Hiatus in Switzerland

With la vendage completed, Gabe and I got the chance to spend a couple nights in France's nearby neighbor, Switzerland. We spent time in Geneva and Montreux (both on Lake Geneva http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Geneva), and also made time to go north to visit a chocolate factory (with free samples) and a castle.

Here we have me enjoying a beautiful sunset over Lake Geneva from a bench next to our hostel in Montreux.

Next we have the Chateau de Gruyeres (http://www.castle-gruyeres.ch/) with its beautiful French garden in the foreground accompanied by a picture of a piano inside the castle, which was built for Franz Liszt. I thought my mom would appreciate it.

Next we have a picture of me taking a picture on the train ride back from the castle and chocolate factory, and the picture I took.

Next we have two images from the St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva, where our friend (at least Gabe's and mine) John Calvin preached. Behind Gabe and me you can see Geneva's aptly named Jet D'eau.

We are off to Normandy on Sunday to work at a cheese farm. Rumor has that fromageries smelly. Even if this one is, it's supposed to have a view over the Atlantic Ocean. So I'll at least have something to look at while I'm pinching my nose.

No more grape picking

Well my two weeks of picking grapes are over...

...and now it's time for a week of exploring and relaxing. Below is one of the many interesting sculptures I found and Lyon's Museum of Fine Arts.

The coming week holds the possibility of a short trip to Geneva, Switzerland. If we make it, be sure to look for a picture or two...

La Vendange

This is more or less what I've been doing all week. The days are long and exhausting but still fun. We use little clippers to snip the grapes off the vine. They are understandably sharp and my left hand has sustained a number of minor lacerations (my right hand does all the clipping). Unfortunately, it has the weather was not kind to the grapes this year. There was a lot of rain that left most of them moldy. This makes the picking particularly tedious, as we often have to clip off over 80% of the grapes. I now have an intimate understanding of what they mean when they talk about some years not being good years for wine.

The wine we are producing is called Beaujolais. You can read all about it on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaujolais

Lyon

Today Gabe and I went with a few other WWOOFers (www.wwoof.org) to Lyon. It's about an hour bus ride. We mostly just wandered around, taking a break for an outstanding lunch. Lyon is supposed to be the "gastronomic" capital of France and I've enjoyed it so far. The visual highlight of the day was visiting a massive and ornate cathedral that sits on top of a hill overlooking the center of Lyon. Please enjoy the view. We're headed back tomorrow for more exploring...

Bully and L'arbresle

Vincent's wife is having their baby in London (she's a native English speaker and wanted to have English speaking doctors), so Vincent is in London and we have the next few days off. The grape harvest will go on, but it will be done only by professionals for the timing being, probably until Vincent gets back. So Gabe and I have spent the last couple days exploring and will have until Monday to keep exploring.

On Thursday, we walked to Bully (the closest village, about a 10 minute walk from the farm) and L'arbresle (a bigger town, about an hour walk). You can see me standing near Bully's town center. It has a castle and a very nice cathedral. It also has a pizza restaurant, which I have not yet visited. I figure I should wait until French food seems normal before indulging in flavors from home.

1st Day Working

We spent the majority of our first day stooping over vines snipping grapes. The weather was perfect and the views quite amazing. Chicago is a beautiful place, but one thing it lacks are hills. The day went surprisingly fast. We still have a ways to go before harvest is over though, so we'll see how I'm feeling in a couple more weeks.

Departure

My buddy Gabe and I flew out of O'Hare this past Monday arriving in Lyon by way of London. We were accompanied to the airport by Gabe's brother and his wife, and my girlfriend Marisa. It was a tough goodbye, as we'll not be seeing each other for a while...

It was a long, exhausting journey, but we made it to our destination without any trouble. Our host Vincent picked us up from a train station in a town about 30 km outside of Lyon and whisked us to dinner. It tasted great. All the meals have been delicious so far; there's always salad and dessert to accompany the main course, even at lunch.