Postcards from Switzerland: Day 8 Poking around Town

Hey. How’s it going, eh?

We spent yesterday poking around Vevey. Quite quaint. Had 2 cokes at McDonald’s…..7 francs, which is about $9,00 Canadian. No way we could retire here…way too expensive, but what a great place to stay for a month.
Picture 1: E is desperately looking for a Carefour, but just can’t seem to find one. I am looking for naked women, but can’t find any either. So far, not a good day.
Picture 2: I was admiring the Swiss Army Knives, when the salesman and I struck up a conversation about Why The Hell the Swiss even need an army or a knife. He was non-pulsed, and invited me to the back of the store to look at some “serious” knives. One of the knives was about six feet tall, and took at least 2 men to lug it around. He pushed one button, and a tent popped out, which then inflated. He pushed another one, and a rocket launcher popped out. No rockets…..that is another button, but he wouldn’t show that one to me.
I pushed another button, and a white flag popped out, and said, “Don’t shoot! We’re neutral!” The guy said they are working on a French version that says “Don’t shoot! We give up! We gave up before! We give up today! We give up in the future!”
I would have bought one of these knives, but Ev and I couldn’t lift it. Not to mention how we could get it on the plane.
Picture 3: Some building or other.
Picture 4: Some building or other.

Evelyn here – the architecture here is stunning.. . . . . . .very French, which of course it is. Lots of pretty balconies with loads of flowers. I just love it.

Saw a wedding car today – a silver Porsche Carrera . . . . .obviously someone rich (there is a lot of that going around here). For decorations the car had a centerpiece of roses on the hood and then some white ribbon and bows – a little different than we do in Canada.

Turned the corner and came to the City Hall where all marriages have to happen first. Posing out front was a small wedding party. . . . . . .a much younger bride and a much older groom (do the words “sugar daddy come to mine). It struck me immediately but Mike was still talking about the car.

Fresh fish for dinner again. Just melts in your mouth . . . . . .so good here. They get it out of the Lake.

Some other building

Some Building

Evelyn looking for Carefour

Swiss army knives

Postcards from Switzerland: Day 7 Immersed in Culture

We have been housesitting for one week now and if all the people and all the homes were like this I would highly recommend it.

The family are so very nice and friendly. They wanted us to meet Alexandre’s mother when they were here last Saturday but she had just had surgery and wasn’t feeling well that day. She was flying out later in the week to meet the family.

On Tuesday evening, Elaine, Alexandre’s mother came by for a visit and brought her good friend. Elaine is a tiny little French lady from St. Marlo, Fr originally. She still has an apartment there on the beach that she will go to for a few weeks after visiting with Alexandre and Tanya.

We had a wonderful visit. She was so friendly and her English was excellent (she spent a year in England learning the language). Her and her husband, whom she met while she was visiting Geneva, had their own business. They supplied marine materials for the enormous number of boat and yacht owners in the region. The also owned a mini golf course – but that was just for fun. They would work all day at their shop and then go run the golf course in the evening – just because they enjoyed how much fun everyone was having there. He died very suddenly ten years ago from a sudden infection.

After our visit she asked us to come and visit her on Wednesday at her place. We graciously accepted. Her place, which she kept calling the Attic, turned out to be the penthouse in an apartment in Vevy close to the lake. She has a deck that runs completely around the building giving amazing views of the town, the lake, and the mountains. Her apartment is huge at least 1200 sq ft.

She was leaving on Thursday from Geneva to Bordeaux where Alexandre was going to pick her up. We offered to drive her to the Geneva airport rather than have her take the train to the airport. Again, during our one hour drive to Geneva we had a wonderful visit. Last night, Alexandre phoned to thank us for taking his mother. They want us to come back and spend a few weeks with them just visiting.

I have never felt a connection like this with strangers. Normally Mike and I do not like people but this just seems so different – it is odd. We wanted to do housesitting so that we could experience what it was like living in Europe, but not as visitors. So far the experience is wonderful. We do not have the urge to go “sightsee” everyday – we just enjoy the European experience.

Later today we are going into the “downtown” core to check out all the lovely old buildings and a church or two. Today we will be tourists. Tomorrow we are going to the market to buy some food supplies for the next days until Tuesday’s market. Tomorrow we will be Europeans.

Love,
M & E

Postcards from Switzerland: Day 5 Settling in

Another scortcher of a day. They do not have A/C in their homes or apartments. They do not have central heating – hence no vents to pump the A/C through. It is 3:30 in the am here and I woke up as I am so hot. Mike is sleeping upstairs in the oven – don’t know how he does that but it is all I can manage to go up there to change and shower. Today is going to 34 and tomorrow it is dropping to 23 for a day and rain – I will be thrilled to see the rain.

So this is what a few mill buys you in Switzerland. It is a nice house but not nearly up to NA standards. It is hard to describe as it is built into the side of a rock. The third level which isn’t seen here in the picture is below ground but its like our walkouts without the large windows. The garage is on the lower lever, you entered through it and then go upstairs. They us a family room/slash guest room, a utility room with a large water heater, a large laundry room, and then some storage rooms. Everything is nicely finished but it is all cement construction. The only wood is in the top floor ceilings and the are all slanted.

The main level is open concept n the front, in the back of the house there is another bedroom, another bathroom, and more storage, plus the front door – which faces with a few feet the giant rock. Odd but cute.

The pool is above ground as is the hot tub. They cannot have an inground pool here because the house is built into the hill or whatever it is. We have beautiful views of the mountains.

On Sunday we went to pick up a few provisions. I bought dry pasta, 4 tomatoes, 4 nectarines, a piece of butter, a loaf of bread, one onion, a litre of milk, and a baguette, it cost us over 30 SF, is the same as $40.00. We then went to the McCafe for 2 croissants, one tea and one fresh orange juice – $16.00 Canadian. Long story short – we decided to try to Evian in France for groceries. It is about 1.5 hours away. Stocked up on enough to last about 10 days and it cost us less than $140.00. Much better! However, the back of the car is so small I had half of the stuff sitting on my lap. It was so hot that we couldn’t even stop to see Evian – which is a beautiful place so we will have to come aback again. Slept most of the afternoon because of the heat and spent the remainder of the time in the pool – thank god for it. After 8 pm we went for another walk on the promenade around the lake. It was know to 31 by then and a little cooler??????????

Please dear God end this heat wave!

Postcard From Switzerland: Day 3 Always know where you live

For some reason – this showed up after the Day 4 post. It will help the rest of the postcards have context. Otherwise I would just leave it.

 – The Edmonton Tourist

We arrived safely yesterday – made the flight and train connection easily. Arrived at the train station with all our luggage and proceeded down 2 flights of stairs to arrivals with our luggage banging on every step and us trying to hold onto it for fear of the suitcases getting away from us and careening down the stairs . . . . . .only to discover that we could have simply just gone down a ramp. Rule # 1 – always be aware of your surroundings and take the easiest – if not the first – route available.
We were met outside the station by Alexandre – the father of the family we are housesitting for. We were given a very warm, European reception, whereby he informed me that we always kiss 3 times. This wasn’t hard to do as “OMG was he a knockout or what – tall, blonde, blue eyes, well built, friendly – had me wishing we would be looking after him rather than the cat!
Anyway, he loaded our luggage and then took us on a tour of the town we are staying in. Vevey is a beautiful little town outside their village of La Tour de peilz. It is situated on the lake (Geneva) . . . but more about that in the next few days.
We arrived at their home – a beautiful “modern” design of a typical swiss home, complete with views of mountains and a swimming pool. Spent an enjoyable afternoon and evening getting to know each other. Alexandre is a pharmaceutical chemist and Tanya is a pediatrician. They have four very beautiful children. They left early this morning – 5 am for their trip to Britany to visit her family. They left us a convertible and a scooter to get around with. I know . . . . .it is a tough life and we all have to make sacrifices.
This morning we decided to go out for breakfast. Got in the car, put the top down, and programed in our favorite restaurant – McDonalds

Unfortunately I kept my head down most of the time, directing Mike as to where the GPS was guiding us. Found the McCafe, parked without a problem and went inside for a nice breakfast of fresh croissants and freshly squeezed orange. We then proceeded to a small grocery store for a few provisions for dinner tonight. We decided to take home the food as it is very hot here (+32 and no airconditioning!!!!!!!!!). I dutifully programmed in our home address and was informed we were 340km away – obviously something was wrong. Tried reprogramming again a few times but nothing seemed to work. We knew we were in Vevey but we didn’t have a clue where our home was. So we did the only sensible thing . . .we drove around enjoying the sights and eventually – 2 hours later – we recognized an area and vola ! we found the house. As it was already hot we decided to have a light lunch followed by a swim in the pool – and such is the life of trusted housesitters . .

-Evelyn

Postcard from Switzerland: Day 4 Vevey

This is our first full day on our own. The family got up early and left about 5:00. No way we were getting up to say good-bye. They are extremely nice people, but being rich, they can afford to be nice.
They took the Mercedes, and only left us a Puegeot (or however the hell you spell it) convertible. (as per picture)
This is the town where Charlie Chaplin lived, so we took a picture of his statue, mainly for Kate. Now we don’t have to buy her any souveniers. (Or however the hell you spell it.)
We went to town center and took a walk by the lake. Wow, what a beautiful place. Why would these people go somewhere else for a holiday?
It is stifling hot. Got up to 35 yesterday, but only 32 today. We spent a good part of the day in their swimming pool.
Chris: Keep up the postcards, eh?
Tomorrow we are going to France to find a Careafour (or however the hell you spell it) grocery store.
later, eh?

– Mike

Vevey

Vevey

Charlie Chaplin

Puegeot