Frosty, But No Snow, Man!

Christmas morning in Ruy and the surrounding countryside was glorious. The sun finally appeared from behind the grey freezing fog that had been hanging around for days and with the freezing temperatures, the frost really took a grip and it was a total white-out. We once again made our favourite walk up into the hills near the parents house to Etang Dardes and take some photos. Then it was back for fois gras and Christmas pudding for dinner - how more 'Franglais' would you like your Christmas!

Moving Times Again

So the big day arrived on 19 December as we signed away our lives once more and took possession of our new apartment. The day started with a trip to the bank to pick up a cheque book and we ended up being dragged into the managers office and sold this, that and whatever other financial products she could sign us up for...anyway at least I will finally have a bank account in Euros to go with the ones I already have in Sterling and Swiss Francs.

However we made it to the notaire's office on time which went very smoothly - all he does is read through the contract highlighting the key points and then make everyone involved sign every page. And then it was done - off we went to inspect the flat and we were very happy with the results (especially the parquet in the bedrooms). One or two minor teething faults but no issues of non-conformity so we took the keys.

After that is was a ride back to Geneva to pick up a rental car and bring nearly everything from the Geneva flat to Annemasse. Two trips were required (we only had a Renault Modus) before we finally scraped back to Geneva just in time to get ready for the first Christmas party that night, quite appropriately at the circus!

After yet another xmas party at a casino on the Thursday night, we woke very early Friday morning to take the final trip out of Geneva and complete our second emigration in a year. This time it was a short 10 minute train ride in darkness with only a suitcase each. Our belongings arrived from storage arrived at 9am and suddenly everything we have was back together in one place, in a home we owned and we could look forward to settling down for real at last!

So no kitchen, no TV, no phone and no furniture other than a table and chairs and a few bedroom cabinets which are standing in as kitchen cupboards and worktops. We have our George Foreman health grill and and electric ring to cook with, a balcony for a fridge and a creative positive attitude to catering - hey we even managed to do pork chops with flagolet beans for tea on Saturday, and cheese toasties made with french ham and raclette cheese go down very nicely too (especially with balcony chilled beer). We picked a new bed up on the Saturday so its nice to have at least one room looking semi normal where we can rest relax and watch DVDs on the laptop!

Christmas was spent away from the flat in Ruy so we could recharge and prepare for another busy couple of months filling up the flat with all the things its missing.

Swiss Time is Up

Greetings blog fans! Yes we are still here and I am taking probably the last spare evening I will have until we move (again!) to bring things up to date and set the scene for the next few weeks.

So our time as Swiss residents is nearly up - all being well we will close the door on our luxury company flat in the posh neighbourhood of Champel next Friday to move into our brand new apartment just over the border in France. We have all the official signing and hopefully the key handover on Wednesday.

We are excited, despite the fact the kitchen will not be installed until mid/end of January (the George Foreman grill will come to the rescue in the meantime!), we have no sofa, no TV, no car however as of today we should have a bed next Saturday. Although the concept of home delivery in France seems to be 'there's a van, take it home yourself. I'm too busy eating my baguette'. So look out on the streets of Ville la Grand next Saturday as I will try and navigate my way through French traffic to the flat in a bright yellow transit van.

We have not arranged a phone line yet so don't expect the blog updates to be any more frequent than they have been in the last few weeks. Hopefully we'll have a package sorted in the New Year - probably one of those with TV and internet thrown in.

We are not rushing into things as we are going to spend our first week in the new place not in the new place, but in Ruy to spend Christmas with Vero's family (and somehow try and get to Ikea). We'll need a rest as in between all this we both have to somehow fit working (including my commute to Lausanne on Monday and Tuesday) and two Christmas parties (one Wednesday and one Thursday) in between all the moving stuff.

So for the time being we wish you all a very happy festive season and we'll hopefully have some news and pictures of the new place in 2008.

Sunset Boulevard

RIGHT BEFORE YOU READ FURTHER PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SPONSOR MY BROTHER AND HIS QUEST TO GROW A GLORIOUS MOUSTACHE IN AID OF MEN'S HEALTH ISSUES. GO ON .....

OK, so last Sunday it was freezing (still). The mercury had about as much chance of rising as the England football team up the FIFA world rankings. However despite staying in the warm all day, cabin fever set in and we decided to brave a walk to the nearby Tour de Champel.

This is an odd looking tower which sits at the highpoint of the Plateau Champel where we currently live, and overlooks the Arve below with views south west towards the Jura, and South East towards the Salève. It was the end of the day, the skies were (almost) clear and the sunset was, well, we'll let you decide !

Here Comes Winter

So since my last post I have become a busy busy boy, working a Swiss working week (that's more than you lazy bums in the UK do). I have been working mainly in Geneva with the occasional trip to Lausanne and Vevey, both at the 'other' end of the lake so I have had some opportunity to acquaint myself with Swiss railways. On time, comfortable and not overcrowded (well mostly) would be a fair description. They even have double decker trains with sofas which cruise quietly and smoothly up and down the lake shore while you sit and admire the Alps on the other side (which are quite simply breathtaking some days). Plus they don't go on strike every five minutes because someone took away their free croissants.

By means of working with French-speakers, I have also been improving my French (or my confidence to speak it without sounding like a drunken fool all of the time). I even managed to go to the bank and open a bank account (I have a Swiss bank account!) all on my own without Véro holding my hand.

One thing that has been obvious as I walk across the Rhone each day (in my swanky business clothes looking every bit part of the Geneva scene) is that winter is definitely drawing in. This morning it was bitterly cold and windy, with snow blowing around on the breeze. The lake was more like the Atlantic and how the gulls and swans put up with I don't know, bobbing up and down on the icy waters like it was the middle of summer. Even the sparrows are hiding somewhere warm.

The surrounding countryside has had its first proper covering of the winter last weekend which paints an amazing picture, especially on crisp clear mornings like Monday this week. I took the pictures above of the Jura mountains on the way to work from a viewpoint in the old town. I only had a brief view of them before descending into town however some lucky people have this view all day from their desk (yes Véro!).

No snow has settled on the ground in Geneva yet however go up only another 50 or 100m in altitude to the level of the border towns such as Ferney or Vetraz-Monthoux and they have had a good covering. Who knows, maybe even our new acquisition in Annemasse is currently under a blanket of the white stuff. Anyway enough about the snow for now - it may warm up slightly this weekend anyway.

We spent last weekend in Ruy to recharge, as well as have a collective haircut(!), and catch up with family and friends. Saturday we woke up to a heavy frost and the temperature never really rose much above zero. After a trip into the chill to see some kitchens, returning to Marie-Lyne's delicious, cheesy tartiflette for lunch was pure heaven...its cold days like this when decent, hot home-cooked food really hits the spot.


On Sunday morning we were able to take one of our favourite walks from the house up to Etang Dardes, a small lake nearby. On the way there was a blanket of mist or fog down in the valley below which made for some excellent pics and added to the 'wintry' feeling in the air.

The lake had certainly changed from summer, however there were amazingly some lambs hopping around in a field nearby (too far away for the camera). The swans and coots where still present, and the former wasted no time swimming over to see if we had brought with us any left over baguette.




We certainly managed to relax and unwind - I can imagine we will spend plenty of weekends down in France, especially once we have some wheels of our own in the new year.

As for this weekend maybe we can find somewhere in the countryside where we can go for a walk in the, what was it again? Oh yeah, SNOW !

Awesome Autumn

Once again apologies to regulars for no news for the last few weeks. The camera has not been on strike, but instead used for photographing plumbing and light fittings as our search for a permanent place to live intensified. The good news is we have found somewhere to buy - a brand new two bedroom flat (with double garage) near Annemasse train station with its good links to Geneva for work, shopping, onward travel and tourism (in no particular order). Its a nice size and a 'blank canvas' for us to equip, decorate and furnish as we see fit (except for the bathroom which comes 'done'!).

So the last two weeks have been spent with mortgage brokers, banks, kitchen designers, choosing parquet and generally everything else that you need to do to buy and equip a brand new flat. The flat development is still in the final stages however is due to be finished within days - and once we have completed all the legal bits we should hopefully be in by early/mid-December. So exciting and expensive times ahead no doubt.

So to help pay for the new place two salaries would help. Therefore lady luck came calling last week and I have found work. All the effort that I have put in over the last two months has paid off and I have found a job which is a really good career opportunity. So that all starts tomorrow and today is my last weekday afternoon of my mini career break. How am I spending it - doing laundry (and blog writing)!




After a busy few days kitchen planning and interviewing, we took a nice relaxed walk yesterday afternoon through the park and the lavish suburb of Conches and on to a stretch of the never too far away River Arve. This is a much quieter, more woody stretch and despite some cold weather last week, the trees were still hanging on to their leaves and their glorious colour. I know there's been plenty of waxing lyrical on this blog about how beautiful the autumn has been out here but its true and yesterday was the picture postcard crowning glory. I'll let the pictures do the talking this time with the final sobering thought from a passer-by yesterday - "in a few days it will all be gone" in other words "so enjoy it while it lasts". How true, how true....

International Peacekeeping

So its been a couple of weeks since we last posted here, so probably high time the blog was updated. Unfortunately the camera has been on strike since we went to Nyon - we have not (or I have not) really done any major excursions since so I will probably blatantly flaunt copyright laws and post random pics from Google image search or something. I do have some nice autumnal pics and some video of the rather gorgeous stretch of the river Arve not too far from here. I took them from my rubbish camera phone when I went 'the long way' to get some shopping earlier this week.

Life here continues as what has become normal. Vero goes to work, I stay at home spending my day trying to avoid scrabble and sudoku on facebook, instead trawling through the job portals and sending away job applications.

Its going well - slowly but well. I have had a few face to face interviews (only one of them was for a real job!) and plenty of chat on the phone with some very helpful recruitment consultants. I had a very nice interview yesterday with an agency all in French (or Franglais in my case) which has boosted my confidence to speak no end. My next step is to start targeting companies direct, however I have several applications pending and it usually takes a good 3-4 weeks before you get any feedback... So I am staying patient and trying to maximise my time off by boosting my French and also learning a few more technical skills via the wonderful world wide web (which was invented in Geneva, well, technically Meyrin, by some boffin at CERN).

It is a fact that people in general do like to take their time here - maybe because they are relaxed, or busy with a high volume of work, or maybe because they are trying to divide their time between coffee drinking, walking multiple miniature dogs, roller blading or scooter-ing everywhere and just randomly driving around Geneva in their cars at high speeds tooting their horns at everyone.

People here do keep very busy and are rather 'deliberate' in performing day to day tasks. I am still trying to work out that is a good or bad thing however don't get me started on the epic saga that is our kind of broken old German washer dryer....3 visits and several phone calls later all we have to show for our efforts is a new plastic on-off switch and still sopping wet washing.

We have turned the hunt for an apartment up a notch. Last Saturday we went to Annemasse for another look around, checking out estate agent windows and looking at certain areas to see where is quiet, what the transport links are like etc etc. We have yo-yo'd back and forth between the rent or buy argument and buying is winning through, to the extent that we are doing some viewings on Monday in Ambilly, a quiet small commune across the train tracks from Annemasse. Exciting times - this time next week we could be on our way to being property owners in France!

Prices here are a good 15-20% higher than in Plymouth and also much higher than in some nice alpine regions not so far away. For the price of a 2 bed flat we could maybe buy a nice 3 or 4 bed house in some parts the Savoie region leading to thoughts of a future second 'weekend' home in the Alps in a couple of years time maybe...I could buys some cows and make my own cheese. Le Jannère has a very nice ring to it don't you think?

Anyway this weekend we are going back to Vero's family home in Ruy. We leave tonight by train straight after Vero has finished work and hopefully the journey will be worth the 100CHF each ticket price. We have not been back properly since we arrived nearly 7 weeks ago - a 2 hour flying visit the day after we arrived to collect some things that's all. I was in a complete daze that day...

Not much is planned - we intend to relax and chill out with ML, JP and Philippe. The main event is tomorrow night when I will sit down with Vero's dad and watch the Rugby world cup semi between France and England. Vero would like to think I will be neutral-ish however the England shirt is packed and I am nailing my colours firmly to the red and white, sweet chariot mast. What's worse is that Vero and her mum are leaving us to it and going out, so who knows how tetchy things may get without the restraint of two level- headed women who couldn't really care less who wins. JP is a typical passionate French rugby fan so I'll try and do my best to keep the peace.

Well at least Zidane isn't playing...here's the video I promised.

One Month on....

So one month on and our lives have certainly changed. We have settled into life in Geneva now - although its only a temporary one as we will need to move into our own place soon, most likely over the border in France. Vero has settled into her job, adjusting to the new surroundings and working practices.

As for me, despite still being jobless I am very optimistic about my career prospects here. I have managed to get over the stress of my first interview this week and although no work came from it I know I am very employable. I have several applications still pending and they do like to take their time here. I have a good selection of recruiters working on my behalf, looking out for me too, and I am also sending off applications every week. I could go temping immediately however I am remaining patient and focused as I want to find the right job that fits where I want to be with my career.

We have been lucky to have found the time to get out and explore a bit with a trip to the Alps and many nice walks in and around Geneva. That's probably down to the fact we are not pressured right away to find our own place to live however I think that may change in the next few weeks as weekends will start to be taken up viewing property! The decision to buy or rent is a tricky one too...that £/€ rate is not very helpful.

So we celebrated our first month with a trip on the train to the town of Nyon, a few km up the north side of the lake towards Lausanne. Nyon is a small town with a rich Roman history. There were some great looking old buildings however this particular day was (unknown to us) the town's Fete d'Automne and the narrow streets were closed to traffic and crammed full of market stalls and live entertainment. The consequent throng of people meant taking pictures was pretty difficult, however we did manage to find some respite by the Town's castle and found the most amazing spot overlooking the lake and the Swiss, French and Italian Alps (yes all three!). The views were incredible. Here's the pics...


The Chateau de Nyon and a view across the lake to wards Yvoire and Evian


The mountains above Evian and the Mont Blanc

We liked Nyon although if it wasn't for the market there is not really much to do for the day, unless you like museums and shopping. There is a narrow gauge train ride up to the alpine village of St Cergue and into the French Jura which we decided to save for another day. This was mainly because St Cergue had its annual Desalpes going on. This is a festival where they bring the cows down off the mountains into the village so although it would have been nice to see, it would probably mean that the village would be heaving with people too. However, we will be back to try that train ride no doubt, or maybe take a boat trip across to Yvoire on the other side of the lake.

What's good about this area there is so much choice of activity - even for those without transport like ourselves. Its going to be even better when we find a car (once we have moved to France!). Bring it on....