Thanks for the Party!

On August 1st we arrived in Lausanne. 

After researching, planning, worrying, and anticipating this journey for about a year, if feels good to finally be here.

And the city threw us a celebration complete with fireworks upon our arrival!

Naw, not really.  August 1st is the national day in Switzerland (a la July 4th).  From our balcony, we could see fireworks across the city.  Then, to top things off, our downstairs neighbor lit off fireworks in the backyard.  Note, these are not run-of-the-mill-backyard-sparklers.  These were the real deal, exploding just over our heads.  Quite exciting.



A quick word about our apartment. AWESOME.  It definitely exceeds our expectation.  As you can imagine (and as some of you heard about in depth),we had to find an apartment via the internet, sign an agreement without ever meeting the owner or seeing the place, and just cross our fingers that we weren't renting a flophouse disaster.  Quite the opposite.  Our apartment is more spacious and light-filled than we imagined and has a magnificent view of Lake Geneva and France across the lake.  And it is wonderfully centrally located with quick access to bus routes, the train, and downtown. 

Here we are on our balcony, toasting our first night in Lausanne.


And, to boot, our landlady is super nice.  Upon arrival, she walked us around the neighborhood, pointing out shops and parks.  She brought us three bags of English-language books for the kids.  And as a welcoming gift left us a bottle of wine, two beers, and some Pellegrino in the fridge.  I think we're going to like it here.

While most of this first week has been taken up with getting-settled chores (more on that later) we have squeezed in a few fun outings.

Here are the boys on their scooters.  We bought them at a bargain price from a Chapel Hill family just leaving Lausanne as we arrived (thanks, Raquel!).  Perhaps the best purchase so far. We take them everywhere.

Our main outing this week was to Chillon Castle in Montreaux (a town mostly famous these days for the Jazz festival), a great historic site built in the 12^th century and written about by Lord Byron in the Prisoner of Chillon.

We also discovered a new favorite hangout--Ouchy (oo-she).  This lakeside area is one of the happening places in Lausanne, with docks and boats and fountains and outdoor cafes and restaurants, and wide open spaces (great for scootering).  And it also seems to be the local equivalent of NYC's Washington Square Park (where people go to play pick-up chess).  The local talent was impressed with Christopher’s play.

He won this game.

Not a bad first week.