Friday 27 May 2005

another surprise departure weekend

The day before leaving for Liz' surprise weekend, I got a call from Fanni inviting me to come for a not dissimilar weekend for Chris, the week after (i.e. last weekend). Getting to CH is a little tougher than getting to Avenir, so I corralled TGVs from Rennes to Paris and Paris to Lausanne on Friday, taking the day off for travel. In Lausanne I stayed and more importantly caught up with Bruce and Bec, and went along to see a screening of Star Wars (some brief thoughts here), in VO, a condition not able to be met by cinemas in Rennes this week. Bruce and Bec seem pretty well set up there, with the location of their school/employer bettered only by that of their apartment.

On Saturday I caught a train up to Fribourg and met Fanni, Chris and Valerie. After coffee, lunch and shopping, we headed up to Fanni's folks' chalet above Vevey. We had a nice walk through the hills, before heading back to prepare the evening's feast. I say feast and I mean it - this was cuisine on a grand scale, grander indeed than the available appetities, 8 in all (the 3 aforementioned, Yann, Babalou, Audille and a friend whose name escapes me, and yours truly). Following dinner we hopped into a bottle of Calva that I picked up in Normandy the weekend before. The regrettable consequence was Audille and friend deciding to drive home (down a swiss mountain, mind you, not an easy proposition) in a condition beyond imagining for me.

On Sunday, after a breakfast-cum-lunch during which we made a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful collective effort to consume the delicious and plentiful leftovers from the previous evening, we hit Vevey. First order of business was to change my train, after which we wandered the shores of lac leman and caught up with Fabou and Mallorie for a coffee. Then it was back to Bern via Lausanne, dinner with Babalou and Valerie, and night train back to Rennes for me.

Photos from the chalet and Vevey are up here.

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