This is the last of the Year Abroad stories – I’ve more or less reached the end of what I can remember well enough to write about. But I saved this one for the winter because it’s seasonally appropriate and it’s one of my favourite memories of my year learning French in western Switzerland. I … More Shrieking on the slopes at Chaumont
It’s that time of month again – another trip back in time to my year as a student in Switzerland in 2005/2006. Today we’re going down to the shores of Lake Geneva. I’d found some caves in my guidebook, semi-secret ones and I wanted to depart at the crack of dawn to find them. Unfortunately, … More Chateau de Chillon
My overwhelming memory of my day out in Bregenz is how difficult it was to get there. This is a Year Abroad story. I was a student living for a year in French-speaking west Switzerland and it finally occurred to me the month before I left that there wasn’t actually any reason why I needed … More Bregenz
While I was living in Switzerland, I’d been wanting to go to Schaffhausen and visit the Rhinefalls for some time – I’d just been waiting for a good day for it and this day was apparently the one. I changed trains at Winterthur and according to my notes had half an hour there during which … More Year Abroad: Schaffhausen
When I was a student, I lived in Switzerland, studying French at a language school. There were three native English speakers in my class and we became triplets (or sometimes Les Trois Anglophones) and our first trip out together – or so I always thought – was a day in Zurich. If you’re going to … More Year Abroad: Zurich
I Am A Polar Bear 