People of Switzerland & France – Friends, Family and Some Other People I Didn’t Know At All But Made For Interesting Portraits
December of 2015
The last time I was on an international flight was back in 1995. We flew out of Riyadh and into Hyderabad. Life has been very interesting since then. Switzerland wouldn’t have been the first choice. What with it being unimaginatively expensive. If not for very dear friends who call Geneva home, I don’t think I would have ever visited the country. I’m not complaining. Just showing you the road signs to help you understand “where I’m coming from”.
I didn’t take as many photographs as I thought I would. What with it being my first outing with the new camera. But of the ones that I did take, they can be divided broadly into two categories – people and places.
I will start with people. Why? The url of this website has my name in it. That’s why.
On an aside. I know I’m not the only one who believes or believed in the “Scandinavian Utopia”. And while one has access to a veritable mountain of articles, documentaries, commentaries, political discourses, etc etc that seem to state otherwise, it is just that at the end of it all – a smorgasbord of information. I highly recommend giving this book a read for the simple fact that it packages everything up so neatly for you – easy to understand and quick to astound. Horrify even.
You can buy it here. It is quite the eye/mind opener.
This is of course if you are a pessimistic bastard who is against the idea of living in harmony with your fellow man/woman kind for all eternity, dressed in snazzy space suits and flying around buildings in portable toilets, downloading gigabytes of information on the fly.
This is the book for you if you are one of those people.
Now. Without further adieu, I give you – people.
My beautiful wife looks on as we waited for the tour to start at the Callier chocolate factory/museum.
Little Maya makes a run for it. In between her parents and us, it was a crazy ride as far as she was concerned.
This was a candy store. I was a kid. It didn’t go down like I thought it would. I was very adult like in my approach to buying chocolates.
A family that buys chocolates together stays together.
These mountains behind me, not as beautiful as me, she seemed to say. We agreed. Naturally.
The most wonderful accident of the entire trip. Stumbling upon the H. R. Giger museum. This is a bar right across from the museum and is done up in the ‘biomechanical” style particular to him. This was in Gruyères.
Two humans and their sentinel.
People and their wares at the night Christmas market in Montreux, along the banks of Lake Geneva.
People and their wares at the night Christmas market in Montreux, along the banks of Lake Geneva.
People and their wares at the night Christmas market in Montreux, along the banks of Lake Geneva.
The wife, with her phone and some hot wine, at the night Christmas market in Montreux, along the banks of Lake Geneva.
People and their wares at the night Christmas market in Montreux, along the banks of Lake Geneva.
People and their wares at the night Christmas market in Montreux, along the banks of Lake Geneva.
People at the night Christmas market in Montreux, along the banks of Lake Geneva.
People and their wares at the night Christmas market in Montreux, along the banks of Lake Geneva.
This was at Lake Geneva. The craziest thing. With wind chill, the temperature was a cool 0C or 32 F. I could barely hold on to my camera. My fingers had migrated from numb to lifeless. And then. We see this man. Followed by three ladies. In their bathing suits. Heading into the water. They swam around the light house. Paused actually, as a liner made its way through a thoroughfare and then proceeded to swim to the other side of the harbor. It was demented behaviour. And so cool.
This is where the man and those ladies came out. By this time I was a barely conscious lump of ice held upright by sheer will power.
Older parts of Geneva. A park with a life size chess and checkers board. Maya wanted to move pieces around. Usher in a new world order mayhaps.
Geneva is a ghost town during Christmas. These two were probably the only people in all of Geneva apart from us. I’m not exaggerating.
Happiness is a swing.
Or these rocking horses.
Cool dude at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Geneva.
A bitingly cold evening in Yvoire and these two couldn’t have been happier with how the evening had turned out for them.
Maya hurtling around a corner in Yvoire, a beautiful medieval village in France.
Things slowed down to a stop in Annecy. A little after the carousel though.
Mother and daughter going around a corner.
The only time I came across someone so poor that they were begging. You see people every now and then doing little bits and then passing the hat around for change. But this was the first and only time I saw a destitute person. This is as unsettling, to my mind, a sight as NOT encountering pan handlers/beggars at a traffic signal in India.
Laziest cat ever. Just slept. This man is a regular apparently and for Christmas, the hat comes out.
Very interesting wire/mesh sculptures around the train/bus stop at Bel-Air.
On the train back to Geneva from #Interlaken. Couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying, but by the way he was pointing out parts of the mountainous scenery to his female companion, it seemed like he was talking about places he knew and/or had been to. Maybe with her. Maybe as a young man. It was like peeking into the life of someone, whose language you didn’t speak, with only the smiles across their face, the movement of their hands, narrating their story to you. It was a special moment. And I was happy to have witnessed it.
People and their music at the night Christmas market in Montreux, along the banks of Lake Geneva.
Man and his dog at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Geneva. Two different things, in two different directions, had them captivated.
This is absolutely wonderful! What a delight.