You we all be pleased to know that the blog will continue as we have both survived the mouldy goat cheese and our gut flora IS better for it. 🙂
We discovered a really amazing market quite by accident as one hiccup we had in Rwanda, was that the very helpful staff in our hotel fascilitated drying my extremely muddy boots by applying a hairdryer on the inside. It melted the inside lining of the boots which were pretty new bought last year in Canada:( As I have precious , princessly feet it is not easy to a get a pair of boots for me. André was onto it though and managed to find a distributor of the Italian boots here in a small town just on the border with Switzerland. So we went to Divonne-Les-Baines to pick them up the boots ( success there!) and got to experience the best market so far in France.🍓🌰🥐🍅🧀☕️. Amazing bread, fruit, veggies, fromage and paellas. Applying my croissant instinct however, I navigated to the town Boulangerie which despite being in the middle of the market and surrounded by stalls , had a line up of 15 people to get their bread. Bingo 🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐!
We enjoying our morning walk with Bwenzie as it always seems to have something different to show us when we watch the ever changing look of the Alps.
Today was crystal clear in the morning, so Mt Blanc was clearly visible. Yesterday, while we were out the farmer had cut down all the tall clover fields. We had never seen clover quite so high. The result from that was huge numbers of kestrels circling the fields in search of the exposed mouse homes , in the afternoon the kestrels were gone but the field was full of crows concentrating on the insects that had gathered on the cut clover. Fascinating!
In the afternoon the glow of the light on the wheat field with a mountain backdrop is pretty cool. Bwenzie enjoying the extended walks in the fields.
We decided to visit the Red Cross/Red Crescent museum which has a permenant exhibition on the flow of history and its effects on human conflict.It showcases the need for something like the Geneva Convention that can intervene when atrocities are committed against the human race. The convention has been modified over the years as it addresses different conflicts. It is a multifactorial approach that they have with preservation of human dignity, reconnection to family and roots and preservation of the natural and industrial infrastructure of a place to economically provide a future for the people. There are very powerful full size figures of individuals that tell their stories activated by the touch of our hand on the persons hand. We find the woman talking about her experiences from Rwanda particularly close to us. There is also a special exhibition about AIDS and how that has evolved through the 80’within societies to remove the perception of how it only affects a small percentage within society. There are very good posters about women with AIDS, children contracting AIDS and the other ways of becoming infected. Even for me it was a very meaningful exhibition.
What strikes me again is how often around the world history repeats itself, the atrocities don’t change much and the human tragedy is enormous. The service of locating missing persons that the Red Cross/ Crescent provides is of huge value and they have enormous data bases of people started in the First World War which allows finding out about a lost relative whether it is a message of survival or the closure that confirmation of a death brings. It is a very moving experience.
As it is Mothers Day and the weather is beautiful we take a ferry ride on the lake and visit the Botanical Gardens going by the United Nations offices.
Our last day of the pass we decide to go and take in the views above Geneva and some fresh air as the day is gorgeous 25C .
We go up the Teleferique to Mt. Salerve.
We have a deliscious home made baguette and guess what – Gruyere ( locally milked and matured here in Switzerland), while we enjoy the profusion of bird song and boost our Vit D quota:)
On the way up we come across a cute flock of sleep and goats tickling away with their Swiss Mountain bells and a very responsible Marema mountain dog guarding them. We pass Hello from Byron to him:)
So interesting Mariola. Thank you.