It's October already!

I love this month! Not only is it the month of birth of all 3 of us siblings, which really isn't the only reason behind my fondness for it. But the change in weather is beautiful. In France, apart from temperatures dropping and going up, other seasonal changes are also so visible. People on the streets, the colour of their clothes, the vegetables in the market, the skies. I am pretty sure that even if I were born during one of those hot summer months, I would have loved October.

I have let a couple of months pass by without blogging about it. July was different this year. The summer wasn't as intense as last year. And I feel these past few months have really flown by. I remember vignettes, but feel like it all occurred ages ago.

In August, my sister and her little family visited. I went to Paris to look after my niece so that my sister and her husband can roam around the beautiful city on their own time. It was a lovely and different experience, looking at Paris through a toddler's eyes. Short trips to Barcelona and Madrid followed. Barcelona is a very lively city, very youthful and colourful. Madrid is a sophisticated, charming city. My sister and I had the best experience one day in Madrid, when we treated ourselves to an evening of Flamenco. It is such a rustic yet classic style, with live music and singing. The style of singing reminded me of Raï.

A couple of friends we made last year moved to another city. In September, I had the pleasure of having them over for dinner. They are from Romania and their former flat mate, who attends drum class with me, is from Latvia. I cannot begin to tell you the amount and openness of our political conversations. For some reason, they are well aware of India’s continued issues of control with her many neighbours. And we draw similarities from across the world, especially from across Europe.

Yesterday, at Claudio's place for Hindi class, we had just finished reading an extremely formal letter of application asking for leave of absence. I told him nobody speaks so formally like that anymore. Perhaps, they still write like that in the government where you have to sound like you will remain forever obliged to your superior if they grant you leave!

This led us to talk about 'monsieur' and 'madame', which literally is 'my-sir' and 'my-dame'. He said in the great old times, the royalty used to address their queens and kings like this. So, you are 'my-sir' or 'my-dame'. And that continued as it is.

THAT led us to talk about the origin of the word ‘ciao’. In Italy it is ‘hello’. In France, it is ‘bye’, although I feel it is more an outside influence than an original term in French. It turns out the Latin for ‘I am your slave’ (used during the Roman Empire) lends itself to ‘schiavo’, which is Italian for ‘slave’. ‘Ciao’ is a version of that.

Imagine!

Swiss Pass-ed!

Paris is Paris, Marseille is rough around the edges, Lyon is the settled and calm, older sibling and Geneva is sophisticated and important. With the UN headquarters and over 130 banks, Geneva exuded a sense of decorum and an air of seriousness that we basked in for a few hours before we took the train to meet my brother and SIL in Interlaken. We were able to go see the UN and UNHCR buildings, picnic around the big lake and take the petit train to go see the Old Town before heading back to the gare, collect our luggage from the locker and catch the train to our final destination for the day.

We bought our Swiss Pass before we started out since we'd be needing it for every means of transportation we took till we left Switzerland. I can't begin to list the advantages of the Pass, but fewer hassles about tickets and waiting lines would be it! We changed trains at Berne and passed by the beautiful towns of Thun and Spiez before the train started bordering Lake Thun to reach Interlaken. We were tired, the evening was setting upon us but the view along the way was to die for! It made for a warm welcome into Interlaken. The long trip had finally started and the inevitable excitement made me giddy.

We had booked rooms in Hotel Burgseeli, run by a fashionable and extremely warm and friendly lady in her mid 50s. We had for company a lake right across the road, the mountains and the accompanying silence. That evening, we had the first of the few warm meals we'd be having for the next few weeks and got ready to head to Jungfraujoch the next day.

Jungfraujoch is a mountain pass which leads to the Jungfrau summit, in the Bernese Alps. (Wiki-ed) We reached Kleine Scheidegg by local train and stopped to take pictures, drink coffee and eat the lovely, hot apple strudel! From here, we took the Jungfrau railway to go to the top of Europe. They built it more than a century ago and it is an engineering marvel! The weather was perfect. The peaks were snowed in but the sky was clear, and the hills around us were green and dotted with chalets, as we gained height in the cog-wheel train.

A typical tourist attraction awaited us at the top. Ice tunnels that depicted the history, ice caves, ice carvings, a roof top to experience the snow and of course a restaurant. Some parents, when their kids are visiting destinations they themselves couldn't, give money to them as offering at a temple or such. Our parents, who had visited Jungfrau 2 years ago, advised us to celebrate with champagne. There we were, in nature's lap, marveling at world class engineering, raising a toast to it all with champagne!

At the fun arena up the mountain, after much debate, we decided to buy tickets for an hour of tubing down the snow hill. Fortunately, they'd built at escalator to climb up so we could do about 5-6  rounds of tumbling down and screaming our heads off before we decided that was enough play for the day. By late afternoon, it was time to head back home. The weather had played perfect companion and the fun we'd had up in the mountain wouldn't have been possible if it were raining and stormy.

The next day, after spending the morning walking around the beautiful town of Interlaken, we headed towards Lucerne. We timed ourselves in a way to be able to catch a boat across lake Brienz to go to town Brienz from where we took the train to Lucerne. We bought sandwiches and had lunch on the boat. About half an hour into the ride, we realized were headed straight for some dense fog and rain. It was a memorable ride and we arrived a bit soaked and more than ready to sit inside the heated train compartments. .

Lucerne turned out to be an affluent city with fancy cars, a intricate transport system and beautiful people. It spoke rich money and we loved the very feel of it. Our place here was Villa Marie, a dorm style accommodation with 4 rooms on a floor that had a common bathroom. Again, a different experience, one we embraced with wide, open arms. After a bit of asking around and waiting it out under a bus-stop for the rain to subside, we reached the rooms, left our bags and headed out to walk the path along the lake right behind the villa. We were in for a surprise are the skies were just opening up and we saw not one, but TWO rainbows form and disperse over the lake right in front of our eyes! Swans in the lake, hills around it, people running along the lake, quiet sounds of the evening as flora and fauna settled in for the night; these accompanied us as we walked about, taking pictures and thinking of way to stay back forever!

Mt. Titlis beckoned the following day. Upon reaching Engelberg by train, we took the short walk to the base of the mountain and took cable cars and the 360-degree Rotair ride to head up the mountain. The ride up gave us views of Swiss cows working the pastures below, streams and surrounding mountains. This day could have been the same as our day in Jungfrau. Except, it was snowing and we walked in the snow and tried to make angels in the snow and stuck our tongues out before heading inside to the restaurants for warm cups of noodles. We didn't forget to hug the life-size cardboard cutouts of Kajol and Shahrukh Khan from DDLJ!

We wanted to spend some time in the beautiful city of Lucerne. So, as soon as we reached the base of Titlis and had a cup of tea from the Indian vendor there (!!), we rushed to catch the train to Lucerne and were met with, once again, rain! It didn't dampen our spirits and we walked around the city, peaked into windows of beautiful shops and went and saw the mourning lion at the Lion Monument.

The next day, as on all days before, we had our fill of breakfast which included, fruit, cereals, coffee and cheese. We were renting a car today to drive to the Rhine Falls. It was the first time any of us was driving in Europe. While we had been observing traffic rules all this while, I wouldn't be lying when I say there was a nervous edge to our breakfast that morning!

About an hour after 9:00 AM, we had ourselves a Volkswagen Touran, stuffed with bags, food and 4 excited adults headed to the town of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland. We walked down the hill to the river falls, got swept in by the thunderous sound it made and took the boat ride that went to an island in the middle of the falls!

We had a quick lunch in a restaurant across the river, headed back to the car and sped off in the general direction of Germany. Switzerland had been kind. And in the middle of EU fiascoes like France, Italy and Germany, the country and its people stand proud in not having joined the EU. There was this sense everywhere we went and I guess that's what resulted in the affluence and the sense of ease in its people.

(Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here.)

Let's backtrack...

14th July, 2013

Bastille Day, I think, is synonymous to August 15th, 1947. Except that the common French kicked royalty and the church in their respective butts when they decided to revolt about 2 centuries ago. The essence of the revolt is probably lost, as is the case with most countries whose forefathers fought colonialism to gain independence. That does not deter the French from celebrating their national day with pomp and fanfare!

We are so lucky to living bang in the middle of the city where ALL the action takes place. In the evening, we got a glimpse of the airshow they were conducting near the beach. We were told to watch out for fireworks later that night. I thought we'll get a good look from the window in our living room. D thought we ought to go out and see them. So around 9:00 last night we headed out with the camera and walked around to get a good place to sit and that offered a good view.

As is the case with celebrations in Vieux Port, restaurants were loaded with people, terraces were filled with people enjoying their private BBQ parties, roads were blocked to vehicular traffic and everybody was literally pouring onto the streets.

Once we found a place to sit, we settled and waited patiently for the 2- minute fireworks display to start. At the exact moment it was about to start, they shut the street lights and the show began. I cannot begin to explain the magnanimity of the event nor the scale at which it was being conducted. Huge lights, lasers, synchronized music and fireworks...that's what we saw for the next 25 minutes. It was enthralling, to say the least!

Videos and pictures do not do justice. But go here and here for a glimpse.

 

Calling it a night...

6th July, 2013

Lavender blooms around this time of the year. Fields of purple hue are left to fully bloom till they are harvested by the end of July. From the time they start appearing till they are harvested, there is a window of opportunity of about 2-3 weeks to go see these beautiful flowers, take pictures and trample around the French country side. 

After twice being told to delay the visit by a week because they hadn't bloom as fully, we finally went the week before last to check what the whole deal is. There are conducted day tours and since we do not own a car, we thought this the best option.

With 20 other tourists of American and Chinese origin and a very knowledgeable guide, we spent the day viewing lavender fields in Plateau of Valensole, understanding the history of the area, visiting Moustiers-Ste-Marie, a medieval village where ceramic ware is made and sold. The surprise was the Sainte Croix Lake, created by a dam. You are not allowed to use motorized boats, thus keep the water pollution-free. It's the peak of summer and the lake was full of people swimming, boating, jumping off the cliffs. It was lovely and made me yearn for such places back home where the community comes together to enjoy and appreciate nature.

This region, Provence, is marvelous!

Lavender and olive trees

The darker in lavendine, the lighter lavender. Both have different purposes.

Wheat and lavender side-by-side

Moustiers-Ste-Marie perched up those cliffs

Church in M-S-M

Alps ka THANDA pani

Lake St. Croix

The combination of the sun and the minerals the water brings out this colour

3rd July, 2013

The finish line of the 5th Stage of Tour de France was in Marseille and I was able to go see them. The main event was preluded by a lot of fanfare and companies giving out freebies. It was a fantastic moment to see them as they swooshed past you.

I was able to take a video and this picture just as they took that turn!

As you can see, it's been a good summer so far!