Cynthia Caughey

Travel Articles and Blog Posts

 

 

Discover Undiscovered France: The French Alps

 

The French Alps has much more to offer than you expect. If you are a nature-lover, a sports-enthusiast, adventure-addict or a history-freak, French Alps has something for you. No matter which corner of the globe you are coming from, a tour to its lovely landscape flanked by Provence-Alpes, Côte d'Azur and Rhône-Alpes will be a memorable experience.

 

To most, the French Alps are a paradise for popular outdoor sports. But along with plenty to do for the skiing and mountaineering enthusiasts, Mont Blanc offers breathtaking natural vistas. You will also be mesmerized with the panoramic alpine lakes including Lac Leman, Lac d'Annecy, Lac De Bourget, Lac de Paladru and Lac d'Aiguebelette.

 

Enter through either of the two international airports at Lyon or Geneva to the Rhone-Alps, the crossroads of Europe.

 

Offspring of the Rhone River and the Alps mountain range, the Rhone-Alps is bejeweled with eight national parks; the gracious Mont Blanc and its Gorges de l’Ardèche; stretches of lavender fields, olive orchards, vineyards and the valleys which inspire painters’ excellence. Along with different beguiling landscapes, the French Alps will tempt you to indulge in thrilling mountain-sports such as hiking, mountain biking, and paragliding, along with canoeing and horseback riding.  After all, it's the proud three-time host of the Winter Olympics with the second largest ski region in Europe.

 

If you love to turn the clock backward, then visit Lyon to witness the Gaul-Roman confluence, known as the regional Villes D'Art. Apart from this UNESCO World Heritage Site; Annecy, the Venice of the French Alps, and the Roman Temple at Vienne will seduce you with both their historical richness and natural beauties. Cities like Grenoble, Chamonix, Saint Etienne, Lyon, Chambéry and Albertville will welcome you with world class French cuisines.

 

When you are in France, how can you resist the seductive wines? The Alpine taste of Lyon sausage and rosette, fondue, gratin dauphinois, raclette, and quenellas will spoil your senses paired with the wines of Brouilly, Chenas, Cote-de-Brouilly, Morgon, Moulin-a-Vent, Regnie and Saint-Amour. Don't forget to enjoy the special cheeses like Tomme de Savoie, Vacherin, Bleu de Bresse and Reblochon. The top hotels and Aix les Bains, a famous spa town, will relax you with luxurious comfort. Pack your bags to witness the most unique experience of your life in the French Alps.

 

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French Comfort Food: the Cuisine of the French Alps in Paris

 

I call it ‘French Comfort Food.’ Filled with some of the best cheeses in the world, beautiful cured hams, and flavorful potatoes, the foods of the French Alps are what Americans would think of when they think of ‘comfort food.’ Savoie and Haute-Savoie, where I live, are known for the exceptional cheeses including Beaufort, a large variety of Tommes, and Reblochon (traditionally made from the second milking of a cow which is the fattiest and richest milk), and smoked and cured hams that make your mouth water. These are the staples of the region. Of course, there are other local products such as large fresh vegetables found at the local markets; juicy fruits and tasty nuts, some of which we pick growing wild along the mountain roads; lettuce, zucchinis and tomatoes we grow in our home garden; and fresh fish caught in Lake Bourget, the largest and deepest lake in France - these can all be found in the local Alps cuisine.

 

Choose a wine from the region to complement these gourmet meals. Savoie is primarily a white wine region. Jacquère is the most planted white grape variety in Savoie and only exists in the area. Other whites include Mondeuse Blanche, Chardonnay and Altesse. There are also red wines worth tasting. My favorite is the Mondeuse, with a peppery spicy flavor. Other reds common to Savoie include Gamay, Persan, and Pinot Noir.

 

All of this is fine and good but what if you are living in or visiting Paris and not Savoie and would like to taste some of these Savoyard ‘comfort foods?’ Good news! There are restaurants in Paris featuring Savoyard cuisine. The restaurants, which have received favorable reviews on a few websites, include: Le Savoyard Chalet at 18 avenue Aristide Briand - 93190 Livry-Gargan - Tel.: 01 43 81 66 03. Another surprise is Le Chalet d'Avron at 108 Rue Montreuil, 75011 Paris, France +33 1 43 71 18 62. Le Chalet d’Avron specializes in Savoyard food, and the beauty of this restaurant is you can cook Raclette at your table. Raclette is both a cheese and a meal – melt the cheese onto your boiled, peeled potatoes and place some beautifully smoked or cured ham on top and you have a delicious (and fattening) meal.  ‎

 

If you like to cook, buy a copy of my French Alps Cookbook: French Comfort Food and cook some authentic Savoyard meals yourself. To buy your vegetable and meat products, check out the local Market, Marche d'Aligre on Place d'Aligre 75011. Another good choice is the Bastille Market at Boulevard Richard Lenoir 75011. You can find some of Savoie’s cheeses at the local fromageries, specifically at Androuet’s.

 

Create your own French Alps experience. Indulge in the textures, tastes and smells of Savoie while visiting one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Leave Parisian fusion food, take a break from your weight watching, and taste the pleasure of the earthy, home grown, comforting cuisine of the Alps region. You don’t even have to leave Paris to do it.

 

To get my French Alps Ecookbook, French Comfort Food, sent to you free, just message me on my Contact

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Living in Florence: Frugal and Almost 40

 

Chapter One:

 

“What was I thinking?” I mutter to myself. I’m 38 years old, alone, sitting on an airplane to Italy. This is no romantic vacation. I’m on my way to live there, or at least attempt to live there. With me are my two cats, one in the cargo compartment and the other under my feet where she is announcing loudly to me and to the poor souls sitting near me, her disapproval. I’m feeling guilty about putting Boo and Casanova through this traumatic move. I’m also feeling excitement, and of course, apprehension.

 

Back in Los Angeles I had a good-paying, high-profile job, nice home and good friends. I quit the job and sold everything I owned except what my friends could store in their attics. I have only casual acquaintances in Italy, speak only survival Italian, and there’s no job waiting for me. Worse yet, I don’t even have the legal documents which would allow me to live and work in Italy. All of this doesn’t matter; I need to recover from the past few years, and afterall, Italy is where I go to recover. Why not try to live there and partake of “la dolce vita” (the sweet life)?  My family thought I had lost my mind: “You’re not a kid anymore,” they reminded me, as though I hadn’t looked in the mirror for the past 10 years. This was not a decision made by the calculated, responsible person my family and friends knew. This was a decision of the heart and the soul. This was a decision of passion; a journey to find that idealistic and hopeful 20-something year old who somewhere along the way, got lost, and needed to be found. This would be an adventure.

 

Florence was my destination. If I was going to live in Italy, I would need to learn the language. Florence and Siena are the cities for that: they taught ‘official Italian,’ the purest form. The dialects of Italy’s regions are so diverse that if you placed a Milanese with a Sicilian in a room together speaking only their dialects, they wouldn’t be able to communicate.  The Florentines boast that they don’t have a dialect, which is mostly true. However, they do have a strange pronunciation anomaly: they pronounce their ‘c’s as though they were ‘h’s,’ so casa becomes “hasa” or Coca Cola becomes “Hoha Hola.” At any rate, I’m on a very tight budget. I’m looking for quality language training but at bargain basement prices. Prior to leaving for Italy I did my research. I sent away for literature on every language school I could find in Florence. I’ve narrowed it down to two schools located at Piazza Signoria, the epicenter of Florence.

 

I will be staying in a studio apartment which I’ve rented for six months in ‘centro Firenze,’ in the middle of the historical center. It was dark, old and small but only cost $550, a steal since one-bedroom apartments average US $1,600-$2,300 in Florence. I found it by networking with the international student community on my last vacation in Italy. If anyone can find cheap accommodations, it’s a student. While there are plenty of “roommate wanted” ads plastered on the bulletin boards at language schools and internet cafes, I am almost 40, have two cats, and wasn’t up for the “party-all-night, drink-all-day, revolving boyfriends” scenario.  I need my own place.  I would just have to purchase some high-watt light bulbs and a couple of lamps for my cave-like apartment to brighten things up.

 

We land in Florence and I desperately go looking for Casanova at the luggage area. I can’t find him and I start to panic. Then someone noticing my despair points to the corner of the luggage area and there is my poor boy, crying and covered in his own feces. My guilt took over and I started to doubt this whole plan of mine. I muster up my resolve and clean my poor cat off with paper towels and hail a taxi to take us to our apartment in the center of town.  I had to stay quiet about the cats and hide them behind the luggage and under my arm until they were in the taxi and the door shut.  Florence taxi drivers have more customers than they need and don’t want much to do with animals in their cars.

 

It took three trips on the tiny two-person elevator to get me, the cats and the luggage up to the apartment. My landlady opens the door, hands me the keys and says her farewells.  I’m struck by the darkness of the place.  There’s only one tiny sliver of a window in the entire studio apartment and it’s in the kitchen. I think to myself ‘the first thing I buy after groceries will be bright light bulbs.’ I’m slightly claustrophobic and the cave-like apartment matches my dark mood now. ‘What have I done?  You don’t do this when you’re 38 years old. You do this when you’re in your twenties. Maybe early thirties, but not when you are about to walk over the doorstep to 40!’

 

This is so typical of me. I hear myself giggle out loud at the lunacy of my decision to move here.  I can’t just work a normal job, date normal guys, travel to normal places or do normal things. I always have to take it to the next step – the extreme step.  My father was like this in many ways too. Nothing was ever good enough. At age 64 he took his 41-foot sailboat and sailed to Europe, living at the ports and picking up crews as he went.    ‘There had to be more to life’ was the motto he lived. Not consciously, of course. He operated from the subconscious.  At least, I’m aware of my endless wanderlust and desire for ‘more.’  I’ve always refused to settle for what everyone else thinks is ‘enough.’  Sometimes this has served me well; other times it’s been a destructive force in my life. Marriage is a good example. I look around at the relationships and marriages I know, including my family, and I realize I could never settle for what they have.  I’d rather stay single, always holding onto the hope and idealism that seems to define me. I know that the day I stop hoping will be the day I die. I get this from my father too. He stopped hoping one day several decades ago. He died that day.

 

‘What’s next, Cyn?’ Using my nickname is somehow comforting and familiar. God knows I need something familiar right now.  I made it here half way around the world with my cats and luggage. It never occurred to me to think about the practicalities of arriving. I need to eat. My cats need to eat and pee.  I need to find stores. I must find my Florence map in my suitcase.  I’m incredibly jet-lagged and need to sleep but that will have to wait until I get the necessities for my poor cats and something for dinner.

 

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been to Florence.  My first experience of this magical city was as an undergraduate.  My first year at Florida State University I brought the college’s catalog home on vacation. My dad found it and leafed through it. His eyes immediately stopped at the international campus page.  After a few minutes of reading, he looked up at me peeking over his glasses and said ‘this is where you’re going next year.’  He lifted the page which showed a photo of the Florence Duomo in all its magnificence. I had no idea what I was looking at but I felt my stomach fill with butterflies and the only thing out of my mouth was ‘sure, where is it?’  I didn’t go once to the Florence university campus, I went twice with two different groups of students.  Frankly, studying in Florence changed my life forever.  From that experience on, ‘settling’ and ‘normality’ weren’t options.  My view of what life should be was changed forever.  I mean, how do you go back to drinking moonshine when you’ve tasted Bordeaux so early in life. You know there is more out there and you have to have it!

 

 

 

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Avoiding Pickpockets in Italy

 

The doors of the Rome Metro closed behind me. I clutched my purse, preparing for the crush of bodies pushing to be first at the nearest exit escalator. My heart sank as my hand landed on the unlatched flap of my purse. Despairingly I looked inside, confirming what I already knew instinctively, my wallet was gone.

 

How could this have happened? I was not a naïve tourist. I had been living in Italy for seven months and had traveled the Rome Metro dozens of times. I had even developed a safety strategy when entering the underground maze of crowds and noise. First, I would scan the crowds looking for the young women who were infamous for pickpocketing. They were recognizable by their clothes and even more easily identifiable by the groups in which they traveled. Secondly, I always clutched my purse to my chest, and finally, I spoke Italian so as not to draw attention to myself. So why was I finding myself the victim of a pickpocket?

 

I had just moved into a new apartment in Rome, which I was sharing with roommates from Ireland, England, Russia and southern Italy. On this day my Irish roommate and I decided to shop at the nearby Mercato. It was a Holiday in Italy so the Metro was almost completely empty. In fact, when we entered the compartment, there was only one other person: an elderly woman sitting near the door. We positioned ourselves standing next to her. Certainly, an elderly woman would pose no threat; I foolishly flung my purse over my shoulder. My roommate and I proceeded to engage in a boisterous conversation in English, announcing our foreigner status. The opportunity was there and she took it.

 

By the time I had located the credit card emergency phone numbers in the US and cancelled the cards, the Metro thief had purchased over $3,900 worth of goods! Even worse, I had to wait three weeks for replacement bankcards. Since I was accessing my living expense money through these cards, I found myself borrowing money for food and negotiating late rent payments until they arrived. So how can you avoid the same mistakes and hassles that I experienced?

 

Be prepared: 

Choose your wardrobe carefully, eliminating expensive jewelry and wearing neutral colors. No self-respecting Italian (and many other Europeans) would be caught dead in bright colors or loud patterns. Blend in. Choose handbags with thick shoulder straps (more difficult to cut) and keep the purse close to your body and where you can see it.

 

Carry most of your money, traveler’s checks, credit and bankcards under your clothes in a cotton money belt. Never count your money in public. This is an invitation to thieves. Leave one bank or credit card locked up (or in a safe) at your hotel room. If the card you are carrying gets stolen and you must cancel it, you still will have a valid bankcard to access your money through ATMs. Before you leave home, record your credit card and travel check numbers in duplicate. Keep one set at home with a trusted friend or family member and the other locked up in your hotel room. Take the phone numbers of your banks with you so you can report a theft quickly and easily.

 

Prior to travel, check the restrictions on your credit cards. How much are you responsible for if a thief makes purchases on your card? Do you need to file a police report in order to relinquish liability of unauthorized purchases? Will they send you a new card if you are traveling overseas?

 

Keep a xerox copy of the identifying information pages of your Passport in a safe place. If it gets lost or stolen, you can replace it more easily. Don’t carry your driver’s license, social security card or other important documents in your wallet or purse. They can be difficult and frustrating to replace and have the potential of creating devastating long-term credit fraud problems.

 

Thieves do not always look like thieves. Never let your guard down or become careless because of appearances. Stereotypes do not always ring true. Travel safely and travel well.

 

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Gambling in France

 

Every day I see elderly gentlemen walk into the offices of PMU pari-mutuel to place their bets on horse races. PMU was created in 1930 by the French horseracing associations and offers off-track betting. In fact, PMU is the only authorized off-track horse racing betting operator in France. It’s basically an obsession for many men. My father-in-law was one of the obsessed.  Every single day, no matter what was happening, he would run to the TV at 2pm to see if any of his horses which he placed bets on that morning would win. It’s all clean fun, of course, so I don’t have any problems with it, other than the ugliness of abuse, doping, and slaughtering of the horses when their careers are over. These are all things that go on in the horse racing industry worldwide.

 

Pari Mutuel was first introduced in 1870 and is now the 3rd largest in the world with 8,000 off track outlets all across France. Horse betting isn’t the only gambling that occurs in France. FDJ (Francaise des Jeux) is now the organization that is responsible for games and lotteries, but the tradition dates back to the 1600’s when the French mathematician Blaise Pascal invented the roulette wheel.

 

Blackjack is also believed to have originated in France. Today most of the casino revenue in France is from slot machines. The two most famous casinos in France are in Paris and Nice. Let’s not forget the French Lottery, conducted by the La Francaise des Jeux. Like the US, the Lottery is state-controlled. The French lottery supports humanitarian and social causes and has been around since the 16th century.  The French took it one step further and, on May 13, 2010, a new bill opened the online gambling market in France and also created its regulatory body, ARJEL. Casino games as well as spread betting and betting exchange are not licensed because the law makers said they were too addictive. However poker, such as Party Poker Television, is legal because the outcome of the game depends on the skill of the player.

 

Online gambling was legalized just before the World Cup 2010. As a result, gamblers opened over 1.2 million accounts on licensed sites in the first month. They bet €83 Million which was almost twice as much as during the same period in 2009. Gambling is alive and well in France.

 

Even I admit to buying a few lottery tickets or horse race bets over the years, but alas, Lady Luck has yet to come knocking on my door.

 

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Chambery, France:  The Capital of Savoie Holds a Secret

 

Chambery is a lovely city of 50,000 people in the French Alps region of France. It’s also the capital of Savoie (Savoy). The town can be rather provincial and sleepy but the Old Town is picturesque and worth a couple of hours to explore.

 

Here are the top five places to visit in Chambery:

 

The Elephants Fountain was built to honor Benoit de Boigne's feats as a general for the Prince of India in the 1700's. Boigne left his fortunes to the city of Chambery. The fountain has realistic sculptures of four elephants, showing only their front limbs, with a statue of Boigne on the top of the monument. The elephants are in the shape of a Savoie cross. At first the landmark was mocked by the local residents who did not understand the symbolism of the foreign land of India. The statue was nicknamed "the four without asses" by the town residents. It still carries this nickname but now it is an affectionate term. The Fountain has become the accepted symbol of Chambery.

 

The Rue Basse du Chateau dates back to the 1200’s and was one of the main thoroughfares in the city in the Middle Ages. The most famous site is the overhanging bridge between the streets’ buildings called the Bridge of Sighs (taken from the famous bridge in Venice Italy). There were several similar bridges on the street but they were taken down since they were a fire risk, due to the fact that the bridges were made of wood and connected the buildings on each side of the street. Today the street is known for its cute and characteristic shops.

 

The Dukes of Savoy Castle dates back to the first counts of Savoy who settled into an existing fortress in 1285 and expanded it in the early 14th century to serve as a residence, seat of power and administration, and as a stronghold for the House of Savoy. In 1563, due to constant French hostilities on the chateau, Duke Emmanuel Philibert decided to remove his capital to Turin. Today the building houses the Savoie region’s governmental offices. The Dukes of Savoy Castle burned down twice in the 1700’s and again in the 1800’s. In 1786, Victor Amadeus III enlarged it, adding a Royal Wing. Under Napoleon Bonaparte, the South Wing was rebuilt and redecorated to house the imperial prefecture (or regional government offices). The Chateau Chapel, located next to the Castle, was built in the1400’s and contains 70 bells in its Bell Tower. The original 37 bells were made to represent Savoie at the World Fair in 1937. The bell tower is the 4th in the world and 1st in France for the number of bells in a Bell Tower. The biggest bell weighs 5 tons.

 

The Chapel hides a little known fact. The Chapel held the Shroud of Turin from 1502 to 1541 and 1561 to 1578.  It was moved to Turin only after Chambery became too vulnerable to invading forces. In order to see inside the Castle and Chapel you must join a guided tour, which you can find at the end of the Rue Basse du Chateau next to the Chapel Bell Tower and walkway fountains.

 

The Place Saint Leger is the main square and sits in the center of town. A small apartment in the square, which is no longer standing, was the birthplace of the town’s hero and benefactor, General de Boigne in 1751. It is lined by middle age to 18th century buildings, decorated with intricate iron balconies. The square features outdoor restaurants and expensive stores.

 

The Chambéry Cathedral or Cathédrale Saint-François-de-Sales de Chambéry is Roman Catholic and dedicated to Saint François de Sales. It was built in the 15th century and consecrated in 1488. The site is very swampy so the Cathedral was built on 30,000 poles to keep it from sinking. During the French Revolution it was extensively defaced, and the interior was entirely restored in the early 19th century. The massive wooden door dates to 1506, and the organ from 1844. The Cathedral contains the largest ensemble of trompe l'œil painting in Europe (almost 6,000 square meters) by the artist Vicario, which dates to 1809 to 1834. Trompe L’oeil art is a three dimensional form of painting intended to trick the eye into thinking it is the real thing. The neighboring local Savoie history museum, formerly the Franciscan convent, is linked to the cathedral by the cloisters.