Swiss National Day Celebration 2016

Music and Swiss flags fill the village.

We joined our Swiss neighbors in celebrating their National Day.  Here are some fun tidbits:

1.  Swiss National Day is celebrated on August 1st and commemorates the signing of the Federal Charter of 1291 by three Alpine cantons.

2.  The first of August only became a national holiday in 1994, but the Swiss have been celebrating the founding way before.

3.  Switzerland has four national languages, which are German, French, Italian and Romansh.

4.  Why is Switzerland's domain ".ch"?  It's derived from Confoederatio Helvetica (Helvetic Confederation), which is the Latin name for the country.  It's used because of its neutrality with regard to the four official languages of Switzerland.  

5.  The Swiss that we encountered are very punctual.  We had rented some electric bicycles a few days ago and needed to return them at 2:30 PM.  The bike rental shop owner returned from lunch at exactly 2:30 PM!  In my personal experience in France, Spain, and Italy, I'd be lucky if the shop owner was only 15 minutes late.

6.  They give 3 kisses in Switzerland.  In France, it's two.

Malakoff - cheese filled beignet

Raclette -
melted semi-hard cow's milk cheese scraped onto potatoes and
served with gherkins and pickled onions.

Cheese in Switzerland has a very distinct smell and they use it in everything.  From fondue to raclette to malakoff, this odor of stinky melted cheese lurked around every corner on Swiss National Day.

Staying in the canton of Valais where raclette and fondue originated, it was our duty to try all the melted cheese dishes.  After the first couple of bites of raclette, I actually got used the strong smell and thought it was good.  I made fondue one night and even Rocky tried it, but Peanut was out.  He couldn't get past the odor.

Crans-Montana was in her full glory for the national holiday.  This small Swiss town spared no expense with three nights of fireworks and water and fire shows, with the biggest one being the last night on August 1.  We let the kids stay up to watch the show.  I don't know which they thought was more awesome, getting to stay up or seeing fireworks so close up.  The show, by the way, started precisely at 10:15 PM.

It was hard not think of the Bastille Day revelers in Nice who were just trying to have fun.  It's sad this is our new reality, but even though we were in a very small town on top of a mountain, Jared and I talked about an escape plan and meeting point.

I refuse to end this post with that last paragraph, so I'll sign off with ...

kiss, kiss, kiss.  Happy Swiss National Day!

And Up We Go

October 2004 - Corpus Christi, Texas

July 2016 - Crans-Montana, Switzerland

In 2004, these two rode 150 miles from San Antonio to Corpus Christi in support of MS.  They didn't know it at the time, but it was just the start of a long list of adventures they'd have together.  

Now, in 2016, a little smarter and a lot older, they hopped back on their bikes, but electric bikes this time, and rode up the Swiss mountains.

It was the first time on electric bikes for both of us.  And after just 10 minutes, Jared vowed never to ride a regular bike ever again.  We didn't intend on riding all the way up the mountain, but our supercharged rides made it so easy and around every curve there was something new to see.  

Beautiful chalets.  Sweeping views of the valley.  Bright blue lakes reflecting from down below.  

It was quiet as we made our way up the mountain, but in the distance, I could hear bells.  When we got to about two-thirds of the way up, I learned that sound was coming from the bells worn around a dozen or so cows who were chewing on grass and enjoying the sun.  It was quite a sight because some of them stood in a sea of purple, yellow, and white wildflowers under thick, billowy-white clouds.  I felt like I was in the book Heidi.

I wish I could've gotten some photos to share, but the clouds were so low that it was hard to do the landscape justice.    

It took us about 2 hours, but we made it.  Our reward was a fantastic lunch with panoramic view at 2112 meters altitude on the beautiful terrace at Chetzeron.

Rainbow in the Swiss Alps

Crans-Montana, Switzerland - Summer 2015

After a short rain, we were rewarded with this view off our terrace.

Summer in the Swiss Alps

It is truly this gorgeous here.

After a week in Southern Italy, we are now in the French speaking part of the Swiss Alps in a ski resort town called Crans-Montana.  C'est magnifique.  Life here is quiet and slow-paced.  People come in the summer to enjoy the trees, clean air, and 60-70 degree temps in addition to the lakes, golf courses, and children's summer camps.  I love it.  Jared says it reminds him of Maine.  But, a very expensive Maine.  In fact, we were eating better pizza in Italy (as expected) and paying $4 a pizza compared to $28 here.  I'm totally not kidding.

My friend, Nathalie, and her 7-year-old son, who live in Austin, introduced us to this town, where her parents have an apartment.  They've been summering here for several years and the kids are in this great day-camp together.  Peanut and Rocky spend all day outside - riding bikes or scooters, putting around on paddle boats, fishing, rock climbing, and archery.  Today, Peanut is on an all day glacier hike!  The mountain guides even showed them how pick and eat "fraise de bois" (wild strawberries).  This city girl had to ask, "are you sure they were edible?  Did the others eat the strawberries too?"

Peanut met some boys from Atlanta, Georgia whose mom is half French/half Swiss and who come to Crans-Montana every Christmas and summer to see their grandparents.  The boys are fully bilingual (French and English).  Their mom, Isabella, is very nice and outgoing, so hopefully we'll keep in touch and see each other when they come through Paris every summer before heading to the Swiss mountains.  Our kids are speaking French and English everyday here and do it very naturally.  The Atlanta mom said that she thought Peanut and Rocky were French kids from Paris.  Hearing their French, she didn't know they were American.  To me, that is a huge compliment.

While the kids are enjoying camp, Jared and I take long walks, talk without getting interrupted, and breathe a lot of clean air (because we are huffing and puffing up some serious inclines at high altitude).  I think of it as cleansing our lungs of the city pollution.

Down the mountain is an old school amusement park for the below 10 year old crowd cleverly named HappyLand.  With the snow-capped Swiss Alps as a backdrop and Rhone River streaming by, it's the perfect distraction to pass the day.  The best part is, it's small enough where the kids can go off on their own and parents can sit under a shaded tree and chat.