Old & New in Switzerland & France

Friendship, precious & rare, has been the theme of my journey so far, and while I sometimes foolishly yearn for my familiar solitude, I’ve been basking in the warmth of old friendships, renewed, and new ones in the making.

Brigitte, whom I met in Goa, received me in her home in Geneva, wined & dined me, and opened her box of chocolate Mozart balls after each lunch & dinner until there were none. Daniel plied me with kir, ham, cheese & salami in an outdoor café near the Plainpalais, & his girlfriend, Aude, listened with wide eyes while we reminisced about the Woodstock European concert tour we produced in 1979.

Manuel, whom I first met in 1973 when he was a university student, has become the mayor of Geneva. It makes me laugh to think of it but I see he’s a serious politician in the Socialist party and wants to make a better city. There are some who don’t like what he does, but that’s the nature of the game. On one thing everyone agrees, he’s a very handsome man, tall, slender & youthful, with a great smile & twinkling eyes. Alas, I was too excited about seeing him after so many years to remember to snap a picture of us in the chic Chez Roberto’s, where he took me for dinner, and I feasted on a fabulous plate of squash raviolis with butter, sprinkled with ameretto cookie crumbs, and a good grilled fish.

I complained to Manuel about the high fares on Geneva’s buses and trams, especially the fact that seniors don’t get a break in price, as we do in L.A., and he laughed at me.

One sunny afternoon, at a lakeside restaurant, Brigitte & I enjoyed the specialty of the region, filet de perche with crisp pommes frites, and a carafe of good local white wine. The fish was delicious but the serving was small & quite costly, unlike the good old days when we got a huge platter of it, with chips, for ten bucks.

On the train to Lyon I sat next to a charming, silver-haired fellow, André, from Brittany, who carried my heavy bag onto the train, gave me his card & invited me to visit. He teaches computer technology for dictionaries, and talked about poetry & literature while the Savoyard countryside flew by the window.

In Lyon, on a two hour stopover, I enjoyed two scoops of double chocolate ice cream & good strong coffee with Madelaine & Jean Paul Rochas, old home-exchange friends whom I haven’t seen in 16 years. On the train to Perpignan, I met Sylvie, a painter from Nimes, who invited me to the bullfights in that city when I get there next week.

Patricia & Didier picked me up in Perpignan, & drove me to their house in the country where I sit now, watching the rain fall on their perfumed flower garden & enjoying the warm friendship we began a couple of years ago in Coimbatore, India, as in-mates at the Ayurvedic clinic. Didier is watching the French open, Roland Garros, on TV, & Patricia is in the kitchen preparing a recipe from her Jewish-Algerian grandmother, with roasted peppers, tomatoes & garlic, for dinner.

This morning I enjoyed my first heavenly French croissant of the journey & I’m very happy, lucky, feeling good & growing fat!