some stories of the big Switzerland ship out

In Bern, at night. You can fill your water bottle up at the fountain. How cool is that?


Switzerland (the Alps -- closest I've been to snow-topped mountains yet!)


Alps again, on the way up to sister's farm


Bern


Bern


Montreal-la-Cluse


Montreal-la-Cluse


Vichy. Because it reminded me of a certain someone. :)


Biozat. Une vielle eglise (500 ans, presque). For another certain someone (ff, this one's for you)


a ruined chateau, in France. Rochelles, I think.


a village in France


la meme village (and M)


a gorge in France -- of the river Sioule (I think). A bit bigger than Elora.


la gorge, encore.


kind of like the spa (with extra-healthy local waters, for drinking). It's actually a well-known form of relaxation, but damned if I remember the name. Napoleon 3 was into it, anyway. Also, M's parents. :)


Vichy. (Actually known as a little Paris :))


the house in Biozat.


house in Biozat.


the boulangerie in Gannat where we went to pick up some cakes for tea.


the restaurant where we went after to eat the cakes and have some good coffee (it's an M-family routine)


Gannat.


Schopfheim.


a church, passed on the autobahn in Germany.

After the photos, I'm going to add some stories...so don't blame me if this post turns out to be over 23 thousand words. :) And, as per usual, I am going to summarize the trip a bit in almost-point form, because otherwise my fingers might fall off. :)

- got into Dublin around 730, which meant I had a leisurely time finding a hostel (which was comfortable and cheap and included breakfast and a shuttle to the airport) and a frustrating time arriving at the Abbey Theatre only AFTER Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars had started. Gr. It would've been so very Irish. But still, I had a nice meal to myself and then back to the hostel and the lovely surprise that was a showing of Dirty Dancing. Mm -- I love that film. :)

- met a variety of interesting and friendly people while hitch-hiking ("faire du stop", en francais) with M (in Germany and France and Switzerland): travelling furniture saleswomen; French truckie with a daughter named Sarah and a femme who travelled to Brazil (and who was really interesting in the Northern Canadian ice bridges); lovely French woman who offered us a place to sleep (in her brother's bedroom, who had been to Canada and had a flag hanging in the room) and breakfast :D; German man who drove us all the way from Switzerland to Frankfurt on Wed after hearing that it was my birthday :)

- visited some beautiful places: Bern (Swiss capital) and the very hilly countryside around it, filled with cows (many of whom had horns, and all of whom had huge metal bells. You could definitely tell when they were grazing. Or scratching. Or walking. :)); Schopfheim (I think I spelled that right...), little picturesque village in SW Germany; Montreal-la-Cluse, au bord d'un lac in France (where we stayed with the lovely woman -- actually, her village was a little out from Montreal. I think it was called Perrignat...but I'm not sure); Biozat (tiny place in France where M's parents have a house -- near Gannat, which has really good coffee and croissants); Frankfurt (short stay there, but it was nice to be back in a city...and we had dinner in a really quiet, really pretty spot. Yay!)

- spoke French, pour la plupart, when in France. Which was lovely, because it DID get easier, and people actually understood me (for the most part...), and I understood them. :D And it was funny to see France French vary from Quebec French -- no "je veux changer mon poisson" there, or "bon matin", or lovely Quebec accent (it's "eh bien" there, not "eh ben" :))
Didn't really try to speak German (although I can say Danke, Guten morgen/abent/nacht, and now Ganz genau, which means "exactly").

- got to name a calf who was born on M's sister's farm outside Bern the day before my birthday. Had to start with a G, so instead of Sarah or BS, I named her Godiva. :D

- went on a long walk through the Swiss countryside with M, her sister and her sister's family (got to carry the littlest one in a sling -- it was awesome. :))

- saw a sign in a gas station at Lyon (France) that read "Espace jeux enfants", and underneath "Space plays child".
Hee.

And I'm really really glad I went and had such a lovely time...but I'm also glad to be back (to make the most of my remaining three months until I head home -- which is also Yay!).

So.
Love and miss you vachement (it means something like "extremely", and yes, it translates as "cow-ly" :)).

Until next time, I hope all is well and the weather's been as good for you guys as it has been for me on this trip (one time it rained, and otherwise it was warm and sunny). (So warm we went swimming in the Bern river, the Aard, which was as cold as the ocean and just as awesome).

Mmm.

LOVE,
me

PS: We had a big multi-birthday dinner tonight for Eiji, Una and myself...and out of it I got a lovely piece of cake, some cream for my coffee tomorrow :), corn on the cob, salmon, English muffins, and various accoutrements like a calligraphy pen (and new notebooks). I can feel the muse stirring... :D
LOVE.

PPS: Found some graffiti in the travelling (for such a strict country, Switzerland has a surprising amount of graffiti in its cities) -- "Uncool Kid", "BS" and "bete au vent" on a large French gorge's rock wall. That one's my favourite.
LOVE.