Un jour en France

On Sunday we began the day with a quick visit in Cordon. The annual fete du pain (bread festival) was taking place, so there was a ton of activity. When we arrived we watched some locals dressed in folk-type costumes doing a dance of some sort. We also saw an interesting contraption for making fresh apple juice.

We weren’t able to stay long, but we did catch the bénédiction du pain (blessing of the bread) before our departure. Actually, it effectively delayed our departure for about five minutes given the parade of people that clogged the streets as part of the celebration.





















For lunch we had reservations at the restaurant of the Auberge du Père Bise hotel, which is in Talloires next to Lac d’Annecy. The restaurant served as another drastic departure from my normal culinary confines, given its one Michelin star rating.

As can be seen from the pictures, the view from the outdoor dining area where we ate was beautiful. The lake had a crystal blue color and the surrounding mountains provided a nice backdrop.










As expected the food was incredible and I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.











The cheese tray was pretty impressive. Given my general ignorance on the subject of cheese, I let the server make some selections. For the most part it was very good, but my palate has not quite evolved to the point where Roquefort is a favorite.










Despite being well on my way to a near lethal food coma, the dessert arrived soon after and out of respect for the restaurant I acquiesced and finished the entire soufflé that I had ordered.

And if we hadn’t done enough to clog a few arteries and induce adult onset diabetes, the following arrived after our dessert. Americans may get a bad rap for overeating, but this was excessive by any standards. I abstained given that I couldn’t physically consume another calorie.

By the time our marathon lunch came to an end it was after 4pm. Following some quick pictures (including the one of me, Emilie and Yvain included below), we made our way back to the cars and headed home.

There was a fair amount of traffic around Lac d’Annecy, but at least the view was nice. Given the nice weather, there were a large number of paragliders out. I was able to count around 20 in the picture below.