A trip to France, September 2010

I’m back from France, land of wine and cheese. Though I didn’t really drink much wine. I stuck to beer and panache which is a soft drink with a tiny bit of beer added. The joys of being sick. I did however eat a lot of delicious cheese which made up for that. France isn’t known for it’s beer but we did find one or two local brews. Leffe seems to be very popular as is Affligem. Strong Belgian beers are widely available in the supermarkets. Maybe the wine loving French also like strong, fruity, golden belgian ales too. Terrible beers like Desparados and Corona are also inexplicably popular.

On the Monday we took a trip to the mer de glace glacier near Chamonix. I have really wanted to visit a glacier for a long time now and it was amazing to finally see one up close. Unfortunately a lung infection and altitude didn’t mix well and I felt terrible. I made it down all the steps to the ice cave which is carved every year into the glacier. It was pretty cool walking around in the middle of the glacier, you could even spot rocks encased in the ice. The trip back up the stairs to the cable car was a bit of a struggle though. As you can see in the photo I wore my Yvaine shawl for a quick photo shoot. I didn’t stay long after that and felt better when I got down to a more normal altitude. Here’s another shot of the Yvaine shawl on the balcony of our chalet.

We dropped a friend off to the airport in Geneva on Tuesday and took it as a sign that we should visit CERN. Having a GPS on holidays really helps as we just plugged in the destination and it led us there, no more fighting over maps and wrong turns. I hadn’t booked the guided tour in time so we went to the free permanent exhibition and their new universe of particles show. It’s a good thing they were free as we were stung for the €40 charge to drive on Swiss roads! Both exhibitions explain the science of the new large hadron collider and the history of CERN. As a physicist I loved looking at all the old equipment and we were all really impressed by the first web server and the memo that was the idea for the internet! Dave got his photo taken beside the internet, yes the whole internet used to fit on one computer. The universe of particles exhibition is really fancy, it’s an audio visual or son et lumiere show. The displays were these really cool touch pads on big orbs and the film shown every hour was really impressive while explaining the physics. It’s a fabulous place where people are expanding our knowledge of the universe while at the same time developing technology and engineering know how that will be used in real world applications. I bought the worlds most nerdy t-shirt in the gift shop, it has the equations for the standard model on it.

Our chalet had a lovely view of Mont Blanc and I stood spinning on the balcony most evenings. About the same time Franta played his bamboo flute so it was very relaxing.

I wasn’t able to get up to much activity this holiday so I spent most days reading and knitting outside under the pear tree in the garden. I know that sounds lovely and it was but I would really have liked to join everyone else as they went off canyoning, hiking and doing some via ferrata climbing. I don’t do so well with enforced relaxation. My holiday read was Wicked by Gregory Maguire and I thoroughly enjoyed it, it’s a fabulous read and hit just the right note.

I cast on the gaia shawl and made some progress but I’m not really enjoying knitting it. It’s pretty simple but I’m having trouble placing the eyelet row just as the colour changes. Maybe I am just being picky and it will look fine when it’s done. It doesn’t help matters that the Noro sock yarn and I are not getting on well. I am pulling the yarn from the centre of the ball and I keep pulling out a load of tangles. The yarn is also pretty rough and to my spinners eye I would say it is overspun and a bit slubby. Maybe that will add to the charm of the finished shawl but it’s not great to work with. I’m going to take a break from it now that I’m back. I did knit something else while on holidays but that will be a separate post.

I found the local yarn shop, Phildar in Sallanches just down the valley from where we were staying. It’s not quite a yarn shop though as they sell clothes too which strikes me as slightly odd as they don’t really mix that well together and it gives you the impression that it’s neither one or the other. They do a nice selection of inexpensive yarns, most of which are wool and acrylic mixes. I used the yarn shopper app to take a note of the yarn required for some projects I had in mind. That way I’d end up with useful amounts of yarn. As it’s autumn I’m hoping to make some hats and mittens for the winter. I got some wool/acrylic yarn for a snapdragon tam and snapdragon flip top gloves in a lovely neutral taupe. I’m hoping these will go with everything so I can wear all my various shawls and scarves with them. I also got some lovely soft green yarn to make the Grace lace beret to go with my annis shawl. I’m hoping to crochet some lace handwarmers from the left over lace weight so I’ll have a matching set. I got some sport weight pink lambswool for a pair of colourwork mittens. The pattern will be from the folk mittens book which is slightly unusual being a knitting book that you can just pick up and read. Each pattern comes from a different country and is accompanied by an interesting history of knitting in the country. I find the small details of history like how people clothed themselves endlessly interesting. I also picked up some kid silk haze alike phil light, some cotton for a grocery bag and some shiny thread stuff for a funky scarf.

I found a shop selling macarons in Chamonix. They came in every possible flavour and were some of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. I have made macarons in the past but I had never tasted any proper French ones but now I know what I’m aiming for. It might take me a long time to make anything as wonderful as these ones. I’m only sorry I didn’t buy more of them.

On our long drive back from the Alps to Cherbourg we stopped off at the charming mediaval town of Bayeux. I wonder why? Any textile fan worth their salt stops in Bayeux to see the tapestry. It truly is a piece of world heritage. The audio guide as you walk round the tapestry focuses on the story of the Norman conquest of England that the tapestry tells. The 70m long tapestry illustrates how William the conqueror defeated Harald at the battle of Hastings in 1066. For me the tapestry itself and it’s story is far more interesting. It is known as a tapestry but it is actually an embroidery. It was made on woven linen cloth using handspun naturally dyed fine woolen yarn. The museum states that the parts of the tapestry that were repaired have not aged as well as the original parts. It’s amazing that a textile has survived 1000 years so that we can see the work of these crafts people from so long ago. It was a fascinating end to a really nice trip.