Stuttgart

It's been a long while since I last updated my blog. In the meantime, it's certainly NOT cold anymore - but very hot!!
We as family were traveling a lot back and forth between Geneva and Stuttgart (southern Germany). Beside our duties, we had fun discovering my home area in a new way. On Mother's Day we went to Stuttgart's hugest park: The beautiful "Schlossgarten".

We also walked through the city, beside the beautiful "Altes Schloss" (translates into "old castle")

and at the end of the day made a trip to Stuttgart's television tower "Fernsehturm".

Stuttgart is not only economically strong and home of big companies like Mercedes, Porsche and Bosch, but also became a very urban, modern big city over the last decades - with lots of culture and a high quality of life. It's surrounded by vineyards, forests and a lot of green space to spend leisure time.

Snow snow snow - cold cold cold

It was real winter around here the first half of February. It snowed a lot on the 31st of January and then the weather became really cold - minus 10 degrees (14 Fahrenheit) was no exception. The advantage of the cold temperatures was certainly that the snow stayed and our son had fun in the snow! Our local newspaper, Tribune de Genève, put a beautiful winter photo gallery online.
On the 11th February we went to the medieval French town of Yvoire which is located on the South bank of Geneva Lake. We went to the waterside where an icy wind was blowing. The wind and the temperature, in combination with the water of the lake, had iced the laterns which looked very impressive (see below).
In the meantime, the weather is milder and the sun is melting the last ice and snow in our parks.
I'm thankful that we had real winter -and now I'm actually looking forward to spring!!!

PAUL

We got to know PAUL in the South of France ... a lovely bakery chain with delicious bread, cakes and all kinds of treats. It took us a while to find PAUL in our area.
But fortunately we found one in this mall in nearby France:
Centre Commercial Val Thoiry
We went there again during Christmas time and enjoyed delicious coffee, quiche and marvellous desserts. I had a praliné macaron which was the best macaron I've ever eaten (see second pic above)!
What we also like about PAUL is the interior design - it is like stepping back into good old times, with chandeliers, walls covered with old library cabinets with tiny drawers - and the waitresses/sales clerks are also dressed like in the first half of the 20th century!
You can check the website PAUL - they have shops/cafés not only in France, but also in around twenty other countries.