Chère Brigitte

GHI is the free weekly paper of Geneva which we faithfully leaf through every week and thus happily find that we steadily can read more and more of the content. Initially it was primarily the personal adds that we fully understood - and unfortunately it wasn't the section that either of us really needed to get established here - but now we can also follow some of the other events in town.

But recently we discussed the oddity of the paper containing 'Dear Abbey' (here called Chère Brigitte) regarding sexual problems. Brigitte answers questions on anything from infidelity to erectile dysfunctions and since the Genevans seem to have an abundance of problems, it is obviously a fine service but is it really suitable for a weekly paper that otherwise concentrates on classifieds?! Not even in the so-called liberal Denmark have we seen something similar.

Parallel import

The post on imported baking ingredients last week made us think about which other things we are having summoned from other parts of the world. Obviously certain products are not widely available and we feel nostalgic about them (TimTams from Australia, smoked rolled sausage from the butcher in Tue's hometown; Danish chocolate turtles) but we don't actually NEED them. But here we present some of the things where we haven't been able to find similar products or where the found substitutes just can't match the preferred items.

First the stuff we are having sent/bring back from Denmark:

Cheese strings - The Danish/Scandinavian cheese cutter isn't yet globally found so we have to send for spare strings when they snap. Luckily they don't take up much room and a packet of three strings lasts a long time.

Liquorice - because in contrast to all expectations it is almost impossible to buy liquorice here in Geneva. With the proximity to Northern Europe we had expected that it would be easy to find but actually it was easier in California where Trader Joe's carry Panda liquorice (connaisseurs will know what this is) as part of their regular assortment. In Geneva the best option is to go to IKEA but since it's both quite far and they only have a limited selection, we have build a little stock pile after several visits from and to Denmark.

Lypsyl lip balm - Despite the fact that our lip balms states an US address we never succeeded in finding this brand in Santa Barbara and neither here in Switzerland have we seen them. So we make sure to buy them when we're in Denmark because attempts with alternatives have not been successful. Since we also prefer the same type and they are rather small, it doesn't prove difficult.

Books - Both of us like a number of Danish and Scandinavian authors so in order to follow these authorships Danish books are often found on our wish lists. Before Lisbeth moved away from Copenhagen, she attempted to keep Tue up to date on the best new Danish movies but this is an area where we have given up now.

After our stay in the US we are also relatively dependent on certain non-Danish things:

Biotherm cleansing foam - Yes, it is possible to buy Biotherm in Switzerland but not the specific foaming soap that an insistent sales woman in Nordstrom, Seattle made Lisbeth try and then prefer. So on his recent visit to the Netherlands poor Drew had to bring several bottles across the Atlantic.

Gillette clear gel - It is not just Lisbeth who is particular about certain beauty products because when Tue on his arrival to Geneva realised that he couldn't buy the special Clear Gel version, he promptly imported 6 sticks from the UK. And since that's plenty for maybe another year Drew didn't have to go shopping on Tue's account.

Excedrin tension headache - Drew was however also delegated to bring Lisbeth more Excedrin since her stock ran out in November. But since he brought a huge jar (250 count - no, there is no reason to hide one's medicine consumption) she should be covered for a long time now.

American magazines - Desired British and American books are relatively easy to locate here in Geneva and if not, we are keen customers with Amazon but Lisbeth really misses Border's wide selection of magazines. Bon Appetit was one of the few favorite magazines which it was possible and affordable to sign up for an overseas subscription of so every month we test the efficiency of both the US and the Swiss postal systems (so far we have received 2 out of 3). Other magazines can be bought here in Geneva for astronomous amounts of Swiss francs which is why she is starting to do without...

We have no immediate expections for the need to import Swiss stuff when we move again but we guess we won't know until later just how dependent on Gruyère Salé we have become!

Better Mornings

.. it just is a better morning when one can enjoy the morning coffee (or tea) drinking from one's recently purchased cow-mug (or mountain goat cup). They lift our spirits.

'Petite' is French..

While reports indicate that mailboxes as phenomenon may be on the decline (we thank one of our readers for bringing this story to our attention), we continue our task in documenting their existence before it's too late.


On our trip last weekend we found this French mailbox where one probably shouldn't expect to mail too many (or too large) letters. It is emptied daily at half past nine in the morning, so it's not a good idea to be running late either.. we suspect that a mailman lives nearby and empties it on his way to work.

Annecy

Being determined not to fly anywhere in February (one could argue that the climate discourse is strengthening its grip on us but admittedly, we were just a little too much all over the place (i.e. Europe) in the months just prior to this one...) we decided to catch the bus to Annecy last Sunday.

So many people have spoken well of this French town just below the Mont-Blanc massive and it is indeed a beautiful place. Like most other important towns in this area, it is situated at one end of a lake, here Lac d'Annecy, and has a well-preserved medieval city centre, a castle (on a hill), numerous churches, and a lovely, busy - on Sunday morning, anyway - market. The Palais de l'Ile below is the best known image of Annecy but we guess that most people see it sans the snow flakes.

We spent a good deal of time walking in the snow along the lake, then made it up to the castle only to find the gate closed. We concluded it was time for lunch and had a spectacular meal at l'Atelier Gourmand de Jumeaux - which we stumbled on by chance, but we could hardly have made a better choice if we tried.

After being closed for lunch the gates of the castle were opened again, and we sneaked a peek in the courtyard (see below). Supposedly there is a great view from the tower of the castle, but considering the low visibility at that particular time, we declined on entering the castle.

It snowed quite a bit, and there was a fog for most of the day. Luckily we happened to be down by the lake, when some sort of hole in the clouds/fog passed by giving us a glimpse and an idea of the spectacular mountain views around the lake enjoyed from the city on clearer days.

Kalundborg Radio

Hey, is that an old-fashioned radio (note that it is possible to tune in to Kalundborg Radio!) there in the middle of Plainpalais? Nope, that is just one of the many nicely painted electricity boxes around Geneva.

Since Geneva seems to be short on interesting additions to the mailbox theme, we will instead present a sample of the many painted electricity boxes that we have seen around the city:

Some of them bear a relation to their location; for instance the bumper car box is situate right next to the square where travelling fun fairs are set up, but this is more the exception than the rule. Although the giraffe below seems to be nibbling from one of the surrounding live trees there is no zoo in the area or even in Geneva.

A few has a more direct relation to Geneva, such as Jean Henry Dunant, the founder of Red Cross:

And of course the noble mountain goat that is gracefully reminding us of the Switzerland outside of the asphalt covered urban areas:

Although most of the unpainted boxes are covered in graffiti, rather few of the decorated ones have been 'tag' sprayed, so we wonder if all subcultures appreciate the ornamentation or if Geneva spends a lot of money on cleaning them. They are certainly fun to spot and a lot prettier than the boring grey ones.

Baking day

For once we made home-baked buns today which led to considerations on desired ingredients. We wonder why, when we hear of Americans who miss particular American products. Well, not if it's particular ready-made products such as Dr. Pepper (well, maybe a little anyway...) that aren't widely available in Europe. But we've heard of people that bring shortening (which essentially is just a non-perishable version of margarine that can very well can be substituted by ... margarine!) and Clabbergirl Baking Powder (yes, baking powder that is easily replaced by European... baking powder!). We attribute the latter to people's lack of inclination to experiment with other products in their cooking/baking and this is probably also where the reason for the lugging of the huge amounts of semi-processed convenience foods such as cake mix, macaroni and cheese mix, taco mix, soup mixes, guacamole mix across the Atlantic is to be found.

While we personally think that these semi-processed products are silly since the food is just as easy to make from scratch (often with better taste, cheaper, and not least with less fat, additives, and colouring agents) we fully understand the need for products when it's not possible to find a proper substitute or when it's not feasible to make the product from scratch. We certainly missed a few Danish/European ingredients while we were in the States. These were primarily for baking since most other 'speciality' foods are possible to make at home (e.g. liver pate, "cold bowl", rusk, remoulade) albeit involving a bit of detective work from time to time. So we did our share of parallel import: mainly leaf gelatine (indispensable for the great unbaked cheesecake) and vanilla sugar (possible to make yourself but also very easy to mail from Denmark) + liquorice obviously - but that's a whole other story.

The need for fresh yeast was less easy to solve so here we had to change the recipes to procedures suitable for dry yeast. Great was our joy then when we saw fresh yeast stacked up in the supermarkets here in Geneva, and leaf gelatine and vanilla sugar were also just to be picked from the shelves (see photos) - luxury!

But here ten months later we can count on one hand how many times it has been necessary for us to buy said fresh yeast. When the bread in the supermarket is absolutely fantastic there just isn't the same need to make one's own as when we were in California and had a loooong way to bike to Trader Joes to buy the good (no, not fantastic as the Swiss bread but yes, good, and certainly much better than the boring bread in nearby supermarkets) bread.

The albino spider

One of the first days in the new year we discovered this little (approximately the size of a dime, including the legs) creature on one of the chairs in our living room. It stood still long enough for us to take a picture, but afterwards it quickly disappeared. Some days later we saw it on the bookshelf, but by now it has been quite a while since we saw it last. It's the first time we've seen such a pale spider, but google of course swiftly brings up pictures of even paler paler spiders...

Parc aux Animaux

After living here for about half a year we discovered that inside one of the nearby parks there's a small animal park with rabbits, little ponies, chickens, peacocks etc. After a couple of visits we even found the enclosure with mountain goats (one might opine that we are a bit slow on the uptake...) and by now our Sunday strolls sometimes passes by them. Apart from being some pretty remarkable animals in and off themselves, we also want to acknowledge them for being considerably more active than the wild boars we so far have only seen lying still and snoring very snug in their hay.

The mountain goats have a very nice area with lots of boulders, different levels and projections, and some heavily tested trees where they are hopping around. It seems to be an extended family with a couple of males, some females, and a couple of kids. All of them have horns, but they vary quite a bit in shape and size:

And that horns can be very usefl was demonstrated last Sunday by this goat - although we think that exquisite motor control is strictly required:

If the mountain goats weren't particularly delighted by exactly our visit, we felt very welcome when we met another acquiantance there - the apparently resident cat in the park, approached us meowing happily and was pleased to be scratched a little in his furry profusion:

The referendum of today

The EU discussion has been raging here in Switzerland for many years, and the latest most tangible result was that the Schengen agreement came into force in December 2008. This was particularly to the joy of all holders of non-European passports who are now able to go to France, for instance, without applying for a visa.

Today the Swiss are once again voting on the bilateral mobility agreement with EU as a consequence of the EU expansion of January 2007 to include Romania and Bulgaria. A yes would mean that the common agreement with EU on the mobility of the workers would continue and thus also include Romania and Bulgaria while a no would mean that Switzerland would withdraw from the bilateral agreement with EU. The latter would have significant consequences for all the non-Swiss working here - both the resident non-Swiss and the cross-border commuters, e.g. all the French that commute daily from France to work in Geneva. Obviously Switzerland will most probably enter agreements with each country instead but it will be much more complicated than just keeping the bilateral agreement with EU.

The Yes-sayers argue that it is economically necessary to continue the bilateral agreement while the No-sayers claim that it would be economical suicide to open the Swiss borders to workers from Romania and Bulgaria.

These are the same arguments that other countries in Europe have struggled with but what has surprised us the most is the No-sayers' crude graphic expression and their explicitly phrased aversion to Romania and Bulgaria: The Yes-sayers use much more sophisticated arguments for their recommendation but they have also expressed their point-of-view in a very comprehensible illustration:

We're very excited about the result of today's referendum. Unfortunately the No-sayers have been gaining grounds in the last few years, so ...

UPDATE:
We've just learned that 60% voted yes to keeping the bilateral agreement. Sanity prevails!