When your drama teacher leads you to UNESCO

When your daughter receives an invitation through her Drama teacher to take part at a conference hosted at the UNESCO headquarters you know her school is awesome!

PERFORM stands for Participatory Engagement with Scientific and Technological Research through Performance. This programme explores a participatory educational process on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) through the use of the arts. I just wish they had such cool workshops when I was studying science back in the days...

During the two-day conference, scientific researchers, performers and young people from all backgrounds worked together to develop performance-based activities. The idea being that collaboration will increase young people's engagement with science, its values and the processes of research.

Expat Girl and her peers were coached to imagine and develop performing arts activities on scientific topics of their interest, collaborating with young researchers, professional communicators and their teachers.

Not only were the girls ask to work on different subjects but also could choose which language to use: English, Spanish or French. When global education is linked to girl power the sky is the limit and the next generation is fully aware of this fact.
Let them spread their wings without loosing their roots!

Meanwhile Mummy is enjoying a yoga session on a roof top... only in Paris!

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened!

We talk about how children need to learn how to be resilient ... well, it is that capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, that ability to spring back into shape that I lean on when the end of the school year draws close.

By the time June rolls around bitter-sweet feelings start rising in the knowledge that - yet again - our family will have to say goodbye to people who a few years ago were perfect strangers but whom, over a little timespan, have become the next best thing to family; for the shortest distance between new friends is a smile.

It is hard at the best of times watching your kids wave a tearful goodbye to their buddies but does it get easier?

Yes and no. I brace myself every year thinking this time will be easier since we've been though this exercise soooo many times. And then it hits me, usually on a beautiful sunny day. I wake up feeling blue, my heart is heavy and I know I will be spending all day fighting back those tears. It might not even be the day we bid our farewells but the sadness sits inside of me and there it will remain until the last day of school.

I don't get as emotional as I used to and I believe it is the resilience and the resistance that you acquire by seeing friends depart year after year. You learn how to handle the hurt, you manage your reactions and you focus on the good side of things.

I consider myself lucky to have made many a precious friendship over the past decades and I am grateful to have met exceptional people. For it is the ability to find meaning in friendship that makes it all worth the effort. It is the realization that no matter how far away they move, you have shared a chapter of your life with them. As Anais Nin says so nicely: "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

Window Shopping La Croisette

For a small town, Cannes is big on luxury shopping. Indeed, Cannes might just as well survive on the world tourist map exclusively by the wonderful shops hosted along La Croisette. So, if sunbathing sessions do not represent the best way of spending time you can think of, it is highly likely that the next best thing to opt for is shopping.

My friends will know that sunbathing is much farther up on my list of pampering than shopping but as the heat of the day had ebbed to a comforting warmth and the sunshine had lost its brightness, the family could not resist a stroll down La Croisette for some window shopping after dinner. 

However, I remain adamant, never underestimate the power of a good tan on a bad day!

La Croisette by night

A peculiar Louis Vuitton window display...

... but their courtyard garden is beautiful.

Gucci is in the pink...

... and features a pretty kinky interior deco

Chanel in black and white

Yves Saint Laurent with its eternal elegance.

Hermès gone minimalist.

Philip Plein... definitely not my cup of tea!

Just saying!

A summer day in Geneva

 A hot summer day in Geneva and I cannot get enough of the colours and sights...

A ferris wheel in Geneva ... this is new?!?

The Île Rousseau is an island and park in Geneva, situated in the middle of the Rhone.

Who said the Swiss weren't welcoming?

The world-famous Jet d'Eau dates back to the 19th century. Its white plume rises 140m into the air from a stone jetty on the lakeside at Eaux-Vives; that is about 50m higher than the Statue of Liberty.

Turned on each morning by caretakers whose job it is to keep the fountain working, the Jet d'Eau is one of the city's most famous landmarks.

View from Bains des Pâquis onto the Cathedral and Geneva's city center

Flashback from my childhood... Hero Confi in little portions!

A simple healthy Swiss breakfast 

A touch of luxury spotted everywhere you go...

... but a pink vintage Jaguar just takes the cake!

My white chocolate mousse in form of cheese surrounded by meringue mice is a close second! 

Geneva is also wine country. Chateau du Crest - a castle built in 1222 - is one of the largest privately owned farm in the country, and grows more than 18 different varieties of grapes including Chasselas, Gamay, Riesling-Sylvaner, Pinot Black, Gamaret and less common varieties like Malbec and Muscat. The vintners in the Château du Crest fields practice an unusually meticulous handwork to care for their strategically planted low vines with high density yield.

Hanging out with old friends enjoying the view, the sunset and a glass of Dôle Blanche... 

... life couldn't be better!

Where I feel right at home again

When various events fall into place and they align perfectly with your agenda it provides the irresistible excuse to squeeze yet another little trip between a weekend away and the summer exodus starting next week.

Expat hubby travelling, Expat boy at university and Expat girl taken care of, I am off for a four day trip to Geneva.

This city was my home for nearly ten years and it will always have a special place in my heart. It is where I felt at home for the first time after never having quite fit in with Zürich. Here, all my peers were Swiss born of foreign parents and no explaining was needed why you called Switzerland your home eventhough you spoke a language other than Swiss German or French at home, we all did!

My career began in Geneva and I had a brilliant start. Through work I met a charming Neapolitan and we got marrried in Geneva before starting our Expat adventures.

I have kept a handful of loyal friends and many fond memories of my time in Geneva and although it has been two decades since we left I am happy to see that some things never change...

... unconditional friendship and ... Bains des Pâquis!

Geneva at its best!

The Anglican Church where we got married 20 years ago

Postcard picture

On my way to Pâquis plage

My old playground still looks the same...

... heading for a swim with the ducks!

I call it love

When you stay married for twenty years to the same person it is an achievement. When you actually manage to look back and say I’d do it all again, you know you have chosen the right person.

We dated for quite a while before we tied the knot, mostly because we had careers that did not keep us in the same city nor in the same country and for a while not even on the same continent. Nevertheless we defied the odds and eventually married in Geneva before heading off to Buenos Aires to start our Expat adventure together.

We have since moved six times, learnt a few more languages along the way and made lots of new friends. I have given up my career to become a trailblazing spouse, a woman with a mission or if you like a family manager.

We have been blessed with two great kids - a mini-him and a mini-me - and have grown from an eclectic duo into an unbeatable team of four.

We rely on each other and trust is a big factor in our everyday routine. Although we have been lucky not to let routine get in our way too often. This has been a conscious decision for monotony is love’s biggest enemy!

20 years later we still laugh together and yes, he gets frustrated with me and I get upset with him but the big picture is still as rosy as it was. For there are few things in life that REALLY matter: one is family the other is love... and after two decades I’d still call it LOVE!

Life does not get much better than this!

Feeling like I'm in heaven.

A real treat!

May our love last forever.

No celebration is complete without a cake!

Your typical Parisian morning jog

Starting my morning jog below the iconic Eiffel Tower.

There exists no picture of the Eiffel Tower that has not been taken already.

The quais all to myself.

Peniche boat owners with a sense of humour.

The French Lady of Liberty

Feeling uplifted ... 

 Things you find along the roads of Paris.

My sister and I

Miss Energetic has been my best friend since we were four years old. She is more like a sister than a friend. We learnt to ride a bike together around our neighborhood in Zürich, we played school at home and learnt how to write albeit in different languages, we were there for each other when our hearts were broken for the first time, as students we earned our first salary at the Geneva car fair together although we were studying in different countries, we were each other’s bridesmaid and are Godmothers to each others boys.

Our yearly get together has always been her Grandmother chalet where we have been skiing for nearly five decades. First with our parents, then with our husbands and now with our kids!

This week we have decided to take some time out and after nearly 30 years it was just the two of us.

We took off to Ibiza in search of some sun and fun. We hiked, we suntanned, we swam, we explored, we photographed, we gossiped, we laughed, we admired, we complained, we shopped, we ate, we drank and we talked and talked and talked!

How much can you talk in 72 hours? How much can you share with someone you have known your entire life? Everything is the answer! For Miss Energetic is my best friend, my sister, my closest soulmate in this world ... and we can talk right through the night!

Ibiza by night

Exploring the island

Siesta time even for the cat!

Open seas everywhere you look.

Villa Dalt: inside the old town of Ibiza

"Das Leben war einfacher als ich Mädchen noch doof fand"... priceless!

Children of the 80's... we are so ready to partyyyyy! 

A bit of culture along the way...

... before we head to the chiringuito for lunch!

Yet another fantastic sunset!