28 September

Last Saturday Lausanne celebrated the Nuit de Musee, where all the museums are open until 2.30am. I was very keen to check it out as there is an exhibition on at l'Hermitage of Italian Renaissance paintings and I hadn't really explored any of the museums in Lausanne before. So I bought myself a ticket ----------------------------------> how cool is that? For $10 you get a pair of sunnies and the little pouch, which is the formal ticket.

Unfortunately, my boss decided to hold a dinner on Saturday night to thank all the people who helped in the campaign to get Australian, Dr Francis Gurry the job of Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization. As a member of the team who worked pretty damned hard at times to get him there, I was not going to miss out on the celebration! So I took the train to Lausanne at 1pm, and had to head back on the 4.30pm train (insert pout here). But in the few hours I was in Lausanne, I did managed to squeeze in the Hermitage exhibition, the archeological museum and a quick glance at the coin museum. Since entry to the Hermitage is usually $15, I was already ahead. Sadly no photos were permitted and as tempting as the catalogue was, it was very expensive and only came in French and Italian, so I resisted. I did pick up some very inexpensive art cards, which I can use for Postcrossing, or just send to random friends... if you want a postcard by the way, email me and give me your mail address (as my address book is likely to be out of date).

Joyfully, the archeological museum allowed photos and I managed to snap quite a lot of interesting belt buckles from the 7th century.

I arrived back in Geneva at 5.40pm, managed to get home, have a shower, choose clothes and dress and get to my boss's residence by 6.30pm - not bad! After the dinner I thought about catching the train back to Lausanne but decided that the return to Geneva at 2.30am was too dodgy a prospect to risk.

26 September

A great weekend at home and one for which I had my great shopping mojo on. Saturday I went shopping with my friend Maree - she was in search of some good boots. We found her boots, but I also found a pair of good work shoes (which I managed to get discounted by $20 because there is a little dimple in the leather). My old work shoes (the sort you wear with a skirt) have gotten all loose and floppy (I never believed that you gained weight on your feet, but I can now testify it's true!). Afterwards, we wandered into the Paquis for a brief wander through the street fete, and I picked up another pair of shoes for just $18: these ones are less practical being high high heels, but hey, for 18 bucks they make a fun addition to my wardrobe.

In the evening we went to the movies and saw "Mama Mia" which was a total hoot. A real feel good movie, it is funny, and musical and generally a really good time.

The next morning I couldn't resist, and went back to the fete for a more serious perusal. I picked up a funky gold retractable pencil, which may or may not be worth much more than the $10 I paid for it.

I also found a rather nice little wooden box, with teeny hand blown glass test tubes in it. Some of the tubes contain what looked to my eye like minute sequins... thinking on it, perhaps they are tiny washers for watch-making. What do you think? I bought some cute and silly apero skewers too.

Lunch was a real highlight for the day... a scrumptious fresh green papaya salad made on the spot. The chef was a bit shocked when I explained that yes, I really did want three chilis in my salad. I sat down at one of the tables (so cutely decorated as you see in the photo below and dug in.... Ohhh it was good. Some of the most delicious food I have eaten in months.

But for me the real shopping find was this wicked maroon bunny fur coat. It was on a rack and marked at $100 (I am speaking in Aussie dollars rather than Swiss francs because the exchange is such that they are near enough to identical). That was more than I wanted to pay, but I had 40 euros on me, which is about $70. So I offered that. The bloke said that it belonged to his mum who was away, and he didn't feel he could say yes to that price, but I could come back later. I gave him my card as I had to go, and asked him to email me if noone else bought it by the end of the day. Then I headed back home, snatching a look at the lutte (a weird Swiss wrestling sport which seems to consist of grabbing your opposition by the pants and trying to tip them over and give them a wedgie at the same time). I headed home to get changed and ready to go to the... REM concert. Yay! Then, on the way to the concert I decided to go back to the stall to see if the mum was there. She was, and... the whole stand was discounted by 50%. So I got the coat for $50 - bargaaaaain!! It did mean I had to take the coat with me to the concert, which was a little awkward, but worth it. Now I can't wait for some cold weather to wear it.

REM were amazing. They were tight, had heaps of energy and played for a good long time. If you ever get a chance to see them live, go for it.

18 September

So anyway, I went off to Le Cremieux for their medieval fair. The day was gloomy but at least not pouring with rain, which the previous day had been.

It helps when the medieval fair is in a medieval town, with a real original medieval market place with wonderful ruins on the hill tops behind the town. . .

17 September

Having explored Turin briefly but reasonably thoroughly, I decided that rather than spend Saturday night there, I would head back to France, to stay the night before going to a medieval festival near Lyon.

Once more I braved the roads of Italy, planning to take the back roads until I got to the Frejus tunnel. Somehow I missed the last signpost and ended up driving over the mountains to get back to France. Fun, but a waste of the tunnel toll I had paid! But I did get to see an ever so pretty lake.

The hotel I stayed in is the spa town of Aix Les Bains. The room I had was not big, by any means, but nicely fitted out. But what had sold me on this place was the pool. mmmmm.... doesn't it look delicious?

I was able to throw myself into the pool for a swim before dinner which is just what I needed after a long drive. A second swim before leaving in the morning made for an excellent start to the day.

I had thoughts of taking the tollway at least part of the way, but once again my streak of bad directional luck kicked in and I ended up driving over a mountain again. I didn't mind so much: very pretty roads and countryside, which reminded me just how much I miss owning a car.

Happy Birthday Maria!

12 September

So, it was a four day weekend in Geneva... I decided to head off to Italy, to Turin on Thursday morning. Instead of taking the boring fast way through Mont Blanc tunnel, I decided to drive down south, on the back roads and go through the Frejus tunnel.

I skipped the tollways (saving myself quite a chunk of money, and some really nasty traffic) and got to pass through an incredibly cute town or two. Check out this darling little town hall.

Once I got through to Italy I attempted to take a few side tracks to see the sights, but I was having a bad navigational day. Really bad. I think I spent a total of 100kms in that one day being lost in and around Turin. I had told a colleague at work that I was considering buying a GPS, but she persuaded me that all I needed was a map. She was SO wrong. a) being able to use a map only works if the streets have the occasional signpost. b) I am not phobic about spiders, snakes, public speaking... oh no. I am phobic about getting lost and the more lost I get the more upset I get. So my eventual arrival at the hotel was followed by a quick howl in my room. Still, I am not one to let my phobias get on top of me, so I drove into Turin, where I got lost again, though less upsettingly so as I at least now had a map of Turin to work from.

The idea was just to do a bit of a pre-wander, to see what I wanted to investigate on Friday. I had my camera with me, but not my spare battery and I was to regret that little mistake! You see I found the museum of archeology, which is open late on Thursday nights! They had a fascinating exhibition of Chinese terracotta and stoneware. (sadly no photos permitted). But in the musuem main, photos sans flash were allowed, and before my battery ran out I captured some goodies:

16th century pottery		11th/12th century pendant
thimble & needle, 13-15th c	6th century fibula
7th century	6th century grooming kit	7th c beaded necklace
6th-7th century jewellry	6th-7th century jewellry	6th centuruy rings

I wandered back to the car in a sort of zig zag fashion, ending up where I thought I was parked, and discovered that nope, I was nowhere near there. Darn. It was getting late and I wanted to nab some dinner so went into the nearest restaurant where I enjoyed some very good duck with balsamic vinegar. If you are in Turin, I recommend Ristorante Solferino.

The next day I headed to the Museum Madama, which was even cooler! I had considered buying one of those city passes you can get in most European cities. They usually come in a 2 day, 3 day or week lots and get you free public transport and entry into most of the local museums. They are probably good value for most visitors, but not for a museum freak like me they just dont work. I can easily spend an entire afternoon in the one museum, and usually the price of two museums and a bus ticket is less than the city card.

I spent many hours in the museum Madama, and was thrilled by what I found there. The only minus was that many of the items were in glass cases with lights that reflected off the glass and made photography a nightmare. Still I captured some goodies... includings some pretty textiles:

I still had time and somehow energy after this to walk to the Borgo e Rocca medieval village. I headed to the river, and wandered downstream. It was a lovely day, not too hot, not too cold, and the walk was lovely, though my feet were aching after four hours in the museum! There was parkland all along the edge of the lake... Turin has some really special spots. I couldn't wait to see the Borgo. I had seen a peek of it over the river at night when I had gotten lost driving back to the hotel the night before and was intrigued by the look of it. When I looked it up in the guide, I decided I really had to visit it! You see it was built in 1884 for the world expo, and is a reproduction of a medieval castle and some accompanying houses/shops.

As a member of the Crossroads project I just had to visit. It was my duty! Sadly I arrived too late to get into the castle, but I still had a good meander about. There was much to admire. The project itself was fascinating. Historians and scholars took aspects of many different medieval buildings and synthesised them into this small set of buildings. It was very inspiring and I hope that when Crossroads develops it will be equally wonderful... if not better! There are more photos on my flickr site.