fondue chez laetitia

This is what La Defense looks like at night, Laetitia's parents live over there, to the right. I only have to take one bus stop (at night) or walk for 10 minutes (during the day) to get there. It's quite nice.

Tonight Alison, Laetitia and I had FONDUE night.

Faces of anticipation:

Really scorching hot cheese in my mouth, but delicious nonetheless:

Nom nom nom:

You have to make sure you continually mix the cheese so it doesn't burn.

!!!!!!!!!! cheese in our bellies!

It's sort of funny that bread + fondue is an entire meal.

Towards the end of the fondue it starts to form this thick, greasy, cheesy thingy:

Here is Laetitia attempting to eat it:

Alison!!!!!!

So gross hahaha

hahhahahhahahaaaa

for the win.

nasty!!!!

faire du luge

skiing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went skiing today!!!! First time in over a decade!

Me and Diane.

Cutie.

Nerd.

OH heeeyyy everyone! Look at me go!

Pretty steep, I know.

hahaha

The grandpa said I belong in Vancouver!

swiss army knives

By the end of my trip I will own a legit swiss army knife, probably this one:

Rory, if I had an extra 84 swiss francs I would buy this for you. It's the thought that counts, right? heaaaaa!

swiss windowsill

swiss windowsills.

this just about kills me, it's so precious.

swiss cheese

I chatted it up with the Cheese Man the second day of my arrival. Of course. I love cheese. Have I mentioned how nice Swiss people are? My goodness, they shower you with greetings, farewells and compliments. For example:

-Hello

-Hello, Good morning! Goodday! Are you enjoying the day?

-Yes, yes thank you

-Oh nice, what can I help you with?

-Oh, some cheese please.

.......(then we dicuss cheese)

-Thank you

-Oh thank you, have a wonderful afternoon, enjoy your cheese, enjoy the snow, enjoy the evening. Goodbye, see you again soon, bye bye. Take care now, okay bye bye.

Literally, no exaggeration. It's so great.

Also, they speak slower, so it's easy to understand them. The girls make fun of them for it, sort of like this:

France French: Bonjour, comment ca va?

Swiss French: Bonnnnnnjouuuur, cooommmment ca vaaaaa?

I love it.

Also, they say some numbers differently, which works in my favor, so that's brilliant.

There is the Cheese Man!

Col de Soud

After we had lunch at this restaurant I hiked down the mountain. It should have taken 45 minutes but it took my almost an hour and a half because a) I'm not so skilled at walking in snow boots in the snow and b) I stopped to take photos every 5 seconds.

The skiers go through that underground tunnel:

The beginning of the hike:

The trail:

skiers! (that word looks so wrong to me)

This is a lovely little house thing. It's completely open, so it's like a shack. Well no, not a shack. It's a house that only has walls. Well actually, it only has three walls and a roof. In the spring/summer people picnic here.

This is the view from the hut thing:

There is another town off in the distance but I don't know which town it is.

Beautiful Villars:

Chalets are sprinkled everywhere:

This is my favorite part of the mountain range:

I don't think anyone was home which was good because I was basically in their 'front yard' for a good 10 minutes...

This is what a typical Swiss chalet looks like:

The town:

Snowy rooftops:

icicles!!!

Here are the traintracks:

The train is only 2-3 cars long:

This screams Christmas:

VIVE LA SUISSE!

I will.