Two Years and 24 Weeks - Grocery Shopping in France and Short Trip to Ticino

K and C at Castello Montebello in Bellinzona, Switzerland

A few weekends ago, we decided to make a trek over to Morteau, France, just over the border, to go grocery shopping.   We've heard the prices are much better than Swiss prices, plus they have a different selection of foods.   This was C's first trip across an international border, but it was rather boring as no one appeared to be manning the borders.  Although it doesn't make sense to go every week due to the cost of gas, we definitely had some really good finds, which included Comte cheese, lots of pastry items and frozen macarons.  (The macarons must be thawed before eating, but they were delicious and relatively cheap.)  Unfortunately, we needed to move quickly through the two stores we visited as C was being fussy.  We'll definitely be going back to Morteau (or another border town with grocery stores) in the next month or two, so we can restock.

M and C in Ascona, Switzerland

This past weekend, we went on our first overnight trip with C to Ticino, the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. Upon the recommendation of a colleague, we decided to take the pass both ways and forego the Gottard tunnel. The drive was really beautiful although rather long. After crossing the pass, we headed straight for Bellinzona, a city well known for its three castles. We visited the middle castle Montebello, which gave us a great view of the Castello Grande in the town below. The castle had a fair number of nooks and crannies to explore, and there was a lot of room to run around the grounds. As C was fussing, we decided to call it a day and head to the hotel.

We spent the night in an albergo/restaurant in Mugena near Lugano. We had pizza in the restaurant downstairs for dinner and then turned in. The next morning after breakfast we drove to Ascona, a cute town next to the Ticinese capital of Locarno, on the shore of Lake Maggiore.  We parked the car and had a brief walk along the lake before we started our journey back to Neuchatel.

M and C on bridge near Gottard Pass

Lessons learned:

1. You can buy frozen sweet peas in France. Score!

2. You can also buy Nacho Cheese Doritos, green split peas (pois cassés), yellow orange American cheese (called burger cheese), condensed and evaporated milk, and Cheerios in France.

3. You are more likely to be able to go shopping in Ticino.  We were amazed at all the clothing stores open in Ascona.

4. A colicky 13-week-old in a restaurant still doesn't work...