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Geneva, Switzerland |
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You can see Mont
Blanc in the background behind Lake Geneva. As the name might imply, it's always white
with snow. |
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| Confused, tired, and having to
fight off sketch men on the street I'm finally in a francophone city, and
can kinda tell what's going on! |
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| According to the book, the most
famous Geneva attraction, the flower clock. Yeah, it's all about banks,
pocket knives, chocolate, and watches. Oh yeah, and cheese. Swiss cheese. |
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Thanks Kimberly (Oakland) for being the geographically
closest person to home on this trip via working in P-town, and for company
at Fete de la Musique June 21. Life could be a carnival, maybe not every
day, but every Sunday. |
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| Free bikes! What a
great idea. I finally got to ride around after many years or not riding a
bike. It was nice and quiet around town and around the lake. |
My favorite thing in this town,
the eau potable water fountains with such good water every few steps! I love
it. |
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Giant chess in the
park (and checkers for the chess-challenged such as myself). |
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Merci Gordon (Montreal) for giving me the missing Swiss Frank to buy my
train ticket from Geneva to Annecy on his way to climb Mont Blanc. |
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Annecy, France |
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The hostel on the hill. It's a bitch to get up
there at 42 degrees C chaleur. But the lake is nice and cool and the
clearest lake in Europe at that. Aside from puce de canard! |
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Spices at the market, so pretty
and colorful! There was also more cheese than I've ever seen in my life,
along with fresh fruit and other good stuff. |
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Merci
Patrick (Montreal) for hiking company in the Annecy hills. |
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Danke Mike (Germany/ Nimes/ etc) for beers at the hostel in Annecy on
guitar night. |
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Balloons useful again. It was
Kaz's from Japan 25th birthday. |
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Thanks Betsy (Massachussets) for your awesome guitar playing. I really
liked your songs (I like the one about the guy who fixed your car, it was
stuck in my head for hours). |
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We beat yo' ass, boys, hellz yeah. What a weird
pool table, only yellow and red balls, and there are no numbers, not even on
the "Eight-Ball". |
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Merci beaucoup Julian (Grenoble) for the ride from Annecy to Grenoble
and obscure music recommendations. |
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Autrans, France |
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The hostel kinda reminded me of a
deserted Lothlorien (maybe Loth x CZ). |
Merci Patrizia (Montreal) for company at the deserted tranquil village
hostel. N'oublis pas la musique de la montagne! (cow bells in the middle of
nowhere) |
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| I think that little slope behind
the cows is the ski slope by winter. A pretty sorry ski slope, thank
goodness for Tahoe! |
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Balloon handy once more!
Patrizia's birthday was the friday before. |
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Grenoble, France |
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Thanks so much Sarah (NYC/ Boston) for the company while exploring
Grenoble for "Let's Go France" research and the day in Annecy before that.
Never go to Vertigo alone. |
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I don't think I'd
want to get into one of these ski lifts. The ski museum was kinda silly, but
the wooden carved skis are crazy. Remind me of ghetto skis I had in Russia
when I was 5. |
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Our hostel friends..... Just kidding. This is
from the museum of Natural History. Pretty cool stuff, butterflies and rocks
and animals. |
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| We took the telepherique up to
the top of the mountain, it was a pretty nice view of the city and the
Vercors mountains. |
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| Checking out the
nightlife "for the book" with Mike. Got us a coupla free drinks at the
London Bar and an aperitif at Pascal's. We take all we can get. |
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Our "fine dining"
experiences. First at the intellectual cafe where the guy insisted speaking
in English and proceeded to remind me again that "Lemonade" means "Sprite". |
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At Pascal's in Tete a
L'Envers we got interactive dessert: lavender peach, maple syrop ice cream
sorbet, tarragon chocolate mousse, raspberry something. Can never guess 5
out of 6, it's too hard. Pascal buys cook bakes and waits all by himself
from his tiny little kitchen. Thumbs up. |
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Paris, France |
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Merci
beaucoup Melanie (Paris/ Hawai'i/ LA/ Paris) for a place to crash in Paris
and for a wonderful visit and a fun night out. Don't work so hard and see
you in November.
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Merci
Shelly (Oakland/ Paris) for letting me know, Mister Expert Hair Stylist,
how many split ends I have and motivating me to maybe actually get a haircut
(one of these days). I'll let Oakland know "what's up" as requested. |
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We hung
out at a bar called The Lizard Lounge. Most of my college years I
hung out at the Lizard Lounge! |
Merci Fred (Senegal/ Paris) for the unsolicited speech about how I'm
supposed to go about getting a French boyfriend, hehe. |
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| Expat uniform: khakis and black
t-shirt. |
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Merci beaucoup Stan (California/ Paris) for the drinks and for
pacing the drinking on my last night in Paris. Oh, and Mel, Mallory and
Stan- you've been a part of my first ever in my life cab ride. =) |
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