My gym bag was filled with packets of freezer bags and Russian cheese as I crossed the border from France to Switzerland. Hours prior, I had asked my friend Polina whether she needed anything from the Eastern European spice shop across our street. Her request was simple: творог. The gentleman at the counter understood. This...
Les Bains des Pâquis: Geneva’s Holy Grail
They say that high performers are early risers. It was 4:50 a.m. and I felt like achieving nothing. I was attempting to slip away from beneath my bed sheets to greet the dawn at les Aubes Musicales, the sunrise concerts held every day during Geneva’s hottest months at les Bains des Paquis. I had that...
Becoming a Mountain Woman in La Dôle
Driving past Geneva and its neighboring villages, one spots two glimmering white globes and tower at 1,677 meters above sea level, serving as both a weather observatory and protector of the radar antenna of the Swiss air navigation service. “That’s where we will go tomorrow,” my husband said the other day, as we drove through...
Celebrating Swiss National Day in France
“C’est le premier août ! Le bar est ouvert !” It was 10:30 a.m. and we were boarding a steamboat to celebrate Switzerland’s 733rd birthday in neighboring France. We herded like cattle amongst elderly Swiss German and French speaking tourists, some sporting matching brown backpacks won by points accumulated from the local grocery store, hands...
