This past week our good friends Amanda, Josh and their crazy-cute, apple-cheeked daughter Hella came over the pond to spend Christmas with us. We picked them up in Dijon, then drove to Lyon where we stayed for 2 nights. We had heard a lot about Lyon as being beautiful, ("the other Paris") and a hot spot for great food (but aren't all cities in France?) and it was on the way to our final destination, Argentiere, a small town close to Chamonix, in the French Alps where we spent the following 5 nights, including Christmas.
Here is Dave, wrestling with the rented roof-top box and all of our skiing gear. We had a surprise snow fall the night before in Luxembourg so it made packing up a bit slippery. I had lingering doubts about not getting snow chains ...
After picking up Amanda, Josh and Hella in Dijon we took a scenic route through the Cote d'Or. It was spectacular, especially in the fresh, bright snow and sunshine. It was quite cold, maybe unusually so for that area, but we walked around a bit and explored the winding streets and many small wineries and tasting caves in this small town (can't remember the name!) near Mearsault. Dave has been doing some reading on French Wines and the Burgundy area is known for it's wine producers being quite small producing very small quantities of wine each season. This and the colder, unpredictable climate makes for riskier wine-production. Even though the streets were empty and the weather was super cold, we saw several wine caves open for tastings. 
We stopped at this family winery of Christophe Vaudoissey. The gentleman here is the father-in-law of Christophe. The winery has been making wine for generations. The tastings here are so different than what we've experience in California or Oregon. It's much more low key. You often step into someone's home, or where they actually package the wine. There aren't any shops or elaborate tasting rooms. This time we tasted right next to the barrels, in the cave, which was under the family home. The wines were wonderful and we bought 4 bottles. My favorite part of this visit was that the owner spoke to us in French and was very very patient with our weak French skills. It made it so much more fun to learn about the wines. I'm sure we got much of the story wrong but it was fun nonetheless.
A photo of the wine-making family. 
Outside one of the many Christmas markets we saw this year- in Mearsault, I think. Here we bought pate, champagne, jams, waffles and hot wine. Yum. 
A lovely sunset among the vines...
More village scenery ...
I fell in love with this abandoned farm. And Lyon ... again, another Christmas market - one right next door to our hotel.
There were lots of Christmas lights and even a giant Ferris Wheel in one of the main squares. The weather was unusually cold for Lyon - it was about 15 degrees instead of the expected 40 degrees. SO, the ferris wheel was pretty empty and they had plastic covers over a couple of the chairs. Even those looked empty.
Peaking through our hotel blinds.
Peaking through our hotel blinds. 
This fountain "Fountaine Bartholdi" was sculpted by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who also sculpted the Statue of Liberty. If you looked at the horses heads closely you could see water running underneath the ice. Very cool. 
As my friend Liz Dailey said - Lyon is hilly! We ventured up into the "croix rousse" neighborhood, which was the main area for silk weaving. Lyon was once known as the "silk capital of the world". Now it is known as the "gastronomy capital of France" - a very big title, if you know France. The traditional restaurants in Lyon are called Bouchons. This word in french also means bottle-neck, as in traffic. We never ate a true Bouchon but we saw many bouchon-like items on the menus where we did eat. Basically lots of pig dishes - all kinds of pieces and parts of the animal. After my "anduillette" sausage experience in Paris, I kept things simple and ordered chicken. 
Christmas trees in "7 varieties to choose from" for sale in one of the Christmas markets in the Croix Rousse.
A GIANT skillet of bubbling tartiflette (potatoes, ham, and rebluchon cheese). Each one of those circles is a complete 6" round of rebluchon cheese.
Eating some tartiflette.
A goat climbing a sheet at the petting zoo in the Christmas market.
The escarole endive guy. The endives where growing from this giant tray. The guy was cutting them from their stems and stripping the outer leaves. Josh told me they grow like mushrooms, in darkness. This explains how they were at the market like this in the middle of December.
The city, on the river Rhone.
Josh taking Hella on the scenic river route.
One of Lyon's traditional Christmas treats - red Praline tart. Actually, there were tons of red praline items - cakes, rolls, breads, cookies, etc.
My dinner one night - foie gras on green beans and artichoke hearts. I followed this up with some Bresse chicken. Also famous in this area.
Brasserie Georges - a Lyonais institution since 1846. Famous people like Edith Piaf, Gerard Depardieu, and maybe even Charles de Gaulle have eaten here. We had a marvelous time and Hella was entertained by a very sweet little girl who sat behind our booth.
Here we are in Argentiere, a small town just east (?) of the town of Chamonix. In the distance is a glacier we could see from our apartment.
Even though Argentiere was small, it was full of good food options, like the plethora of ham, sausages, and cheeses at this little shop. The owner really loved practicing his english, and every few minutes he would ask "my english is good, yes?".
Josh bringing in the tiniest Christmas tree I've ever had.
More of the view from our apartment.
And more of that lovely blue glacier ...
The best way to bring your kids around the town was by sled. Every parent seemed to have one.
Amanda and Josh SPOILED us with amazing meals. On our first night we had rabbit! Amanda completely experimented and it was amazing. It was also amazing how much of a selection the local supermarket butcher had.
I got a chuckle out of the names - so French of course.
A very gussied up horse and driver. My niece, Elizabeth informed me the horse is a Belgian, just like Elizabeth's horse, Gordon.
Some views from Chamonix. The incredible thing is that you are not even seeing the whole height of the mountain. It continues up and back.
More of Chamonix village.
And here we have fancy-shmancy Megeve. A very elegant town with lots of elegant women in fur coats and hats strolling around with their ski-booted kids and small dogs. The Christmas tree in the center was completely decorate with Swarovski crystal ornaments.
More Chamonix...
Christmas Eve dinner - a roasted leg of lamb! We each opened one gift that night.
The view across from the view of the glacier.
Josh making fresh-squeezed orange juice Christmas Day.
Hella checking out the tree.
Josh skiing in very little visibility.
View from one of Dave's days of snowboarding.
Dave getting started down the run.
The local architecture was kind of peculiar.
I liked this place a lot.
We finally got some sun on the Christmas Day.
The river behind our apartment.
A Bouche Noel! I have always been curious about those cakes rolled up to be like logs. I didn't realize that they were a truly traditional French Christmas dessert. This one was from the local bakery and it was delish.
The day after Christmas Day we drove into Aosta, Italy - just to say that we went to Italy. We actually got lucky with a great restaurant and had some amazing pizza and pannacotta. So bizarre to be able to drive through a tunnel and get to a completely different country and culture.
Another Christmas market in Aosta!
On our last day, we drove through the other side of the mountains, into Switzerland. Luckily the day was sunny and dry so these intense switchbacks were easy to handle (except for the car-sickness they induced).
Here we are on the Swiss side, where you could see the climate was indeed warmer - vineyards, fruit trees and even a few palms in the more sheltered areas.
Dave enjoying his new scarf and looking very European, indeed!
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