France Again

This ex-pat thing is a bit like college in that there are a wide assortment of people here who aren't "home," who are eager to explore, and who are not really tied down to the white picket fence. No kids, no spouse (or at least not one who is here) and no soccer games/bake sale/yard-to-mow to keep them from just picking up and going exploring. Fortunately, I'm running into those people and we are throwing phrases around like "how about Turkey in February?" or "maybe we could ski Zermatt next month?" It's awesome!

A little more tame, but certainly just as fun, was my trip across the water this weekend. Right across the lake from me is France, including Alps, the Euro and the famous water of Evian. With the autumn weather still holding out and an open Saturday, it was time to go for a little visit.

Fortunately, I had warned my travel companions that, according to the internet and some Swiss friends, there really isn't anything to actually DO in Evian. I can now attest that that is true. But, we found that strolling along the lakeside, eating tarticlette (not a low-cal lunch) and looking for the famous water fountain were just about all we needed to enjoy ourselves.

And, it was a great day for me to practice my French, since none of my friends spoke any. One of my shining moments was translating the huge seasonal sign posted on the hillside that said, in my mind, "The Largest Christmas Mouth in the World will be in Evian on November 28, 2011." Which just goes to show you how one tiny little letter can change a whole sentence. "Bouche" is mouth. "Buche" is Yule log. Ooops. My friends were all ready to come back later to see the Great Christmas Mouth (sounds sort of like a Charlie Brown special), but when they found out it was just a big Yule log, they lost interest. My French teacher laughed so hard she cried when I told her about the great Christmas mouth. She is looking forward to telling her family when they have a Yule log over the holiday (apparently it's a cake???)

After our return boat ride, we did some wine tasting in Lausanne and ended up at a great restaurant for dinner. Yay! I finally got to eat out! And, it did not include tuna pizza. Voila! Again, my interpreter skills were put to the test with the wine list. There was a red that I took to mean "from the House of the Spleen of the Hunted Game." Needless to say, I did not recommend it. I looked it up later and apparently it meant "from the House that Chases Away the Blues."

My friends don't really trust my French anymore. Ya think?