Visiteurs de Paris, Pt. Un

I perhaps misrepre-sented a few blog facts recently to heighten the ever-present sense of drama. Although our first official U.S. visitors canceled last weekend's visit to Zürich from Paris due to Eurail issues, they successfully rebooked for a Mon-Wed visit instead after a detour through Germany. So Steph and I indeed hosted our first trans-continental visitors on March 3, a mere 18 weeks after our arrival! [Note: We actually hosted our first American visitors back in January as Stephanie's college roommate and her husband--we'll call them M&M, not to be confused with the chocolate or infamous Caucasian rapper--visited one weekend for a bang-up time. Their trip occurred during my computer (and espresso machine) outage, so I never recounted it appropriately. However, we maintain strict house rules and since M&M currently live in Essen/Frankfurt, they count as German visitors and not U.S. visitors.]

Michel (his French alias) is a good friend from our Chicago soccer-playing days of yore who moved to Los Angeles about eight years ago (primarily due to dissatisfaction with the Chicago lakefront beach volleyball scene, I believe). We last saw him about 18 months ago during a summer trip back to Chicago and keep in touch via email and through other common friends. Via an online worldwide "house swap" forum, he traded time at his Santa Monica nearly-beachfront apartment for a similarly well-situated apartment in Paris's central Marais neighborhood--the tenants simply switch residences for a few weeks at no cost. What will those crazy Internet users think of next?!

Accompanied by his girlfriend Celeste (alias), they arrived in France early last week, acclimated to intensive pastry ingestion for several days in Paris and then ventured to Germany last weekend to visit her childhood town and relatives (Celeste lived her first 2 years in Germany before moving to California and speaks fluent Deutsch). Their train pulled into Zürich's Hauptbahnhof early Monday evening and I met them on the platform with red carpet unfurled. Mother Nature was unfortunately not as welcoming, as Zürich's temperatures dropped to their lowest in over two months accompanied by intermittent rain, sleet and snow.

Determined to provide an authentic Swiss experience--and because the winter fondue season is expiring and Steph and I hadn't yet tried it --we twisted our guests' arms into visiting a truly local-yokel neighborhood restaurant specializing in authentic Swiss fondue and raclette. The unassuming restaurant Chässtube Rehalp (Chäs is Swiss-German dialect for cheese and also conjures a particularly interesting spoken sound) came recommended by our friendly German neighbor who, after testing many citywide fondue joints including the more celebrated downtown spots, proclaimed it best so far. It's located out towards our tram line's end (near the celebrated Schwimmbad) in a purely residential setting.

The Chässtube indeed delivered authenticity, from its old wooden and vaguely Alpine decor to genial proprietor and low-key clientele to our gallon-sized red ceramic pot of bubbling cheese. We selected the classic moitié-moitié (half-n-half) blend, 50/50 earthy Gruyère and Vacherin Fribourgeois spiked with kirsch, accompanied by a modest palette of white French bread cubes and small steamed potatoes. Swiss white wine or beer are appropriate complements (we chose the former), whereas selecting red wine or Coca-Cola is grounds for being bounced. We ended the evening with a few beers (now appropriate) at a bar near home.

Steph was naturally obligated to bring home the bacon on Tuesday, so Michel & Celeste were stuck with me as sole tour guide. I forced them to earn breakfast by walking up the somewhat steep Lake Zürich eastern hillside to one of our favorite city viewpoints, after which we kept walking to my local favorite Hottingerplatz for food and coffee at the preferred cafe, sharing big slices of unsweetened apricot, apple, and rhubarb tortes. We trammed to and toured the Old Town's shops and sights, including a few minutes inside the fairly sparsely adorned Zürich-skyline-iconic Grossmünster church, a first for me. Back at Bellevueplatz, we stopped for the mandatory lunch of world-class grilled bratwurst, crusty rolls & beer, then toured no fewer than four local groceries and wine stores for the evening's dinner supplies. After Steph's return home, we all jointly prepared a nice succession of appetizers, salad, dinner and dessert amidst blowing sleet and snow outside.

Part 2 and all-important pictures to follow...