Family reunion in Brittany

After our wonderful time with friends in Geneva, we headed to Brittany to catch up with family. James and Valerie and their 4 great children Gregory, Arnaud, Eloise and Stella were back for their summer holiday in Crac'h, where Valerie's parents have a holiday house. This year was special as it was Stella's christening and Elspeth and I were asked to be godparents.

Valerie's parents very bravely invited us all to stay with them, and we were joined by James and Eta Elder and their two girls Abby and Sophie. 6 adults and 10 children as guests! It was chaos at times, but things went well and the children played really well together - most of the time. We had a double celebration as the day before Stella's baptism was also her birthday.

Brittany is reminiscent of the west coast of Scotland, with variable weather, bracing winds and sea shores which are grassy and rocky. The weather did not deter the Brits from swimming and playing on the beach. It was back to childhood as we paddled, built aeroplanes and sandcastles in the sand, and played football. Fortunately there were a couple of engineers on hand to to help with the boat design and construction.

Of course there are compensations for the weather. The Breton food is wonderful and we didn't need much encouragement to tuck into plates of mussels and frites, washed down with local cider.

Back at the house, there were plenty young children to keep everyone occupied, and the table tennis was fiercely contested, with sibling rivalry to the fore.

We also watched the World Cup final where Holland tried most forms of both martial and dark arts but still couldn't beat Spain. We had a number of sweepstakes going, and fortunately for me, I drew the winning score, and also, because I had enough Dutchmen in my team, I also had the first yellow card.

It was a really super time for all of us. It was great for the cousins to get to know each other again and for us to see the two Jameses, Valerie, Eta and Manuel and Genevieve.

Why is public access to the internet poorer in the west than in the east?

Several people have asked why we have been irregular in publishing our posts in the last month. One reason may be that we have been staying with friends and that there have been fewer opportunities to sit down and write. However another factor has been that Western Europe is simply less well connected to the internet in public places than many of the countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is the best connected country we have been in by a mile. Almost every public place in Turkey has wifi. When you arrive you just ask for the password and log-on. The idea of a bar NOT having wifi would be strange in Turkey yet when you ask in Paris or Geneva if they have wifi, you would think you had just asked for a rare exotic dish.

We love the South African Diplomatic Service

Our experience of diplomatic missions abroad has been mixed. We have great friends who are diplomats but sometimes it seems they are the exception rather than the rule. For many consulates, the concept of actually serving or helping their fellow citizens is utterly alien. The Finnish Consulate in Addis Ababa opened for something like 2 hours a day, four days a week. How do I know this? It's a long story . . .

So far, however, our experience with the South African embassies and consulates has been great. In Kazakhstan, the SA embassy had just opened and I think I was their first customer. When I told them that I needed a work permit they were very excited as it was the first such permit they had ever done. I got gold-plated service.

In Geneva we needed to have some documents witnessed and attested for the sale of our house in South Africa. We had tried to do this at the British Embassy in Belgrade, but they wanted £65 per signature, and we had 10 pages to sign with several signatures per page. Much as I would love to help HM Treasury and reduce the national debt, the idea of paying over £1000 for notary services was too much. By contrast in Geneva, the SA consulate stamped, witnessed and initialled every document at no charge, and all within 5 minutes. The staff were extremely friendly even when I had to come back to get extra signatures. We love young democracies.

We all came down to Prangins, on the Lake Geneva shore . . .

After our time in the mountains, we enjoyed one of Geneva's other great attractions, the lake. We left Geneva for the small town of Prangins to stay with our great friends from Almaty, the Reeves family. The last time we had seen Ken, Gretchen, Isabel, Olivia and Oscar was when they stayed with us in South Africa for Christmas 2006.

If the Geyrs live in the second biggest house in Geneva, the Reeves live in the second biggest house in Switzerland. The house originally belonged to the couturier of Queen Victoria. It is now owned by 4 siblings, three of whom live with their families in the house. Ken and Gretchen have the middle floor. The house is wonderful with huge rooms, high ceilings, wooden panelling, and its own private dock. It looks like something from a Hitchcock movie, and would be the perfect "pied a terre" for any axe wielding psycho killer.

The village of Prangins is about 30 km from Geneva. and is next to Nyon, the home of the headquarters of FIFA. Thanks to the wonderful Swiss public transport, it is only a 12 minute train ride to the centre of Geneva. In fact the train is quite annoying as you don't even have time for a coffee and a read of your newspaper before you have reached your destination. How Johannesburg could learn from this.

We spent three lazy days swimming in the lake, playing in the grounds of the house (they are too big to be called gardens) and watching the World Cup in the evening. We also had a fun time picking raspberries, and an even better time eating them with cream.

Switzerland is a fascinating country. It is the most devolved democracy I have seen, and therefore important for any Scots who want to talk about devolution or independence. If devolution or independence is about bringing decision making and accountability as close as possible to the people governed, then Switzerland is a great case study. The local communes have large budgets and significant powers, as do the cantons which is the next level of government after that. More importantly it seems they exercise that power in a positive way to bring services and facilities to their area. The federal government is not exactly powerless, but is very much the least important of the three levels of government. Mind, there is a distinctive Swiss mentality which does include a devotion to both following and enforcing rules which would make a German accountant look like a Californian liberal. Tales abound of expats being reported to the police by their neighbours for excess noise, incorrect recycling, flushing toilets too late at night etc. The local commune in Prangins even shuts down electricity for washing machines at certain times of the day. Mind, if that is the cost of living among beautiful mountains in a country with a wonderful public transport system, fabulous sports facilities and a great health service, then maybe it is worth it.

Walking in the Alps

From Monaco, we took the TGV to Lyon and then a regional train to Geneva. In Geneva we stayed with the fabulous Geyr family, our old friends from P&G whom we first got to know in Tashkent.

Jean-Louis and Sandra, and their three boys Nathan, Victor and Morgan, stay in the second biggest house in Geneva. Our children were delighted to have their own rooms, and to be able to do children things like play football, play computer games and fight. Lachlan in particular enjoyed himself as there were other boys to play with who were his own age or older.

After a day spent catching up with various other old friends from P&G, we went to the mountains to do some gentle walking. We drove to Chamonix and took the chairlift up the first part of the walk. The generation gap in the approach to walking was evident from the start when "German sensible" was trumped by "Monaco casual"

After a picnic lunch we walked to the "refuge" where we spent the night. Les Refuges are a very civilised aspect of walking in the Alps.

These are mountain huts which provide dormitory accomodation, meals and drying room facilities - or at least ours did, I am not sure that they all have the full range of facilities. The users of these are primarily hikers and climbers (like those pictured below)

We arrived just as the rain started and soon had a good cards school going, with Morgan celebrating his birthday by winning the big game.

Jean-Louis (when he is not looking at Sandra's cards - that was his story, and he is sticking to it) works for a large Brazilian company and when the news filtered through that Holland had beaten Brazil in the World Cup, his Blackberry went surprisingly quiet.

The next day dawned with beautiful weather and stunning views of Mont Blanc.

We made our way down the mountain to Le Lac Blanc. This small lake is fed by melting snow and is therefore slightly colder than the places we have swum recently - the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Dead Sea etc. However, undeterred the Belgians and Scots (but not the photographer) went for a swim. A variety of styles were employed - the wade-in, the full plunge, the half-and-half - but all were agreed that it was . . . refreshing. Sandra's face says it all!

That evening, back in Geneva we also caught up with another old friend from Tashkent/Istanbul - Tankut Turnaoglu and his wife Berak. Tankut has just been promoted to General Manager and is moving to Singapore. It was also the first time we got to meet his beautiful Fenerbahce supporting daughter Derin Su.

Our final day in Geneva was spent in the always entertaining company of the Forbes family (no photos as the cameras had done overtime in the mountains). It was a fine braai with which to end our stay in Geneva and we are looking forward to seeing Greg, Diane, Alex and Craig in Dollar in August for the return fixture.