Thursday, February 08, 2007

Cold White and Hot Red

Fun Stuff:

Winter arrived late in France. In fact, unlike in the U.S., it is still limping along. We had a good snow about four weeks ago, and we got some snow again today. I hope it sticks around for a little while. You have to go up to about 2000 meters to get freezing temperatures, and therefore, good snow for snowboarding.




These are the closest slopes to us. This is les Sept Laux (the seven lakes). There are plenty of better places in France, but we can get from our door to these slopes in 45 minutes. Most of that time is spent just driving up the mountain.

I have been learning to snowboard, and It is great fun. There is, however, a lot of falling involved. Snowboard falls are fast and violent. They just sneak up on you, and in the case of two of my friends, they break stuff. I hope to make it through the season without needing x-rays.

Wine Stuff:

Hot red wine is what winter is all about. No kidding. One of my favorite things about Europe is the Christmas markets. Every ten feet you can grab some hot mulled wine to tide you over until the next ten feet.

The French do a pretty good job, but the Germans do it the best. At any Christmas market in Germany, you can get your Gluewein spiked with rum, or amaretto, or basically anything alcoholic you can think of. If you are lucky enough to get invited to a German household around Christmas time, you might get the pleasure of participating in a feuerzangbowle. This is a traditional preparation of Gluewein. You create the wine mixture not unlike a sangria, only hot. Then you put it in a punch bowl, and place a firetongue, a simple metal bridge, over the bowl. Place a sugar cone on the tongue and soak it in rum of higher than 50% alcohol (for good burnin'). Light it up and let the sugar melt into the wine. If you have done a good job, the wine will catch fire too.

happy drinking,
-PMo