European Voyage Part Une: The Jura

What started out as a one week trip turned into two weeks turned into, "Well...might as well make it three." Our first stop was France. My sister and her boyfriend Victor were nice enough to let my mom and I invite ourselves on their trip to Victor's family home in the Jura region.

We actually flew into Geneva, Switzerland which was cheaper and actually more convenient than Paris. The drive to Victor's house was a couple of hours. I awakened out of my Tylenol P.M. induced coma long enough to take a few pictures of Lake Geneva and the Alps.

The Alps and Lake Geneva (hidden underneath the fog)

Oh about 5 minutes after this pictures was taken, I was passed out in the backseat of the car. I was told the drive took around 2 hours.

Victor had talked about his family's house, how it was from the 11th century and how his family restored it, but my god, I was not prepared. It was AMAZING. My jaw dropped.

Front gate

Front of the house (I couldn't stand back far enough to get the whole thing)


Side garden

GIGANTIC fireplace which my 5'4'' frame easily cleared

You can't go to France without going wine tasting. We went a place not too far from the house. It was super foggy, so we couldn't see much of the actual vineyards. We were there for the wine anyway. We tasted 5 wines that ranged from dry to very sweet. The sparkling was definitely my favorite. We bought a couple bottles, one for dinner and one to take back to the states. Had it not been the beginning of the trip, I would have liked to have bought a few more bottles to take home.

After we finished up the winery, we drove an area where a glacier crashed through god only knows how many thousands of years ago. Beautiful steep cliffs and waterfalls.

We definitely ate well during this leg of the trip. I wish I had gotten pictures of everything, but I slacked a little. I think my favorite meal was our lunch of cheese. If I could eat cheese and bread everyday, I would. My version of hell includes lactose intolerance. We got all of these cheeses at a grocery store.

Crazy brocoli-like vegetable we found at the grocery store.

Another fun meal was when we used the raclette. It's this cool griddle looking thing that you plug in, and underneath the griddle, everyone has their own little pan to melt their cheese (yes, even more cheese...be still my heart!). You can heat meat or cook vegetables on top, and then pour melted cheese over them. We had some brussels sprouts, potatoes, cold cuts, bread, and fruit. The best was definitely the classic French combo: cheese, a potato, and a cornichon.

We spent the last day with my sister and her boyfriend at this neat museum that used to be a church hospital. The roofs of the buildings had really cool tile patterns.

Crawfish eyes

Our train for the next leg of the trip left from Dijon, so we stopped for dinner and then walked around for a bit. Such a cute town! I wish we could've spent more time there, but we had to catch the train to Italy. Such a tough life....