Discovering New Places

I've been letting myself fall into into a lot of different moments this month … and it's still not over yet! What a ride. It has been wonderful and still is!
There is unfortunately a little downside.
I haven't updated my blog much.
And I am sorry for that but I'll make it up to you … starting right now.
One of the hiking tours I went on made me discover a pretty amazing part of Switzerland that I didn't know: the Jura region.
As soon as we left Bienne behind us, it felt like arriving in a total different kind of country.
First of all there were hardly any houses which was unusual (Switzerland being a pretty densely populated country). We drove up and down the (very green) hills (a challenge for bikers!), coming across … horses. Oh my, I have rarely seen as many grazing horses as during the afternoon I spent there!
PICTURESQUE was the word that came to my mind.

We headed for Saint Ursanne. A cute little town. From there we walked along the Doubs (their river) to Soubey and back to Saint Ursanne. The whole day felt like living in a painting. A painting called "Study in Green".
I was so absorbed in the beauty of the countryside that I didn't take many pictures. Sorry folks. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and I simply forget to pull out my camera! Luckily I took a couple of pictures with my iPhone because I thought of sharing this wonderful green countryside with my Instagram followers (does that make me a bad person? hahaha).

Anyway, one thing is for sure though. I will have to go back. C'est trop beau they would say over there. It is beautiful. As the place is rather far away from where I live, I will have to make it a two days kind of trip. In other words: I've just added a new item on my travel bucket list :-)

Eating Habits

Back in January, I wrote a post about "Eating Habits". Re-reading my words of back then, it doesn't surprise me that, a couple of weeks after having written the post, I started to toy with the idea of stopping to eat meat.
Why not limit my meat consumption to while traveling or when invited, I thought.
Yes, actually, why not, I thought.
And I became, what I call, a part-time vegetarian.

It felt like an experiment at first but then I started to like it. My skin texture improved, my already impeccable digestion became even better. The only worry I have is the upcoming winter season. What will I eat when the variety of vegetables will be really limited? Well, we'll see and I'll certainly keep you updated :-)

Changing my eating habits made me talk and read about what "good" food consists of. And, honestly? It's a bit overwhelming.
So many different opinions.
So many different ways to look at food.
So many different opinions on what is healthy and what not.


Food seems to have become the new top issue to be an expert in. That's the impression I got.
To me it feels like people turn to food and health issues to feel like being at the wheel of at least one aspect of their life. We live in a big and "unmanagable" world. We feel helpless in the face of all the stuff that is happing all around us (the newsfeed is a scary place!).
We get sucked in even if we don't want to.
But we can control what we eat.
Right?
We are the boss of our health.
Right?
That makes us feel good. In control.

Or do I read to much into the whole issue?
I don't know. What I know is that I want to handle it like every other issue in my life:

October Wish

I have been thinking about what my October wish for you and me could be. Nothing came to my mind, honestly speaking, also because I don't have much time to do some serious thinking (remember my agenda for October?).
But then, yesterday, while reading a book this sentence caught my eye (yes, I have still time to do some reading hahaha - there is always time to do some reading, in my opinion). I read these words and thought: yes, that's it. That's what I wish for October.
TO FALL INTO THE MOMENT.
Don't think, don't overthink, don't fret. Sometimes it's really just about jumping into the moment.

Enjoy!

Tourist In Your Own Country

As my American friend is right now touring around the Southwest of her country (apparently, inspired by the words and pictures of my trip … I feel honored!), I discovered a Swiss city last week.
From time to time, I love to play tourist in the country I live in, and so, last week, I got on the train and went to Fribourg, in the French part of Switzerland.
I had heard nice stuff about Fribourg and I wasn't disappointed. A cute little town. A cute little town with a high quality of life … at least that what it seemed like to me.
The old city is perfectly preserved (it's maybe also due to the fact that it's located in the valley of the Sarine and that there is not much space to built new big houses). Lucky for them.
Discovering the city by foot is a challenge. It's all about walking up and down (my health app stated, at the end of the day, that I had walked 9 floors! Hilarious! That gives you an idea of how many stairs I walked up and down).
Here, what the city looks like from above:

I didn't take many pictures that day. It was more about soaking up the energy and enjoying (one of the last) sunny days of summer!

I loved the houses

Up and down

I would have loved to take this bench with me!

One of the old town gates

bridges everywhere … there was even one built entirely out of wood (in the 1200) … now that I think of it, I forgot to take a picture hahaha

Being Busy V. Being In The Moment

Are you busy all the time? I mean, busy for months in advance? Are you part of the people that, when you're asking them "wanna go watch a movie tonight?", they go (and their voice implies "are you kidding me???): "Tonight? Impossible! My next free evening is, wait, let me see ... in 2 and a half months."


Well, me, I don't want to be busy all the time. I sometimes have busy weeks and other times not so busy weeks. My busy times (i.e. my twenties and thirties) are behind me and nowadays my motto is more quality over quantity.
Right?
Right. But then how does the figure of speech read again?
The expection proves the rule?

This coming October is MY expection to the rule. You should see my agenda. It's filled with appointments: concerts, long weekends, nephew sleepover, more concerts, dinners (emphasis on the plural) at friend's houses, workshops, time out with girlfriends, hiking tours, etc. etc. I even had to decline an invitation ... Unprecedented.
It feels like I'm back in my twenties (Remember these? When staying at home just one evening was totally not cool AT ALL hahaha.)

Anyway.
Suddenly, it's like everybody wants a piece of my time. I have no idea what happened but it did. I do feel kind of dizzy just thinking about all the stuff I am gonna do the next five weeks but at the same time the stuff is so cool that I don't feel like complaining.
On the contrary.

It's time to implement what I practice during my weekly yoga class ... in a joyful and grateful way.

Remembering: Lago Maggiore ... One More Time

I had been to Stresa, a couple of years ago, and had visited the Isole Borromee. I had loved the places and I remember thinking that I wanted to come back in Summer time (I visited in April and it rained one day out of three). This is what the places look like:

I was curious to discover the other little towns along Lago Maggiore (especially those on the Italian side) and I was right. Retrospectively though, I am glad to have come back during off-season. Had I visited during high season, I'm afraid, my impression wouldn't have been as favorable.
SIGH … what do you want me to say? The disadvantages of mass tourism.

I can't imagine liking the cute little towns with their cute piazzas, their cute lungo lago (lakeside promenade), their cute little shops would they have been (over) crowded.
And I certainly wouldn't have appreciated to spend a weekend in Italy ... hearing German talk all around me!
Don't get me wrong.
I have nothing against Germans or Swiss Germans (remember? I live here hahaha) but it's not the kind of travel that I look for. Put the blame on my being a language aficionada but when I travel, I want the real thing and hearing the local lingo is part of the real deal.
Luckily, I got to have the real deal during my 3 days at Lago Maggiore and I highly recommend it to everybody … during off-season, obviously :-)

Detail seen in the Angera fortress

Rocca d'Angera seen "from the other side of the lake"

More details...

Remembering: Lago Maggiore

We had aperitivo and dinner al fresco every evening of our stay at Lago Maggiore. And I absolutely loved the sunsets! What do you think?