Conkey Chronicles: Welcome to the beautiful Village of St. Prex! Part 1

We can't get over how beautiful our little village, St. Prex, is. I am just in jaw-dropped awe every time I walk through this place. I had heard that Switzerland was amazingly clean and it is true! Everything is kept so tidily!

Here are a few views of the walk around town. I'll get to the Old Town in the another post because it will be a complete picture overload.

Here are the cows that live in the field next to us - complete with big cowbells and a perfectly pastoral green field...

We walk alongside vineyards all the way into town

And look down on views of the lake and mountains like this

It has been grape harvesting time so we've seen a lot of trailers pass by full of grapes.

All the vines are hanging heavy with beautiful grapes - some green, some red, some black...

As Sam and I were walking home with from the store with groceries hanging all over the stroller, a man walking by stopped to wash some grapes at a faucet. He told me something in French and I told him that I didn't speak French (my only really solid sentence in French). He then told me that the harvesting tractors had been through the vines we were walking by and there were lots of grapes on the ground. He told me to make sure to pick some up on my way home.

So, I picked up a few bunches and Sam was having fun looking at the grapes...

And then, I as I bent down to pick up another bunch of grapes, a man driving by rolled down his window and started yelling at me in French. He kept yelling the same word over and over and even though I had no idea what he was saying, the meaning was clear. I put down the grapes and backed away...

I wanted to look up the word he was yelling but I find it impossible to know what a word is when I hear it. I couldn't tell if the word he was yelling started with a p or a d or a v or a b? Also, since you don't say most of the letters at the end of the word in French, I am at a complete loss for how to look up things people say to me. It makes me laugh how incompetent I am. I just looked at the guy yelling at me like I was a complete simpleton and he drove away, disgusted.

Ha ha! I am getting better with understanding every 30 or 40th word people say to me. I can also figure out for the most part what things mean when they are written. Maybe by the time we leave, I will be able to add a few more sentences to my repertoire.

Sam is in love with the trains. He loves to see them rush by and riding on them is such a treat.

And this is our little grocery store - Coop (pronounced "cope"). It is the only real grocery store in town and my goodness, food is expensive!

There are no baggers at the grocery store. You bag everything yourself and there are two lanes so the person behind you gets a separate lane. I've found if you are too slow and haven't finished bagging your stuff by the time the next person in line is due to use your bagging "lane", they checker just starts putting their stuff into your lane so you are furiously trying to get your things into your bag and get out of the way. It's awkward.

This is the beautiful little church in town.

And this is the view behind the church.

The first night we walked into town, I took a few twilight pictures. This is a little tea house and bakery - all vine covered and darling.

Here is the main street that runs in front of the Old Town

This is the old 13th century clock tower over the entrance into the walled area known as "Old Town".

There is a big bottle factory in town that is the primary supplier for all of the wine made in Switzerland.

It was getting dark but you can see all the bottles.

And here is the lakeside area of our town. See how clear the water is?

Alpenglow - for real! In the French Alps!

The second morning we were here, I took Sam down to the lake to play at the little playgrounds there. We hardly saw a soul and when I found some moms at the playground, none of them spoke English so we tried to talk for a few minutes and then gave up and waved and smiled at each other occasionally. People speak so many languages here (French, German, Italian, and often Spanish) and in the little village, most of the people who are highly educated and speak English work during the day. So, for about the first week, Sam and I would wander around town all day without being able to talk to a single soul. It was pretty lonely but since then, I've made some friends from church and they've taken me under their wing. They all live pretty far away (we are really out in the country here) but we get together once or twice a week and I feel like I am a social being again. They are wonderful girls and I know some of them will be lifelong friends.

Here is the little playground by the harbor.

Sam and I sat for a long time watching the little fishing boats come in and out...

And then Sam "weeded" the flower bed. And he actually pulled up the weeds!

Sam loves his monster wellies.

All around town, they have these fountains. And the water is perfectly clean and you can fill your water bottle anywhere you go. It is amazing.

There are so many farm machines and tractors around this town. Sam is in heaven! We sat and watched this one for a good half hour.

Here are a few views of the lake and the park that runs along side it.

The swans are not nice. They hiss and chase you. They even chase the old lady who brings them bread. Once she was out of crumbs - they chased her and were biting at her clothes. Like I said, not nice. Sam is rightfully very afraid of them.

We don't have garbage collection here. You are supposed to bring your trash to this very special building to dispose of it. Since Val wasn't home yet and we didn't know what we were supposed to do with our trash, it was starting to build up. So, we decided that it was time to take it to the trash collection place (I have never seen a swanky place like this for trash collection!)

We got the bags and started walking the mile to the trash collection. We passed by some old ladies and they laughed at us. They knew something we didn't know.

The trash place was closed. They keep the silliest hours and expect you to bring your trash only between 11 am and 5 pm on just four days of the week... There was no way we were carrying the trash home so Don left the bags by the building and we got out of there. We were afraid they would come for us but so far, so good.

Sam loves walking with us. He also likes to carry his buffalo backpack - for about five minutes. Then I get to carry it. :)

Look at that happy kid!

The community garden in the village is so beautiful! You can't believe the flowers and vegetables people grow. Well, we think it is a community garden but it seems like people grow way too many of the same vegetable for just one family but too little for the garden to be a "farm". In any case, it is beautiful.