J'aime la Suisse - What I love about our home in Switzerland...

After reading Simone's post about what she loves about living in Auckland, and feeling a bit nostalgic about her wonderful description of a city I also know as home, I thought it would be a good idea for me to share about our little part of Switzerland and what I love. Because, to be honest, it's often easier to think of what I miss about my kiwi home, rather than appreciate all that we have here. So...bienvenue & welcome to our little village, St-Cergue, and la Suisse Romande...the French part of Switzerland!

St-Cergue - our sprawling little village!

You'll find our little village of just over 2000 people 1048m up in the Jura mountains. We have a stunning view out over Lake Leman (Lake Geneva), looking across to the French/Italian alps...I will never tire seeing this...

Views from our home and Lake Leman...like our restaurant with a view?!

I reckon we have a pretty good deal up here. In winter we often enjoy beautiful, sunny weather, while the people down beside the lake can be in fog for days at a time. Then in summer, while they swelter in hot, muggy weather....we get the fresh, mountain breezes! 

Summertime up in the mountains. We love exploring the countryside!

St-Cergue is a popular little village because it's on a main route to one of Switzerland's borders with France (which is pretty handy for us, having a French supermarket nearby!). One of the village's biggest annual events is the Desalpe, which happened about 10 days ago. The cows, who come up for the summer to roam freely in the mountain pastures, go back down the mountain to keep warm during the long winter months. It's a fun event full of market stalls, cors des Alpes (long wind-instruments traditionally used to call people/animals over long distances), yodelling, cowbells and of course hundreds of cows walking through the village on their way down the mountain. I love the sound of the tinkling cowbells during the summer months. It will be a few months before we hear them again.

Desalpe, St-Cergue's annual cow festival as the cows return down the mountain for the winter

While the cows are down below keeping warm, we get a lot of snow! One thing I appreciate about living in a country that is used to snow in large quantities, is snow tires for our cars and a constant snowplow at work to clear the roads. It is beautiful, but I must confess it takes some getting used to the wintery months for this kiwi girl! This year we're looking forward to bundling the girls up and taking them out for their first real winter!

Another stunning view to wake up to. We can see half of Mt Blanc to the right! And, can you spot our car in the bottom left corner??

Down below us, beside the lake, is the city of Nyon, where we often go for shopping or to take friends who are visiting. It was an ancient Roman town dating back to 50BC! You can still see old columns dating back to the Roman Empire period. It's a beautiful little city with a mix of ancient and modern, and it is particularly special to us as being the place where we had our mariage civil (our legal wedding). 

The castle in the top left is where we were married!

Another thing that I love about the area we live in is that, just across the lake from Nyon, there is a gorgeous little medieval village called Yvoire. Eti and I once canoed over there, thinking that it didn't look that far. We later discovered on GoogleEarth that we had made a 14km trip! Sometimes it's more fun to go for it and to be none the wiser :) This is another place we always recommend to our guests. 

Beautiful, huh?! And the fun thing is that, halfway across Lake Leman, you pass from Switzerland into France.

I love the novelty of living in Europe and being able to drive to other countries (though I have been asked how long it takes to drive from NZ to Australia before!). France is right next door, and there are so many amazing places to get to within a few easy hours of driving. 

Paris in less than 6 hours....

LOVE the architecture!

 
When the weather warms up, or even when it's cold in Switzerland, we love heading down to the South of France, where Eti's family have a couple of sites in a private camping ground (wonderful idea!)...

The girls' first trip to the Mediterranean Sea!

There's just something about the climate and colours that instantly speaks HOLIDAY down here

And if we don't want to spend a few hours in the car, I love that there are so many places on our doorstep here in Switzerland that we can get to easily. It makes the trade with NZ's lakes, mountains and rivers a pretty good deal :)

There are places to walk everywhere around here...we're only limited by our motivation to get out and go

Not forgetting one of my favourite things...

The Nestlé Cailler Factory - TOTALLY worth a visit!

I find Switzerland a fascinating place. Being a small country with 4 official languages (not including English) it's curious to see how well it functions. There is one tunnel we go through and suddenly on the other side the signs change into German. Suddenly seeing Ausfahrt (exit) still makes us smile :) But it really is like going into a completely different country in culture and language. While my world here is in French, it's fun to know that's it's quite a unique combination of cultures and languages in one country. 

So...this is just a little picture of the corner of the world we are living in. I hope that, if you haven't already come, you're now tempted :) I just showed Eti the photos and he said that he doesn't want to leave! It is a wonderful place, full of opportunities and adventures just waiting for us to discover. It's a good reminder for those moments when I miss my NZ home and culture...there's something to be thankful for and enjoy in both parts of the world. We love seeing friends and family come through. Most of these photos above came from our times with them. Catching up over cheese fondues, raclettes and crèpes...there really is something to be said about cultural appreciation!