Now everyone who knows me, know that I have travelled all my life. If at first that only meant into town (and we girls had to put on dresses and proper shoes for those few occasions), then there were the camping vacation to National Parks at a medium distance before we branched out into crossing the nation when I was 10. That under our belts it was off to Hawaii to live for a few years when I was 13 going on 14 – and during the course of the three years that we lived there, we had to discover the rest of the islands as well. Upon my return to the mainland, it was boarding school for two years mid-state with flights home for the holidays. After one year in university I began the international trips when I attended school in France. From there it was anywhere-far-is-good never mind that my husband had also travelled the world as a tour guide to put himself through his doctorate. His thesis was on tourism ! We both worked in the tourist industry and living – in the case of his family – 600 miles from one lot of relatives, and in the case of mine thousands of miles meant that trips across the ocean or Europe were frequent.
I never saw a reason to stop until friends here started teasing me about not knowing the village down the road. For 14 years I rented part of a chalet in the mountains above Martigny, Switzerland and slowly began to discover places closer to home.
Today I took it a step further and actually explored the canton in which I live. Most people don’t realize that from the farthest point on one side – Hermance - to the farthest on the other – Chancy – although it is only just over 30 km (18 miles) it can take over an hour of driving – with no traffic – and that’s the most direct route !
Exploring was fun. I had never realized that in Chancy the border is defined by the Rhone river – which flows very swiftly indeed at that point.
Lunch in a small restaurant called the most plebian name of Café du virage or literally Coffee in the Curve. Imaginative perhaps not, but the daily menu was delicious and the terrace entirely different from those in town. One would never have guessed that one was within a few minutes of a major international city.
So I’ll continue the explorations of my canton as and when I have the time and the weather is accommodating.
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| Looking back towards Geneva - not that one would guess |
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| Going towards France |
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| swirls under the bridge - the current was very strong |
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| A lonely Heron hoping for a meal |
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