Chocolate Wars

Perhaps fairly civil chocolate "wars" could happen only in Switzerland.  But it turns out that, unbeknownst to me, lost in my little cocoon, such chocolate warfare has been happening right on my doorstep.

According to today's Geneva Tribune, the little Confiserie de la Fontaine, quite visibly located on our quaint medieval main main street, is locked in a legal battle, referred to by the Tribune as a bisbille (squabble or falling out) with the recently-opened (Fall 2012) Chocolaterie Banchet.

As explained in the article, M Banchet (the father) was originally the owner of the Confiserie de la Fontaine, but sold his business in 2011 to another couple, the Bichets, who have been running the busines quite successfully since.  As one can see, there is already a small problem in that the names themselves are very similar at first blush - which should possibly have, in itself, raised a small red flag to the purchasers.

In any event, the sales contract stipulated that the Bichets would undertake to purchase chocolate produced by M Banchet fils for a five-year period, during which time no new chocolate business would be opened to compete with them.  When M Banchet fils opened his own chocolate business last fall not far from the local gare (train station), the Bichets promptly sued him for concurrence deloyale (unfair trade competition).

Unfortunately, the Bichets had apparently not read the fine print in their sales contract.  The court ultimately determined that the anti-competition clause applied only to M Banchet the father and not at all to the son.  The Bichets thus had no cause of action and no legal remedy.

It turns out that the relationship between the two families is even more contractually intertwined - at least for another three years.  The Bichets make their own chocolate in the same premises - rented from M Banchet the father - that M Banchet fils uses for his own business.

Still, because both establishments make excellent chocolates and we in the general area appreciate chocolate very much, it is difficult to be too dismayed at the prospect of more - and presumably even improving quality  - chocolate so close by.  There are enough of us to keep both businesses going.  And then some.  But, if one of them could develop a delicious chocolate that we normal people could eat without adding the commensurate poundage, that one would definitely "win" the competition so far as I am concerned.

In the meantime, we're - almost - all winners!  Mmmmmm!

2012 Montreux Christmas Market, Part 2

It doesn't take a Christmas Market for the lakeside in Montreux to be a beautiful place.  Everywhere one looks is literally a feast for the eyes.  Whether one is gazing back at the city

or simply strolling along the lakeside where colorful flowers tumble in riotous profusion, one walks in beauty.

Even the "fast" food has a French - and seasonal - touch, such as here where magret de canard (duck filet) with foie gras (fat liver) or la sauce aux truffes (truffle sauce - not the chocolate kind) is sold as a sandwich.

There are lots of thirst quenchers available as well, as one might expect in a wine- and brandy-making culture.

Here's a stall featuring handicrafts from the Swiss Alps

and another with tons of snow globes, always favorites with me.

Here are some decorative examples of Swiss decoupage, lovely but not at all inexpensive.

Gingerbread is always a seasonal favorite in Christmas markets

and other sweets can be found in abundance.

One can also find Christmas balls of all colors and sizes

and there are wooden bowls and implements for creating epicurean delights.

Even Freddie Mercury's statue is festooned with a wreath to stimulate some holiday spirit.

Travels in China - Food Routines

It was a treat for HWMBO and his companions in the study group to be among other students at CAFA and they soon learned the routine.  Of course, as with most of us, one of their favorite experiences was sampling the food.  It was also fun to watch food being prepared before their eyes, such as seeing these noodles being pulled and stretched just before they were popped into boiling water.

It was good practice to arrive promptly at the cafeteria, because the food could disappear quickly,

but delicious soups and other noodle dishes could be prepared in a flash.

For snacking as they went about their sightseeing, fresh and dried fruits were available in abundance,

as well as nuts of many varieties.

There were also restaurants of many types, some with very impressive exteriors.

Others were less formal, where one could snack while discussing the highlights of the day.

And one even could find an occasional Starbucks - although well-disguised -

to help with stray moments of homesickness.

Randomly Miscellaneous Thoughts

After getting our respective exercise this morning (HWMBO to play tennis; me to take a brisk walk), which was no small thing considering that the temperature was already in the 90s and climbing, we decided to make a run to a new supermarket that has opened nearby: Wegmans.

As I discovered while surfing the net, Wegmans has been in business since 1916 and is still a family-owned business. This fact may at least partially account for its generally excellent business rating. It has appeared on Fortune magazine's list of "100 Best Companies to Work For" since the list's inception. In 2007, it received an award for "Best Grocery Store" in 2007 from the Food Network. In 2012, Consumer Reports ranked it as the top large US grocery chain.

In size and offerings, it was impressive, with an excellent selection of seafood, wonderful imported cheeses and organic products. There was a multi-faceted food court. One could either order from one of many counters and take one's purchases upstairs to eat or could be seated at a counter, as we decided, and order there. On the menus, we were specifically directed not to leave a tip for the server. This got me to hoping that this meant that the staff were actually receiving decent hourly wages and benefits. After learning that the company is considered an excellent place to work, it appears that may indeed be the case. I'm due to prepare dinner tonight and I'll be utilizing some of our purchases.

*****

Most businesses and households in the area are now connected and functional, thank heavens, and most roads have also been cleared of debris. Crews have been working nonstop since Friday night's storm and high winds struck. Just before my return, our neighbor's teen-age daughter had been involved in a serious fender bender when the car in front of her braked suddenly to avoid a large fallen branch and her reaction time was just too slow to avoid a collision. Although the car was impressively damaged, it appears that no one was hurt - which is the most important concern.  And during our visit to Wegmans, we ran into one of HWMBO's fellow voyagers from his trip to China who shared with us that her household had been without electricity for three days. She was very relieved to be re-connected.

Today's online Washington Post has an interesting interactive here, showing the before and after images from last Friday night as viewed from space. Click on the link and drag the slider shown there to the right for the "before" image and left for the "after" image.

*****

This being a Presidential election year, there is a lot in the news about the doings of the two major candidates. President Obama, as the incumbent, has the "bully pulpit" advantage and is making excellent use of it. Mitt Romney, the GOP candidate, appears less and less knowledgeable about anything that would actually help move the country forward every time he opens his mouth. Perhaps someone should do him a favor and tell him just to zip it. Another real problem for him even though he has oodles of cash: his own party apparently finds him "boring."  Here's hoping that things stay that way for him and that the President wins a second term. I personally believe that anything else would be devastating, not only for the US, but for the world that must live with us.

*****

Courtesy of one of the online groups I follow, I have found a very interesting website for anyone who, like me, loves to read and also loves to imagine the geographic locations of where the action in a novel takes place: Maps of the Classics. Take some armchair journeys and enjoy! After all, journeys of the mind can often be the most satisfying of all.  

The Remains of the Day

Amply fortified with more wine samples - one of which I'll likely return to buy - I headed out from Fechy-Dessus towards Bougy-Villars, noticing that the slope above me was also lined with houses overlooking vineyards.

Here's one last view of the Fechys - Upper and Lower! What pretty villages they are!

But there were still lots of vineyards to see and sip at. This particular domain was not one of them, but it was still a pretty sight.

Aha - a vineyard that ticks all the picturesque buttons, with its open courtyard framed by ivy-covered walls!  And yes, this was my next stop!

The tasting was not held in the courtyard of this cave, which has been a family business passed from father to son since 1689 (!), but in a special tasting room on the ground floor of the house. The entrance is shown here.

I tried some of their "unique" pinot grigios and a magnificent assemblage blanc, characterized as a "vin innovatif." Their pinot noir was pretty good too. As with all the wineries I visited that day, the hospitality was exceptional. But this is certainly a winery that I will also return to and be proud to show off to visitors.

Unfortunately, however, time was passing and I had missed the shuttle at this stop

so I decided to continue on to Bougy-Villars, yet another pretty village.

Houses bedecked with vivid flowerpots

and ivy lined the way.

There are also guesthouses for those who would like to spend quality time among the vines.

Having had a very satisfactory day even though I had barely scratched the surface of the vineyards in the region, I headed back towards Allaman to catch my train home. Perhaps the wine had addled my brain enough that I had underestimated the distance I had come. Instead of waiting prudently for the next shuttle, I struck off on my own. Obviously, since I'm writing these posts, I returned home unscathed. But I was also exhausted.

I thought that the exhaustion was brought on by the wine I had drunk until I calculated how far I had walked: 18 kilometers (15 miles)! That may seem trifling to those who are not in their late 60s. But I had to admit that I impressed myself!

Caves Ouvertes Vaudoises

The annual Caves Ouvertes Vaudoises was held this past weekend. This is a time when the local vintners hold open houses in their wine cellars and invite the population in to sample their wares and - hopefully - buy some. Swiss wines may not be well-known to the world outside this country, largely because they are rarely, if ever, exported. This situation is much to our liking. The wines are excellent and affordable, in some cases, they are almost cheaper than the bottled water that is also popular here. When the weather is glorious, as it was this weekend, it also provides an opportunity to get some fresh air and exercise. Most caves are so concentrated within the wine-growing regions of the canton of Vaud that they are within ideal walking distance of one another.

On Saturday, I decided to visit a region that I had not previously visited. I should explain that locally, several caves can already be found in the village next to mine, among them the winemakers who process the grapes in "my" vineyard, i.e., the vines that are located in front of our apartment complex. But because I regularly cycle through that area and have written about events there before, I wanted to see something different. So I decided to take the train to Allaman and from there take the free shuttles (navettes) up to the villages of Fechy, Fechy-Dessus and Bougy-Villars to wander through the vineyards there and sample the wines.  My plan was to follow the shuttle route so that I could take the shuttle back to the train station.

The plan began well enough. I blithely hopped off at the first stop in Fechy after taking a couple photos from inside the bus.

Then I visited my first cave of the day.

Each participating cave was distinguished by a black and red banner.

One could pay CHF 15 at any participating cave in order to receive a commemorative wine glass and a carrying pouch that one could place around one's neck. The pouch and glass would allow entry and tasting privileges at any of the participating caves. Here is my sampling equipment, with the glass already containing a taste of the vintner's pinot noir. Believe me, that sample didn't last long.

After spending some pleasant moments chatting, learning about the wines of that cave and really impressing a Swiss woman because I planned to hike around the area rather than drive, I left to climb the hill up to Fechy-Dessus (literally Upper Fechy).

Pay special attention to the building with the terrace in the center-left of this photo. There will be more about that in the next post.

Quiet Saturday

Many of my neighbors appear to have left for the Easter holidays which coincide with the school spring break. I've been involved today in schematics plotting out a major writing project, which started off a year ago as an email conversation among several people formerly from my little home town in Montana. The conversation was inspired by an incident occurring there in the late 1950s that literally traumatized the entire town.

Memories of the incident first evolved into a short story draft early this year following my attendance at a writers' conference in February. After performing some Google searches inspired by the situation, I discovered a treasure trove of information about that incident and its aftermath with some very interesting, previously unknown, if macabre, twists.  My visitors at the end of February provided some new information that I had previously been unaware of. Now the episode is spiraling into something that is still to be determined, but has some exciting possibilities. The short story is still in rewrite stages, but will ultimately be something very different from the major project.

The weather today, being unseasonably cool, gloomy and rainy has helped contribute to a productive writing spurt. There is absolutely no temptation to be outside. But now, on a break from that project, I am turning my thoughts to the one of the lovely perks of any holiday in this area: chocolate. When Friend R visited me for lunch a couple Mondays back, she brought me one of Lindt's sweet packages.

Because I had already purchased chocolate at the FestiChoc for our dessert, Friend R's gift is still intact. But all that is about to change. Based on this article, chocolate will be a comfort to many this weekend. I can guarantee that it will comfort me!

Enjoy your last few minutes in your pristine wrapping condition, little chocolate bites! Now I need you to inspire another burst of creativity! Let us hope that your "sacrifice" will not be in vain.

Peeps Show

If it's nearly Easter, it must be Peeps Time. Peeps are the squishy, sugary marshmallow treats that are shaped into chicks and bunnies for the Easter holiday. They are perennial holiday features in the US and Canada.

For the past several years, the Washington Post newspaper has run a Peeps contest to see how the Peeps may be arranged into creative scenarios. Readers who are also amateur Peeps artists have not disappointed them.

Check out Peeps Show VI, this years event. You'll have to sit through about 15 seconds of an ad, but you'll be rewarded with some fun shots of activities in the Peeps' lives.

Basler Weinacht Maerkte

This report may be long overdue, but here are some photos of the visit to the Christmas Market in Basel.  The weather outside is more like what one usually expects around Christmas than the weather for Christmas 2011 actually was.

Stalls for the 2011 Basler Weinachte Maerkte were located in two parts of the city: the Barfüsserplatz near the Historical Museum

and the Münsterplatz, considered to be one of the most beautiful plazas in Basel, 

which also featured a decorated Christmas tree.

The stalls featured lots of local food specialties, 

as well as specialties from Bavaria and eastern Germany.

Some stall keepers were dressed in period costume,

while others let their decorated stalls set the tone.

With plenty available to eat and drink, we were able to fortify ourselves for a more prolonged visit to the non-food stalls and their wares.