Weekend Diversions

The past two weekends have been fun.

The weekend of October 1-2, we broke the shopping barrier!  Thus far during our time in Switzerland, we had been pretty restrained in the shopping arena (except for groceries, of course).  But this weekend certain consumer needs overcame us, and we ventured out to the Outlet Mall.

Before that, though, we had the pleasure of going to another désalpes. (See the previous post, where I threatened to take the family to go to a second désaples.  I was successful!)  This one was held in Saint Cergue.  This désalpes had the same wonderful mix of cows on parade with their fancy headgear and loud bells, local musicians (this time including group of yodelers and a marching band of people carrying cow bells of various sizes), and stalls with food and gifts for sale. 

Saint Cergue desaples

We decided to take the plunge and buy some cow bells.  We had been thinking about what we might bring back as mementoes of our trip, and we were having a hard time coming up with items that are quintessentially Swiss.  There is chocolate, of course, but chocolate is meant to be eaten, not displayed on your mantel.  Cow bells seemed just the ticket.

So many cow bells.  How to choose?

On the way home from Saint Cergue we stopped at Ikea, which was located in an outlet mall.  Here we purchased a floor lamp (yes, we broke a lamp in our rental apartment. Oops!), and we also bought new sneakers. Everything at Ikea (even the Swiss Ikea) is pretty inexpensive, but we were particularly surprised at what a good deal we got on the three pair of sneakers we purchased at the Adidas store in the Outlet Mall.

Falling asleep outside the mall.  Rough day!

So, a little shopping in the old world (Saint Cergue) and a little shopping in the new world (outlet mall). Not a bad day!

This past weekend (October 8-9) was equally diverse and interesting.

On Saturday, Mark and Christopher played in a chess tournament in Echallens -- a town about 20 minutes outside of Lausanne.  This was particularly fun as the tournament was held in the “grand salle” of the local castle.

Getting ready for the Echallen chess tournament at the castle.
The 12th century castle tower is in the background.

We were really looking forward to seeing what a chess tournament in a castle would be like! And it was different than what we expected. It was indeed a 12^th century castle, but it’s still in active use as a community center, so the “grand salle” -- which we imagined would be a castle banquet room with a gigantic fireplace, tapestries on the walls, and narrow windows for the archers -- was in fact more like a church social hall or the common room of a small elementary school: tile floors with circles and lines painted on them for gym class, gymnastics equipment pushed to the side, a stage at the front for the school play, etc. Probably the only part of the building that’s left from the 12^th century is the tower. The rest looked to be modern add-on.

Matthew helping Mark with some pre-tournament practice.
Christopher and a new friend in the background.

Inside the "castle"

As Mark noted, though, playing in this sort of castle is, in a sense, at least as much of a historically “authentic” experience of castle life as touring the castles that are now museums. One of the amazing things about visiting places here is the realization that people have been living on the same sites for thousands of years, transforming them as needed. Part of the reason all these castles have lasted so long is that people adapted them for various uses over the years: government administrative buildings, jails, markets, warehouses, rich people’s houses, and community centers. Only sometimes did they get converted into museums and rehabbed into what somebody imagined a medieval castle might have looked like.

So, in a sense, by playing a chess tournament in the castle-turned-community-center, we were participating in the ongoing, living history of the medieval castle as much as, maybe more than, when we tour the ones that have been reconstructed to look like “castles” and imagine ourselves to be medieval knights defending them. Or maybe castles just have different historical trajectories, each of which is authentic in its own way.

Enough history.  The big news here is that Mark won first place in the under-1600 class with 4 points and Christopher won second place in the same class with 3.5 points.  A clean sweep for the Chaves family!  And, these wins came with money prizes (80 francs for Mark and 50 francs for Christopher)!   Not too shabby!

Christopher takes 2nd place U1600!

Mark takes 1st place U1600

On Sunday, we went to see the Knie Circus, which is the Swiss national circus.  Knie is a family run circus in operation since 1803. The Swiss are very proud of the national circus, and it was recommended to us several times as a not-to-be-missed event.  And it lived up to its billing.

Maybe the most fun aspect of it is that the Knie Circus is a single-ring circus that happens under an actual "big top" tent which was actually pretty small.  This smaller venue meant that we (and everyone else in the house) were really, really close to the action.  

Boys sitting on the edge of the ring under the Knie Big Top

They had elephants, horses and llamas, a tightrope walker, multiple acrobats, and even some modern-day clowns (not the rubber-nosed, big-shoed, pancake-makeup wearing types, but three guys doing a lot of breakdancing and silly antics.)  Mark's favorite was the tightrope walker. Mine was the acrobats, all of whom were incredibly talented.  And the boys?  They liked the three silly guys.  


Something for everyone!