Quelques soucis…et le Grand Paradis*

It’s been awhile since I posted on this blog – frankly we’ve had a few soucis (worries) with all that has been happening with the fires in California.  The Sonoma county Walbridge fire came within 15 miles our house in Sebastopol, so we were anxiously watching the fire, wind and evacuation maps from here in Switzerland.  Luckily, the fire is now mostly contained, but many people lost their homes and it’s really devastating watching what is happening with fires and air quality in the Bay area and the western U.S. right now.

 

We’ve also been preoccupied with getting through the myriad of paperwork required from to be able to live this year in Canton Vaud in Switzerland.  It was just as hard to get our residence card here as it was to get our Swiss visa (which came 4 days before we left the U.S.), and it turns out that you can’t get a cell phone or bank account without a residence card.  Friday’s trip to the bank to open our bank account with our new cartes d’identité was just one of many hoops that we will need to go through to open an account.  Someday we will have one, but first they have to make sure that we can’t stash any ill-gotten gains into our new Swiss bank account.

Another souci - we had a quick brush with the law on one of our bike rides when I didn’t see a red light while making a right turn, and Doug was waiting on the sidewalk for me to come up the hill.  We are now law-abiding Swiss citizens, and have stopped our bad habit of ignoring red lights before we turn and riding on the sidewalks.  We are still enjoying our breath-taking bike rides along the lake and on the plateau above Lausanne, this one to the town of Vevey along the lake.

Stopping mid-bike ride in Vevey for coffee

I was trapped in this WC (bathroom) in Vevey for 20 minutes

due to a lock mal-function (another souci)

Last weekend we had an amazing two days of hiking in the Alps bordering France, staying in Champéry, one of Switzerland’s oldest ski resort areas.  The ski area is part of a group of French and Swiss ski stations called Porte de Soleil.  The town is at the base of a mountain range called the Dents du Midi, seven jagged tooth-like peaks that you can see from miles away, even on the plateau above Lausanne where we ride.  We had two days of incredible hiking with spectacular views.

 

View of the Dents du Midi 

from the train

View of Dents du Midi from Champéry

Downtown Champéry

View from our balcony

Lunch stop at Refuge de Bonveau

The second day we took a gondola up to start the hike, walked high in the mountains and then climbed up to Col de Cou, where we briefly stepped into France, and then hiked with the cows along a ridge walk back to the valley floor through Grand Paradis back to Champéry.  And grand paradis it is…we are so grateful to be here.

Doug with Dent du Midi in the background

Col de Cou

Ridge walk back from Col de Cou - 360 views

* This pithy title (Quelques soucis... et le Grand Paridis) rhymes in French