As far as weather goes, this week did not start out any better than the last –it was hot. As much as I love Geneva and Europe, I do not love the heat. I certainly hope this does end soon, or there will be one grumpy dog living at Route de Chevrens 132.
As far as playtime goes, though, my week started out great. On Monday, Natalie met up with her new friend Karin and her dog Baboutcha in Hermance and we all went on a long walk in the beautiful forest near Hermance and then for a swim in the lake.
I had a blast! I had never seen this amazing forest before and couldn’t stop running around, chasing butterflies, jumping in and out of the river…you name it! Natalie of course, was nervous with me being off-leash and running all over the place; however, over the course of our walk she got a little better and promised me (and her friend) that she’d be less nervous next time.
Monday was also a fun day for Natalie and Jason. That evening, they left me at home to reflect upon my time in the forest and took the train to Montreux, Switzerland to see the Montreux Jazz Festival.
This festival is a 2 week long annual event on the lakefront in Montreux, which features many great musical artists, activities and, of course, tasty comfort food.
The band Natalie and Jason saw on Monday night was Vampire Weekend. Natalie and Jason got into this band during our Northwest road trip in September 2008. From what they told me when they got home late that night, the band did not disappoint and were very entertaining.
Natalie and Jason also enjoyed some nice views from the festival and also marveled at all the interesting food, including a 5 foot wide skillet of macaroni!
(One of the views from the Montreux Jazz Festival)
(Another view of the sunset from Montreux)
(The 5-foot wide skillet of macaroni!)
In this week 9 of our life here in Geneva, Natalie also got an exciting opportunity to ‘stage’ at a tea room (which is essentially a boulangerie and patisserie) in downtown Geneva. For those of you that may not know what a stage is, it is essentially a learning opportunity to work at a bakery for a day, or a short while and gain knowledge about the baker’s techniques, daily production at the bakery, etc.
Natalie interviewed with the owner of the tea room on Tuesday and on Thursday she went in and assisted one of the pastry chefs in assembling a mousse-filled cake. Natalie also helped with daily production. Natalie had a great day and is looking forward to her next opportunity to stage at this tea room (she really liked everyone there!) or possibly at another boulangerie or patisserie.
(The marzipan rabbit the owner of the tea room made as a demonstration for Natalie during her stage)
(A marzipan dog also made by the owner of the tea room - doesn't it kind of look like me?)
Besides my exciting discovery of the forest, Vampire Weekend and Natalie’s stage, the rest of the week up until Thursday evening was fairly uneventful. I did have to go see Dr. Luka (my vet) one more time to get a vaccination and a clean bill of health; however, other than that I just swam in the lake, went to DDC and did my best to stay cool.
(Retrieving the frisbee in the beautifully clear waters of Lake Geneva!)
(Enjoying a well-deserved rest after some intense swimming!)
On Thursday evening, though, the fairly quiet and relaxing week I had completely disappeared just like the cool air had done a few weeks ago.
After Natalie’s stage on Thursday, she picked me up at DDC and raced all the way home from DDC to our house (an hour long trip, I might add) to get Jason’s passport. He accidentally left it at home and, clearly, wherever we were going he must’ve needed it.
Natalie got the passport, jumped in our Nissan Qashqai and we raced back towards Geneva. We had to catch a train in an hour and the traffic was so horrendous getting to the train station that Natalie was worried we were going to miss the train. She did her best to drive as fast as possible; however, after receiving a ‘gift’ in the mail earlier in the week in the form of a $250 speeding ticket, Natalie was a little hesitant on driving too fast.
On a side note, Natalie is not a fast driver; however, the laws here in Switzerland are extremely strict – Natalie was only going 12 km or 8 miles over the speed limit and got charged with $250!! Also, the police don’t pull you over. There is film in little boxes on the side of the road that will take your picture if you are caught speeding. You don’t even know you got a ticket until it greets you in the mail!
Anyway, I digress (I’m mainly avoiding trying to talk about this next part). We made it to the train station in the nick of time to catch our 7:17 train to…Paris! How exciting! I would be going to Paris for the weekend and would get to be a stylish ‘Parisian’ shepherd for a couple of days.
I was really excited about this prospect until we got on the train. As I was claiming my comfortable spot on the carpeted train floor under Natalie and Jason’s feet, Natalie pulled my face up towards hers. Instead of giving me a kiss on the forehead, like I thought she was going to do, she put a muzzle on me! (I know, I’m gasping too at this moment and it’s been over a week now since I’ve had to wear the thing.)
Apparently, the French trains require my kind to wear a muzzle, since I could potentially be a vicious dog. Therefore, rather than going to Paris in style, I was going to Paris in very non-stylish black muzzle.
(To embarrass me further - Jason took a picture of me in my muzzle)
We arrived at the Paris train station late that night, the muzzle came off and I was ready to go explore this great city – however, most taxis wouldn’t take Natalie and Jason, because of me. Luckily, one nice taxi driver let me come along and soon enough we were racing through this exciting and glamorous city towards our hotel!
The hotel we were staying at was quite nice, comfortable, and cool. It was called Hotel Odeon Saint Germain in Paris’ 6th Arrondissement. After settling in a bit, we ventured around the ‘6th’ and landed at what looked like a relatively tasty place for dinner. Natalie ordered the ‘safe bet’ of roasted chicken and Jason went for the Andouillette, which is what he assumed to be sausage, like Andouille in the U.S. He was wrong, kind of.
Andouillette is a coarse-grained smoked tripe sausage made with pork (or occasionally, veal), chitterlings, pepper, wine, onions, and seasonings. Chitterlings are the small intestines of pigs.
The waiter placed the Andouillette in front of Jason and to be honest, it looked exactly like a ‘number 2’ when speaking in bathroom terms. Unfortunately, for Jason it also smelled and tasted like a ‘number 2.’ I, on the other hand, loved it and my dinner essentially consisted of Andouillette sausage fed to me under the table.
After that lovely meal, we slept very well in an extremely air-conditioned room. We’d need it, because our Friday in Paris would be a sweltering one.
The next morning, we all sufficiently slept in until about 10am. We then lazily made our way to a pleasant café near our hotel, called Les Editeurs, for coffee and croissants. It was very nice to sit outside and enjoy breakfast (well, for Natalie and Jason); however, the day was already quite warm and it wasn't even noon yet!
(A typical French 'breakfast' - that is quite a cappuccino!)
Natalie really wanted to take me to the Eiffel Tower and make a spectacle of me by taking pictures with me in front of the tower. Therefore, we all walked across town to the tower, in the 90+ degree weather and made it to De la Tour Eiffel in the early afternoon.
(The Eiffel Tower - always an amazing sight!)
(Another view of the Eiffel Tower - you can practically feel the heat of that day from this picture!)
(Yup, here I am near the Eiffel Tower. We walked all the way across town in heat and humidity for this.)
Natalie got her pictures and I got a plastic bird – there are a lot of people near the Tower that sell many useless things, but these birds were not one of them. You wind the bird up and it takes off spinning into the air making for a good chase from the ground. Since I was ‘chasing’ the birds for sale, Natalie and Jason gave in and bought me one to chase later on in the day.
(Finally - a bird I could catch (no one has to know it was plastic :-) )
We slowly made our way back towards our section of Paris, with plans of visiting the 3rd arrondissement, as Natalie had read about some good restaurants over there.
By this time (mid-afternoon), it was just flat out hot and we were all very grumpy. We eventually made it to the ‘3rd’ by late afternoon. We visited one of the cafes Natalie had read about, called CocoCook and picked up some snacks to take away. We then found a bench, slumped on it and rested our tired feet and paws prior to our walk back to the hotel.
Friday evening’s dinner was enjoyed in the ‘6th’ at Le Petit Vatel and needless to say, it was much better for Jason than the previous night. Jason enjoyed stuffed veal and Natalie had steak. For dessert, Jason was especially excited because he had a slice of a very delicious (and authentic – the pits were still in!) Cherry Clafoutis.
Saturday was again met with sleeping in and coffee and croissants at the same café as the day before.
Since Saturday was expected to be as hot as Friday, we were all a bit smarter about how much walking we would do. We decided to start our day in the Luxembourg Gardens (for me, of course) and then head back towards the ‘3rd,’ which was not that far from our hotel. Apparently, the ‘3rd’ is an up and coming district in Paris and is where a lot of artists live. It reminds me a bit of the Mission district in San Francisco.
The Luxembourg Gardens were very beautiful and peaceful once we found an entrance that allowed les chiens (French for dog). We finally found an acceptable entrance and I pranced right in thinking there would be some fun off-leash chasing to be had, but, sure enough I could not go off leash. To make matters worse, a garden patrol person kicked me off the grass.
(Jason and me in the Luxembourg Gardens)
We strolled around the park until a bit past noon and then started venturing out towards the ‘3rd’. Luckily, Saturday hadn’t yet reached the same temperatures as Friday, so, we were all hopeful for a nice, non-grumpy walk.
For lunch, we visited another one of Natalie’s restaurant finds, called Tartes Klugers. This restaurant specializes in tarts – Jason had a very tasty tuna and mint tart and Natalie decided to have dessert first and enjoyed the apple crumble tart.
After a little more walking, being greeted by some welcome rain, and sitting at a café to wait out the rain, Natalie and Jason found a great store called Merci. This store had everything from a little café to clothing to home goods! It’s too bad for Natalie and Jason that they took the train, as there were many unique purchases to be had; however, no way to get them home.
(Walking around Paris!)
In the early evening we ventured back into the ‘6th’, where Natalie and Jason had cocktails at a restaurant, which was trying just a bit too hard to be hip. After a slightly disappointing evening aperitif experience, we all made our way back to the hotel to clean up for dinner.
Dinner was again in the ‘6th’ and was at a restaurant, called Restaurant La Mediterranee, which specializes in seafood. Dinner was overall, very nice. Natalie enjoyed cod with chorizo and a saffron sauce and Jason had bouillabaisse, which is a fish stew. I got plenty of samples and with happily full stomachs, we all rested quite well during our last night in Paris.
Sunday, we couldn’t help but sleep in again. For breakfast, we went to a new place called Le Deux Magots. We had the basics again (croissant, espresso, cappuccino, etc.) and according to Jason and Natalie, it was ‘okay.’ We should’ve stayed at Les Editeurs, which was, of course, the café we enjoyed breakfast during the previous two days.
After breakfast, we walked in Luxembourg Gardens for a bit and then lazily strolled about town until it was time to head back to the hotel and catch a cab for the train.
(Hanging out in the shade in the Luxembourg Gardens - it's a bit hard to see, but I am having a 'stare-down' contest with a cat in this picture.)
The hotel quickly found a cab that would take me and before I knew it I was back in the train with the muzzle on heading for home.
After a non-eventful train ride home, except for a little kid in the seats in front of us who kept staring back at Jason until Jason would speak to him (and he did, in French, no less), we arrived in hot Geneva that evening.
Jason and Natalie were kind enough to take me to Hermance to go swimming and we spent the rest of the evening resting at home and preparing for the week ahead.
I have to say that, although I was very excited about visiting Paris, the heat got the better of all three of us. Next time we go, it’ll be in the Spring or Fall and I'll also have figured out a way to get around that muzzle law by then.
For now, au revoir et bonne nuit! (good bye and good night!)
Paws,
Sabrina
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