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.

Merry Christmas/Joyeux Noël/Fröhliche Weihnachten!

... with one of my favourite Christmas songs "Do you hear what I hear?", performed by Carrie Underwood at the NYC Rockefeller Center.
Enjoy and have a wonderful Christmas time, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, our saviour!

Merry Christmas/Joyeux Noël/Frohe Weihnachten!

Enjoy this very special nativity play!
Merry Christmas around the world!

Easter delights: Swedish Kanelbullar

Who said watching TV is making people passive and lazy? On Easter Sunday, I watched an Inga Lindström movie - click HERE to do so as well... What I liked most about it was, as always, the beautiful Swedish scenery - and particularly a lovely café, situated directly at the lake, one of the movie's main settings.
And there they baked and sold Kanelbullar - Swedish cinnemon rolls with which I fell in love immediately. I found a lot of recipes and finally decided for THIS (recipe in German). - You can also find a lot of Kanelbullar recipes in English, for example HERE.
My recipe worked well - I just needed more flour to make sure the dough was easy to roll with a rolling pin.
Kanelbullar are easy to make and very yummy - they were great for our Easter Monday breakfast (a bank holiday in Geneva, like Good Friday as well). In general they are a lovely breakfast or brunch dish and also a great addition for a picnic.
I certainly made too many, so I put some of them in the freezer. We had one bag today for breakfast. (After they were defrosted, I've put them in the oven for some minutes). They were again a delight!

Celebrating Epiphany!

This year I decided to join in the celebration of Epiphany. This day (6th Jan in Geneva) is dedicated to the three kings who brought gifts to child Jesus. There are some nice pastries to buy for this occasion. Geneva has the great privilege to be influenced by Swiss and French traditions. You can either buy "Dreikönigsbrötli" (3-kings-buns) in a package which contains not only some raisin buns, but also a crwon that can be worn by one or more family members thoughout the day. This buns or the similar cake was already made since 1311, disappeared during reformation time and was newly brought up by bakeries in the 1950s. Here's a recipe.
I've read that it is also a tradition to hide a bean in the cake - and whoever finds this bean is king for one day!

These two pics below show cakes with a similar recipe and are called "Couronne" (crown or wreath, both translations would make sense...)

The French have another Epiphany cake called "Gallette des Rois" (Kings'cake) which is also sold in Geneva. It has an almond filling. Check out a recipe here.

It was fun to think a bit more about Epiphany and the connected traditions. Contrary to Germany, Epiphany is no bank holiday here in Geneva (that's surely a pity!).

Manhattan!!

It was a long-time dream come true to go to Manhattan during Christmas time! And the afternoon we arrived it started snowing ... the picture above is close to Time Square.

Beautiful, beautiful Central Park covered in white.

Manhattan life ... and publicity for the popular Christmas Spectacular in Radio City Hall.

Impressive skyscrapers wherever you look...

I also need to mention two cafés/coffeeshops we especially liked: the French Roast Café in Greenwich Village which has the most tasty Cappuccino and New York Cheesecake you can find ... and Oxford Café which has such a great quality food - sandwiches, soups, cakes ... both are higly recommended!!

And certainly the wonderful Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center!!

It was an absolute unforgettable vacation for us and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

NY is such an exciting place!

Believe!

We just returned from a wonderful trip to New York (Long Island and Manhattan). It was very Christmassy over there, especially because snow fell on Sat 19th Dec (there wasn't any other news on TV anymore ... only the "snowstorm").

I especially liked Macy's Christmas campaign, going back to the wonderful movie "The miracle on 34th street" ... BELIEVE!!!

And it's true, the Christmas miracle is all about believing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!

Thanksgiving in Geneva

My husband and I love to join the annual Thanksgiving celebration at the American International Women's Club. It's always a very warm, welcoming and cosy atmosphere with lovely decorations, homemade food and nice fellowship.

Yesterday we even learnt from a speech that was hold how very connected Geneva and the American Thanksgiving really are ...Geneva, the city of Calvin ... and the godly calvinist immigrants who invented Thanksgiving!!

So Geneva is one of THE places to celebrate Thanksgiving ... and it's a great opportunity to be thankful for all the good things we receive - each year, each day.

Swiss (brunch) Day in paradise!

Switzerland's National Day is 1st August. There's a lovely tradition: to brunch at one of the many farms that offer a special National Day's Brunch! It's easy to locate them as there's a special National Day's Brunch website! This particular brunch was celebrated for the 17th time in 2009. 430 farmer families welcomed around 200.000 guests!

We decided to brunch at Ferme de Merlinge, a farm that has regular brunchs on Saturday mornings throughout the year. This farm was able to accomodate 800 people on 1st August and it was fully booked!

They have a spacious beautiful garden with lots of trees. So we found a lovely place in the shadow and enjoyed various homemade bread, homemade jam, fruit from their fields like strawberries and apricots, ham and all sorts of cheese, tomatoes, salad, homemade apple juice and certainly, one of my favourite Swiss dishes: Bircher!

The weather couldn't have been better - we had over 30 degrees.

We already look forward to the next Swiss National Day's Brunch - a great idea!!

Easter review

Just some words about Easter in Geneva 2009: We had wonderful weather, magnolias in full bloom and enjoyed the days off with long walks through the city.

The beautiful weather suited so well the beautiful sense of the Easter celebrations: Jesus' ressurection!