Swiss Bliss!

Great company, interesting conversation, delicious food (mostly a variety of cheeses) and a beautiful landscape. That's what my short stay in Solothurn, Switzerland, had to offer.

Danièle and I drove from Leval to Solothurn and the drive reminded me just how much I love Switzerland.

I spent the first evening with Danièle, her husband Danny and one of their daughters, Roxanne and I don't think I've ever met such a genuinely good-natured family. Such amazing people. I spent the whole time in their presence smiling.

Although Solothurn is in German-speaking Switzerland, Danièle and Danny are from the French-speaking part, so they speak French at home, German around town and Danny's work as a brain surgeon is mostly done in English. I was so happy to get back to speaking French, but had to giggle a little when trying to understand the Swiss accent.

After a night's rest, Daniéle and I set off by train to the town of Montreux at Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). We took the rail up into the mountains to the summit of Rochers-de-Naye and had an unbelievable view of the lake. I asked a couple to take our picture while we were up there, it turned out they were from Sydney. What a small world.

The snow-plough needed for the mountain rail. I think it comes to life at night.

Down at the lake in Montreux it was just as beautiful. Montreux is a musical city, famous for its numerous music festivals. Artists such as Pink Floyd, Santana, Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones and Queen have all played there. Freddie Mercury even settled there for a long time and bought a recording studio. The statue below was built after his death to commemorate the time he spent there. Danièle said she's never seen the statue without fresh flowers in front of it.

The most adorable member of their family, Sam the Golden Retriever, is an incredible 14 years old and going strong. While at Robi and Peter's we found him swimming across the lake, despite him not being able to walk very fast anymore. He lives a good life and, at 14, he hasn't lost his puppy cheekiness (Danièle sent me the chaotic photo below a week after I left)!

 

When the time came to say my 'see you laters', I took the train to Neuchâtel to meet my car-pool, Nico. I can't think of a better way to wait for a lift to France than with a cold beer and a view like this one over Lake Neuchâtel.

The ride to Grenoble was a funny one. Nico, the driver, is down-to-earth guy, studying law. Another passenger joined us as far as Geneva and spent the whole trip from Neuchâtel to Geneva trying to get tips off Nico in order to plan her divorce! Needless to say, I kept quiet for the first leg of the trip and for the remaining two hours Nico and I had a great chat all the way to Grenoble where I met my next WWOOFing host, also named Danièle.

I look forward to seeing Danièle, Danny and Roxanne again when I'm back in Switzerland in July with my brother, Tim!

From West to East

What a change! Travelling from Plougasnou all the way to the tiny village of Leval, near Belfort, from the Atlantic coast to the tri-national border of France, Germany and Switzerland - and subsequently to my Swiss hosts.

After a relaxing morning out with Elise in Belfort, she walked me to the train station to meet my newest WWOOFing hosts, Robi and Peter.

Up until our meeting, Robi and I had always communicated in English. When he saw me with Elise, we spoke French, then he told me that he and Peter are Swiss, so Peter started talking to me in German! I'm new to multilingualism, I can't just switch from one language to the next and, for me, German and French are unfortunately mixed in a 'foreign languages' box in my head. Although my German is pretty good, when I tried to speak German with Peter not a single German word came to mind! The Catch-22 of the situation was, once the German came back, we didn't stop. It was a very lazy French-learning month.

WWOOFing life at Robi and Peter's horse-retirement farm was like nothing I had experienced before. After having come from having the family dry toilet behind a curtain in my bedroom in Plougasnou (yeah, I forgot to mention that), arriving at their place was like arriving at a hotel. Their stylish blue wooden house, defying almost all architectural norms, with a large balcony overlooking the private lake, fully equipped with a jetty and sauna, surrounded by a golf course. It was too gorgeous.

My work on the farm was mostly done on weekends and was mostly made up of shovelling horse poo from the stables. On their farm, though, the horses live out in the fields for most of the year, we let them out onto the fields in the last few days I was there. Before that, they had been in smaller paddocks over Winter giving the grass time to grow.

The work during the week is done by a man named Christian. He and his wife, Amandine, live on the farm too. Such a lovely couple! It was great to spend time with them and also to stay in touch with my French.

Robi was kind enough to give me some horse riding lessons to refine my rusty skills. While I was staying with Lucille and Nicolas in November, I had an incident where I had to jump from my horse because the saddle had come un-done. I was grateful to be able to slowly rediscover my confidence in the saddle.

More photos of the farm to come. I seem to have lost them!

I did odd jobs around the farm during the week, one of which was painting new signs to place along the roadside. It wasn't always the easiest place to find.

 

Even managed to get sunburnt: the weather got nicer faster than I could buy sunblock!

Peter and Robi's pets, Snoopy the dog and Karuzo the cat, were spoilt rotten. They claimed Karuzo was 'muscly' but he gave Yahel's fat cat in Rennes a good run for her money. Snoopy lived a better life than most children - these pics say it all.

I was treated to several day trips out with Robi and even the occasional trip to Switzerland. I got to catch up with Steffi in Zürich and even go hiking in the alps, near Amden and in the Vosges mountains. Unfortunately the snow hadn't seen it's last days, so my feet were a little chilly (and wet) in my runners.

Near Amden, Switzerland.

 

 

Overlooking the Zürichsee, Switzerland, and relaxing by the river with Steffi.

Hiking up the Grand Ballon in the Vosges mountains.

A 700 year old oak tree. Incredible! Just think what this tree has lived through and how many times it changed nationalities at the ever-changing French-German border.

At the former French-German border, overgrown in the forest.

While staying at Peter and Robi's I had two much-needed visits: first Anna and Stefan came along with their brilliant news; and then Winnie, Lena, Verena and Sarah came for our girls night away in Colmar!

I am so grateful for everything Robi and Peter did for me, but to be quite honest my stay with them wasn't at all what I had in mind when I arrived. I didn't feel that a WWOOFer was needed, I was more like a personal helper who followed along like a puppy. I had expected to speak French (with a native speaker) and in the end I felt it was just silly speaking French when we both speak German and English. I really wouldn't advise any germaphobes or perfectionists to buy a farm - enough said. Life is one big learning curve.

A few days before I left, another WWOOfer arrived and my last day on the farm brought a breath of fresh air in the form of a lady named Danièle. Danièle is a friend of Robi's and she kindly welcomed me to her home in Solothurn, Switzerland. So off I went.