Vouiquende à la montagne

Toujours à la recherche de l'aventure, nous voilà partis de Lyon pour le Mont Blanc un vendredi matin.


Première (demi) journée : aller chez Pascale à Notre-Dame de Bellecombe

Déjà la Savoie nous montrait ses plus beaux paysages...


... depuis la voiture bloquée deux heures pour cause de ... neige.

Une fois réunis chez Pascale...


... nous avons absorbé une bonne quantité de glucides adaptés aux efforts intenses


Deuxième journée : étape de liaison en raquettes

Ca devait être une simple balade en raquettes.


Mais tout a dérapé. Les sportifs étaient en fait des excentriques.


David voulait être photographié nu dans la neige.




Raphaëlle voulait séduire

par tous les moyens



le conducteur du chasse neige


Gwenaël faisait des bonhommes de neige


avant de les démolir frénétiquement


Il a fallu resserer les boulons autour d'un vin chaud


Et nous sommes arrivés, juste avant la nuit, ouf...


Troisième journée : ski et finish en parapente

A la location des skis, le concours de mode, c'est moi qui l'ai gagné.


Et nous avons pris les pistes de notre style fluide et relâché.

Le Mont Blanc était enfin en vue...



... et la voile de Gwen. Il est pilote de parapente. A croire que Pascale l'a choisi pour nous !


Le décolage, un moment délicat pour les nerfs. Peut-on faire confiance à un blond ? Trop tard, mes skis ne touchent plus par terre !



L'envol, le pied ... une fois que la cîme des premiers sapins est passée.



Et la Savoie vue du ciel.


Yann Arthus Bertrand a plus qu'à aller se rhabiller.

Un grand merci à Pascale et Gwenaël !

Mes copines suédoises en résidence

Voici le récit que mes copines suédoises Anna et Emma ont fait de leur séjour en France pendant les fêtes. En représailles à des commentaires désobligeants sur mon anglais, pas de traduction ! na. Postez un commentaire si vous ne comprenez pas qqch.

This is the story of two Swedish spies going to France via Berlin, catching up influences along the way.

We arrived in an icecold Berlin on December 30th. Everything worked as planned – we met our man in Berlin, he took us to the appartment where we should stay the night, and then he left.

Rumours said he went to Marseille. Time for planning... 
In Berlin we tasted chopped sausage drowned in curry. Strange? We don’t know. We also noticed people had hats covering their eyes and scarves up to their noses. Were they spying too?

30 hours passed and in the early dawn we crossed the border to France. On the train we noticed that French people looked more dressed up (but no white socks with sandals !). None of them was eating what we now know is called “curry wurst” (french people would'nt accept that !).

When passing Avignon, at 04.38 AM December 31st, we had everything under control. Time to meet the two competitors!

Enrico et moi

They might look like friends, but under this happy surface there are deep battles going on.


Marseille. Mid winter time, and sun? Strange for us Scandinavians. We felt sorry for our colleagues back in Stockholm – minus 15 degrees Celsius! Why don´t all French people live in the south with this lovely climat? In Les Calanques de Marseille we found a boy band on tour.

Emma, Enrico et moi dans les calanques.

The German and the French kept on with vivid discussions concerning whether TGV is better than ICE (our journey to Paris made it difficult for ICE, I'm afraid Enrico), whether Versaille is a terrific or horrible place, whether German or French is the language which all other languages (like Swedish!) derives from.

However – the German agreed that Marseille was warm and nice, and in a weak moment (at 05.12 AM on January 1st to be exact) he promised not to be rude to The French or the French people or to France whatsoever (I checked this word. This is a proper one ! Word of the day for me) for the next two days. His well willing “promise” might have vague connection to this: Ti-punch at New Years Eve (german brains don't bear Ti-punch !).


TGV left in time (of course. French people don't applause when the train is late !). Arrived in Paris at 11.38 PM, January 1st. Cold again.

Anna, Enrico et moi

Our man in Paris showed us his apartment in the rough neighbourhoods of Barbès-Rochechouart. People around here have opinions and are not afraid to share! Whether Anna share these opinions we leave unsaid, but here she is posing:

I love this picture. Anna's shade is funny and it may have a philosophical meaning linked to the sentence but I can figure out which one. Let's think about that !


We couldn´t wait to read the statistics of how many cars the French burned during 2008. It turned out it was a new record (?) 1147 cars ! I'm afraid. I should have explained it three times and not only two but 1147 cars were burnt during Saint Sylvester's night (not all year, don't underestimate french people, please !)

Car burning – together with ti-punch drinking – must be the national sports of France.

These two, but also : To move to South of France!

At Musée d´Orsay we couldn’t help but notice that this is quite an old national sport, a trend set by the old painters! Par exemple Renoir: born in Limoges, died in Cagnes and Matisse, born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, died in Nice.

Strolling around in Paris, watching historical monuments, we started to recognize a certain way of dressing. The scarves up to the nose where back, and now it was obvious: just Italian tourists showing off their new and fashionable winter clothes.

Enrico, please, could you photoshop this picture to delete this "stupid tower" and keep only this famous, amazing and exciting bridge.


And the boy band seemed to follow us everywhere!

Enrico, you really fit with the emptiness !




A couple of days later it was time to go home. We searched desperately to find recent and reliable statistics of how many cars the Swedes had burnt during 2008 (probaly not as many in one year as French for the eve). Unfortunately but not surprisingly we didn’t find any. Regarding this issue, we’re quiet sure that France wins! Always will…

Even tough the two cities of Berlin and Paris welcomed us with the not so welcoming –5 degrees Celsius, we still did the right thing going abroad after Christmas: When back in Stockholm it was –20 and we couldn’t help but dream ourselves back to warmer latitudes!

It was fun...

L'année 2009 sera culturelle

Dès le 3 janvier, j'étais au Musée d'Orsay avec mes amis suédoises et allemand. On est tombé en extase devant un tableau :

As soon as January the third, i went to Orsay museum with my swedish and german friends. We found an amazing painting :


Reconnaissez qu'il est fantastique ce citron. On est rentrés très inspirés et on a voulu s'essayer à composer un tableau par nous même.

I'm sure you'll agree with me that this lemon is a pretty good one. We came home very inspired and we wanted to try a composition.


Bon sang c'est vrai que ça fait mal à la tête la culture.

My god tha's a fact that culture gives headache.

Comme tout lieu culturel (si si), ce blog se doit de s'ouvrir aux influences étrangères. Aussi, j'ai donné cartes blanches à mes amies suédoises, Anna et Emma, pour nous narrer leur voyage en France. RDV dans quelques jours et bonne année à tous...

Like all the cultural places (yes it is), this blog has to be open to abroad. That's why i gave the key of this blog to my swedish friends, Anna and Emma. They will tell us their trip in France. Let's see that in a few days and happy new year !