Geneva Week 10 (7/12 – 7/18) – Vampire Tuesday, ‘Baboutcha’ and a Summer BBQ

After arriving home from sweltering Paris the weekend prior, Geneva did not disappoint and continued its unfortunate heat trend during our 10^th week of living here. Luckily, I had lots of relief thanks to frequent visits to my Hermance cove, where I swam with much enthusiasm.

Natalie even jumped into the water a few times and Jason was fortunate enough to take an overnight business trip to London where the weather was reasonably cooler.

Early in this week, Jason and Natalie celebrated their 8^th wedding anniversary, which was on Tuesday, July 13^th! On the day of their anniversary, they didn’t do a whole lot (well, they did one thing, which I’ll get to in a second), as Paris was intended to be the celebration event to mark their 8^th year of marriage.

Prior to Jason leaving for London and on the night of his and Natalie’s anniversary, he grudgingly obliged to see the newest Twilight movie, Eclipse (aka ‘Hesitation’ in Switzerland) with Natalie. I stayed home and let them have an enjoyable night out.

Now, Jason, like most men, is not a fan of the Twilight series – books or the movies. However, Jason is ‘Husband of the Year’ (a title given to him by Natalie’s sister, April) and quite frankly, the ‘Husband of the Year’ title is not easily achieved. To earn these honors, Jason often accompanies Natalie to movies, such as the Twilight series.

To both Jason and Natalie’s surprise, this particular Twilight installment was not that bad and they both agreed it was better than the previous two movies. Natalie liked the ‘horror-movie’ undertones (it is a vampire flick, after all) and Jason, well, he gave the movie a ‘2’ (out of 10) instead of a ‘1,’ which is what he granted the previous two films.

(Jason preparing for the always enjoyable Twilight movie experience!)

Twilight and London aside, the week was pretty calm. Jason and Natalie kept at their French lessons and I continued my regular visits to DDC. 

Apparently, on one of my DDC days, Natalie decided to try out the McDonald’s in a nearby town. I know this sounds strange, especially as it relates to someone who’s day is ruined if she’s consumed ‘wasted calories.’ However, the McDonalds here in Switzerland are different. The inside décor is actually trendy and it is a popular place for people to work on their computers. It is similar to a Starbucks in the U.S.

Since Natalie believes that no one should ever judge a book by its cover, she decided to try out the McDonald’s – who knows, it could be like In-n-Out burger in the U.S.

Natalie was pleasantly surprised. The hamburger was freshly grilled and the fries were crunchy and salty. Given the reasonable price point and the fact this meal did not count as ‘wasted calories,’ Natalie will definitely be back and maybe Jason will even have a try. The best part is I might possibly get a hamburger patty every now and then. I consistently got hamburger patties every time Natalie and Jason went to In-n-Out burger (which was a lot) and I miss it a little bit.

(To prove that Natalie actually ventured into a McDonald's for a reason other than to use the restroom, here is a picture of her meal.)

As what seems to be usual of late, my quiet, non-eventful week turned into one of new adventures – this time in the form of a houseguest by the name of Baboutcha.

On Thursday evening, Natalie got a call from her friend Karin, who lives in Hermance. Karin needed to take a last minute weekend trip Paris and was trying to figure out what do with her little dog, Baboutcha.  

Natalie offered to help out by inviting Baboutcha to stay at our house over the weekend. I, of course, was not consulted about this and, needless to say, was not thrilled when Natalie told me the news.

Therefore, on Friday evening, right before French class, Natalie and I took the short trip to Hermance and picked up Baboutcha.

(Baboutcha and me in the car after Natalie and I picked her up from Hermance.)

Baboutcha is a little female dog of mixed breed and probably weighs no more than 20 pounds. Baboutcha’s strength, energy and enthusiasm for just about everything was a much larger presence than what you’d expect for a dog as small as she was, though.

The first night of Baboutcha’s stay was an adventure in itself - by the way, since her name is so long, from now on, she is called ‘Baboo.’

Both Baboo and I went to French class with Natalie and Jason. In between Baboo’s yelps and yaps, I think I learned a few words. I now know ‘monter’ (to go up) and ‘descendre’ (to go down.)

After a somewhat unproductive French lesson (thanks to you-know-who), we all headed home. Natalie and Jason had a quick dinner, and we then made our way downstairs to Christianne and Silvio’s patio for dessert. Natalie made a vanilla pastry cream tart with fresh raspberries, peaches and groseille rouge (red currants or gooseberries) to bring to Christianne and Silvio’s.

(Berry-peach pastry cream tart)

Since Natalie didn’t have any maizena (corn starch), she attempted to make the pastry cream with flour. Of course, the pastry cream was a bit softer than usual; however, it would’ve held up in the tart just fine if Natalie hadn’t decided to blend it before filling the tart. She realized later that, by blending the cream, she broke down the starch way too much and as a result, it was more like a very soft pudding tart.

It was still good and edible, just runny. We now have plenty of maizena on hand to avoid future pastry cream issues.

I usually enjoy our visits with Christianne and Silvio, since I can hang out with their Golden Retriever, Eliot; however, our new friend, Baboo, also came along. At this point, I still wasn't sure of Baboo and the amount of energy bursting from this little dog. For the most part, though, Baboo was calm and I enjoyed lying outside on their patio in the cooling night air.

The next morning (day 2 of Baboo’s visit), Natalie got up before 7am to go for a 13 mile run in preparation for her upcoming half-marathon. On mornings like these, I would enjoy some good rest time with Jason and we’d usually sleep in until 9, or so. That was not the case with Baboo. At around 8ish, Baboo was up and bouncing around wanting her morning walk.

Jason and I grudgingly obliged, rolled out of bed and took Baboo out to do her business. Shortly thereafter, Natalie got home, we all got cleaned up and then we headed for one of my new favorite places, the Hermance cove!

While Natalie hung out with Baboo, Jason threw me the Frisbee. I chased and swam and splashed around in the cool Lake Geneva waters and in the (finally!) cooler weather.

(Baboo hanging out at the Hermance cove while I was off swimming!)

Saturday afternoon, Natalie and Jason decided to let Baboo and I hang out in the house alone while they headed downtown to pick up tickets for the evening’s concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival and run some errands.

Unfortunately, for Natalie and Jason at least, the tickets to the concert were securely locked at Jason’s work and since it was a Saturday, Jason had no ability to get into the office. Therefore, Jason and Natalie would not be driving to Montreux that evening to see the highly anticipated Broken Bells.

Jason and Natalie were, of course, bummed out about it; however, weren’t necessarily that keen on leaving Baboo and me alone for an extended period of time either.

That evening, after we all took another exhilarating walk along the vineyard trail, Natalie and Jason decided to go out for just a short time and had perfectly prepared wood-fired pizzas at Café des Marronniers in Collonge-Bellerive. I normally would’ve been able to accompany them; however, our houseguest didn’t appear to be as ‘calm’ in a restaurant setting; therefore, Natalie and Jason left me at home to keep Baboo company.

(Grapes starting to appear in the vines along my 'vineyard' trail.)

Sunday rolled around and we all slept in for as long as we could, at least.  Similar to the day before, Baboo was up bright and early telling us all she needed to go to the bathroom!

Besides our early rising, we generally had a lazy morning. Natalie prepared her famous ‘almond-potato cake’ for the evening BBQ in Christianne and Silvio’s garden and Jason worked on his computer planning out the details of Natalie’s parents upcoming visit in September.

(Natalie's almond-potato cake topped with red-wine poached apricots she received from Baboo's owner and fresh blueberries.)

Our afternoon was filled with more swimming, this time in Amphion, France. Amphion is a town close to Evian and has a number of pebble beaches that are perfect for my kind.

(A beautiful view of the lake and mountains from the pebble beaches of Amphion!)

While I splashed around in the somewhat rough waters (it was a bit of a windy and cool day), Baboo let us all know that she was not happy being on the leash and wanted to be in the waters, as well. In order to give Baboo some good exercise (while remaining securely on the leash), we went for a long walk along the waterfront in Amphion and later had lunch at a nearby boulangerie.

(Here I am on one of the docks in Amphion, begging to be let off leash so I can jump off the dock.)

(Baboo making new friends on our walk in Amphion.)

On our way home, we stopped in the quaint (yet, packed with tourists) town of Yvoire, France. Yvoire is very picturesque and seems to have an ice cream shop on every corner!

(The cute little town of Yvoire - since it is the ice cream town, Natalie and Jason, of course, enjoyed the frozen treat during our walk!)

Lucky for me, our day of outside adventures didn’t end there! That evening Jason, Natalie, Baboo, me, and Natalie’s almond-potato cake headed down to the garden to enjoy dinner with Silvio, Christianne, Eliot and two of Christianne’s children.

For dinner, all of the humans enjoyed sausages and we canines had fun begging for the sausages.

During my evening relaxing outdoors in the garden, Eliot and I did a little bit of digging, but mostly we all just hung out on the cool grass enjoying the evening air.

With Baboo resting on a cushy bed on the floor beside my bed (did you really think I’d share my bed with another canine?), I lay pondering about my week, our houseguest for one last night and the adventurous summer I’ve had so far in Geneva.  Although I look very forward to the winter and snow, I am enjoying every moment in the cool lake and every opportunity to dig in the fresh European earth!

Paws,

Sabrina

(Just because....a peaceful picture of the beach from St. Prex - one of Natalie and Jason's favorite places to rest and a great place to swim, I might add.)