I must admit that if I hadn't lived in Japan
for the last few years and if Eiko hadn't expressed the envy to go to
Switzerland, I wouldn't probably have spent 5 days in what French picture as a
boring neighboring country where people speak slowly, live at the pace of the
cuckoo clock in their home, where little girls wear braids while running in
the mountains to milk the cows, and where everyone eats cheese the whole day
while wearing interesting folk-style clothes.
It would have been a big mistake, as we
discovered a beautiful country, with old towns such as the ones of Bern or
Zurich, amazing mountains where to go hiking for several hours, great roads to
drive the car I rented, with very clear signs about where to go (apart from
Zurich, where I did have a hard time going where I wanted in the middle of all
the one-way streets and the old town where you are not allowed to drive at
all!).
Forget all the clichés, Switzerland has a lot to offer, any time of the year, especially to those who love mountains and hiking during summer. The image about people eating cheese all the time is still intact for me though ;-).
We started in Zurich, where Pilou and David, 2 colleagues from Europe met us and took us around for a nice tour of Zurich and its lake.
Then we went to visit the old town of
Bern, a Unesco World Heritage, a charming old town, which you can have a
beautiful view of from the rose garden, if you dare climbing the small slope
outside of town, after the bridge.
One thing though: if drivinng in Switzerland is a real pleasure, you will have a different feeling about trying to find a place to park and will probably end up in a parking lot paying a fortune to stay there (you will pay a fortune for anything in Switzerland anyway... and you will pay for everything too!).
After Bern, which is so small that it can be visited within one day, we drove to Interlaken, a central point to go to the different mountains and hiking courses in the region.
Although the first day we spent there, going to
Shynige Plate was quite cloudy, the following day was an exceptionnally clear
day for that season and going to the Jungfraujoch was pure delight as the blue
sky would clearly show every single edge of the distant mountains.
We didn't have enough time to go to Schilthorn, where a James Bond movie was shot, but it will definitely be in our plans, when we go back to Switzerland.
Before trying to go to the top of the mountains, which could take up to 2,5 hours (and also some EUR 120...), you should make sure the weather is clear by checking the live webcams, also available at the Interlaken Ost station and in the hotels.
Finally, our last day was spent in Maienfeld,
where we had a very nice lunch (finally!) in the castle of Schloss Brandis, followed by a short
walk up to Heididorf, the alledged original house of Heidi.
The house and the village of Heidi themselves have little interest, but the walk is pleasant (without being a match to the hiking courses in the rest of Switzerland) and you can be rewarded by a quick visit to the spa in the neighboring village of Bad Ragaz.
All in all, Eiko and I really enjoyed our trip in Switzerland but quite honestly, Swiss food is not appropriate for Japanese stomachs: sausages, potatoes and cheese almost everyday is a bit too much to ask!
The tricky thing is that the names in the menu change, but at the end, you always end up with potatoes, pork meat and cheese!
Like each year, I went back to France for a quick
trip of 2 weeks, unsually short for a home leave, but I must say that Eiko and
I really optimized our time and managed to make the best of our holidays to
visit friends, relatives, etc., especially for the ones who couldn't come to
our wedding ceremony last April.
We obviously stayed for a few days in Bordeaux with my family, then quickly went to Marsac, close to Perigueux to visit Rudy, Caroline and of course the lovely Lucille.
Rudy also took us around in Perigueux for a highly optimized 40-minutes tour, as my brother and his wife had to catch a train.
The following day was spent in the beautiful city
of Sarlat, a Unesco world heritage, a bit too crowded to my taste this year
though.
The town, while once wealthy, has been denied any more fundings during
MiddleAge and was therefore unable to carry on any architectural work.
Although renovated since then (as the town has become a Unesco World
heritage), Sarlat is still made of stone and has kept intact the charm of the
old French towns.
Lacanau, famous for its surf world championship, was our next destination,
as we were invited by my uncle to spend the day there in his apartment.
It was a bit cloudy on that day, but the overcast only increased the dramatic
effect of the Atlantic ocean and did not impact the pleasure of a nice walk on
the beach.
Back to Paris, we took the opportunity to
celebrate our first wedding anniversary (September 4th for those who had
forgotten!) in a nice restaurant in town.
We did want to go to a relais &
châteaux restaurant, but most of them were either closed on Saturday
so we ended up booking a table at the Hotel de Vigny, which was not really
listed as a restaurant in the reference book, but the meal we had there was
just sublime, and I would highly recommend it, as prices are not exorbitant
either and the service was also very nice.
Finally, the last day in Paris was spent in the Musée d'Orsay, famous
for its exhibition of impressionism art, where we spent the whole day, while I
though we would only spend a couple of hours!
The museum itself is a former train station, which makes its architecture very interesting, while being able to host hundreds of pieces of art, spread accross several floors.
It took us nearly 6 hours to visit everything we were interested in, taking into accounts the few breaks we had to take to take some rest!
Shortly before going back home, we dropped by Notre-Dame de Paris, where an impressive ceremony was being held.
All the pictures are in the Gallery.
