Exotic Switzerland!
This weekend I discovered the reason that all Frenchies ask "Why?" when you tell them you're going to Geneva for the weekend. Because I went to Geneva this weekend, and there wasn't a ton to do... Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy I went. It's a very pretty city - right on Lac Léman and surrounded by mountains. Everyone was very friendly, and spoke at least 2 or 3 languages. It's literally two seconds away from the French border, but I was surprised at how international the city was. French tended to be the default language, but everything was always written in French and German, and often English as well. And not until I arrived back in France did I realize how little French I actually heard on the streets of Geneva. Again, French was in the majority, but English, German and even Russian and Spanish were also very prevalant. We went to the Patek Phillippe watch museum, the Red Cross museum and a national Swiss museum housed in a beautiful chateau. We also took a train out to a smaller town just outside of Geneva, and went to a cute little market and saw beuatiful views of the lake. And of course, and most importantly, we ate tons of cheese and chocolate. All in all I consider it a successful weekend and other than skiing the Swiss Alps, I truly feel as though I've "done" Switzerland.To backtrack a little, the night before we left for Switzerland, I stayed in Paris with Kristen because we were leaving pretty early the next morning. That evening, I went with Kristen and some other Parisian Middkids to a little get-together with a number of French kids. It was organized by Midd as a way for the Americans to meet French kids and the French to meet American kids. So for a few hours we switched back and forth between English and French and talked a lot about our different universities or interests and things. It was one of the best evenings I've spent in France so far. I felt for really the first time that I was able to connect with the French kids, probably because we were switching between the languages and there was about an equal number of French and American kids present. It was just a really fun, relaxing experience and rewarding because I felt completely comfortable conversing with these kids, either in French or in English. Unfortunately, they were all Parisian so I probably won't be seeing them again, but it was still fun to really interact with French kids for a night.
posted by Becky @ 3:58 PM
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