Sunday 7 July 2024
The weather is trying to clear from the storms overnight and the
cloudy sky. We walk down the road to the waterfront of Lac Leman, the official
name of what others call Lake Geneva. It’s Sunday and the families are all out
with their little kids at the waterfront playgrounds and little, tiny trains
chuffing about, a restaurant that serves more than coffee, where we have a Pullyspritz
and an IPA, and an ice cream kiosk that is very popular. A walk along the
waterfront is nice, with the sun breaking through the clouds and we end back at
said ice cream kiosk for a cone and then the bus home up the hill. Marinated
chicken and fresh beans from the garden on the BBQ for dinner.
Almost, for the first time since we left Melbourne, we have TV.
There are a dozen English language stations and Flashy has been following the
French elections on BBC and Sky News.
It will be interesting to see the wash up in the next few weeks.
And, in another thing French, Parisians have threatened to poo in the River Seine in
a protest ahead of the Olympics. People are angry at the expense and delay of
cleaning up the river have rallied under the hashtag
#JeChieDansLaSeineLe23Juin, which translates as "I shit in the Seine on 23
June".
Sunday
was supposed to be the date Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo would swim in the Seine to
prove the water was clean enough for Olympic athletes - but she
delayed the dip until after the French elections and hasn’t done so yet.
E.coli levels remain twice the maximum allowed!
President
Emmanuel Macron has also promised to swim in the Seine before the Games but has
not said when. The yet to be identified website author, also displays a tool
where users can enter how far they live from central Paris to calculate when
and where, they would have needed to defecate in the Seine, which originates
several hundred miles away near Dijon, for the waste to have ended up in central
Paris at noon on June 23.
The campaign's creator has remained anonymous. However, according to French media he or she is a computer programmer angry not just at the Seine's cleaning bill but at Marcon's failure to address inequality, poverty and simmering community tensions. No turds have been sighted so far.
Monday 8 July 2024
Back to glorious summer weather today. We took the bus, Metro
and boat across the Lake to Evian-les- Bains, France and found La Fabrik
Restaurant. We secured a table on the balcony, overlooking the Lake and had a
leisurely lunch of Boef Tartare avec frites and Trout Meuniere. As we were
thirsty after the boat ride, we started with a pint and a half of Grolsch. Cold,
clean and filling beer. Now, the French waiter was very impressed when Falshy
ordered the tartare. “Tres bon!” At lease he didn’t say “monsieur, savez-vous
que c'est cru?” It was the second best boef tartare I reckon. (Ahi in
Auckland’s wallaby tartare is still number one).
After lunch we took the free funiculaire up to the top of the
hill to look at the view. Up there we came across a high end hotel and a horse
riding school, where a young lady was being taught dressage. Flashy noticed
that she had a nice seat. This means that she kept her chest up and her upper
body behind her knees (while in the saddle), in good dressage tradition. Maybe
I’ll stop there!
Back the same way on reliable Swiss transport. I guess you don’t
need to put an adjective in front of Swiss transport. A tad expensive, though
at 100€ for the return trip.
Home to feed Monk, and enjoy a gin on the terrace, watching the setting sun light up the French Alps to our south.
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