R asked me why I liked France so much and keep coming back, I couldn’t think why. I said I liked the village life, the oldness of it and the newness to me. The exploring it piece by piece, bit by bit. I like France village as opposed to France city but I enjoyed strolling the streets and lanes of the likes of Lyon and Bordeaux If you wonder why I am raising this now it’s because I am no longer in France, I am in Basel Switzerland. We trained here and I could see the architecture change, not much but still different. Not the same. When in Mersault, biking the vines, touristing Lyon, R and I talked of “pinch me” moments. Pinch me because I am here in this amazing place, living this life, and it’s real.
So now I can say why I like France, for me it’s a “pinch me”. Basel is pretty, and nice, and easy to get around. I am pleased to be here but you don’t need to pinch me.
We get a cab from the airport and I remember why I dont like taking them in countries where i cant speak the language. I originally go for the Uber and its 13 CHF’s but i cant work out the pick up point so as the cabs are right there we do that. The driver flicks with his metre and all of a sudden its 6.50 CHF as we pull away from the street, he then does it again at the corner and by the time we get to the hotel is 18.80 but he pushes again and its 21 CHF for the 2.8 kms (to convert it is about double). I am annoyed and being ripped off feels the same in any language.
The good news is when you check into your hotel they give you a Basel card which means you can go on any public transport for the length of your stay. There is a stop right outside our door so it’s real easy, you just hop on and see where it takes you. When the locals say “its the last stop” you just get off cross the road and go back. What a great idea. We end up on the bridge over the Rhine and watch all the locals floating down the river on dry bags. We read up on it when we get home and they are called “Wickelfisch” you put your clothes in them and it keeps them dry then you float down the river. Stay inside the buoys as there are lots of barges who blow their horns loudly to the stragglers outside.
In Oto we used to do the same with a truck tyre inner. Get mum to drop us off out of town and we’d float down the river back into town. We never had any “wicklefisch” to put our dry clothes in though so what a good idea. They seemed to go a really long way so I guess they get out and put their dry clothes on and catch an ever available tram back. For us though they provided lovely entertainment from our little bar on the banks.
It’s really expensive here. The conversion rate is about double but a small snitchel for dinner, is 27 CHF plus 8 chf for a side of fries, a large snitchel would have cost 42. WH has sausage with onions on the top, 19 CHF and a side of pumpkin 7CHF.
We are at week 5 and we are to join a river cruise tomorrow then quarter finals and then home. I can feel the “homesick” malaise creeping in. I am supposed to be finding ways to deal with it so that i can stay away for 3 months at a time and have a strategy in place, but with whanau now gone off touristing and us leaving France, the call of home whispers loudly in my ear. I will drown it out with new sights and sounds and secretly start the countdown to the homeward journey.