The 'rents arrive in Lausanne

Saturday, 10/17/09

My folks showed up today. Got them installed in the hotel and we had dinner at Le Vaudois. Vaud is the canton that Lausanne is in, and the food at the restaurant was all local. It's the time of year for "La Chasse," or "game season." We ate venison and pheasant, and the entrées came with a whole bunch of side dishes: red cabbage, marinated chestnuts, brussel sprouts, pear marinated in red wine, cranberry sauce, grapes and spätli. Delicious. We had local Vaudois wine with it, which was on the sweet side, but went really well with the game.

We decided to go to Gruyéres and Montreux on my days off, and also decided we were not going to go eat at Denis Martin, the molecular gastronomy restaurant that I was dying for them to try. It was just too expensive - it had gone up in price even more than last time. I've been there twice, and the last time cost $250 with wine. Now it's $310 without wine. Just not doable this time. Tant pis.

Sunday 10/18/09

I showed my parents around town. It was bitterly cold, and we were eventually just looking for somewhere to have coffee. We eventually wound up back at King Size since I had to work at 4pm.

My folks hung around for the whole show, and a whole bunch of my Swiss friends showed up - it actually turned out to be a fun afternoon. Sundays are usually a pretty quiet show because it's so early. We get people who come out from the cinema next door looking for a drink, and that's about it usually. But today it got energetic at the end. I went out with Mom, Dad and Ariane to Les Brasseurs, the Alsatian place, afterwards so we could all catch up. Les Brasseurs is an easy choice on Sunday because it's good and...it's open!