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France France Switzerland September 2010 Geneva Area international Switzerland travel

Across the Street from Switzerland

My welcome basket
Welcome Basket!

My flight to Geneva touched down sometime around 7 AM this morning, well ahead of schedule. I strolled through Customs with Nothing to Declare and in minutes, my pals whisked me back over another border into France where they live across the street from Switzerland. J headed off to work, while M distracted me from jet lag.

Welcome!

We got off to an energizing start by taking a long, leisurely walk through the countryside. Past Collex, past Bossy, past apple orchards and cornfields and vineyards, along an extensive path system shared by both France & Switzerland. We lost count of how many times we saw border stones, which indicated we’d crossed yet again. One woman stopped to chat with us, en Francais, ’til she realized the conversation was rather one-sided and switched into English. She introduced us to her Bulldogs (French?) and gave M leads on where she could find a shelter dog near Versoix. A full two hours later, we returned home & I got in a quick nap.

J came home after work, with a coworker in tow — a British Intern working with her at the intergovernmental organization (say that 10 times fast!). We walked with the intern to her new home in Ferney before heading to dinner at Crèperie Ti Breizh. M, J, & I each had savory crepes & cider & dessert crepes.

The affable owner even gave us today’s French lesson:
“French is all about learning the proper inflection of vowels. Practice emphasizing each in “Du! Bon! Vin! Blanc!”
I kept the post-it note he wrote us for emphasis.

We capped off the evening in the town square for a drink. My Franco-Swiss vacation was off to an excellent start.

Photos of the Day:

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