Here is yet another (and much belated) installment on the France trip.  Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to copy the photos from Flickr to my desktop so that I can then put them in my blog.  There is a back story here.  I lost my camera the second day I was in France.  We went mushrooming at the ass-crack of sawn in the mountains.  I was trudging around the woods with my camera in my pocket and it fell out!  I did not know until we got back to the car and there was no way to back track when we had been zigzagging across the side of a forested hill looking for mushrooms and not paying attention to any particular landmarks (like the thousands of pines that all look alike).  So, I used Becca’s camera and downloaded them to Flickr every night.  This was not really an issue until today.  I had to replace my computer because it is on its last leg.  I decided to go over to the dark side and we bought a MAC.  Now, I have to say I am in love….but there is no “right-click” which means I can’t steal my own photos back from Flickr.  AGHHHHH.

So, here is the link for those of you who are really curious.   http://www.flickr.com/photos/slippingthroughmyfingers/page12/

Agde is the largest resort town in the south of France and a destination for French wanting to escape the cities and frolic on the beach.  It is beautiful.  The beaches are very rocky….even the sand is black from the pulverized rocks and shells.  The contrast of the black against the heartbreakingly beautiful blue of the sea and the sky is stunning.  Of course, it was pretty cool when we were there, about 60 and not many were swimming, but many were walking the beaches.  Remi and Alex got a bit wet, but even they decided it was too cool for much of a dip.   The town is full of stores on a boardwalk kind of area.  Many of the stores were closed for the season, but there was still plenty to be had, should we have had the need for questionable beachwear or some moonwalk stilts!   The boardwalk area is right on the sea.  The docks are on one side of the walk and the shops and building on the other.  I found a boat named “diane” at the dock and I asked Becca if the name Dianne was popular in France.  She snickered and asked if I really wanted to know.  Of course, I did….she said that men name their best hunting dogs “Diane” after the goddess of the hunt.  Christophe said she was correct and he even owned a dog named Diane at one point and she was an excellent hunting dog.  Oh well, at least they reserve my name for the BEST dogs!  There are pictures in Flickr of my boat.

One of the most interesting things I saw in Agde was the monument hill to the Americans who fell fighting for France’s freedom in WWII.  It was a beautiful hill and looked out to the clear sea.  I took many photos of it, both detail and overall, but I know I was unable to capture the full effect….but I am certain there is no way I can write about the place.  It was moving and eerie and odd to find something dedicated to Americans in France.  Common myth is that the French don’t care for Americans and never have and never will.  I think things are a lot more complicated than that and this monument is tangible evidence that in some way, our country has made a positive impression on the French.

Christophe and Becca both told me many different times how great the area is that they live in and I think I have to agree.  In a weeks’ time Christophe took us to the beach, to the farm, to the mountains and to the city all within an hour from their house.  Christophe said the region of Caux was the best for him and I think it is the best for the kids and Becca as well.  There is so much to do and see, the people are kind and generous and the air feels squeaky clean.  It was amazing.  Browse through my pictures….I think you’ll agree.

Kidney stones suck….that’s all I have to say.

On my way to France I chose to work on my second sock of the Nutkin socks by Beth LaPensee.  I had finished the first one over a month ago and just couldn’t make any real progress on the second one.  I had managed to cast on and make the fold down top, but that is all.  I am seriously wondering if I will ever be a sock knitter, as the pair took over 4 months to complete and Wendy is on her third pair of socks after we started together.  Anyway, I knit through a good portion of our flight to France and some on the TGV.  By the time I got to Becca’s I was ready to turn the heel.  I finished the socks after three days of being in France.  I would have finished them sooner…but Christophe was busy making sure I did not miss anything of interest in the south of France.

The pattern is easy to remember and very intuitive, so I did not have t lug out the pattern when I knit.  I only needed it to remind me of the number of repeats.  I did change the heal to an eye of partridge as I had done the short row heel as suggested on the first sock and found it to be thin.  I had to rip that out.  I did not want a sock that I spent so much time on to crap out on the heel. I also did a standard toe rather than her toe.  I like the look better.  Of course, my Kitchener is less than spectacular, so the toe on the pattern would probably have looked better.  I used ShibuiKnits Sock.  Unfortunately I don’t remember the colorway.  The bright sun in the south of France make the variegation really stand out.  In person, the difference in the purples is much more subtle and not so distracting from the lace pattern.  I have not washed these yet, but my girlfriend made her first pair with the same yarn in a different colorway and they faded terribly.  The socks started out as vibrant as mine and after the first cold water handwash looked very dull.  I hope that will not be the case with mine.

Here is the Ravelry link for those of you on Ravelry.   http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Slipping/nutkin

Here are the photos that Becca took in her back yard….doesn’t it look like I’m at a resort!

I wore my socks on the plane coming home.  They are very, very warm!  I had to take them off for the last flight as I was about to pass out.  If I stick with knitting socks, I may have to find a lighter weight yarn!!!

On Thursday or Friday (not sure which) my brother-in-law, Christophe, took us to a cave.  No, that is not cave, but /cav/.  Yes, short a.  Anyway.  A cave is a place where grapes are processed into wine.  Christophe is in the Languedoc region of France.  He is part of a different co-op than the one he took us to.  This cave was the largest in the region.  It is the Pomeroles Cave.  Here is a photo.

We were able to taste several wines (before noon).  They were really good.  The tasting is inside the warehouse where the wine is fermented and stored.  It was so cool.  There was the coolest thing, too.  There were spigots where you could bring a jug and fill it with one of three types of wine.  this wine is what the older locals drink.  It is not aged, but Christophe says it is perfectly good table wine and it is cheaper than gas!  That’s right, a liter for a 1.2 euro or so.  Here’s a picture of that.

Here’s the price list.

Here are a group of photos from the inner workings of the cave.  You can see some of the fermenting and purifying tanks.  I don’t know what every thing is because Christophe’s English is marginally better than my French.  Let me promise, we were both at a disadvantage, but somehow managed to get along.  Notice my dad…he had already sampled a few wines.  They were NOT skimpy with the samples, either.   It was so funny…I was every intimidated by the idea of going to a real French wine producer and tasting the wine, but the people there just acted like it was another day on the job and so did Christophe.  Super.fun.

On the way back from the cave, Christophe took us to see his vineyard.  All I can say about that is WOW! He has a lot of land and a lot of grapes.  He grows two varieties.  One is picpoul.  The other is a red.  The picpoul is a grape that is protected.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piquepoul   Only the growers in his region can grow it.  In addition to all fo the grape vines, there are almond trees.  Christophe pulled and cracked fresh almonds for us.  He also showed us wild rosemary and thyme…not to mention many other herbs that I did not recognize and could not get the jest of through translation.  There are also tons of markers on his land.  The markers tell the story of the area using cartoon Roman soldiers who appear to be less than smart.  Here si a gallery of the vineyard and the signs.  I also tried to get a couple fo horizon shots. Remember, they are 25 miles from the Sea and about the same from the mountains.  They really have it all in this area.

Tomorrow I will continue my France posts with pics from the coast.

I am planning on posting about France in several parts as I do not have the ability to sit here linking photos and blathering on for hours at a time.   I get bored and frustrated when a post gets to long.  (Oh, on  side note…I cannot tell you how relieved I am to be typing on an English language keyboard.)

Caux is a little town in the south of France.  It’s population is about 2500 according to Wikipedia (I’m pretty sure that’s close).  The village used to be a fort as you can see in one of the photos.  French cities are so different from American cities.  The town centers are packed together buildings with winding stairs leading to open courtyards, crooked halls leading to a front door or nowhere and buildings that belie the interior lives.  The buildings are so closed that it looks as if no one lives in the town until someone appears from nowhere or a window may be open two floors above the street.  I really don’t know how to describe it.  It was so beautiful.  I have to say tha it was a little creepy in that with everything always closed and the streets so twisty and little enclaves so hidden, that I felt someone could jump out at any time!  Of course, i wouldn’t happen…it was just eerie and I was out of my comfort zone.

The center of town loosens into free-standing structures as you move out-of-town toward Becca’s house.  The houses are fairly close, much like the area where I live.  The have small lots that they use to maximum advantage.  Most yards had at least a couple of fig, nut or olive trees; many had swimming pools; and many herb or vegetable gardens.  All houses also have shoulder-high walls around them.  The architecture is very Mediterranean as they are just 30 minutes from the Mediterranean Sea.  The houses are stuccoed with clay tile roofs in washed out colors that are usually of a warm tone.  The place is so safe that the kids can walk the 5 minutes into town together…without needing an adult.

I have to say the overall impression I got of the town was that of a fairy tale. It was so quite, relaxed, peaceful.  I really liked it and would recommend the area to anyone.

I am posting from the train for my November second post as it appears I won’t have another chance today. I generally love the train but we have not been very successful this trip with France’s TGV. I have been on the TGV before but it was more than 10 years ago and was not this hard. The train is overbooked so the controller sais we may loose our seats at any time. I don’t mind standing but it is three more hours to Charles deGaul and I feel like shit.

Greetings from France.  This is just a quick note to say that I am planning to blog every day in November again this year.  Due to the enormous number of pictures I have taken in France and in New York over the last two and a half weeks, there should be no shortage of things to write about.  Here is one picture of my niece, nephew and brother in law to hold you off!

Well, it’s 11:35 the night before I leave on a 22.5 hour trip to France to see my sis and her family.  I’m pretty keyed up.  I spent the day doing some last-minute grocery shopping (Henry did 99% of it yesterday, but could not locate everything we needed), prepping and vacuum sealing all prepped ingredients for Henry, going over schedules and how to cook all the ingredients into edible meals with Henry, taking the girls to a carnival and lastly……packing.  I should be passed out in bed.  Instead, I am awake.

I just returned from a trip to New York with Lori on Tuesday.  I was gone 5 days and it felt like 5 years.  The first couple of days were great, but then I started to feel lonely.  That’s an odd way to feel in  place like New York, where you can”t turn around without making an intimate acquaintance of a stranger and I was with amazing people.  Don’t get me wrong,  I had a great time.  I just felt disconnected.

Now I am going to visit my sis……the person that I miss so bad it aches….yet I am still nervous about leaving my family.  I know they will be fine without me.   I just will be missing stuff.  What stuff?  I don’t know…but stuff, nonetheless.

I will post pictures of New York as soon as I can upon return from France and of course I will post the France pics asap.

Last night Henry and I took the girls to our favorite sushi place.  We go at least twice a month and the staff love our girls.  Te girls are very comfortable there and we trust them enough there to go to the restroom together.  (Yes, this does have a point…give me a minute.)  Anyway, 2/3 of the way through dinner the girls had to go to the restroom.  They went and were gone for a very short time before returning with a WALLET!   It was a white and pink wallet that was very, very fat.  It was worn and fat.  It had he look of a little thing that held someone’ life as tightly as a bit of synthetic leather and metal can.  The girls were very concerned.  We caught the manager and the girls handed it over to him.  He promised to find its owner.  A few minutes later one of the waitresses comes to table near tears.  She wants to thank the girls (they had gone back to the bathroom to finish their business).  She waits until they return and thanks them profusely.  She hugged them and told them what good girls they are.  She explained that she had just received her weeks pay and it was apparently in the wallet.  Now this particular lady works at TWO restaurants we visit.  She is a very hard working woman.  The girls were kind of stunned to receive such gratitude from a grown up, a person they didn’t know well and for something they knew they should have done….but they were very pleased.

Right before we left, Sam, the waitress, brought a big bag of Japanese candies to the girls.  They almost came out of their skins!  They adore these treats because they are so different from the stuff you get at the supermarket. We tried to beg off, but she was adamant that she gie the candy to the girls as a thank you for such a good deed.  She thanked us too for raising such good girls.  Wow, they are good girl, if I do say so myself.  Here they are with their reward.

This morning we made ebelskiver together.  Henry and I went to Williams Sonoma yesterday and ran into a pan we couldn’t resist.  Here’s a link and a better photo.  http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/c332/index.cfm  Henry was intrigued and I consented to trying these.  I picked up the cookbook as well.  The interesting thing about these is that you beat egg whites and incorporate them into the batter in order to make them very fluffy.  They puff up like and are the size of golf balls.  I made one batch that was cinnamon and brown sugar.  These had no filling.  Then I made some filled with jam as well.  The girls helped and we had a pretty good time.  Everyone loved them but me.  I really do not like pancakes and I don’t think they are different enough to make me like them.  They are much eggier than pancakes, but still, no go for me.  Here’s photos of the process.  It’s a bit more involved than pancakes, but we had fun.  Oh, ignore the pj’s and bedhead…please.

One more thing…I forgot.  The first egg I cracked was double yolked!

I don’t think I have mentioned it on my blog yet…but who knows!  I have started the Master Knitting Program offered through The Knitting Guild Association.  Here’s the link in case ny of you are interested.  http://www.tkga.com/mastersprogram.shtm

In short, one must knit numerous swatches demonstrating mastery of specified techniques, do research, answer technical questions and eventually design an Aran sweater and write the pattern.  I am on the first level.  There are three levels.  I consider myself a good knitter….not the best, but reasonably good.  I expected this to be somewhat challenging, but fun and informative.  Wow!  It has been challenging and I only have gotten through three swatches!  individually, none of the techniques have been particularly hard as far as being able to do them.  However, the level of perfection that I am finding myself in pursuit of is ridiculous.  Two months ago I would have knit the swatches below and called them great.  Now, I am wondering if they are even “good enough” to submit.

The 2by2 ribbing comprised the majority of my frustration and time.  I am a continental knitter and due to the way I purl, my purl stitches are looser than my knit stitches.  It really showed up in my first three tries at the 2by2 rib.  The ribbing was rolling open where the stitches went from a knit to a purl.  I found an article at the TKGA website about this very thing!  Apparently I am not the only one to be cursed by this phenomenon.  I think I have fixed it.  The remedy is basically tugging on the working yarn right after the knit stitch and then again after the first purl.  It sure does slow things down a bit….but it may be worth it if it keeps me from having to reknit them after being rejected by the committee.

The stockinette swatch with the 1by1 ribbing was much better in the ribbing section, but did cause me some problem again with the difference in tension between my knit and my purl stitches on the stockinette portion.  When the tension between knit and purl in stockinette is different, the result is a fabric that has a slightly rippled appearance.  I had to tackle this several times.  I think I am now satisfied with that.

I am hesitant on my increases on both swathces, but especially on the garter stitch swatch.  I think they show.  The point of this exercise, was that you make increase that are invisible.  I did a lot of research and found what I thought was going to be the most invisible increase for ribbing…the knit in front and back (vogue calls it the bar increase because of the bar that it leaves behind).  This happens to be the increase I use most often, but now I am wondering.

I have not blocked these yet and I have finished the seed stitch swatch, but have no photos yet.  I will block all three and repost.  I would love feedback from anyone who has any ideas on how to make my knitting better, words of encouragement or anyone who wold like to commiserate with me!  Hell, I’ll take any kind of feedback!

Anyway, here are the swatches.

And here is a picture Mycah drew of Henry on her Leapster game.  Isn’t it the cutest!!!!