Choc fulla Fall!

Fall is in full swing in Switzerland and that means the landscape is bursting with color!  Of course, we have Fall in Texas.  It lasts approximately 23 hours.  The leaves turn from green to brown and then fall off the trees.  Oh, and the average temperature in the “Fall” is still probably about 75 degrees.

But here, the air has turned crisp and cool.  The smells of wood fires (and clanging of the cowbells)  greet you as you step outside.  And nature is in full display. Believe it or not, even the vineyards have turned color and the hills are aflame with reds, yellows, and oranges in just about every hue imaginable.

CW had forgotten how much he enjoyed autumn.  We haven’t lit our fireplace yet, but that day is coming.  And the days are growing shorter!  For those of you in the US who just turned your clocks back this weekend, welcome to the past!  We turned ours back last weekend, so we’ve spent the week feeling just a tiny bit closer to home.  

Fall is also the time for the restaurants to roll out their seasonal menus.  Venison, rabbit, chestnuts, etc., can be found in dishes.  Fondues of all types (cheese, oil, and chocolate) reappear after their summer hiatus.  And little festivals are held everywhere.

  This weekend, we took the 20 minute drive over to Divonne (Dee-vunn), France for the Suisse-Franco Chocolate festival.  It’s not as impressive as it might sound.  In Houston, a gathering of this type might fill the George R. Brown convention center or Reliant Hall down by the football stadium.  Here, it fills the Divonne convention center, which is to say all of about 3 rooms.  Nevertheless, we had a nice couple of hours walking around those rooms and visiting the 20 or so vendors in attendance.  Some even spoke English!

 

But what it lacked in quantity, it made up for in quality!  Chocolate of every kind and flavor you could imagine.  Swiss, French, even a couple of Italian guys with what we thought was some of the best at the show.  Chocolate with alcohol, chocolate with olive oil, chocolate spreads, chocolate cooking and molding supplies.  And that’s not all.  Honey, wine, breads, and more. 

This was heaven SweetSwissTeen, SwissSis, and SoulSwisster.  AllAmericanBoy, however, is not a chocolate lover.  A Vanilla festival?  He’d be all over that.  Chocolate?  Not so much.  Though he did impress all of us by actually tasting some.  He immediately made a face and announced that was all he could handle (though curiously, he does like chocolate chip cookies!)

After the festival, we walked along the lake in Divonne.  The kids collected acorns and threw them into the lake and also found a willow tree to swing on.  Although it’s gotten cooler, it’s not cold enough to have knocked off the mosquitos and they were out in force.  Still, a very nice afternoon and the first one that we haven’t spent running to the grocery store or Ikea or someplace that would only be open on Saturday.

Yes it’s Fall.  How can we be sure?  Christmas items are now in the stores!  Yes, even in Switzerland, Christmas starts in October.  At least it’s not July.