Seeya 2018, hello 2019
It's been a little while since I wrote on this blog. Here are some highlights of things that have happened since November 2018.
Starting in November, Anna was in Paris for a couple of months for an art residency, so I went there to see her. We wandered the rainy streets, saw some great art, and ate some great crêpes.
Anna in Paris.
I've always loved Paris' thin corner houses.
Shop display.
Keytie also came to Paris, and Tanya too, and we all went out to Fontainebleu to see what the bouldering fuss is about. I can now say I've touched the rock at Font — but it was slimy and wet because of the rain. We didn't climb.
Wandering in the forest at Fontainebleu.
Mischief.
Winter arrived in Bern and it snowed from time to time. The days got shorter and the colour drained a bit from the city.
Bern mountain skyline at dusk.
The Münster looms in the fog.
After a fresh snowfall.
The four of us had a lovely, quiet, simple Christmas at Tanya's and my place in Bern. We popped sparkling on the balcony and ate a roast chicken, and we wore funny Christmas woollen jumpers that Anna and Keytie had bought — by the kilo — in Paris, the fashion capital of the world. My jumper had a penguin on it, Anna's had red birds, Tanya's had snowflakes, and Keytie's appeared to have been made by someone with a glue gun, a father christmas toy, and a pair of scissors.
Christmas day.
Bern's normally busy main street, quiet on Christmas afternoon.
After Christmas we went for a snowshoe hike above Grindelwald on a crystal-clear blue-sky winter's day.
Wetterhorn -- the red dot in the lower-right is a paraglider.
I think sleds are dangerous, but these ones were pretty.
We took the TGV back to Paris to see in the new year, and stayed in the 17th Arrondisseement. On on the 31st we had a gorgeous meal at a little restaurant nearby, then took the metro and found a spot, with thousands of others, at the Place du Trocadéro. There was an incredible view of the Eiffel tower across the river, and we waited there for midnight. Strangely, when the moment came there was no countdown from the crowd and no fireworks over the tower. The next day I searched for Paris on Instagram and all the top-rated recent pictures showed magnificent photoshopped or misdated fireworks. Welcome to 2019.
Lots of phones out on NYE!
A few minutes into 2019.
Unfortunately Anna and Keytie had to travel home, and Tanya and me too. We went for several day-trips into the mountains in January, to Mürren, Gstaad, and Haute-Savoie.
Near Mürren.
Near Gstaad.
A huge storm over Lac Léman (from the ferry back from France).
More recently, we went to see the Oeschinensee, which we were last at in summer. This time the lake was frozen and ice fishers dotted its smooth white surface.
Oeschinensee in winter mode.
Avalanche debris.
Tracks in the snow, on the lake.
Kandersteg peaks.
Here finishes this update. 2019 is off to a good start!