St. Nicholas Cathedral

Fribourg

Risa and Alain on the big staircase

Jade at Collège St. Michel

Jade, Risa, Jasper, Isabelle, Marjorie, Cécile

Then we descended the long staircase behind the school to the Rue de Lausanne. Most of the old part of town hasn’t changed at all. Some of the stores are a little different (the record shop I used to hang out in isn’t there anymore) but basically it’s as it was. We passed the Hotel de Ville and walked to the St. Nicholas cathedral.

Napoleonic

According to Alain, this hole in the St. Michel chapel wall was made by one of Napoleon's cannonballs.

Collège St. Michel

Then, after we finished, we had our grand tour of Fribourg with Alain Robiolio, Christophe’s architect friend. He discussed the history and Bauhaus-ish architecture of Fribourg University. Then, we went to see the Collège St. Michel (where I went to school when I lived there). It looks exactly the same as it did 30 years ago. It was deserted, of course, because it was August, but we were able to go into the chapel and the main administrative building, which is 400 years old.

Nobody in my family could believe I attended an all-male catholic school.

Enter Sandman (briefly)

After this we drove back to Marly. I felt it might be a good idea for us to get a little rest.

We drove through southern Fribourg, past the Moléson and a whole bunch of other mountains that I recognized, but didn’t remember the names of. The countryside looked familiar, and yet was so much more developed than it had been when I lived there. Much more modern in some ways, even futuristic (as in the modern architecture, phones, ATMs, etc.) It was still just breathtakingly gorgeous, and so clean you could eat off the roads.

When we got back to Marly we met up with Lily (Lydwine Schornoz, my Swiss mom), and, antisocially, went to sleep. Francis didn’t have the heart to wake us up after 45 minutes, so we slept for an hour and a half. Not really enough, but it was something. We then went to Isabelle’s house for lunch. Since she had lived in Italy before getting divorced, she knew how to cook Italian- various eggplant and basil dishes, tomatoes with Mozzarella and dried meat with melon slices. The pasta sauces she made were fabulous- Pesto, and some Marinara. Francis opened some more wine, which I once again had to decline. There was so much food, we were stuffed. Then they brought out dessert. Lily made some comment to the effect that they eat too much in Switzerland. Or maybe we eat too little……

The most beautiful place in the world

Julien, Cécile, Agnès, Florence, Flo, Risa, Jade, Jasper, Me, and Christophe.

Jasper and Jade taking it all in next to the bus that almost didn't make it.

We were at some place high above Lake Geneva in Rivaz, where there were picnic tables- just an indescribably beautiful location.

All I could think of is what an utterly different world this is than what we are used to in Brooklyn.

Zombies in the sky

Yeah. we were wrecked. But just look at the scenery!

On to Rivaz

We all walked back to the bus, got in and followed Christophe to Rivaz, a small town further down lake Geneva, towards Vevey. We drove along the lake and everything is just stunning- cliffs, vineyards, trains, mountains- I have often thought the whole country of Switzerland looks like a big model train set. We turned off the road, and started climbing higher and higher into the hills. The roads kept getting narrower and steeper, to the point of ridiculousness. This would be the first of several occasions where the bus was being pushed to the absolute limit, and Florence S. had to drive it in first gear. When we got to the top, the bus was starting to smell really bad, and Christophe was laughing his head off.

Lausanne

Since Flo’s husband, Michel, runs a rental company (www.easyloc.ch) , I was wondering if we would be using one of his vans, and I was right. There are so many Schornoz, and 4 of us, the 18 person van was the only practical solution for getting us all around.

Thankfully Flo launched into speaking halting but enthusiastic English with Risa and the kids, because, while I was quickly getting my frog legs back, translating was another story. Florence S. and Francis don’t speak any English. We drove from the airport to Lausanne, where we were to meet up with Christophe, Agnès Collaud (Flo’s eldest daughter), and Agnès’ new boyfriend, Julien, whom Florence hadn’t even met yet.

We parked in a lot in Lausanne, and walked a couple of blocks through the old town to the waterfront. The scenery was absolutely stunning, and the sky was practically cloudless. Jasper said it was the most tired he had felt in his life. Jade just looked vacant. Risa was snapping pictures like mad and exclaiming over the scenery.

We hooked up with Christophe, Agnès, and Julien. I was pretty confused at this point because I thought we were going somewhere to have breakfast. Turns out that Christophe had a bit of a surprise in store.

Day 1: Sleepless in CH

Aug. 18

A bit of a pre-history, for those that don’t already know: I spent my senior year of high school in Switzerland, as an AFS student. I lived with the Schornoz ( pronounced Shore-No) family: Francis and Lily, the parents, Florence, who is my age, Christophe, who is 2 years younger than I, and Isabelle, who is 7 years younger.

We were right on time and customs in Switzerland was almost disturbingly simple. We showed our passports, and that was it. No baggage check, no nothing. We were definitely not in the US any more. The Schornoz came at 8:30, thinking we would need time to get our bags. Florence Collaud (my Swiss sister)….we call her Flo, Francis Schornoz (my Swiss father), Florence Schornoz (Christophe Schornoz (my Swiss brother)’s wife), Cécile, 18, (Christophe’s daughter) , and Marjorie, 14, (Flo’s youngest daughter)came to meet us.

It was a bit of an awkward moment for me- I was exhausted, and I hadn’t spoken French in a long time. I was really happy to see them, but I didn’t know quite what to say, and I had to introduce them to my family, who were even more exhausted than I. I very quickly felt somehow caught in between two very different worlds, both of which felt very natural to me, but which didn’t fit together in any way.

Our Once in a lifetime European vacation, August, 2008

Aug. 17

We left our car at the Park ‘n’ Go lot just outside Newark Airport. I said to myself at the time that when we get back to that lot, with its shabby trailer office and dusty gravel expanse, I will know that the vacation is over.

Security at the airport was a breeze. Continental has it set up so you can print your boarding passes online 24 hours before the flight, which I did. We packed our bags in such a way that we didn’t have to check anything. So, having left 2 hours for problems, we arrived at our gate with almost 2 hours to kill.

The flight went off pretty much without a hitch. Even though we had to wait around 40 minutes to take off, we still arrived on time- 7:45 Geneva time, 1:45 AM, New York time. While the flight was quite comfortable, and there was copious food (not bad, either) and water every hour, none of us was able to sleep at all. Note to self: Red eye to Europe + family = bad idea. I am used to pulling all-nighters, but Risa, Jasper, and Jade are not. Needless to say, we were all a total mess for the entire first day of our trip.