Panchotexane, the bluebonnet of the Alps

Christmas in Family

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:55:00 +0000

This year, we celebrated Christmas at our place. Arno’s family and mine joined us to have a great and happily diner.

Thank to all, we had so much joy in having you and Santa was very generous for all of us.

Merry Christmas to all and have a great ending year.

Cabo Verde- Santo Antao Island

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:03:00 +0000

This summer, we traveled to Cabo verde. This country is constituted of ten islands. We visited Santiago, Sao Vicente and Santo Antao in 12 days. We went to the capital Praia in Santiago and tried to visit has much places has we could.

Besides the total incompetence of Caboverde airline, our trip was rich on wonderful landscapes and the people were so nice!! We keep great memories of Manuel our driver and his grog.

Here is some pics that you might enjoy.

On our way to Ponta do sol by the mountain road

Ponta do Sol

Ribeira de Paul

Coming back to the residence by collectivo

In front of the road, fisherman building his boat

North-East Cost

A Little hungry? we ate lots of fish

Wonderful hike to Fontainas, first time it was raining, we saw lots of waterfalls and the trail was completely flowed!

and the second time, it was very warm, sunny and really worth it to do it twice, both during bad and good weather, the landscape was incredible!!

Back to Ribeiras, the harbor

For our last night on the island, we watch this great sunset

Special dedicace to Nath, Dorothee’s aunt. This post is called: Le BLUES DE L’AUTOMNE

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:00 +0000

The fall season has arrived!!

Life is getting harder, when you wake up it’s still dark outside and when you get home after a sheety day at work, it feels like you did not enjoy the light from this great cloudy and cold day.

LIFE IS HARD MY FRIENDS!!

There is no traditional Berthoud in the part of France where I try to live. No savoyard dishes! Can you believe it!? No paella from dorothee’s mother.

LIFE IS HARD MY FRIENDS!!

You have to work more and more to get money, it’s called the FU _ _ING CRISIS! Soon I will have to stock going the manicure. Can you believe it?

LIFE IS HARD MY FRIENDS!!

Halloween sucks in France. Let’s just say that we are far behing the wonderful decoration and preparation from American’s halloween. Oh! and no Thanksgiving in France, NADA, niet, nothing, que dalle!

LIFE IS HARD MY FRIENDS!!

That is why I feels very reconforting to have a great cup of rum with my dead giraffe (Sorry Nath c’est se que j’ai trouve de plus proche d’un sanglier mort chez moi, en même temps je suis un peu en ville).

Voila c’est pour me faire pardonner de tout mon retard sur le blog et lui donner une raison d’exister. Grace a toi! Thanks to Nath qui m’a redonne la motiv d’écrire!

In the Verdon…

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:03:00 +0000

I am running late on my blog. This past month we have done so many things that i have been storing pics and the stories.

On july 14th we spend 4 days camping at '”The aigle camp'” close to “Les aiguines”, wich is a small village over seeing the Verdon lake. It’s a very quiet and nice place to camp, we did enjoy our stay there.

During those 4 days, we went hiking and climbing, we had lot of fun canyoning in the Verdon river, we also enjoyed swimming in the lake.

Our camp site

Having breakfast

The view from our camp site

Les Aiguines

The Verdon lake

The Verdon canyon

Sunset on the Verdon lake

Gringo’s the little cat

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:51:00 +0000

Welcome to our new member in the family, Gringo is a male, he is 3 month old and really cut!! He likes to get strokes, he is really clean and loves to play.

Art- “LIFE expression”

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:15:00 +0000

I am painting again, this past month I had some spare time to work on my art.

Our new place had some empty walls and not enought color. So here I am painting again. I wanted something a little bite agressive, with mouvement but also with some peacefull parts exactly like LIFE!!!! The subject of this paint!

Not always a straight line, not perfect, with irregularities but a lot of passion and sense in the end.

Like art can be “loved” or “hated”, I will just say that I wish it will create some kind of reaction when you’ll look at it.

Working on my art

LIFE Expression

The butterfly effect

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:11:00 +0000

Butterflies all over the place! The weather is definitly getting better and better despite some periodic rains, the warm brise brought us so many of them, that I decided to picture it.

And for the ones that haven’t seen our new place yet, here is the Chalet. So much better than our last place. We are really enjoying it.

Winter Vacation in the Hautes-Alpes

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:22:00 +0000

This past week, Arno and I were in vacation at Briançon, in the Hautes-Alpes. We had a wonderful weather, warm and very sunny, even our skin can prouve it!

With Arno’s brother, We went for 2 days of ski at Montgenèvre and Puy St Vincent ski resort. I had to say that Puy St Vincent is way better than Montgenèvre ski resort, because of the level of ski (red level ski trail).

On the following days, we went for 2 ski tours. One at the “Col de Thures” (2100m) and the other at the “Col de Laurichard” (2700m).

Col de Thures

We had a hard time going up cause, the warm weather made the snow very sticky, just take a look at the pic above, the snow under our skis like gum on the pavement.

Col de Laurichard

And finally the best part of this tour…

Le Cornafion, the come back

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:49:00 +0000

Before I go for another ski tour, I need to expose you the last and not the least ski tour Arno and I made this past saturday in the Vercors.

He had a really warm day, the snow was at the rendez-vous of course and we enjoyed the fantastic view that we could not see the first time we went to the Cornafion.

Because “Le Cornafion” was the place where I did my first ski touring last year and because we had a bad experience there, we really wanted to try again but this time in better conditions.

So, here we went and….. were not disappointed.

In the woods

Going up…

From the top, really worth it!!!

La Pinéa, just perfect…

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:31:00 +0000

This past saturday, Arno, my friend Ingrid and I had an excellent time in the Chartreuse. It was Ingrid’s first time for ski touring and even with some difficulties she really loved it.

The weather was suprising and all in contradiction, cloudy, a little bite of snow and somehow we managed to get a little bite of sun once in a while during the day.

We actually went for a long distance tour but not very high (approximatly700m). We first went up to the “Pinéa” (1771m), then down half way and up again to the “Mont Fromage”.

The thing we appreciated the most was the snow, it was just the best snow I ever had during a ski tour. Going down hill, it felt like we were flying on top of the snow, it was so light.

Just perfect!!

Pic St Michel- My first ski touring of the year

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:43:00 +0000

This last Saturday, Arno and I went for a ski tour to the “Pic Saint Michel” (1966m) in the Vercors. The weather was cloudy and windy at the top, but we had a good time. The hike took 2H to go up for 700m.

LOELIE si jolie!!

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:06:00 +0000

The year is ending with grace and joy, I am very proud to announce you the birth of LOELIE (Lina's sister), and so my little niece. She is just incredibly beautiful, I am already in love with her.

CONGRATULATIONS to my brother and sister in law!!!!

NOEL NOEL

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:12:00 +0000

Christmas day is now 12 days from now, I finally decided to post some pics of my tree. This year I will be celebrating Christmas eve at my parent's place and the day at Arno's parents place with his cousins.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Le foie, ma premiere fois

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:46:00 +0000

Christmas is coming soon and in France, it is a tradition and a pleasure to taste the Foie Gras. And every french knows that it's better to make your own. The only thing is to get the best recipe, there is different ways to prepare the Foie gras and I really wanted to get the easiest and most tasty one. That is why I visited a friend of Françoise: Georges.

He was very quiet to welcome us to his home to prepare the Foie Gras, it was actually very easy and fast to prepare.

Here is the recipe:

Get a nice Foie Gras origin France important!!

Get gently the nerves off the Foie gras a way that does not destroy it.

Clean the jars in glass with boiling water.

Mix:

1/2 Coffee spoon of pepper

1 Coffee spoon of salt

5 to 6 coffee spoon of Cognac or Armagnac

Disperse this mix on each side of the Foie Gras

Pour the Foie gras in the jar and press well

Close the jar and reserve it in the fridge for 2 hours.

Cook the Foie gras in a Cocotte minute. As soon as you ear the cocotte whistle, switch off the gaze and leave the cocotte under pressure for 30 minutes.

Then open the cocotte and let it cool off.

Thank you Georges for the teaching!!

ENJOY!!!!

PRAVOUTA- Roc d'Arguille

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:06:00 +0000

Last sunday, we went for a little hike in the Chartreuse. We parked at the Col du Coq and took the direction of St Hugues de Chartreuse. After 2H walking first in the fog, we arrived at the top with a sunny and warm weather at the Roc D'Arguille (1768m).

We had some snow a few weeks ago and it has not all melted wet. This added a little spice in this hike and this beatiful pics.

Frustration, Frustration...

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:23:00 +0000

This past Monday and Tuesday, I was in the south of Germany, in the town called Mainz. No I was not enjoying some vacation time but very mostly working (I know It is not correct English, but I would really like to insist on that point).

My big boss, my direct boss and I had a meeting for our European project.

For the most of it, I spend my day listening to the different teams coming from all over Europe talking about our project. This was interesting but when you are just a research assistant you don't get to have your words on simply anything. Well, at least it's what I felt like, even if some of them seems very nice.

Of course, we are not the ones deciding whether or not things should be done, but come on, it's not because we are doing the technical work that means that we have no brains.

Pass on that, I was looking for the visit of Mainz, on Tuesday all the teams were supposed to go for an hour tour of the city, that would have been a great break from all this listening, thinking, and work analysis. But instead, we took the train to get to the airport and wait for more than 3 hours there.

I'll just say frustration got to be!! So even if I told myself, that it could have been worse, I could have not been there at all, I was still disappointed by all of this.

Monday night, while we were going to dinner, I got my camera and sneaked out of the group to take a few pics quickly. So this is Mainz by night. Unfortunately, I can not tell you what is those place since we did not made the tour.

Boca Chica, vacances exotiques

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:06:00 +0000

After waiting almost all summer time, it was finally our time to get some rest and have a long break from work, usual life and stress. It was time for us to move out of Grenoble for an exiting place:

Dominican Republic

More precisely, the village of Boca Chica at Dominican Bay resort. This village is located on the coast, in the south of Dominican republic, 1 hour driving distance from the Santo Domingo. The average annual temperature is 79°F, let's just say we had most of the time a wonderful and very sunny weather.

During this vacation time, we took some organized tours and went by ourselves to Santo Domingo.

Welcome to paradise!!!!!

Our beach in Boca Chica, the mangrove on the back

Selling fruit and fish on the beach

Expedition to Santo Domingo

Taking the local bus called the guagua with our friends Amandine, Alex, Loulou and Mauris, direction Santo Domingo.

Sugar can seller

The colonial center of Santo Domingo

The church hosting a part of the remains of Christopher Colomb

Memorial of Christopher Colomb

Conventional electricity alimentation in the street of SD

Having a typical Dominican lunch, grilled meat, rice and potatoes

Jeep Safari, immersion in the real Dominican life

Market in a little town, in the country side of Dominican Republic

The country side

Little Dominican girl running after our bus, so cute

Great swim and break in the cascade

Having coconut milk

After going back to the ranch, we had a typical lunch and tasted the MAMAJUANA, the Dominican viagra, it's a a mix of wine, rum and honey

Demonstrating how to roll a cigar

Typical inside house of local people

Cacao Coffee

Having desert: pineapple, coconut, sweet lemon and pure homemade grilled cacao seeds

Visiting the sugar can fields

Tasting sugar can

SAFARI!!!!!!!!

The day is ending, it's 7pm, we had a wonderful time

SAONA ISLAND

Saona Island or Isla Saona is a island located a short distance from the mainland on the south-east tip of the Dominican republic, It is a government protected nature reserve. With an area of 42 sq miles (110 sq km) Saona is the largest Dominican offshore island and forms part of the National Park of the East (Parque Nacional del Este).

Star fish encounter

CATALINA Island

Another paradise island for snorkeling...

Hope you enjoyed the pics as much as I did, thanks for following me.

Chamechaude ou Chamefroide??

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:05:00 +0000

Last week, with my friends Aude and Jerome, we went to a park of the region called La Chartreuse. A very famous mountain hike in Chartreuse is Chamechaude (2082m).

We were supposed to have a great and warm sun but instead it rained and a cold wind were freezing us.

To warm up, on the way down, we had a little coffee.

Despite the weather, we were happy cause the view was excellent and you always get satisfaction to achieve your goal.

Nice day at the "Moucherotte"

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:28:00 +0000

What is the Moucherotte??

Moucherotte is the Eastern top of Vercors (1901m), In a previous post I already spoke about the Vercors.

The particularity of this place is the incredible view, cause it's dominating Grenoble.

I went with my friends Elodie and Aude.

Despite the nice and warm sun, I was wearing a sweatshirt.

It took us 1h30 to go up and 1h to go down.

We ended our day but rock climbing at "Le petit desert", nice place but very busy even during the week.

Aude climbing and me under the shadow of the tree.

Thanks to Aude for the pics.

By the way, did I tell you I am in vacation since last monday and for a month?? LOL

Via Ferrata du Barrage du Sautet

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:01:00 +0000

Hello friends!!

Today, you'll follow our adventures in "the Barrage du Sautet".

This past week-end, we planed a via ferrata with Arno's friends and my friends.

We were not sure about the weather condition but we still decided to go for it.

It was an easy via ferrata in a nice looking environment.

See by youself, and enjoy the pics!!!

We started by going down, to get closer to the river

My friends Elodie, Aurelie and me

Then you follow the river

You go up again to reach the bridge

Reaching the bridge... nice view!!

The first bridge to cross

Here we go...

Guys turn...

Very relax!!!

Looks like the girls were relax too and very stylish!!! lol

Crossing the second bridge, we decided to have a little break and sit down to enjoy the view

The guys were following us...

From the left to the right:

Christophe, called "Chri", Nicolas called "Nico", Greg and Arnaud

We made the via ferrata in 2 hours.

Wonderfull Vercors- Thanks to Aude and Jerome

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:14:00 +0000

Last sunday, I spent my day with my friends Aude and Jerome. We were lucky to have the greatest weather ever. Not too hot, not too cold and sunny.

We decided to first start by a little hike in the Vercors followed by rock climbing.

We went to La Corbiere, an easy 2 hours trail and the most interesting thing: a wonderfull view of Grenoble and the suburb.

Next we went to "Les Allieres", a small and quite rock climbing area.

Getting ready to climb

Aude's turn, she's got the style too!!

Thanks to Aude and Jerome for this great day!!!!

Chri's birthday-Ardèche

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:38:00 +0000

For those who are curious about Ardeche, I'll introduce Ardeche as a peaceful and charming departement of France. (See the map below for the location and this link: http://www.ardeche-guide.com/ )

It is known as a nice place for canoe Kayak, canyoning, hiking, rock climbing, music festival, wine and so... to be honest I really like that place. It's as nice as Isère or Drome to be fair lol!!

Well, let's get to the main subject: Chris; Last week-end he was celebrating his thirteenth birthday at his parent's place in Ardeche with all his friends.
His parents have this amazing big and old fashion south of France type of house. Plus, from their pool, they have this incredible view on a lake.

playing in the pool

View on the lake
playing beer pong
Martin

I was almost forgetting Martin, their little donkey, nice but very loud!! LOL

When we got there, we had the perfect weather to jump in the pool.
Later on, we played ping pong and petanque. A famous and typical game in France, for those who would like to know more about Petanque, I'll direct you to: http://petam.com/petanque.htm

Chris was really happy with his birthday presents, a nice camera and lots of little crazy things.
Chri looking for his presents
We all really had fun and all his familly was very nice.

Thanks a lot Chri for inviting us!!

Week-end at Dorothee's parent

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:57:00 +0000

Last week-end I spend my saturday and sunday at Dorothee's parent house or Chalet!!

I was very excited to see Jay and Dorothee again, after leaving Dallas 2 years ago.

She is as great, sweet and SUPRISING as she use to be!!

While I was driving to the house, she told me she had an exciting news, I had my idea of the thing but like i told her: I am driving, so be careful to what you're going to say!!??

Of course, she did did wait to told me everything.

Jay proposed to Dorothee in Paris in front of the Eiffel tower.
How romantic is that!!!????

I was so happy!! and thinking that I am part of this succes because I was the one who made them meet in Dallas is very exciting.

We talked about a lot of things and finally beside their new house, nothing changed a lot. Dallas is still Dallas, still hot and sunny.

During this week-end I met her familly and Delphine, her other friend. They were all very funny and nice family.

Dorothee's mother cooked her Paela, it was delicious!! THANKS A LOT!!!!!

Unfortunatly like we say in France, every good thing has an end. I had to leave them sunday evening to go back to Grenoble. I am not in vacation wet.

I really enjoyed this week-end.

Hope to ear about the wedding soon.

Panchotexane Reborn Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (panchotexane) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:25:00 +0000

It's time for me to change that old and ugly skyblog for a new , stylish and fresh blog.

So here I am, ready to show you new adventures and pictures, or what ever come throught my mind.

I hope you'll like this new blog and continue following me.

Enjoy!!!

Heidi