What do you think about when you think ‘Switzerland’?
Skiing? Rolling green hills with cows wearing large cow bells? Cheese? Chocolate? Alps? Watches? Banking secrecy? Tax evasion? Sweden? You’d be shocked how many people confuse Switzerland with Sweden.
But unless you’re a wine buff or have lived in Switzerland, I’m pretty sure you didn’t think vineyards and winemaking did you? Take a look at these (click on the photo’s to have them expand)
It’s summer, which generally means an influx of visitors if you’re an expat. This year we had the in-laws here for two weeks. Husband took a weeks worth of annual leave off so we could spend some time together and it fell to me to find things for us to do. One of the outings we took was a bike trip from Ouchy to St Sulpice.
You can get day-passes from the Lausanne Roule bike hire scheme for 7chf per day, per person. Once you’ve purchased your day pass from one of the sale points in Lausanne you can access the many bike stations located in and around Lausanne. A quick swipe of your pass card, a hefty pull to get the bike out and you’re off! After returning the bike at the end of the day, you post the pass back to them in a prepaid envelope.
If you own an iPhone, you may want to download the ‘Velopass’ app, it tells you the number of bikes and free stations available and is very handy if you’re looking for somewhere to return your bike at the end of the day.
Yesterday was a public holiday here in Switzerland. This is as it was Switzerland Day, something we’ve discovered is celebrated in much the same manner as we celebrate Australia Day. There’s a BBQ, sunbathing, swimming and beverages containing alcohol. Oh and fireworks, there’s lots of fireworks!
We’ve not been around for previous Switzerland Days. We’ve generally used the public holiday as an excuse to travel internationally. But this year it turned out to be the day that my mother and father in law left to go back to Australia. So we decided to celebrate ‘traditionally’.
I’d made some Smoked Trout and Creamed Goats Cheese Mousse (recipe to come tomorrow!) that I served with rice crackers and chopped cucumber rounds and grabbed a bottle of champagne leftover from our cocktail party a couple of weeks ago along with the traditional BBQ requirements and our gorgeous friend Miss S picked us up to take us to the lakeside. Read more
Last weekend shall from hereon in be known as ‘the (stupendous) weekend of cake’.
In a feat of uber-decadence, after the fabulous lemon meringue cake and brioche from Sonja in Cully (blog here) I went home and made a cake.
This was as I was to attend the inaugural Lausannoise Cake Society meeting on the Sunday. The event was organised by a lovely lady I met whilst eating British cheese and quaffing red wine and port in Church in Switzerland (yes, it was as surreal and fabulous as it sounds). Anne had seen something like it on a documentary and so decided Lausanne needed one too. Read more
20 degrees outside and a big day at work. This makes for a pretty nice place to relax and debrief.
(Ouchy in Lausanne, Switzerland)
Ladurée have collaborated with Hello Kitty to do limited edition boxes. In a happy coincidence this one is full of delicious caramel macarons, which are my favourite (and are fabulously gluten free!).
These were purchased from Ladurée in Lausanne
I’m off to make a cup of tea and treat myself to a caramel macaron. What a wonderful way to end the week!
It’s gloriously sunny on my balcony in Lausanne today. Warm enough for me to be sitting here in a t-shirt and bare feet (I think I can say I’m pretty close to being acclimatized). I’ve just eaten an early lunch as I’m about to make a huge bowl of frosting and am attempting to keep to my week ‘sans sucre’
