A Glor-Ruy-ous Week

Ok, enough of the play on words titles.

Thanks to everything going smoothly with the move, we only needed to spend a day in Geneva during our week in France. The rest of the time was spent like any other stay at Vero's parents in Ruy - a mix of one or two local excursions, market and shopping trips and days spent lazing around the house.

We hoped for some better weather however up until Tuesday the English summer decided to stow away in our car and join us in the Rhone-Alpes region. After that however, out came the sunshine and boy did it come out. Clear blue skies and soaring temperatures meant taking it easy and soaking up the sun (not to mention lunch and dinner outside on the terrace most days).

The first part of the week we visited Philippe's apartment in Villefranche. We dodged our way through thunderstorms through the Dombes where I did want to stop and take photos of the hundreds of ponds and lakes surrounded by glowing sunflowers however the weather and the lack of parking spots put paid to that. The Dombes are amazingly pretty on a good day, as well as quite flat and almost traffic free off the main routes, so I am determined to return another time by bike to enjoy it more (and take some pics). We arrived in time for a trip to the Casino (the supermarket) where we gambled on some goodies for dinner and won. A nice terrine de canard and some pork and beef brochettes were on the menu, not to mention some stunningly good cheese.

The next day Philippe left for work and we pottered around downtown Villefranche which is basically one long street. Villefranche is nice - it is a mix of old, new and something in between - you can see a touch of a modern French provincial town mixed with an ancient village with its tight streets and crumbling but yet typically charming buildings. It is dotted with architectural and archaeological treasures which are not immediately obvious, but good fun to dig out if you have the time and the weather. Unfortunately the rain was still with us so all we did was dive in and out of some shops saving the touristy thing for another time maybe. We did extract some nice quiches and a couple of nice cakes from the local shops for lunch before returning to Ruy again dodging thunderstorms.

The garden was looking very alive. Ruy has had a fair bit of rain this summer considering its southerly location and mixed with the strong sunshine the fruit trees and shrubs have gone nuts, growing at quite a rate. After our excursion to Geneva on Wednesday, Thursday was spent with the obligatory trip to the weekly market in nearby Bourgoin-Jallieu in the morning, some lazing around watching the Tour de France on TV after lunch, and then a nice stroll through the village to a shoe shop (women huh!) late afternoon. It was then I decided to get the camera out of hibernation and take some shots of the garden and the village , photos of which I have dotted throughout this article.

Friday the 13th loomed and I was doomed to a trip to the local LeClerc hypermarket - oh what a terrible thing to have to do. I really like the supermarkets as the amount of different food and drink available is really quite staggering. I could spend hours wandering around the fresh produce aisles if it wasn't for the fact they are like the arctic, not good when you are dressed in shorts and t-shirt. I am so looking forward to trying as much of it as possible..so maybe in the winter I'll spend more time as I will be sufficiently clad to survive longer than 2 minutes without having to run back near the bakery to defrost. Our raid consisted of mainly cheese, wine and biscuits, restraining ourselves further knowing in seven weeks we would be back for good. I canot get over the fact that the cheese, wine and cakes have such great names. Who would call a cake a St Honoré other than the French - and I must say it tasted as good as it sounds. A rich buttery pastry shell filled with wonderfully sweet and creamy creme patissiere (nice custard for the un-educated), topped with fresh creme-chantilly (whipped cream), and caramel covered choux balls. Wonderful.

That evening we went to the nearby village of Trept for a soirée with friends of a friend. Our host made a massive paella (he is of Spanish origin) - there were 20 of us around the table and there was still some left over after we all had two helpings. It was a very social relaxed evening with no care for any dinner table etiquette. After we washed down with some nice rose we were treated to a pre-bastille day fireworks display in the village which considering the size of the village was very spectacular.

On Saturday we went to watch the Tour de France go through (a separate post will follow for this) and Sunday was spent packing for the return, watching the Tour again on TV go through some majestic Alpine scenery and eating like kings. Again. Oh I am so not going to miss English food (except for the occasional pork pie and clotted cream).