Stylin' Dinin'

So on Friday night Walter and I left the boys under the wise eye of our landlords and took a stroll into town for Anniversary Dinner :) We had asked about good places to eat, and many abound. We decided on Swiss speciality (getting to know our country) and 2 places were recommended: Cafe du Jura and Maison des Halles. We stopped at the Jura first and looked over the menu. It's hardcore Swiss. There was 'tete et langue' of something (head and tongue) and tripe, which is a speciality in Neuchatel (tripe Neuchatelois) and of course, fondue. We'll save it for another time. We ended up going to the Maison des Halles. It's in the pretty central square, in the old building with spires (built in the 1600s). It was lovely. The interior is gorgeous, not smokey and the food was scrum-diddly-umtious. We both chose prix fixe menus. His was local produce (Neuchatel sausage, some kind of white fish and zabalogne with Absinthe). Apparently, Absinthe is made here and becoming very popular. I had the 'treasures of the forest' (carpaccio with truffles, mushroom soup, salmon with mushrooms and berry cream stuff).
http://www.maisondeshalles.ch/

We were utterly stuffed and happy, so we went for a wee walk around town in the p#%@ing rain. We came across a strange street performance. Foour people were suspended ~15ft off the ground, lying on top of each other, facing the ground. They were controlling what looked like >30 strings on a lifesized marrionette below (which was female, naked and freaky looking). They did it in absolute silence and really slowly, while 2 people with guide ropes slowly turned their platform round. We didn't see it again on Saturday...
So, we continued on and happened past the "Highlander Pub". Who could resist, eh? What a bad bad idea ;) It was run by money hungry Morrocans (20 CHF for 2 drinks) and featured Hookahs, palm trees and teenagers looking for a good time. We were the oldest there till a couple of confused looking British men entered. It was good for a laugh dissing the music and dress of everyone around us!
The walk home was 20 mins of bucketing rain. Our jeans were still wet through the next day! Yes, I've forgotten what it feels like to walk home in the rain....

Saturday, we did the shopping expedition to town and had lunch there. The Migros has a very nice deli type area with tables you stand at to eat. That makes it more fast food, I think. Walter took the boys on a quick wind blown walk to the harbour in the apres midi, where they're building the floats for the Fete des Vendange.
http://www.fete-des-vendanges.ch/

Today, more inclement weather (bloody cold), but we took the bus to the end of the line to go see our friends Herb et Vero for lunch. They had a BBQ and invited us and a couple (French Canadian and Italian), one of whom Herb went to highschool with. It was a nice afternoon of French/English conversation and tasty meat! The boys had fun and behaved (except Toby's insanely loud screaming waking the baby).

Tomorow, we embark on our last week in temporary housing...Hoorahoorahoorooh!
Tuesday: Walter takes a walk through with the rental company and is given the keys to the Saint Blaise apartment. The Swiss are incredibly picky when it comes to leaving a house in good condition. Some have been know to put on white gloves and look for dust! It's quite common to pay up to 1000 CHF to have your house cleaned when you move out, that's on top of taking all the light FIXTURES with you!
Walter rents a car on Weds and we go 'crazy' buying light fixtures, appliances and some furniture. IKEA may be in the pipeline (~1 hour away). The movers come on Friday. I need to learn some 'moving in' French phrases. Walter goes Stateside on Sunday :( Me and the boys will have all of our stuff (last seen ~7 weeks ago) to get reacquainted with, though :) After Walter comes back, we're getting some serious French lessons.