Le Premier Août

The first of August is Switzerland's fête nationale (national holiday) which dates back to 1291. We are living in an old country! They celebrate their "independence day" similar to how we celebrate ours: lots of flags, food, fireworks and bonfires. We celebrated by going to our neighbor's party on Tuesday evening and then going camping on Wednesday night. The party was fun, though it is very difficult to make small talk when everyone is speaking either French or German. Many people spoke English, though, so we managed to communicate to some extent.

The next day we went South to the mountains in the Valais area. A couple we met at church (Dan and Rosalie) invited us along, and we made a group of 12! We had a good time. We helped build a dam in a FREEZING cold stream (ok, I barely helped and just put my feet in), ate delicious food, sang praise songs and set off fireworks. I even got to light a few off - my first ever! We were in a valley, so we could see numerous bonfires all up the mountains around us and were surrounded by fireworks. That night it started to rain, but our tent kept us nice and dry. However, the next day was rainy, so instead of staying another wet night, we came home. It was a good time to get to know some other people in the church.

Both Dan and Rosalie's parents stayed in the bungalow to the left. It was nice to have somewhere dry to retreat to when it was raining as well as have a real kitchen (since we were cooking for 12)! And check out those pretty mountains.

Just a pretty view! I believe that the house is an actual place people lived many years ago.

The camping grounds - notice how close the tents are to one another! Our tent is the red 0ne - Tom noted that it matches our car. The rest of the group was staying in the the yellow tent.

Link to more pictures...