My lunch routine...

So one of my concerns when coming to France was what would I do for my workouts? Aside from my daily hike up and down the “the hill”, I was limited in what I could do. Luckily, our office is only about ½ mile from Lake Passy. This is a gorgeous mountain lake with two trails that go completely around it. My first day in the office, I ventured out to explore the trails in 6 inches of snow. The lake is amazing. Completely surrounded by mountains, it is a gorgeous view all the way around.

So it has become my daily lunch routine to run, yes, I said run, around the lake. Those of you who know me and my strong dislike for the activity known as running may be surprised. I leave the office everyday shortly after noon. I drive the 1 ½ minutes to the lake. Park my car, change into my running gear (not spandex!), put on my iPod and start my watch. As you may know I am slightly competitive, even with myself, so I always time my runs. I always start my iPod on the same song so I know where I should be at the end of each song to know if I am on pace or not. Most days consist of one lap of solid running, followed by one lap of walking or a mix of walking and running. I throw in some push ups and dips every other day on the benches around the lake.

My goal is to make 2 laps solid running one day, but for now I am content trying to beat my time each time I run a full lap. My best so far is 13 minutes 48 seconds. I mapped it, the trail is 1.39 miles for one lap.

Currently half of the trail is snowy, icy or muddy so this hinders my running slightly, but I am looking forward to the day when it is all clear. It is an amazing place to spend my lunch hour and am thankful to have such a gorgeous place so close and accessible.

SIMA Agriculture Show

Well, I just survived my first agriculture show in France. It was definitely an experience. I did not have a lot to do the two days after set-up. I walked around a lot, watched beef cattle being weighed and other types of cows being shown. Then drove home late at night and got home at 1am on Tuesday morning. I saw none of Paris except the hotel and the expo building.

I think I was totally the wrong member of my family to be at the show. My brother and dad would have been in heaven. Lots of big tractors, machines and bulls.

It was fun hanging with the sales guys, but I am glad to be back home. I will be taking some time off Thursday and Friday since I work this weekend as well. I am ready to be home for a weekend and just relax. Maybe the next weekend….

Snowed In...

12 inches of snow, fresh powder, living on a hill…. I am not going to work today! It snowed all day yesterday and got much heavier as the day went on. I was driving up the hill in 4-6 inches of snow and I was pretty nervous as I wound my way up the hill. I made it to the driveway and was relieved to turn off the car.

This morning I awoke to more snow. Outside my window there are mounds of snow on the table, rocks and trees. I am camped in my sweats, working from home. It is a beautiful sight, but I am nervous as the homeowners left me a shovel. I am assuming this is to get out my car later today or tomorrow. I am sure they will plow the driveway for me, but I will have a little work to get out my car. Oh I miss my garage!! But hey, this is an ongoing adventure, this is just another chapter.

Happy winter!!

Living in a Disney Movie???

So the last couple days I have been wondering, where the heck am I??? As I walk to and from my car each day across the field, through the old barn and up the big hill, I am seeing a trend. Last week the neighbor’s dog became my pal. He walked me home one night after sprinting across the field to come find me. Then the next morning he walked me up the hill to my car. I was just thankful he was there in case those boars came back!! So this morning on my walk up the hill, after the barn, a fox ran across the trail just in front of me. I don’t think they attack, but who the heck knows over here. Maybe French foxes are different. So I proceeded cautiously. Then on my way home tonight, walking down the hill as I was about to cross the field, a small deer came hopping across the field into the woods. Now I am convinced, I am living a Disney movie. I’ve got the Fox and the Hound and now Bambi. Too bad the three little pigs wasn’t Disney, but there were 10 boars so the math is off.

So my adventure continues…

Torino

6:47am, Saturday morning, the alarm goes off. I was already awake, but just waiting for the official alarm to remind me to get up. I showered, ate my oatmeal, packed and then headed out the door for my walk up the hill. It was a beautiful morning, the best since I have arrived. The sun was already thinning the clouds and the skies were looking very blue at 7:30 in the morning. I began my drive to Torino with my faithful GPS pointing me south. This was the first big trip I have taken so I was a little nervous. It was also my trip through the Mont Blanc tunnel. This tunnel is over 8 miles long and cuts through the highest peak in Europe. It also costs $60 to go through it round trip.

I don’t know which was the favorite part of my trip, the drive to Torino or Torino itself. As I am driving I am going through small towns with old churches and ruins of castles on the hillsides.

I also see vineyards covered with snow and built into the sides of the mountains. I am in awe of the beauty of this place.

I want to stop every 500 meters to take a pictures of something new. Luckily I am a very skilled car photographer so I did get some good pictures of the countryside.

I make it to my hotel about 2 hours after I left home. I find a parking spot on the street, check in and drop my bag in my room. Move my car to the underground garage and find a good map. The Egyptian Museum is my first stop. This is stated to be the 2nd best Egyptian Museum in the world, only behind the Cairo Museum. It was very cool.

I had no real agenda, just 2 or 3 key things that I wanted to see. I spent the next 5 ½ hours walking around the city. It was about 2km from my hotel to the city center and I spent the rest of my day wandering the streets, churches, shops and markets of Torino. It was an amazing place with so many people walking about.

So many wonderful treats!! I checked everything off of my list of things to do in Italy list: Pizza, Gelato, bought some chocolate and wine. I took some great pictures of the city, the Palazzo’s, some churches and other amazing buildings.

I visited a cathedral called Duomo. It is where the cloth that Jesus Christ was buried in. The tan cloth is a lifesize photo of the actual cloth. The black and white version is an xray. If you look closely you can see the face of Jesus on the top of the left, black print. You can also see his hands folded across his stomach. It was pretty neat. The cloth was housed further down in the church in a large cement/glass case. The top had thorns woven all over it and there was a prayer written that each person was to read as they stood in front of the display.

I added a slide show of all of my pictures. Hope you get a small taste of Torino, at least through my eyes.

Simple Things

I have discovered that the things that bring the most joy to me and the biggest smile to my face over here are the simplest things. Yesterday as I walked out of the office, the sun was setting behind the mountains and casting this wonder glow over Mont Blanc. Luckily, I ALWAYS have my camera with me. It took me twice as long to drive home because I was stopping to take pictures of the mountains and how they looked as the sun set. It was gorgeous. Made me feel very lucky to have this opportunity to be living in this place right now. Here are the pictures I took. I hope they brighten your day a little… enjoy.

Out and About...

Mont Blanc- The Top of Europe

I had a grand plan to go venture out on Saturday, but 6 inches of fresh snow kept me inside. So Sunday I drove to Chamonix, about 15 minutes away for a nice morning of walking around the streets and finding some good pastry and hot chocolate.

The streets were filled with tourists in their skis and boots as this is high travel season and Chamonix is a world-wide destination. I heard many languages being spoken in the streets.

The fresh snow made everything look gorgeous and it was hard to stay focused on my drive as I tried not to stare off and the gorgeous mountains and fresh powder.

My favorite part was how the mountains were glowing blue with the reflection of the blue sky and the clouds. It was amazing to see.

I also got to see a glacier that is sliding between two of the peaks, it is the purest ice blue I have seen, I love it.

I got some good pastries, a ham and cheese sandwich on some great French bread and then stopped in my favorite little café for a cup of hot chocolate and a strawberry tart. It was a great way to spend my morning.

This weekend I am off for my first big solo excursion, I am heading to Torino, Italy for the weekend. I will spend Saturday night there and hope to take in some of the amazing museums and churches. You can be sure there will be several pictures on the blog after that trip!!

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch...

As some of you may recall from my earlier post, I am living on a farm until the end of March. Now most of the days, the donkeys and the dog are not too loud. I hardly notice them. It is very quiet and peaceful. But on my trek down the hill from my trip to the UK Thursday night, that all changed….

I landed at 10pm which meant that I got back to my house about 11:30pm. Now the light of the stars and moon were covered by clouds so it was pretty dark. I have a light that I walk with as I venture down the slippery hill, through the old barn and across the field to my house. As I slid down the hill with my backpack, I saw some shadows about 50 feet away that scared me. As I show the light on them, I figured out what is was….

If you remember from an earlier post, the owner told me that there were some wild boars on the property, and you know what, he was right!! I met about 10 of them that night. I froze. They were spooked by the light and most of them went down the hill in front of me. One was off to my right and stayed on the other side of the hill. I froze for a minute until I could see them moving further away. I slowly moved down the hill keeping my eye on both sides of me to make sure the boars were staying far away from me. I don’t think I have walked to fast across a field in a foot of snow in my life. My heart was racing. I made it home safely. I also decided that when I have to fly again, I will make sure I plan my trip so I leave my house and return home when it is light out. Venturing out in the dark is not so much fun for me in this place.

Another fun thing about living on the farm, up on the hill is that when it snows, we get a lot. Yesterday it snowed about 6 inches. It kept me inside all day so today I decided I would head to Chamonix and then go for a run around the lake. As I made it to my car, I realized that there was a car parked at the end of the driveway blocking me from getting out. So much for private driveways!

I am not sure if I have too much of my father in me or if I am now doing it the international way, but I decided I could plow through the snowbank and get around them. I know at some point I will listen to the voice in my head, but it was not today. I checked the depth of the snow, the distance to get around the car and decided that if I had a running start, I could make it. I clear a little runway for me to try and get through. Well, I was wrong. So I got stuck. I tried backing up and got more stuck. So I trekked back down the hill to the house, got some rope and a shovel from the home owners and called my coworker and he agreed to come over and help me. There was also a man who had been hiking so he and I pushed while my coworker drove my car out of the snow bank.

It can never be easy, so I guess my adventures continue. Live and learn and keep on trekking.

Love to all.

Pubs, Pints and Pies

It’s official, I have been told I have am now qualified to be an Englishman. I spent the past 4 days with some interesting chaps in the UK. It was a blast. The team was really fun and they made sure I got the full English salesman/soccer fan experience.

I spent most of the day Wednesday with our sales manger for the UK. We visited a farmers union, an ATV dealer and then a Victory dealer. After the last visit, we had about 1 ½ of driving to the office and it was 1:30. We were hungry. I had heard of this food called Ginster’s earlier in my week, joked as the salesman food. Lucky for me the gas station we stopped at had some. Now this thing looked like a large hot pocket. Pastry with meat, potato, sauce, can’t be that bad. The best part was that I couldn’t heat it up. “That’s not how we eat them.” So being the trooper I am, I ate my Ginster’s pie. It wasn’t terrible. The sales guy told me they are great, because you never know when your next meal will come. And that was true. We did not eat until much later that night, but I was still full, or sick from the thought of what I ate. When I got back to the office I told them what we had for lunch and they all felt sorry for me. But hey, live and learn. And when in Rome…

So after my day of being a traveling salesman and eating like one, we hit the local college pub to watch the big football game, Liverpool vs. Everton, two in-town rivals. It was a great night. I enjoyed my pint in an English pub before switching to some good wine. But they said because I had my one, I was qualified as an Englishman!! The game went to overtime and the good team, Liverpool, ended up losing with 2 minutes left in the second overtime. It was an amazing game. Now it was 11pm and we were very hungry. Good thing I had the Ginster’s 10 hours earlier, I was still feeling it, not sure if that is a good thing or not….

So in Coventry, England at 11pm where does one go to eat? Of course, the local Kebab shop. It wasn’t the best meal I’ve eaten, but at 11pm, it hit the spot. So after a day of Ginster’s and Kebab, I slept pretty well.

I woke up the next morning and did a nice walk around the castle/hotel to work off a little of my salesman food. I took some last pictures of the fresh snow around the grounds. It was a great trip to the UK, some new experiences and the office promises they will take me for good food next time I visit.

More stories soon.

More Pictures of the Castle

This place is so cool!!

My Room- Above and Below

The Hallway of Heads



The Main Entry Area

The Old Pulpet of the Abbey

My Adventure Continues...

Now I have stayed in some pretty cool hotels, but this one takes the cake! Here is a breif history of the place, and by brief, I mean the past 1,859 years that it has been around. I will post more pictures later tonight.

Our History
1150 Cistercian monks founded Coombe Abbey (then known as The Abbey of Cumbe)
1539 The stone-built Cloisters, which exist today, were constructed.
1540 During the dissolution of the monasteries, Coombe Abbey and its lands were surrendered to Dr. London who was sent by Thomas Cromwell. The Abbey and its possessions then belonged to King Henry VIII.
1581 John Harrington acquired Coombe and built a new house, incorporating parts of the Abbey building.
1603 Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I, came to live and be educated at Coombe Abbey.
1622 Elizabeth Craven, widow of Sir William Craven, (Lord Mayor of London from 1610 - 1611, one of the richest men in his day), purchased Coombe Abbey and the Craven family remained as owners of Coombe Abbey for 300 years.
1634 William, son of Sir William Craven became Baron Craven of Hampstead Marshall, Berkshire and obtained a license from Charles I to enclose 650 acres of land at Coombe to Make a Park, this is thought to be the origin of Coombe Abbey Park.
1682 A West Wing (overlooking the gardens today) was added to the house, the architect being Captain William Winde, who also designed Buckingham House which later became Buckingham Palace.
1771 Lancelot 'Capability' Brown was employed to re-design the gardens and surrounding land at Coombe.
1817 The indoor 'Real' Tennis Court was built, know today as the Courthouse.
1861-5 William Eden Nesfield was emplyed to make alterations to the house in 'Gothic Revival' style. The east wing and part of the north wing of the Abbey were demolished and rebuilt in the new style (a picture of alterations to the east wing today can be seen on the wall opposite the guest lift). Servants accommodation, a stable block and a new coach house were also built during this time.
William Andrew Nesfield (father of Eden Nesfield) landscaped the gardens on the south and west side of the abbey constructing the moat and canal leading to the lake. During this time William Miller, Head Gardener to Lord Craven was given the responsibility of designing and planting the north and east gardens and the kitchen garden was created which became renowned locally for the exotic fruits grown in its hot houses. Today sadly we can only see the outer walls.
1907 Countess Cornelia Craven instigated the introduction of electric lighting to Coombe Abbey.
1923 The auction of the Coombe Esate resulted in a Coventry builder, John Grat buying the Abbey and its grounds.
1939-45 The conifer plantations known as the Wrautums were removed to provide pit-propts during the war, leaving the large field area as we see it today.
1950 John Gray leased Coombe Abbey to the General Electric Company as a residential training centre.
1964 Coventry City Council purchased Coombe Abbey and its estate of 150 acres.
1992 The development to restore Coombe Abbey into a 'No Ordinary' hotel began. Building work also began on a new visitor centre facility, children's adventure playground and a themed dining venue.
1993 Coombe Abbey's Visitor Centre opened, followed by the opening of the Abbeygate - the new venue for Coombe Abbey's award winning Mediaeval banquets.
1994 Coombe Abbey - No Ordinary Hotel opened with 63 bedrooms, Cloisters Restaurant, Chapter House Bar, Private Dining Room, Conference and Banqueting facilities on the 17th February 1995.

A Day Above the Clouds

Today was my first time skiing in about 5 or 6 years. To say I was a little nervous would be an understatement. I met one of the guys from work at 8:30am near the cable car that takes us up the mountain in St. Gervais, about 10 minutes from my house. We went to the local ski store and rented my equipment. Then it was off to buy our ticket and hit the slopes. The ride up in the cable car was pretty cool. When I woke up that morning it had been very cloudy and foggy. But as we rode up and passed through the clouds, we were greeted with clear blue skies and the mountain tops. It was amazing.

After a few runs, we met up with another co-worker and his girlfriend and skiied for another hour plus. I only had one bad fall, on my second or third run. It hurt! Lost my ski, my hat and my sunglasses. Luckily I had my camelpak with water on my back to soften the slamming into the snow. But my head slammed back and today my neck kills. Mild whiplash maybe, but after that I did ok and did not fall anymore.

At midi, or noon, we met up with 3 of their friends and skiied for another short time before finding a quiet spot on the top of the slopes for our picnic lunch. We had great French bread, ham, cheese and of course, red wine. Followed by some great pastries, it was a very cool lunch.

We then skiied for a couple more hours before heading back down in the cable car at 4pm. I will maybe ski once or twice more during my stay here. It is not cheap, but the pass we bought gained us access to 7 or 8 resorts that are all linked in the Alps. Pretty cool day.

Check out the slide show for more pictures from my day.