Annemasse and Archamps

When you are open to the universe, you will find yourself experiencing the most unusual things in life.

Post Martin and Hasna’s wedding reception, I stayed over at their friend’s place in a town called Annemasse. They were a very nice couple – a Frenchman Romauld and his wife Buhalys who is from the Ivory Coast. So when it turned out that Martin and Hasna were busy with their relatives, Romauld and Buhalys invited me to have lunch with their friends who lived in the mountains outside of Annemasse. So off we went – Romauld, Buhalys, their 2 beautiful daughters Mathilde and Louise, and myself. Spending time with these wonderful people made me appreciate their generosity, openness and their willingness to share their lives with me. The couple we visited were art teachers – he French, she Korean and they had 3 beautiful gorgeous girls. We had a simple barbecue alongwith salad and ofcourse French wine – white, rose and red. It was an amazing meal.

We then decided to walk up Le Mole – the mountain on which they lived. Due to paucity of time, we made it a short stroll rather than a hike. But the views were awesome and the walk helped digest all the food and wine consumed. Along the way we came across raspberries and cherries and had an impromptu feast. All in all, an unexpectedly beautiful day spent with some wonderful people.

Le Môle is a mountain in the Haute-Savoie department of France which dominates the neighborhood of the town of Bonneville. It rises to 1863 metres and affords an excellent 360-degree view of the surrounding region. Though a small mountain for the Haute-Savoie, it is of great geographic importance as it divides the vallée de l'Arve to the south and the west from the vallée du Giffre to the north and southeast, and dominates the southern entrance to the Geneva basin.

Source: Wikipedia

The view from their house.

A road less travelled :)

Wild raspberries

The sunset from Martin's house in Archamps

Chamonix

Chamonix is a ski resort in the French Alps. It makes for a great day trip from Geneva. But honestly, one should stay in Chamonix for at least a few days to enjoy its beauty and experience all that it has to offer. It is ideal for both summer and winter as the activities on offer are unique to the season.

Everytime I landed in Geneva, I noticed at arrivals, the various signs for buses to Chamonix. It intrigued me and finally last year when one of my friends Blanca went to Chamonix on a skiing trip, I knew I had to go and see what it was all about.

You can either take a bus from Geneva airport or the Train from Geneva Cornavin to Saint Gervais-les-Bains or Martigny and take the Mont Blanc express to Chamonix. The journey through the alpine forest region is spectacular.

There is plenty to do during the summer. Chamonix is in a valley surrounded by Mont Blanc (4810 m), Montenvers, Aiguille du Midi (3842 m), Brevant (2525 m) and many other mountains. Each has its own charm and various treks and hikes that one can do. Best is take the Mont Blanc pass if one plans to do more than one moutain in a day. There are cable cars and ski lifts that go to the various summits and from Aiguille du Midi one can even do the ride to Italy. Aiguille du Midi is also the best point to gaze at Mont Blanc up close and personal.

The other interesting thing to do would be to take the Montenvers rack railway which starts from Chamonix and, in 20 minutes and in total safety, reaches the bottom of the Mer de Glace (1,913 m), France’s largest glacier (7km long, 200 m thick). This historic site marked the start of Alpine tourism in the 19th century and offers a panoramic view of famous peaks such as Les Drus and Les Grandes Jorasses.


The tour of the “Grotte de glace” (Ice Cave) takes visitors into the very heart of the glacier. Re-sculpted every year, it describes the life of mountain people in the early 19th century. It can be entered either by a walk of around 20 minutes on a footpath, or by gondola lift. Unfortunately, due to shortage of time, I was unable to visit the Ice cave.

The “Galerie des cristaux” (Crystals Gallery) with its collection of items from Mont Blanc and the “Musée de la faune alpine” (Alpine Wildlife Museum) are also included in the tour.

Check out http://www.chamonix.com/ for more information.

Pretty church

Typical alpine village

Streams running through the town

Picturesque

Cable car to Le Brevant

Paragliding seems to be a major summer activity here.

The slopes of Le Brevant as viewed from the highest point

Me against the beautiful Mont Blanc summit

Aiguille du Midi

Mont Blanc - Up close and personal

The highest point of Aiguille du Midi

These guys have guts

This is where one can actually attempt to start their climb to Mont Blanc.

It is also where one can take a cable car across to Italy.

I admire these brave souls

Mer de glace

The famous glacier

Cable cars to the Ice cave

Le Bourget - The Paris Air Show

Le Bourget Air Show in Paris is a premier event in the aviation business and is held once every two years. I was lucky to have made it for the one held this year. The primary reason for my visit to Paris was ofcourse, to witness and experience the Fete de la Musique.

The short time that I was there, was insufficient to see all that was on offer. However I made the most of my time - had a delicious lunch with the Airbus reps in the chalet, watched the flight displays and met some friends and acquaintances.

The Korean A380 was on display and did the fly past. Amazing to see such a monster of an aircraft climb so steeply. Also saw the Zero G aircraft which is used to train the astronauts in aclimatising to high altitude.

Here are some of the pictures............

A Moroccan wedding............

My friend Martin sent me an email out of the blue asking if I would be in Europe around the 25th of June because he would like to invite me for his wedding. As luck would have it, I was going to be in Sweden for the slots conference and the conference was going to end on 25th June!! So I accepted the wedding invitation and there was a mad scramble to find flights and connections to make it in time for the reception in Archamps which is a town (or village) outside of Geneva.

The theme was Moroccan because Hasna and her family are immigrants from Morocco. Martin is German and so there was a bit of German, French and Moroccan influence. A truly unique celebration for me. I missed the civil ceremony and the cocktail in the town hall of Archamps where they live. But I was in time for the evening reception and dinner which was held in the Salle Polyvalente in Archamps.

Everything was beautifully decorated around the Moroccan theme. Each table had a placard with a place in Morocco and pictures of that unique city. I was seated at the table which was named after a beach resort and I later learned that it was because one of Martin's friends is a beach buff and surf boarding enthusiast. The people around my table were all single and mainly Martin's friends from his wrestling club and ex Privat Air. There was a female wrestler too! Though she did not look like one - she was petite and beautiful.

The food was outstanding. We had mint tea which was awesome followed by a platter of sweets prepared by Hasna and her mum. Then the dinner commenced with the first course - a pastilla of chicken which is supposed to be a dish for guests of honour. It is a delicate pastry stuffed with chicken and almonds, coated with icing sugar. This is the great specialty of Fès and should not be missed. The main course was a beef tajine. A Tajine is a meat or fish stew, delicately flavored with olives. But this one was prepared with prunes and apricots and it was delicious.  The guys at our table were so taken with the tajine that they had a second helping each!! Finally dinner ended with a gigantic fruit platter which we could not sample as we were absolutely stuffed.

As for the celebrations, there was a lot of Moroccan music and dancing. They had a special belly dancer who performed for us and that was supposed to be a surprise for the bridal couple. The women of Hasna's family danced pretty well and I think they have perfected the art of belly dancing themselves. The German side of Martin's family had a game where we had to pass an umbrella loaded with balloons around. Each balloon had a wish in it. So when the music stopped and you had the umbrella in your hand, you had to burst a balloon and make the wish for the couple. Jan at my table had a wish to carry the bridal couple with 2 others and wish them luck.

Another interesting thing about Moroccan weddings is that the bridal couple change their outfits 7 times!! But Martin insisted that he did not want to spend his evening changing clothes and this couple only changed their outfits once. However that did not stop their guests from changing clothes over and over again. The clothes were very elaborate and beautiful. After the change of clothes, the bridal couple were paraded around the room and then made to sit on ornate chairs and carried around. Finally, they had to stand and kiss each other whilst being carried around.

The last part of the celebration was the cake cutting. By then it was almost 3 in the morning and most of the guests had left!! They had 3 different types of cakes and I would have loved to have tried them all but I was so stuffed that I just tried one - the raspberry cheese cake! Finally, I left the party at 4 am. Was surprised that none of the neighbours made an issue about the noise, etc. Maybe we in Bombay can learn a few things about having a party from the French.

The beautiful decorations

Another one

The belly dancer

She mesmerised us with her hip movements and shimmies

The German wish game

Jan and friends carrying the bridal couple

The heavy duty sweets prepared by Hasna and mum

The Pastilla

The Tajine

The fruit platter

The parade of the bridal couple

The modest kiss

The cake cutting ceremony