Tag: land of cheese and chocolate

Today is a good day. Today examplifies why moving to Switzerland was a good idea. It’s a nice, sunny, cool day. I’ve been walking in the markets (plural, there are several) all morning and I have a bag full of fresh produce I will pickle later today. I have air-dried boar and deer. I keep seeing, smelling and hearing new and enticing things all the time. I came across two groups of buskers, one playing Bach’s Air on s G string (hur hur, that always makes me giggle) and the other playing Por una Cabeza (think of the tango scene in Scent of a woman). With such good bread, cheese and charcuterie, it’s no wonder I’ve put on weight. Still, that’s for another day, cause today is a good day.

Every weekend, we try and go walkies in town. We’ve managed to discover lots of interesting places, like the market on Place du Palud where I found my jalapeno peppers and the terroir shop and the gelato and tea shops near Bessieres. There’s also the little oil shop and cafe Coccinelle near Flon. Today, we discovered that if we walk in the pedestrian area in Bessieres, we end up on place St-Francois. Along the way, we pass in front of Blondel, a chocolaterie that’s been open since the 1850s, and Bucherer, a watch and jewellery store that’s not much younger.

Rabbit has found his favourite eatery in Lausanne. We’ve been here twice and already we’re recognized :-)

We just came across a shop that sells not only oil and vinegar in bulk, but also liqueurs, rum and whiskey!

We’ve gotten oral confirmation that the flat we put an offer on is ours. We still need to sign the contract but our relocation agent is going to look into that for us.  All going smoothly,  we should be able to move in from August 30th.

We’ve been to two different Italian restaurants so far and, though they’re not cheap by the standards we’re used to, they’re not bad by Swiss ones and the food was highly satisfactory! I’ve just had veal roast with a tuna sauce that was to die for, and last week I had a beef carpaccio with rocket & parmesan salad that was nummay! Katy had an antipasti platter and some cold poached salmon. Bean had a pizza and some pasta with prawns and pesto. And the ice cream…. Oh, the ice cream :-) so yeah, as lo.g as you don’t dwell too much on the prices, the food is kick ass.

Katy, Bean and I were chauffeured around Lausanne and the its outskirts yesterday in our first foray into finding a permanent house. We saw some really nice (and ‘spensive!) properties and there are two candidates that we’re humming and hawing about. Both are in what could be nicely called the middle of nowhere (one is in a village whose total population is about 600 people) but they’re nice, big, with lots of storage and a garden for the child and the dog. So yeah, options :)

More news to come as we figure out what happens next.

Every morning, I stop at a little bakery just in front of our house to grab a sandwich for lunch. They’re good, cheap (-er than what it would cost at work) and the lady is nice. This morning, she had a sandwich already bagged up, waiting for me.

This made me inordinately happy :)

– The commute is going to be fairly longish, but fine.
– Prices here are INSANE.
– Horse meat, when you’re expecting it, is really tasty.
– My work laptop has a swiss QWERTZ keyboard. It’s driving me mad. I’ve remapped it to US English and generally ignore the meaningless symbols on the keyboard.
– The Swiss make good bread, great coffee, but shit tea.
– There is a very big smoking culture here. Stopping will be a bitch.
– The science that Nestle plans on doing is impressive. Really impressive. Almost tempting me to get back to the bench. Almost.
– YAAAAAAAY, papwrwork!!!!!!