Stunning coastlines, baguettes, and beautiful stone houses: a trip to the Cherbourg Peninsula in Lower Normandy, France

Just an example of the gorgeous stone houses that fill this region in northern France

This will be a short post as it is late here in France and I'm leaving in 4 hours to go collect my bike then meet a friend for a 6-day-long bike trip in southern France. Before I headed off, sans laptop, I wanted to get some pictures up from the past few days that I spent on the Cherbourg Peninsula, which is here:

Purple circle

in a town called Urville which is approximately here:

Green dot up top

I was visiting Adriene and Camille, two skiing friends from BC who are taking a month to visit Camille's family, travel, and hike around France. In Urville they are staying with Camille's grandparents, Suze and Guy, and that is where I joined them for 4 days. This post will be pretty short on words, but I think the pictures make up for it!

Suze and Guy's beautiful old stone house that Guy refinished himself

First glimpse of the ocean!!!

Cemetery that, during the war, was bombed but the tall steeple on the left was left untouched.

One of the few original houses left along the waterfront

Beach and ocean :)

Me and the English Channel

Adriene and I went for a run one morning along this beautiful trail

Croissant + Jam = Heaven

On one of the days I was there we visited Cap de la Hague, the western tip of the Cherbourg Peninsula.

Such a gorgeous place!

Adriene and me :)

The sign says Danger: (translated) don't try to climb down the hill, or you could fall and die on...

...those rocks. Doesn't look like fun.

Lighthouse at the tip

The smallest official port in France

That white, sheet-looking thing is a parachute with a man (mannequin, not real) hanging from it. For the story behind it, wikipedia Saint-Mere-Eglise. Quick summary though: During the war an American paratrooper, John Steele, got stuck on the church and played dead for 2 hours before the Germans finally took him prisoner, but he managed to escape and rejoin his troop which then executed a successful mission.

Cannon at Utah Beach

Utah Beach. Hard to imagine what it was like on D-Day..

After visiting Utah Beach we had lunch at Guy's sister Genevieve's house near Saint-Mère-Eglise. She has a beautiful, old stone house, and between lunch and coffee we had a bit of free time so out came the cameras.

Adriene and the back side of the house

We drove up the east side of the peninsula on the way back and this harbour was in one of the towns along the coast.

In a town farther up the coast, called Barfleur I think, the tide was definitely out...

Lighthouse at the easternmost tip of the peninsula. Unfortunately it was closed so we couldn't climb the several hundred stairs to the top to burn off the huge lunch we had eaten at Genevieve's house...

The view from the yard and garden above Suze and Guy's house.

The yard

Pretty flower :)

Pretty flower #2

Rummikub! Such an addicting game!

And that's all for now! In about a weeks time look for a post about my bike trip in southern France! So long for now.

Sonja :)

Spring in Switzerland

'Spring' in the title of this post is a bit of an understatement: it is currently 24 degrees here in Bern, and has been so for about the past week! Summer is definitely here, causing me to break out the ONE pair of shorts that I brought (not sure what I was thinking there..) and also go shopping on the weekend for more.

It's been a while since my last post, and I have actually quite a bit of random stuff so this will be a very random recap.

Three weekends ago I accompanied the family I live with on a beaver excursion about 1 hour north of Bern, near where the father of the family grew up. The guy leading the excursion spoke Swiss German obviously, so it wasn't that interesting for me, but still nice to see another part of Switzerland.

Pretty pond along the trail

A canal that we walked along for a while

After the excursion we headed to a ranger's hut in the middle of the forest:

There we met up with about 15 people and ate a delicious cooked-over-an-open-fire spaghetti dinner:

with bear garlic pesto (soooo delicious, it's a wild plant that looks like this: 

It is best to pick the leaves before the flowers bloom, when they are small and not too leathery.

and it's one of the first plants that the bears find when they wake up from hibernation, or something like that, so hence the name.

The name actually translates to 'bear leek pesto', although not sure why because it's a wild relative of chives

The whole group, minus me taking the picture. Photo bomb by Moritz,...

Attempt at self-timer, although the flash wasn't quite powerful enough at that height. Again, photo bomb by the boys on the left.

There were 2 Greek guys in the group, and one had just come from Greece that day and brought BAKLAVA (YUM) and various other delicious but extremely rich and sweet pastries, including the ones in this box. Pretty sure I gained about 5 pounds that night...

Gorgeous full moon when we returned home.

On one of the last weekends in March I met up with one of my friend's from Baden, Nick, and his colleague Balint for a day of skiing at Andermatt! It took, for me, a 1 hour train ride to Zurich (at 6am..) then a 1.5 hour drive in Balint's car to Andermatt, which is approximately here:

Purple dot is Andermatt

There didn't seem like there would be much snow on the drive and tram up to the hill, but the snow was actually pretty decent! Not too icy, and a bit of powder although heavy. I rented skis instead of snowboarding, and going down the first hill I was freaking out big time as I haven't downhill skied in over 5 years I think, and I kept asking myself what I was thinking in trying skiing. However, I got more comfortable with the skis by the end of the day, and it was a really enjoyable day and we had mostly blue sky with a bit of clouds weather with a 1 hour snow storm after lunch.

The view from the tip top of the mountain. So gorgeous! 

Heading down the first hill

Chairlift shot

Pretty, pretty mountains, although not a ton of snow..

Still can't get over how amazing the Alps are.. <3

Photo shoot at the top..

and on the way down

The crazy, winding drive home down this narrow valley

Devil's Bridge

The next week I was out in the field for the last camera-checking week of the session. Another gorgeous week in the Jura mountains! 

The hike up to the first site

View down one of the many valleys of the Jura mountains

Do a double-take, and what is that in the rock? Why it is a door!

We ARE in Switzerland, so of course: chocolate factory. Unfortunately it wasn't open when we went by.. :(

Flowers already up in March! 

Geri, Flo and I at lunch in the field

Two weekends ago I took the train to Basel to check out the BScene music festival with a colleague from work, Kristina. We met at the train station there then walked across town to her friend's house. 

An important building, can't remember exactly what it is for though. Maybe city council?

Crossing the Rhine! So pretty and hotttt! Like 20+ degrees, no joke.

So hot, in fact, that we took a break from walking and stuck our feet in the river. Very refreshing!

Beautiful city :)

Kristina!

Really, really, really old houses along the river! Like hundreds of years old.

The music festival included 2 nights of 15 different clubs or bars playing music from every imaginable genre. We only went on the second night, 25 francs got us entrance to which ever clubs we wanted to check out.

At the first club we went to!

It was a really fun night, and while the music at the second place we went to wasn't really my favourite, the music playing at the first place was really awesome, I think it was called 'gypsy'. All in all a great Basel/club festival experience.

After that weekend was the last week in the Jura, during which we took down allll the cameras. We had gorgeous weather and it was a wonderful last week in the Jura mountains, a place I'm really going to miss!! It is so peaceful and calm there, and springtime anywhere in Switzerland is just beautiful!

Val-de-Ruz, my favourite valley :)

Last site EVER! Self-timer shot, me and Geri

We had about 15 minutes to spare while waiting to meet up with someone, so I was fooling around with the self-timer on my camera at this soccer field.

The Alps.

The Alps version 2.0

A week ago, the family plus Fridolin (work colleague) and I had a lovely open-fire dinner down at the Aare. 

Walking down to the Aare, with the Alps peeking out above the trees

The gorgeous Aare :)

Setting sun

Cervelats, cut in the appropriate way so they don't explode.

The crew gathered around the fire

Fridolin and I

And to end of this very long post, anotherrrrr picture of the Alps :)

Tomorrow (Apr. 14th) I am heading off on 2 months of travels through Europe, starting in northern France where I am visiting some friends. Pictures and stories to come!

Sonja :)