Let the Games begin...

Not that we have been sitting around doing nothing for the past 3+ years, but the next few weeks/months start our version of the Amazing Race (Barrington Resort & Spa Style). It's gonna get interesting...

Well, before we head into the future we need to catch up everybody on recent events...

As stated in my last posting we were heading back to Paris for the last of our cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu - Cooking with Friends! This class was different than the previous classes because it was more of an instructional class than a working class. We actually got relax and watch the cooking being done - it was a nice change. Our chef this time around was Chef Iman Bogen. Originally from the United States he moved to France to study cooking and joined the team at Le Cordon Bleu in 2013. Though the class was taught in French - he spoke better English than our translator... The class was taught using one of those slanted mirrors over the cooking area and a closed-circuit video broadcasting on the TVs in the room. Our menu included: 

  - A lovely appetizer of Farmers cheese with herbs, white asparagus with Truffle oil

  - The main course was Skate with a medley of seasonal vegetables served on a tomato and tarragon puree

  - And of course for dessert...Crepes Suzette

After he finished cooking each of the courses we sat back and enjoyed a tasting! Delicious!

Here are a few photos and videos of our experience that day:

Chef Bogen
filleting the Skate

Chef Bogen
Torching the Crepes

The closed-circuit TV system...
I told Tom I wanted to put
one in in Richmond!

The direct view...

The Appetizer...
Farmers cheese & herbs

The Main Course...
Skate w/ Seasonal Vegetables

The Dessert...
Crepe Suzette!

An amazing stove in the class!
Something else I would love!

After the class we roamed around Paris, visited Musee d'Orsay and had a lovely lunch... The Musee d'Orsay was having an exhibit of Vincent Van Gogh Paintings and that was amazing to see.

Outside the Museum...

The wonderful inside...

I was impressed with how quickly all the lines moved to get in and to get into the exhibit. It was Palm Sunday and everybody was out!

Though, no photos were allowed...well you know me...

The Church at Auvers

Vase of Flowers

What a great museum and what a wonderful time with my honey!

We also walked around the grounds of the Armory Museum...pretty cool!

From across the lawn...

from across the circle...

the courtyard...

...and a Tank!

Before we leave Paris, I have to show you the room we had... 

At the Lovely Hotel St. James we were upgraded to a duplex room...

Take a look...

Our downstairs sitting room...

...and the library (lol)...

...the spiral staircase upstairs...

...to our indoor balcony...

...our upstairs bedroom...

...& finally our bathroom!

Wonderful but very strange! It's a very eclectic place!
Time to say Au Revoir to Paris for the moment...

Now I guess I should start explaining our upcoming events...
"The Amazing Race BRS"

Both Tom & I (individually and together) have a bunch of trips planned for the next few weeks/months.
It all starts next week:

• Week 1: Tom has a business trip/meeting in London. I found a great airfare so I decided to join him. At the end of the week I fly back to Switzerland and Tom heads on to Jakarta Indonesia.
• Week 2: Tom is in meetings in Indonesia while I continue life in Lausanne.
• Week 3: Tom is in Seoul Korea for more meetings.
• Week 4: Tom starts the week still on Seoul but then leaves for Tokyo Japan. He spends a few days there then heads to Rome Italy on Friday. Thursday of this week I head to Rome. On Friday, Tom & I are joined by our good friends Angi & Rob for a nice 4 day weekend.
• Week 5: On Monday, all four of us take the train back to Lausanne via Milan - where we have a 5 hour layover to wander and show Rob another Italian town he has not yet seen. Finally, that evening we arrive back in Lausanne... Tom goes back to work on Tuesday. Rob, Angi and I venture to new and interesting places in our adopted home of Lausanne.
• Week 6: On Sunday, Angi, Rob & I fly back to the United States. I presume they go back to work and I start supervising the maintenance construction work we are having done on the BRS USA. I will see some old friends, have some great coffee at the Daily Grind, and see some cute animals at the Richmond SPCA.
• Week 7: (a little up in the air) I am hoping to take a trip up to NY for the week - to see James/Greg, Mom/Dad and hopefully Stuart & Joanne. At the end of the week I head back to Richmond to see the progress on the house.
• Week 8: I continue to monitor the work being done on the house and catch up with my mates! Meanwhile back in Lausanne - Tom might be taking another trip to a market in Asia (but that has not been confirmed yet). At the end of the week I head back to see my Honey!!! Yippy!
• Skipping forward a little to the 3rd week of July...we start our summer vacation!
• On July 20th we fly to Athens Greece for a few days. On Tuesday of that week, we board a Seabourn Cruise Ship leaving Pireaus Greece at 4pm - from here we will go daily...
• Day 1: We spend the day in Kusadasi Turkey.
• Day 2: We spend the day in Symi Greece. It will be great to see the island again!
• Day 3: My Birthday - we will be in Santorini Greece - can't wait.
• Day 4: We are at sea for the day...
• Day 5: We spend the day in Syracusa Sicily in Italy...
• Day 6: Is spent in Lipari Island off of Sicily...
• Day 7: We are in Ponza Italy...
• Day 8: We spend the day in Livorno/Florence Italy
• Day 9: We spend the day in Portovenere Italy
• Day 10: We arrive in our final cruise destination on our Anniversary in Monte Carlo!!
• Days 11-12: We are spending in Monte Carlo and renting a car to travel around and sightsee!
• Days 13-15: We will be driving to San Remo and spending a few days there...
• Day 16: We take a nice leisurely drive back to our adopted home - Lausanne Switzerland!

I am thrilled for multiple reasons -

1. Tom will be taking an extended vacation which he definitely deserves and needs!
2. We are taking an amazing cruise on a magnificent ship - the Seabourn Sojourn!
3. Lastly, we will finishing our vacation with a leisurely drive together through northern Italy and Switzerland!

Well, I am out of breath from typing all that.
I said it was going to be an interesting few months and I believe you would agree!  

As you can see on the home-front things are a little busy but it's all interesting and a wonderful adventure.
With everything going on I am not sure how faithful I will be to posting blogs but I will try and post things - even if they are abbreviated posts.

Looking forward most everything coming up (excluding our time apart) and it just proves that time will fly when you are having fun!
Next posting I will show you some of what I see/visit in London and give you an update on the wonderful world of ceramics...
Also, an update on the new Barrington Resort & Spa Artisanal Bread & Jam Division...here's a sneak peak...

Trying to create a logo...

Stocked up for the winter...

But for now...we would like to send our love to all our family and friends!
Special wishes and thoughts go out to two friends Rick McKinney and Bill Bangham for their individual speedy recovery from the things that have bothered them!

We miss you all and hope to see everybody soon!
Ciao for now!
Ron &Tom

Spring has sprung and lots going on...

Yes, I know it has been a while since my last posting...

Life has been extremely busy and crazy...

But hopefully, I am now back on track (I know - famous last words)

Since last I posted, Tom has been in Turkey on business, we have been to Paris for another cooking class, Neuchatel for a lovely inexpensive weekend and Aosta Italy. It all sounds very grand and has been lovely but it has prevented me from updating the blog sooner.

Let's move on to the fun stuff - Our second trip to Paris for another cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu. This class was all about stocks and sauces. I am starting with this one because we have the third & last of our classes this weekend. We head out to Paris tomorrow afternoon for 'Cooking with Friends'.

It was a lovely weekend unfortunately I got a bug and that put a slight damper on any roaming around.

The class itself was intense and very informative.Our chef for the day was Chef Patrick Caals (Chef de Cuisine et Chef de Patissier). We started by learning to properly make different type of 'fond' or stock (a base for any good sauce). We then moved on to making Chicken Breasts Supreme, a Pistou Sauce (french pesto without the cheese and pine nuts), Duck Breast a l'orange, a Bordelaise Sauce (red wine and veal stock sauce) and Jumbo Shrimp & Langoustines a l'American. Instead of boring everybody with the recipes and stories - I think it is best I show you the photos...

Chef Caals explaining our
long day ahead of making
some delicious sauces...

Chef Caals & me...

Tom mixing our Supreme Sauce...

Tom packaging up our goodies...

Tom cutting up the shrimp
& langoustines...

Ron making the seafood
stock w/the remains...

Our Langoustine tails...

Tom prepping the heads...

Chef showing us the
proper way to prepare
a duck breast...

Lastly, Chef showed us
how to make a French
Pistou Sauce...

Since all we did is work our tails off...everything we made got packed up in take-away bins and left with us...

Duck Breast a l'orange...

Chicken Supreme...

It was a lovely long day which ended with a marvelous dinner at Stella's and some relaxing at the St. James Hotel...

Our quirky yet lovely room...

...at the amazing St.James!

Because I was not feeling well we decided to leave, we caught an earlier train home, relaxed and enjoyed the memories of another great cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu! Looking forward to this coming weekend's adventure in Paris - I will make sure and post something more quickly this time.

As mentioned above we decided to take a drive the following Saturday to Aosta, Italy. We felt like having some authentic Italian food. The drive and day were absolutely lovely - the mountains were covered in snow but the in the town it was 70 degrees and lovely.

Just amazing countryside...

...through the mountains to Italy!

Our sleepy little Italian town...

....with amazing spring weather!

Moving on - I think I might have mentioned this a while ago but if not I am going to tell a short story now. Sometime back I decided to sign up and go to an 'Expat Fair' being held here in Lausanne. I also signed Tom up to join me. As part of the registration to this event was entry into a raffle for door prizes. The event itself wasn't spectacular but a few good/great things came out of it...
First - we luckily ran into the women who helped us find our apartment in Lausanne and got to catch up with her...
Second - next door to the event was a craft fair, so we had fun looking and buying things there...

Lastly - My ever lucky and wonderful husband won the Grand Door Prize, an amazing overnight stay in a beautiful hotel in Neuchatel with a tasting menu dinner included!

The reason I tell this story is because we decided to use our prize for our Civil Union Anniversary. We headed up to Neuchatel and spent a lovely overnight in what can only be described as one of the nicest most unusual hotels we have even been to. This is a new hotel placed directly on the shores of Lake Neuchatel. Each of the units/rooms looks like a self contained Cargo Container sitting directly on the lake. 

To get to our 'room' we were loaded into a golf cart and we were on our way (I want one for Richmond)...

The accommodations were amazing - take a look...

Our living room, bedroom and...

...bathroom with Jacuzzi tub!

Our terrace and view...

...and Tom relaxing on it!

The view of our front door...

...& the lakeside view of the back!

A friend that hung out on the lake...

...& our celebratory Martinis!

This was our view...

It was a short yet amazing little getaway with the man I Love!
We decided that going back in the fall would definitely be something we would like to do. The lake will be still warm enough to take a nice swim off our terrace.
Happy 7th Anniversary (of our Civil Union in NJ) to us!

On the home-front - spring is finally starting to show its face...
The Swiss are planting extremely colorful flowerbeds  - replacing the extremely colorful ones they planted last month for the winter...
I continue to putter around with my ceramics - playing with both design and glazes...

Attempting a dripping glaze...

...and a crackling glaze...

And my 'It's 5 o'clock somewhere'...

...a cheese platter for poolside!

  

To round this posting up - 

The next few months are a little crazy for the both of us. 

At the end of April Tom starts a three week business trip that will bring him to London, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and finally meeting me, Angi & Rob in Rome. After a nice weekend in Rome the four of us travel back to Switzerland. Tom goes back to work (sigh) and I get to play with Angi & Rob for the week. At the end of the week, I then travel back to the US with Rob & Angi for three weeks stateside working on the house in Richmond (just having some maintenance work done). I am hoping that I will be able to take the middle week and travel up to NY to visit with Mom, Dad, James, Greg and anybody else I am able to squeeze in.

I will try my best to be more regular with my postings (I will not swear about the time in the US).

For now - 

I would like to send our love and best to all our family and friends!

Before I end this, I want to add one more video - I am sitting here typing this and looking out at my view. I decided to show everybody the view from our terrace...enjoy!

Love always - 

Ron & Tom