Hello again! Thanks for stopping by.

As I mentioned before, a new student came to live in the house this weekend. His name is Sean, and he is a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. I already knew him from my summer at Fermilab, so I was excited to hear that he would be here at the same time I am.

Last weekend, we ventured out and took a walk through Ferney-Voltaire, the town we are staying in. Let me tell you – it was beautiful. We finally had a break from the fog, and the mountain views from outside of town were breath-taking.

We ended up going to town. It was a Sunday afternoon, and nothing was open. No 24/7 shops to be found in this part of the world. But that meant the streets were empty and we got some great pictures!

Everything struck me as being very French: the cobblestone streets, the wooden shutters, the flower boxes…

For being such a small town, it has some amazing architecture (not to mention the strange-looking trees).

On our way back home, we walked by the town cemetery, which is up on the same hill as Voltaire’s mansion (not pictured). We were too shy to go in and take a closer look, but many of the headstones looked very old.

Right outside of our little neighborhood, there is a house that keeps animals in their backyard. It is like a little farm! Sheep, geese, chickens… There is another family nearby that keeps two donkeys in their backyard, but they weren’t outside when we walked by.

I don’t want to waste any potential travel time, so next weekend we have made plans to visit the French town of Annecy. Apparently, they have a wonderful market on Sundays and you can take ferry rides out on to the nearby lake. I look forward to keeping you updated!