La Vie Quotidienne in Villefranche sur Mer

Seven bells ring very loud and close. Then three bells and a pause. Three more. Then seven bells again. We wake up reluctantly but completely. Earlier we heard the sound of running steps and the repetitive swish-slash of a broom vigorously employed just below our window. French voices echo off the stone walls now. The village of Villefranche sur Mer is waking up around us.

I head up a few steps and across the Place de la Paix to the boulangerie for a couple of croissants and a baguette, while Tony makes coffee. Madam accepts my 50 Euro bill and makes change with only the slightest grimace. Clearly she's used to the idiocy of tourists who offer large bills for tiny purchases.* 

Back at the apartment we open the wooden shutters and floor-to-ceiling windows wide to let in the morning light. We look out from the balcony over rooftops and down to the water. The croissants are excellent. The baguette is heavenly.

Our apartment sits near the top of the Old Town, a jumble of 15th century buildings: ocher, pink, yellow and green walls topped by red, tiled roofs line the stepped cobbled streets that climb from the harbor to the Basse Corniche above.  The apartment itself, Le Beau Balcon, is newly renovated and is a perfect mix of comfort and style: white washed walls hung with paintings by local artists, cool tile floors, the big comfy couch in the living room is set off by antique pieces. There is no shabby in the chic here.

Maybe we can just spend the day here, moving between the sunny balcony and the cool interior?

Like tourists for the past two hundred years, we're here to soak up the sun and relax. We want to revel in the light and color of this place. We want to sample the region's wine and food. Take a stroll. Take a few photos (paint the picturesque).

We began on our first night with an apero at the wine bar at the Hotel Welcome on the waterfront. We sink into the deep comfortable chairs on the covered terrace and sample a glass of rosé or three. It is a couple of hours before sunset and prime people watching time. All shapes and sizes pass by, on foot and on motorcycle, in big, shiny luxury cars and in dusty-rusty economy cars. Cruise ship lemmings returning from shore leave are packed onto shuttle boats to be carried back to their just desserts.

In fact, visitors here are more likely to arrive by cruise ship than mega-yacht. Happily, most of the cruise-shippers head immediately to Monaco and Nice.** A little boho, a little middle-brow, Villefranche is better known for artists like Jean Cocteau (whose bust stands outside the waterfront chapel that he frescoed in 1957) than for the glitterati. Billionaire and mega-celeb spotting is best pursued in Cannes and Monaco, not Villefranche.

That suits us fine, as we're more in the mood for a good meal than a good gawk. We head to Le Cosmo for dinner, which is reputed to be a locals hangout, although it seemed to be just us tourists that night. Despite an alarmingly large menu (pages and pages), the food turns out to be good. May is the season for lamb and the souris d'agneau turned out to be a great choice, especially with the Bandol rouge.


We trundle off for a waterfront stroll just as the sun sets. Lovely.

We turn to climb up the steps to our apartment. Oh my. Tall, irregular steps separated by sharply sloping landings twist up the hill. We're not the only ones struggling with the climb. We pass a gasping teenager, although the old ladies seem to manage well by taking it extremely slowly.  I hit on the artful strategy of pausing on landings and turning to take in the view. At least there are no Swiss tourists, and we are spared the humiliation of watching them effortlessly bound up the steps ahead of us, chain-smoking and chatting the whole way.

Back at the apartment. Sigh of relief. Tomorrow we will continue with the small pleasures of daily life: the boulangerie, the  boucherie, a bit of a walk, a trip to the farmer's market in the next town, a meal cooked for ourselves, a sunset stroll.

*We are not in Swtizerland anymore. Small bills and exact change are preferred here, and some shopkeepers will refuse large bills.

** If the mere sight of these floating monstrosities annoys, then it's probably best not to be in town on Friday or Monday, when the cruise ships arrive. The harbor is one of the  deepest on the Riviera and that makes it the perfect spot for the big ships. The cruise ship tourists seem to appear only on the morning and evening as they are shuttled back and forth from excursions to Monaco and Nice. Most seem to skip Villefranche entirely.



Story by Kathy
Photos by tylonbrew and Kathy

Switzerland: Expat Retirement Haven?

You might think it's too early to think about retirement, but I like to plan ahead. Actually my favorite part of planning is daydreaming about where we will retire. Back home in Seattle? A little slice of heaven on one of the Canadian Gulf Islands? The south of France? Or right here in our Alpine paradise?

Maybe I'm looking further afield than my hometown now that I've had "a taste of living abroad," as Kathleen Peddicord says in today's New York Times article,

Apparently I'm not alone in thinking about living our golden years overseas.  According to the NYT article on Americans retiring overseas, top choices are clustered Latin America, especially Panama, Uruguay, and Argentina, where USD retirement accounts slashed by the economic crisis still have considerable buying power. In addition, many Latin American countries have fairly simple residency requirements. Malaysia and Croatia also make the top list for Americans retiring overseas for similar reasons.

Europeans look to Portugal and Eastern Europe to stretch their retirement Euro. However, the "more affluent retirees" like Switzerland, with its favorable tax climate (relative to EU and UK rates) and great health care services. We could also mention excellent public transportation, truly safe streets, and awesome natural beauty, as well as political and financial stability. Plus, keeping up with the sporty Swiss and their skiing/skating/curling/cycling/hiking ways, no doubt makes for a long and healthy old age.

Getting Swiss permanent residency is not as easy for Americans as it is for Europeans, but Bonnie Burns found a way, because she didn't want to live and retire anywhere else. She started her own business, got her residency, and even found that it's not as expensive to live here as you might think.

What do you think? Is Switzerland the perfect place to retire? Or is it paradise at too high a price?

Have you developed a taste for living abroad? What's the ideal place for you to retire? Will you live the expat life long after you've gone gray and started to think everyone under 20 looks like they're about 12 years old? Will you move back to (or stay in) your home country?




Story by Kathy
Photo by tylonbrew

The Garden of Wine, The Village of Wine

One of the best things about living here is being able to make last-minute travel plans and in no time at all end up in a beautiful place.

This weekend the Caves Ouvertes was held in the Valais. I heard on the radio that the festivities included the Le Jardin des Vins in Sion and thought a stroll through a park filled with tented pavilions offering wines from over a dozen Valaisans winemakers sounded like a pretty good way to spend Friday afternoon, especially if the weather cooperated.

 It did, just. As we pulled into Visp to make the change to Sierre and Sion, the clouds lifted to the tops of the closest hills and bits of blue sky shone. That was promising, and the rain continued to hold off as we dropped our bags and had lunch at our hotel in Sierre. Didier Courten's brasserie and wine list did not disappoint, and we were in a mellow mood as we headed off to Sion.




Standing in a temporary patch of sun just outside of Sion, we could see a rain shower on a distant hillside, but it never came any closer. Good thing. Thanks to some faulty research on my part, we decided to walk from the train station to the event, which was held at the Domaine des Iles and which is actually closer to the airport than downtown. My route led us through a industrial area filled with commercial warehouses and then along busy roads paralleling the highway, with a brief detour that dead-ended at a locked airport gate thrown in for fun.

On the way we saw a little trolley bus roll along the road ahead and realized that this must be the shuttle to and from the event. It turns out we could have taken this little navette bus to and from the train station or Manor in downtown Sion for free. We did take it back into town, sitting behind a happily inebriated group who waved and shouted at various passersby.

Late in the day and after a big lunch, we weren't tasting wine like the pros, but we did get our 20 Francs worth of wine, plus a nice souvenir tasting glass. We found wines both weird and wonderful, ranging from an unfortunate Dôle Blanche with a prominent banana aroma to a sexy Humagne Rouge with earthy animal notes backed by yummy black cherry.




All too soon it was time to head back to Sierre and the Chateau de Villa for dinner, where we had what may be the best fondue we've had so far in Switzerland. The place is famous for it's raclette, so we hope to return for that in the Winter.

The Chateau also has the Oenotheque, which offers a rotating list 8 wines by the glass and has an amazingly comprehensive selection of Valaisans wines  by the bottle. We discovered this place last year, and it was my fallback plan in case the weather was too ugly for the outdoor festival in Sion.

Next day we had one more treat. It was market day in Sierre's old town, complete with acrobats and musicians, performing in honor of the holiday (Ascension). We sampled the saucisson (cheval fumé and beef with fennel), bought some dense Valaisan bread, and also found an artisanal chocolate shop offering the most amazing nougat. Lovely.

I'm glad we have so many reasons to return to Sierre. Great restaurants, a charming downtown, and oh so many more wines to taste. But there is also the Chemin du Vignoble, and we hope to cover the section from Sierre to Leuk on our next visit. Weather permitting, of course.



Story by Kathy
Photos by tylon

Tasting Swiss Wines with Laughing Lemon

I Love Swiss Wine
Swiss wine? That's that watery plonk in the screw cap bottles, isn't it? No, not exactly. There is plenty of plonk around, but there are also good, even great, Swiss wines. Some of them even come with screw caps.  Okay, I've been saying for a while that I love Swiss wine, but don't take my word for it. Just ask Silvia at Laughing Lemon.

Silvia, who handles all things vinous at Laughing Lemon, teaches Introducing Swiss Wines. She has done everything from working the grape harvest at fifteen, to getting her Level V diploma from WSET, to working her own row of vines in Landquart and bottling its product. Silvia definitely knows her stuff when it comes to wine, and she loves Swiss wine.

Rule Number 1: Get to to Know the Producer
Silvia talked about the "beauty and shyness" of Swiss wines, describing them as wearing "no make-up" (which reminded me a bit of of what I like about Burgundies), and she emphasized rule number one: when it comes to finding good Swiss wine, you have to get to know the producers. Nothing on the label (including the AOC designation) will tell you as much about the quality of a Swiss wine as the producer's name.

But how do you find which producers you like? The class itself is a great start, and I now know a couple of producers I'll look for in the future, including Château D'Auvernier for Oeil de Perdrix and Mauler for sparkling, both from Neuchâtel. We also got some recommendations on good wine stores in Zürich (yeah!). Silvia recommended buying directly from wineries, which is how most wine is sold in Switzerland. Many are open at least once a week and there are also "Open Cellar" events. Regional festivals like the Zürcher wine festival in Meilan are another great option.

Clearly, finding the best wine producers takes some work. But you can often bike or hike to the wineries. You get to feel all righteously healthy while indulging. How fun is that?

Lots of Fun and Lots to Learn
The class was absolutely packed with information, with something for everyone, whether you're a wine novice or a wine geek. As we tasted our way through eight wines, the thing that impressed me most was how getting to know the producers (and the wines) makes it possible to find great Swiss wines at really reasonable prices. I had pretty much reconciled myself to paying about 25 CHF for a decent wine, but now I'm inspired to keep searching out these great buys.

We also learned fun facts such as how the typically acidity-averse Swiss palate shaped wine-making styles here, why Swiss wines are relatively more expensive (good ones averaging 22-26 CHF) than many imports, and why Riesling X Sylvaner should be called Müller Thurgau, even though it isn't here in the CH.

The class ended with a gorgeous spread of traditional Swiss foods, fresh from the market and prepared by Jack, including a wonderful, local goat cheese, the ever-popular Bündnerfleisch, and a totally unexpected water-buffalo wurst.

Good food, good wine, good company, a little dash of inspiration and lots of learning equals big fun. I'm already looking forward to my next Laughing Lemon class.

Are the Swiss Happy? (Part II)

At the end of Part I, I suggested that there was more to the story of Swiss happiness. Weiner's key factors (trust, envy, nature) are tied not only to happiness but also to some serious potential unhappiness.

Heimatort
Weiner emphasizes the importance of place for the Swiss. In fact, I think that trusting others, controlling envy, and a love of nature grow out of a Swiss sense of place, a sense of belonging to a specific place and community, and this is actually what secures happiness in Switzerland.

Heimatort, one's ancestral community, has a powerful cultural salience that carries over to the structural significance of one's community of residence or Gemeinde.  These place-identities are reinforced as in-group identities in German-speaking Switzerland by the use of dialect, with each region or even community speaking its own variant.

Insiders and Outsiders
But if some are inside the small community, that means others are outside, lots of others. Not exactly a recipe for national cohesion or even, perhaps, happiness. The modern Swiss political genius, according to Jonathan Steinberg, has been to encapsulate difference and represent it in the political process, allowing different groups to flourish while living side-by-side.

There's one group, however, that can't be represented in the political process, can't be easily encapsulated and merged into the social fabric: immigrants. They have no Heimatort here, no community of identity with their Swiss neighbors. Perhaps it's because they aren't predictable. (Who knows how people behave where they come from?) Maybe that's why they seem somehow less trustworthy.

It is actually fairly common here to explain someone not hewing to the norm, making noise late at night for example, by saying that they are foreign. Absurdly enough, I've said it myself when confronted with a beer bottle left at my gate or noisy neighbors.

It's not that all Swiss are xenophobic (they aren't) or that individual immigrants never successfully integrate into their communities (they do), it's just that foreigners as a group just don't quite fit comfortably in Swiss society. They don't have a place.


Changing Circumstances

Circumstances matter, and a vague uneasiness about immigrants can sharpen into fear and resentment. It seems we may be in the midst of just these kind of circumstances.



According to a survey commissioned by Beobachter, the Swiss middle class is in trouble, especially the lower middle class. The cost of living, particularly rents and health insurance premiums, have rapidly outpaced salaries. 38% of middle-class families (45% of lower middle-class families) have nothing left over for savings at the end of the month and are living from paycheck to paycheck. More women have taken on part-time work and families are willing to consider limiting family size in order to maintain their standard of living. As the article suggests, it's the classic middle-class, background anxiety about losing one's class status.

At the same time the percentage of foreign residents is large and growing (over 20% of the Swiss population in 2008). In addition, the majority make-up of the immigrant population has shifted from low-skill refugees from outside of the EU who have historically taken low-wage jobs to highly skilled, highly educated EU citizens.

Beobachter suggests that a "fear of the free movement of persons" (of EU immigrants) has seized the middle class, and this is "politically explosive."  The SVP has quite explicitly capitalized on this fear, perhaps also helping to inflame it in the process, in it's campaign against German immigration.*

Anxiety about immigration is highest amongst those feeling worst of the economic crunch, the lower middle class, although only 10% of the middle class a whole say they are concerned about their financial circumstances worsening in the next five years.

Ueli Mäder is less optimistic than the respondents and thinks that a trend toward increasing inequality is a real possibility. Certainly any rapid contraction of the middle class would mean a large group that was quite conscious of its loss, a certain recipe for social unrest.

Can Happiness Survive Change?
What does it mean for a society that is so strongly organized around place to make room for newcomers?  How is social trust maintained if more and more people feel surrounded by (threatening) foreigners? How is envy contained if old ways of muting status (controlling envy) fall away in the midst of financial turmoil? Can (Swiss) happiness survive change?



*The Swiss are not alone in dealing with the challenges of immigration in tough times. Most of Europe and the US are facing the same issues. I have to say that so far the Swiss are managing immigration fears no worse than and probably much better than the US.  The US has the advantage of its size as well as a pro-immigration ideology to call on (the melting pot) and still manages to pass some pretty awful laws.

Swiss Photo Award

I had fun this morning looking through the online catalog of juried selections from the Swiss Photo Award.  My goal today was to participate in the Ron Orp's Mail Community Award, voting for just one of the 18 series. Voting gives me a chance to win a free exhibition catalog and entrance ticket. Nice!

I'm having some difficulty choosing. As an American, Jonathan Heyer's America in Crisis, of course, leaps off the page for me. The image of a bereft Superman just works. But I also love the Swiss barn series, Wetterseite, from Patrik Fuchs, the images carrying unexpected emotional impact. The concept of capturing/critiquing change in contemporary Switzerland caught me, because change is the very topic that interests me most these days. I was nonplussed by the theatricality of Iraq in the American West, until I read the artist's description and understood that the series was set in staged Iraqi villages used for training US soldiers in California. The villages are populated by actual Iraqi immigrants.  Okay. I get the whole Edward S. Curtis feel of the series now. And now I'm all creepified.

It's too hard to choose. Luckily I have until 14 May to decide on my pick for the Community Award.

The Opening and Awards Ceremony are this Friday night,7 May, and tickets may still be available at the door. Hedonist that I am, I'm off to a wine tasting seminar instead. Luckily the exhibit continues through the 16th. That means I still have a chance to balance all that vinous fun with the more cerebral pleasure of this exhibit.


Swiss Photo Award Exhibit 8-16 May, 12.00-20.00.
Entry 20 CHF
Selnaustrasse 25
8001 Zürich


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Are the Swiss Happy? (Part I)

Are the Swiss happy? This may come as a surprise to North Americans, who judge happiness by the number of smiling faces, but according to Eric Weiner in the Geography of Bliss the dour-looking Swiss are indeed very happy.





Weiner points to three key factors that underpin Swiss happiness: love of nature, trust in others. and control of envy.

The Swiss are clearly avid outdoors enthusiasts, and Weiner points out that this gives them lots of chances to experience what E. O. Wilson calls biophilia, that feeling of happiness and peace engendered by being out in the natural world.

According to Weiner the Swiss also trust their fellows and are the happier for it. The level of trust here usually comes as a bit of a shock to North Americans. I was amazed and delighted the first time I ordered something online here and was able to pay for it after it arrived. I was less delighted but certainly amazed when my landlord suggested leaving a key with my neighbor as though it was the most natural thing in the world. (It's not in big-city US.)

If the Swiss know and trust their neighbors, Weiner also suggests they avoid giving them cause for envy. Bragging about possessions or talking about money are considered unpleasant and ill-mannered.

I think there's a bit more to the story and I'll follow up in Part II, but I think Weiner is definitely on the right track.

Check out the World Database of Happiness results. What do you think? Are the Swiss happy? Are you happy? Does being Swiss (or not) have anything to do with it?

Read Your Mail! How I Learned About Social Insurance in Switzerland

I learned something important this week: Read your mail. Carefully.

I know. It sounds obvious, and of course I always do a quick check to see if there's some critical bureaucratic action required. But when I skimmed the notice from our health insurance company (in German, of course) it didn't seem to concern me. Something about an AHV number. (AHV or Alters und  Hinerlassenversicherung is the state-run pension, disability, and survivor's benefits program.)

 Wasn't that taken care for both of us by my husband's contributions through his employer? I don't work, so the letter must not concern me. Right?

Not exactly.

I sort of knew about the Three Pillars of social insurance. I sort of believed that I was covered by my husband's contributions, although I never stopped to figure out why I didn't have my own AHV card. (It turns out that I would have had to apply for it via the SVA, the local Social Insurance Office.) Anyway, we're not planning to stay until we retire. So what's the big deal?

The big deal was that my health insurance company wanted my AHV number in order to send me my new health insurance card. New cards are being issued this year in Switzerland that include both the AHV number and the health insurance number, as well as a magnetic chip carrying the patient's medical history.

The changes are intended to bring Switzerland in line with EU standards. However, there have been a few glitches, including incompatibility between the patient card chips and doctors' readers, as well as  delays in issuing cards, especially for patients who switched insurers at then end of last year.

When my husband got his new health insurance card a few weeks ago and I didn't, I knew something was up. I found the letter (from February!) and read it carefully this time. Oh, hell. I was supposed to send the company my AHV number by the end of March. It's the end of April now. I don't even know my number or how to get it. A nightmare scenario of endless phone calls and cantonal office visits plays in my head. My head is starting to hurt

Luckily we have an excellent insurance agent who confirmed that our insurance company had actually contacted SVA for my AHV number at the end of April and that I could expect my new card in about month. Phew.

I'm reading all my mail now, even the junk mail. You never know.


Quick AHV Facts

• AHV is the first pillar of the Three Pillar System and participation is mandatory for all residents of Switzerland. Benefits include old-age pension, disability insurance, and survivor's benefits.
• Employees make contributions through their employers.
• Non-working spouses are exempt from contributions if the working spouse contributes at least two times the annual minimum of 460 CHF.
• More information here.

Help! I'm Drowning in PET Bottles

One thing about recycling in Switzerland: it really makes you aware of your consumption. The more you use, the bigger the pile of stuff you have at the end of the day (week, month) to deal with.


Unlike Seattle––where we have minimal sorting (most recyclables are lumped together into one of two possible containers) as well as curbside pickup for everything––the Swiss expect each individual to sort, clean, bundle, and tote recyclables to the appropriate drop-off point.*

I brought my mineral water mit Gas habit with me to Switzerland. I really like this stuff. But getting rid of the empties started to get embarrassing. I saw Swiss people in the recycling drop-off center with a couple of PET bottles, while I was coming in with big bag or three full of them. I'm pretty sure I was well over the 100-bottle per year Swiss average.

Oh, yes. Then there's the problem of hauling all that water to the apartment to begin with. Tony was not pleased with being the designated bottle hauler. The last time I asked him, oh so sweetly, to pick up some more bottled water he came home with a Soda-Club soda machine.

I have to say that the thing is genius. I use the clean, great tasting water from the tap and get about 100 liters worth of excellent carbonation per CO2 cartridge. When the cartridge is empty I just have to return it to the store for a replacement, which I guess will happen sooner for me than some. Two PET bottles (good for about 18 months of use) are included as well.

I'm raising a glass of homemade soda to the Swiss for making recycling such a pain that I actually changed my ways. Here's to going green even if you don't want to. Zum wohl!








*I think this is actually a very Swiss approach in that individuals are expected to take personal ressponsibility for the community and their impact on it. It's also pretty effective at moderating consumption.