anne77's VirtualTourist Home Page

We are very lucky in Switzerland this year, fall has been beautiful! Much warmer and nicer than August actually!! : )

I love the different tree colors, when the leaves turn red, purple and orange. And when the sun is still there, it's one of the nicest seasons!

Welcome to my homepage... I found VT one day, looking for some information on hotels and weather. At first, I just looked around, reading other people's stories and adventures and thought it would be fun to be able to participate too.

So... I joined VT.

I started travelling when I was still a kid, mainly because my father is French and my mother is Canadian. We lived in France for a few years, then moved to Canada for another few years and the moved to Switzerland... My parents & kids would go to Canada every 2-3 years to visit family and relatives. Seemed normal to take the plane and go so far on holidays!

From 1998 - 2001, I worked for an airline, which was lots of fun (well most of the time) and allowed me to go to so many different countries all year round. We usually didn't stay long in one place, but I knew I would be back again...

Now I work in an office, so no more travelling for work, but still have holidays, and deciding where to go is half of the fun. So many places I would like to visit again and so many places I want to discover!

Building pages and tips takes a lot of time, so sorry if my pages aren't very full. Feel free to ask me questions about Lausanne or the area, I will be glad to help.

Thanks for coming by!

Anne

I finally did it. I got my first tattoo on May 16, 2006. And it didn't hurt at all! Good surprise! But if I say "first" tattoo, I guess it implies that I will be getting another one?? ; )

If you want the address of the tattoo shop, go to my Lausanne Travelogue.

I was at Robbie Williams concert last night, in Bern, and it was fantastic! He's a great showman, communicates a lot with the crowd, we just had a fabulous time...

I love going down to the lake an a nice day, just walk around, relax, etc.

It would be hard for me to live in a town where there is no lake and no mountains...

This is the view I have from my office... Hard to work somedays, the view is so nice!

You know you've been in Geneva/Switzerland too long when:

1. You think Mulligan's and Flanagan's have a real Irish pub atmosphere;
2. You don't think 15 francs for a glass of Coca-cola in a bar is outrageous;
3. You read the Tribune de Geneve for news instead of finding a flat, job, or what's on at the movies;
4. You believe the newspaper stand might actually be under surveillance and pay the full 2 francs instead of surreptitiously putting in 20 centimes;
5. You think radar machines painted to look like lumps of cheese make them less oppressive;
6. You see nothing wrong in having a BMW Z3 with CD plates;
7. Beggars annoy you;
8. You buy the most expensive model or variant of everything from razors to cars;
9. You notice how dirty French cars are;
10. You live alone in a studio and have a cleaning lady;
11. You don't think it unusual that you have never met a Swiss who does hard manual labour like road-digging;
12. You don't question why it takes 12-18 months and costs more than a million francs to build a modest residential house;
13. You start to wonder what's wrong when a train is more than a minute late;
14. You put on 300 francs worth of brightly coloured lycra to go for a bicycle ride;
15. You think Swiss advertising is dynamic, clever and subtle.
16. You think it's economically wasteful to have more than one brand of a product in a store;
17. You think getting up early is good;
18. You actually get interested in the local elections;
19. You don't expect the shop clerk to say goodbye after you purchase something;
20. You try to defend cartel based economics to a visitor;
21. You think that plaid jackets with flowery ties don't look that bad;
22. You think it's fair that you can only wash clothes once a month;
23. You wonder why anyone would want to shop outside of working hours;
24. You think it's OK to drive slow on Sundays;
25. You feel like you're broke if you have less that SFr 300 in your pocket;
26. You dress up to go grocery shopping;
27. You understand why Chinese food should cost more than normal food;
28. You prefer Swiss wine;
29. You wish that your town had expensive garbage bags too;
30. You think it's OK for a Chinese restaurant to be run by a Swiss and staffed by Spaniards and Portuguese;
31. You think Thursday night shopping is really convenient;
32. You think that large American cars are 'cool';
33. You think it's cool to drink expensive imported American beers;
34. You prefer fizzy mineral water to tap water;
35. You throw a party and expect everyone to leave by 11:30 pm;
36. You clean up during parties;
37. You expect dinner guests to help with the washing up;
38. You begin to understand the subtlety of the Swiss cuisine;
39. You appreciate the differences between the cantons;
40. You feel really hungry if you don't start eating lunch by 12:00;
41. You don't mind paying SFr.20 for a paperback book;
42. You think that PTT approved telephones are better;
43. You buy a new one instead of getting it repaired;
44. You think that 3% unemployment is high;
45. You think it was through its own efforts that Switzerland stayed out of World War II;
46. You consider getting goats and sheep to graze in your backyard;
47. You only eat fondue in winter;
48. You complain to your neighbour about the noise when he flushes his toilet after 10.00 pm;
49. You become interested in the myriad of insurance offerings;
50. You become concerned about the colour of your neighbour's curtains;
51. You put Aromat on all your food;
52. You become offended when reading this.