Weeks 50 and 51 (11–24 December 2023)

This is likely my last weeknote in a while: today we're setting off on The Big Trip (!!) and updates will land on eaudepoisson.com (French).

Hello from the scenic lakey/mountainy/snowy stretch of rail through the Alps between Zurich and Innsbruck!

Leaving Joux

  • Monday: bouldering
  • Tuesday: tried to finish Le monde sans fin (French) before returning it to the library
  • Wednesday: apéro with F
  • Thursday: drove to Lyon
  • Friday: drove to Geneva

Geneva

  • family Christmas dinner over lunch on the 17th
  • raclette
  • bouldering x2 at Arkose
  • sucking at Mario Kart at F's
  • Ella Maillart exhibition at the Musée Rath
  • permanent exhibitions are free in Geneva museums, temporary exhibitions are free on the first Sunday of each month. Ella Maillart was pay what you want. This is how you get people into museums
  • galette with C
  • theater with C, play adapted from Bouvier's L'usage du monde (yes the scraper worked)
  • walked from Thônex to the city center via Cologny's "new cemetary" (opened 1884) where Nicolas Bouvier is buried (I2), the new Les Eaux-Vives Beach (opened 2020), and a new coffee shop/roastery nearby (opened 2020)
  • got the pastry from Coop that I used to eat almost every day circa 2015, a chocolate croissant. Not as good as I remembered (C got the McDonald's chausson aux pommes and loved it)

Lausanne

  • second time at the Zinéma, the perfect indie cinema
  • burgers at Holy Cow! aren't as good as I remembered and the all-you-can-drink drinks are too sweet
  • but very good bánh mì, ramen, ramen
  • want to try the empanadas, schiacciate and more
  • bouldering at Grimper.ch in Beaulieu
  • one bread = 15 CHF at the market (yes this is A LOT). Complimentary cup of tea, oh that's fine then
  • two cucumbers = 4.40 CHF
  • a one-way TL bus ticket = 3.90 CHF
  • 33 dL craft beer in a bar = 8 CHF, flat white at a specialty coffee shop = 7 CHF
  • public libraries! Books, seats, heating, free toilets
  • how are Riponne, Flon, Saint-François, Bel-Air and Chauderon all considered different neighborhoods—they're all within a 5-10 minutes walk
  • family Christmas dinner #2

This week in soups

Ramen #1 in Lyon with L

Ramen #2 in Lausanne with R

Ramen #3 in Lausanne with I and B

Watching

  • Burning (2018) by Lee Chang-dong (note coming)
  • Interdit aux chiens et aux italiens (2022) par Alain Ughetto (note coming)

Reading