France Day 5 - Annecy/Menthon-Saint-Bernard, Les Vaud and Geneva in Switzerland

Got my new room last night and it is bigger, has an attached bathroom and a great view.

Despite the lack of sleep, I woke up before my alarm (the first was set for 6.15am) around 6am.  I managed to kick myself out of the house and go for my first run in more than a month.  Not only was it a painful one because I felt very unfit, one of my injuries that I sustained (and hence had to stop running) was still there and I felt another.  Not sure what I'm going to do since I have another half marathon soon, but I guess we will see...  Ran down to the lake and took these photos.

Another picture of the hotel, in a quieter more sombre setting.

Panoramic view of the whole lake which looked a bit weird.  I had to stand on one of the logs of the jetty to avoid having other obstructive images and hope I did not fall in (and thankfully did not).

View towards Annecy.

To my understanding this is the first post office.  I thought it was a pretty picture!

Chickens and goat.

My teacher invited me to go to her church which was in a little village called Les Vaud in Switzerland.  The drive there was more than an hour and I passed out for most of it.  When I woke up I found myself in some small picturesque village with winding roads and not long after we arrived.  Service was long and a bit confusing, but thankfully I understood some and felt a bit better about myself.  Hooray.  After service was a buffet lunch.  I took a picture of the buffet and it came out terrible so I did not post that, but took some of the dishes themselves.  Basically everyone brings a dish and then everyone eats.  My teacher made a Provençal vegetable tart which had onions, eggplant, zucchini etc. in it.  Also on my plate was some BBQ chicken, a salt cod dish which I believe is from the French department of Reunion, and a chicken dish which may have been from there too.  I did not like the last dish but everything else was great.  Everyone was very friendly to me, but I still felt shy and afraid of speaking and was really tired.  Someone asked me (in French) if I was/went to a "culte" and I was very shocked, but later learned that it referred to Protestant church service.

Then, we went to Geneva.  It was pretty dead because it was a Sunday.  Biggest lake and fountain in Europe, supposedly.  Also possibly biggest chair (look at first photo in this series).

Dinner was simple and light.  I was still full from dinner anyway.  A salad and some leftover tart and cheese.  Oh man I could get used to cheese everyday and I'm learning to love all kinds of cheese!

Today I had no class since it was a Sunday.  So far I've managed with very little English, except for the son of my teacher who addressed me in English, and even though I replied in French he insisted on English until my teacher came in and chastised him.

Here is a picture of dawn and dusk views of Lake Annecy from my room window.  Lovely, isn't it?