The Jura

Graziellas apartment - the bottom corner. Our apartment is the back window second storey.

Samedi 6 juin

This morning we went off to the bigger town of St Claude for a look around – Graziella had an appointment here so it gave us time to walk the streets. We actually had been here briefly before at Easter as we drove home from Chamonix, although it was like a ghost town then. However today it was a thriving, bustling centre of attention. We followed people to the local market of fresh produce –WOW! The fruit in particular was amazing! We are right into the summer fruit now – the peaches, apricots etc are really delicious, like I remember as a little girl. The flavour is fantastic! I am also loving the nectarines – these are my favourite fruit but for some reason at home I can no longer eat them as they send my mouth into an itching fit! Something to do with the chemicals they use?
So I am trying to get all my life’s worth in now!
We got 1 kg of cherries for €2!! Needless to say they only lasted on the walk around town!
If only our fruit at home was so cheap…..I can’t believe we live in such a prolific fruit growing area but pay through the nose for fruit and electricity for that matter…..strange how it is cheaper in Auckland than right beside the dam…..but don’t get me started!
All the fruit and veges are at an affordable price – 1Kg onions 29c, 5kg potatoes 1.80, basic food items are generally kept at great prices. However saying that there is another ‘greve’ strike, to do with dairy and fresh produce. I think the growers are getting raw deals!
Back to the wander around St Claude…it is famous for Pipe making, for smoking, and diamonds! It is situated in a narrow valley surrounded by the beautiful, lush green hills of the Jura.

We returned to St Lupicin for lunch, sausages and potatoes. These were the huge sausages we had seen in the charcuturie (butchery) but never sure what to do with them), however Graziella just sat them in a huge pot with the potatoes and threw in some spices and boiled them. When they are served you just chop off how much you want.

After lunch, about 3:30 we went for a drive to a little church situated right at the top of a hill. It was one of the churches that I see perched on the edge with no houses near it and wonder. Why did they build it there? Who wants to walk all the way up there to go to church? How did older people manage? The poor builders lugging all the heavy stone there! The view from the church.
Anyway it was very old….surprise…. 692! Graziella has a beautiful voice and the church had great acoustics so she gave us a little concert. Wonderful!
Just outside the church were stone altars used by the druids.

We then continued to another lake which had boat marinas and holiday houses near it. In the height of Summer I could imagine how many people would be using it. Unfortunately the weather was a bit grey and drizzly so there were not too many people about. At a lookout! The marina in the distance.

We also stopped at a great wooden toy shop, luckily my children are a bit too old for these as you could certainly spend a fortune in there.
I did fall in live with a puppet theatre unfortunately no way to get it home easily!

Returned and I helped Graziella make Lasagne for tomorrows lunch. Graziella is Italian and so I got some italian cooking lessons...how to make traditional lasagne. Yum!

While this was cooking we had tea, the children than went off to bed while I helped make a chocolate cake!

Looking forward to lunch tomorrow!