France Trip 2007: Fare Thee Well Annecy, Until We Meet Again...
Hey dudes.
This past week I was in Annecy for a final-ish trip to visit. If all goes according to the best possible plan, I may be back there soon enough, but for now, that was the last little "excursion" to see the place where I essentially grew up (though leaving was a blessing, more later), and meet up with some awesome people that I am definitely going to miss.
I would first of all like to thank my mom for saving the trip! Yep, SAS decided to strike the exact day that I would fly out from Arlanda. My mom scrambled unbeknowst to me to get a replacement ticket, and she ended up getting a ticket so that I wouldn't have to wait for my dad, who was flying in from Prague, for three hours in Geneva. Wicked!
The trip over was a breeze, but man was it sweltering in Vienna. It was really, REALLY warm there, and I was already preparing myself to be on the beach a ton in Annecy. When we got to Geneva, it was 31 degrees and awesome. Meg and Kim Glass picked us up at the airport, and we went over to their house to crash for the night. For those of you who may know the Glass family, you would know that James is now 12. What you may not know, is that the kid (read: freak :P) is basically half a head taller than me, and I'm 1m 85. Twice Laura. Insane.
The next day, Saturday, we had the pleasure of being at the TEAM barbecue
which is always a treat. Got to see all the peeps from TEAM, and in this case, say goodbye to Mike and Lilly Todd, who are great people, and who will be thoroughly missed.
Mark is also the most precious kid ever.
After the barbecue, my dad, Jon Hegner and I stayed behind a while (my dad decided to do laundry... go figure) and chatted with John Glass. He's going through a tough time at church, with a bunch of infighting and bored senile retirees thinking that drinking water after a sermon is somehow against church protocol. It's these anal libertarians that can really ruin a church, and they're really trying in this case. John's good people though, so he'll be fine.
After hearing John's secret plans (ooooohhh insider info!), we headed off with Jon Hegner to stay in his awesome flat in the dead CENTER of Annecy. After dropping our stuff off, we went around to some spots, like the famous lock
We went to a restaurant right next to le Palais de L'Île
where I had my long awaited tartiflette with red wine. Culinary sensation you ask? Most def! After that we strolled Annecy by night, with more nice pictures of le Palais in the rain
So after that day it was time to go ABBA church and meet up with whoever decided not to be lame and take a break from studying the BAC. Ended up only being a few of the youth, but eh. Service was good, but man, the singing and whole general vibe of the church is just sooo.... French. Steve Niles had a sweet message, with a ton of farm anecdotes. Always a pleasure.
Anyways, because there was basically no one there, we didn't get invited over to anyone's house for lunch, so we got a ride back to the train station with Jean Marc and Ben, then legged it all the way to the beach where we used to swim a lot for some lunch. To get there we walked along the scenic, touristy path in front of the lake. So nice.
Some swan action.
We then had a steak-frites, one of the finest meals known to man at La Trinquette,
which has the world's best fries. The meal was delicious, worth the entire trip. French beef just has sooooo much more flavor, and the fries were outta this world. Topped it off with a chocolat liègois, and there's a happy Patty.
Then we headed back to the beach, so that i could put my feet in the water, since at this point I didn't think I would be swimming, given the weather.
On the way back, we randomly ran into Godwin, a great friend of my dad's. He's a political analyst from Nigeria, and he had to run for his life because of what he was saying. Such a happy dude though.
After that, we headed back to Jon's place, only to find that we wasn't home yet from Bonneville where he was preaching, and where he will eventually move (good luck Jon!), so we figured we'd go back out. It was dry now, so we went over to the Bowl des Marquisats to get some skate on. Wasn't the best skate session i've ever had, partly because i didn't have the right wheels and trucks for the bowl, and partly because I'm not a bowl skater and am not what you would call good at it yet :P
Rock fakie
Backside boardslide pop out (nailed a few of them, I don't think this is the picture of one though...)
Frontside 50-50 frontside 180 out.
We were there for about 2 hour or so, and it was a lot of fun. By that time I had worked up a considerable sweat, and the air temperature wasn't all that bad, so we decided to just cross the street so I could take a dip in the Lake. Water was about 13 or so I was told. Perfect temperature for any alpine lake.
The next morning I went over to the Davis' to hang with Stephen. The trip over was sweet, because I had an iPod, so I could have my own soundtrack instead of France Info or NRJ or whatever else the driver decided, and also because over night it snowed like 20 cm in the mountains, so with the huge clouds and jagged peaks, everything was as dramatic and awesome as I remembered.
I had a great time at the Davis', so yeah. Sweet. Gonna miss them, for sure.
The next day we went over to visit Seynod, where I lived for 6 years and essentially grew up. I had mixed emotions about visiting, because I wanted to see people i liked from way back when, but I didn't want to see those who didn't like me. I wasn't all too popular, and the Seynod years are bittersweet because of it.
We went and saw my collège, le Semnoz
Then, on the way down to the center of town (which has been completely re-done), I met some old basketball and school buddies, Cédric, Thomas and Kevin. That was cool. Plus I'm taller than them now. Ha!
Happy Patty
We had some coffee at the new town center, which looks straight outta some Star Trek thing...
Then we went over to see Rémi and Sophie Léonetti. Those are awesome people, and his southern French accent is sweet.
We then went and had some pizza in Meythet, and got to see the whole mountain scape with fresh snow under the new moon. Sweeeeet. Dad wussed out of going to the top of the Semnoz to see it all under the moon. Eh well.
Next day it was time to come back to Stockholm.
A good farewell trip, and a good realization of the great friendships I've made here. The move was definitely a blessing, since I was able to start fresh, without the years of animosity built up hanging over my shoulder. Annecy was great, and I hope to be back there soon. Sweden is where I was really able to be me and thrive, and I'm gonna miss it thoroughly as well. But not to fear, who knows where the Lord will eventually take me? I think I'll be coming back to Europe sooner rather than later.
Peace dudes.
You can view the entire album and download the bigger res pics here.
This past week I was in Annecy for a final-ish trip to visit. If all goes according to the best possible plan, I may be back there soon enough, but for now, that was the last little "excursion" to see the place where I essentially grew up (though leaving was a blessing, more later), and meet up with some awesome people that I am definitely going to miss.
I would first of all like to thank my mom for saving the trip! Yep, SAS decided to strike the exact day that I would fly out from Arlanda. My mom scrambled unbeknowst to me to get a replacement ticket, and she ended up getting a ticket so that I wouldn't have to wait for my dad, who was flying in from Prague, for three hours in Geneva. Wicked!
The trip over was a breeze, but man was it sweltering in Vienna. It was really, REALLY warm there, and I was already preparing myself to be on the beach a ton in Annecy. When we got to Geneva, it was 31 degrees and awesome. Meg and Kim Glass picked us up at the airport, and we went over to their house to crash for the night. For those of you who may know the Glass family, you would know that James is now 12. What you may not know, is that the kid (read: freak :P) is basically half a head taller than me, and I'm 1m 85. Twice Laura. Insane.
The next day, Saturday, we had the pleasure of being at the TEAM barbecue
which is always a treat. Got to see all the peeps from TEAM, and in this case, say goodbye to Mike and Lilly Todd, who are great people, and who will be thoroughly missed.
Mark is also the most precious kid ever.
After the barbecue, my dad, Jon Hegner and I stayed behind a while (my dad decided to do laundry... go figure) and chatted with John Glass. He's going through a tough time at church, with a bunch of infighting and bored senile retirees thinking that drinking water after a sermon is somehow against church protocol. It's these anal libertarians that can really ruin a church, and they're really trying in this case. John's good people though, so he'll be fine.
After hearing John's secret plans (ooooohhh insider info!), we headed off with Jon Hegner to stay in his awesome flat in the dead CENTER of Annecy. After dropping our stuff off, we went around to some spots, like the famous lock
We went to a restaurant right next to le Palais de L'Île
where I had my long awaited tartiflette with red wine. Culinary sensation you ask? Most def! After that we strolled Annecy by night, with more nice pictures of le Palais in the rain
So after that day it was time to go ABBA church and meet up with whoever decided not to be lame and take a break from studying the BAC. Ended up only being a few of the youth, but eh. Service was good, but man, the singing and whole general vibe of the church is just sooo.... French. Steve Niles had a sweet message, with a ton of farm anecdotes. Always a pleasure.
Anyways, because there was basically no one there, we didn't get invited over to anyone's house for lunch, so we got a ride back to the train station with Jean Marc and Ben, then legged it all the way to the beach where we used to swim a lot for some lunch. To get there we walked along the scenic, touristy path in front of the lake. So nice.
Some swan action.
We then had a steak-frites, one of the finest meals known to man at La Trinquette,
which has the world's best fries. The meal was delicious, worth the entire trip. French beef just has sooooo much more flavor, and the fries were outta this world. Topped it off with a chocolat liègois, and there's a happy Patty.
Then we headed back to the beach, so that i could put my feet in the water, since at this point I didn't think I would be swimming, given the weather.
On the way back, we randomly ran into Godwin, a great friend of my dad's. He's a political analyst from Nigeria, and he had to run for his life because of what he was saying. Such a happy dude though.
After that, we headed back to Jon's place, only to find that we wasn't home yet from Bonneville where he was preaching, and where he will eventually move (good luck Jon!), so we figured we'd go back out. It was dry now, so we went over to the Bowl des Marquisats to get some skate on. Wasn't the best skate session i've ever had, partly because i didn't have the right wheels and trucks for the bowl, and partly because I'm not a bowl skater and am not what you would call good at it yet :P
Rock fakie
Backside boardslide pop out (nailed a few of them, I don't think this is the picture of one though...)
Frontside 50-50 frontside 180 out.
We were there for about 2 hour or so, and it was a lot of fun. By that time I had worked up a considerable sweat, and the air temperature wasn't all that bad, so we decided to just cross the street so I could take a dip in the Lake. Water was about 13 or so I was told. Perfect temperature for any alpine lake.
The next morning I went over to the Davis' to hang with Stephen. The trip over was sweet, because I had an iPod, so I could have my own soundtrack instead of France Info or NRJ or whatever else the driver decided, and also because over night it snowed like 20 cm in the mountains, so with the huge clouds and jagged peaks, everything was as dramatic and awesome as I remembered.
I had a great time at the Davis', so yeah. Sweet. Gonna miss them, for sure.
The next day we went over to visit Seynod, where I lived for 6 years and essentially grew up. I had mixed emotions about visiting, because I wanted to see people i liked from way back when, but I didn't want to see those who didn't like me. I wasn't all too popular, and the Seynod years are bittersweet because of it.
We went and saw my collège, le Semnoz
Then, on the way down to the center of town (which has been completely re-done), I met some old basketball and school buddies, Cédric, Thomas and Kevin. That was cool. Plus I'm taller than them now. Ha!
Happy Patty
We had some coffee at the new town center, which looks straight outta some Star Trek thing...
Then we went over to see Rémi and Sophie Léonetti. Those are awesome people, and his southern French accent is sweet.
We then went and had some pizza in Meythet, and got to see the whole mountain scape with fresh snow under the new moon. Sweeeeet. Dad wussed out of going to the top of the Semnoz to see it all under the moon. Eh well.
Next day it was time to come back to Stockholm.
A good farewell trip, and a good realization of the great friendships I've made here. The move was definitely a blessing, since I was able to start fresh, without the years of animosity built up hanging over my shoulder. Annecy was great, and I hope to be back there soon. Sweden is where I was really able to be me and thrive, and I'm gonna miss it thoroughly as well. But not to fear, who knows where the Lord will eventually take me? I think I'll be coming back to Europe sooner rather than later.
Peace dudes.
You can view the entire album and download the bigger res pics here.
posted by Patty VonWebster at 10:57 PM
2 Comments:
An SAS strike? Are the Swedes turning French?
Man, did I hate that school.
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