Happy Swiss National Day

[bmc]

...to anyone celebrating.

[Relic]

not necessarily celebrating it over here, but since Switzerland is such a cool place, I then say to you: Happy Swiss national day to you as well.

[bmc]

Originally Posted by Relic

not necessarily celebrating it over here, but since Switzerland is such a cool place, I then say to you: Happy Swiss national day to you as well.

Thanks very much. Pouring rain here. We'll be sparking up the bbq, eating hamburgers, drinking French wine and walking over to the chateau in the village next door.

The tradition here is to have live music, drink locally made wine and eat local foods. Local food for public events is usually a large sausage on a small piece of bread with Dijon mustard. Lots of wine. The local white wine is Chaselas and the local red in a Pinot Noir.

At some point in the evening, the mayor will read the Swiss declaration and then everyone sings the national anthem. Each village has a huge bonfire and fireworks.

There are three official languages in Switzerland: French, German, Italian and Romansch. Romansch is the oldest latin based language and is spoken by approx 40,000 people. I could be way off on the number.

We live in the French part of Switzerland near Geneva. We're 4 miles from the border with France. With all stores closed today here in Switzerland, we had to buy groceries in France. There are limits on meat, dairy and wine imports. Everyone knows the unmanned border crossings when you may be over your limit.

Have a look at some of these panoramic pictures:

http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/pano...t_high_en.html

The French part is in the west. The Italian is in the south east. German is central, east to the borders with Austria and Germany.

Here are some random pics off the net:







This last one is of the village where we live.

[Relic]

Simply gorgeous!
Sounds like a great celebration. I think I recall you mentioning that you are originally from Canada - how does living in Switzerland compare? (Cost of living, employment etc) Just curious.
I had no idea Romansch even existed, pretty cool stuff.

[jomahu]

wow. beautiful country.

[bmc]

I am Canadian. We moved abroad 10 years ago. The plan was a two year adventure. Plans change.

It is very expensive here. Groceries for a family of four is about $350 a week. A three bedroom house of about 1500 sq ft will cost about $1.2 million. These are in Swiss francs which are just about on par with the USD. Gas is $2.02 a litre. That's probably close to $7.00 a gallon if my memory serves me right. Dinner for two at an average non-descript restaurant is roughly $100.

Not cheap, but salaries are commensurate.

Living in Europe is wonderful. Great food (smaller portions). Stunning wine. We are about two hours from Burgundy (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), an hour and a half from the Cote du Rhone (sirah). Italy is 2 hours away through the Mont Blanc tunnel. The Mediterranean is a four hour drive. Paris is five hours, Zurich 3 hours.

Airfare is dirt cheap. Roughly 65 low cost airlines in Europe.

The German spoken here is Swiss German. Best compared to high German.

We love the place.

[René_Julien]

Originally Posted by bmc

Living in Europe is wonderful. Great food (smaller portions). Stunning wine. We are about two hours from Burgundy (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), an hour and a half from the Cote du Rhone (sirah). Italy is 2 hours away through the Mont Blanc tunnel. The Mediterranean is a four hour drive. Paris is five hours, Zurich 3 hours.

Huray for the Pinot Noir!

My "cellar" contains mostly of Pinot Noir wines.
Alongside a lot of Chateau Neuf du Pape.

Next week and the week thereafter I got vacation, will be going to France again a booze cruise,... uhm, wine tasting.

[WickedPissah]

I wanna go to Switzerland so damn bad.