Weeks 25 and 26 (19 June–2 July 2023)

Two weeks in one to avoid breaking up our Switzerland trip (Friday to Wednesday)!

Tour de Romandie

Back to Switzerland for the first time since December. A short stay, only 4 full days, that felt like a week! Intense. In a nutshell:

  • lots of family! My grandparents celebrated 60 years of marriage with about 40 family members present, many I hadn't met before (3rd cousins!). Plus more cousins and grandmas on C's side in Lausanne
  • lots of driving! Basically Joux—Geneva—Neuchâtel—Lausanne—Geneva—Joux, 1070 km in total (most of which being the Joux—Geneva round trip, 4—5 h and 340 km each way). Taxi grand-mère: 822 km with a grandma or grandaunt in the car (two grandmas one grandaunt)
  • swimming in the Rhône river (jump off the Pont Sous-Terre exit at La Pointe de la Jonction), lake Neuchâtel (Plage de Serrières) and lake Geneva (Plage de Paudex)
  • bouldering in Geneva (Arkose Genevois), Neuchâtel (ASEN), Lausanne (Grimper.ch Baulieu)
  • last-minute visits to family. C's cousin L at her new flat in Geneva, T at his flat in Neuchâtel, CC at their flat in Geneva

Meanwhile in Joux

Garden: did a lot of weedwhacking before the Switzerland trip and things are looking much cleaner! The garden is beautiful and in terms of food tomatoes plums will be ripe next month, green peppers zucchini potatoes Swiss chard redcurrant are in full swing. Thanks to the heavy rains in the spring, and being spared from hail! Coming back, springtime birdsong has been replaced (or just covered) by the noise of cicadas crickets. Summer.

Climbing: had our last bouldering sessions at the gym, before it closed for the summer! (It's in a school gymnasium, so it roughly follows the school year.) We went bouldering outside once with our club (Casteljau), 6—10pm, mosquitoes, the first plums from N's garden, beers from the Java brewery. The club's general assembly was shocking/disappointing. We'll climb outside until the gym reopens in September!

Other: bought many kilos of apricot from a producer in Rocher who comes to the square with her van twice a week and lets her customers know she's there via text messages, I ate a lot and C made jams. Picked plums and medlar (a.k.a. nespolo, Sicily memories) in D and M's garden near Largentière, I ate a lot and C made pie.

Watching

Reading

Graphic novels!