own portion. I knew I couldn't mess up ice cream from a container!!

SO anyway....Justin (the adopted one) came with us to Geneva!!

One of the main focal points of the city of Geneva is Lake Geneva. It is an impressively large lake, in fact the largest lake in Switzerland and Western Europe. You cannot see the boundaries of the lake as it is spans some 45 miles in length and at some places up to 8 miles in width. In the bay at Geneva is a water fountain appropriately called Jet d'Eau (jet of water). They didn't spend too much time trying to fancy that one up!!

Boys being boys, the Justins' decided that they wanted to walk out on the pier where the Jet d'Eau shot off it's impressive spray.

This was a great idea until the winds changed and the boys were too proud to change plans once they were close. Notice they are the ONLY ones walking out there and this picture was taken with my SUPER zoom lens! Needless to say, they soon realized that they could not proceed given the conditions and they came back DRENCHED in water. We walked the long distance back to shore, the boys feeling denied. By the time we had made the long walk back to shore, the winds of course changed and they saw their opening and headed back out to finish what they had started.