So, that whole "trying to be better about updating" thing? Ha.

I'm in Paris right now, attending the Cornell Summer Institute of International and Comparative Law, and having a great time. I just went to Switzerland last weekend, and Ian begged me to post the e-mail I sent my friends and family members up here on the blog, so here it is with some very minor edits. All the photos I've been taking are up on my photo page, here (Paris) and here (Switzerland). Enjoy!

Kiernan's Swiss Adventure

In a nutshell, I wanted to go to Switzerland primarily because I'd never seen the Joliat "ancestral village," and I thought I might get the chance to meet some distant relatives. I also wanted to go because it's an easy trip from France, it's a beautiful country, and it's another addition to my list of countries I've visited (which is up to 10 now!). So, all that in mind, I set out last Friday after classes to catch the train.

There's probably a direct train from Paris to Basel, the closest big city to where I was headed, but for whatever reason I didn't find one, so I had to change in Mulhouse, France. Once I got to Basel (Bâle in French), I got off the train on the French side. Basel actually straddles the French-Swiss border, as does the train station, so if you're going to the Swiss side, you get off in France, walk through the station until you get to Customs, and leave Customs in Switzerland. Pretty cool. From Basel, I picked up another train to Delémont, the closest "city" (it's really a smallish town, but it's the capital of the canton of Jura) to Courtételle. Courtételle's too small to have a hotel or hostel or even a B&B, so I stayed in Delémont Friday night. Delémont is a nice little town, and the youth hostel there is pleasant, if a little far out of the center of town. Not too much to say about Delémont, since I was really only there to sleep, but I did get some nice pictures there and it was a cozy place to stay.

On Saturday morning, I caught the train from Delémont to Courtételle. I hadn't realized just how close Courtételle is to Delémont, but they're about 2 miles apart, so the train ride was a whopping 3 minutes. Upon getting off the train, practically the first thing I saw was a van with "Joliat Cycles" emblazoned all over it - proof positive, if I needed any, that I was in the right place! It only took me about two minutes of walking up the road before I found the shop itself. (I think it's kind of ironic that the Joliats in Courtételle make a major part of their living selling bikes when I never learned to ride one... if I'd been staying longer, maybe I should have asked them to teach me!)

I accomplished my mission by walking into the Joliat Cycles shop and asking the first person I saw who worked there, "Êtes-vous Monsieur Joliat?" As it turned out, all three of the guys who work in the shop (Stéphane, his father Laurent, and Stéphane's cousin Gérard) are Joliats, so I'd have received an affirmative reply in any case, but the one I asked ended up being Gérard, who speaks excellent English. He was amazed and pleased to hear that I was an American Joliat visiting the old country, and especially pleased to hear that I'm the daughter of "the American guy who came over here for the big Joliat party when I was a little boy." Since it was a sunny day, though, the bike shop was packed and he asked me to come back when the shop closed for lunch at noon. In the meantime, I wandered around Courtételle taking pictures of everything that said "Joliat" on it and a lot of other things besides. One of the highlights was Courtételle's little church - I really think it's one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been in. It's very simple, modern, and natural with lots of light and glass and stone, and beautiful abstract stained glass windows.

At noon, I went back to the bike shop and Gérard took me out for lunch. I explained to him a bit more about why I was there and what brought me to Europe this summer, and he told me as much as he knew about the current Joliats in Courtételle. It turns out that another local relative, Maurice, put together a huge book with the entire Joliat family tree and some history, and Gérard promised to show it to me after lunch. Before we went back to the shop, though, Gérard drove me up to a local lookout point so I could get some pictures of the Delémont valley and see Courtételle from above.

When we got back to the shop, Stéphane produced the book and I got to look through it. Since the history part is all in French, of course, I couldn't read much of it, but I got the impression that there have been Joliats in the Jura for a very long time. The highlight, though, was the Joliat index - it took me about a second to find my father in the index, and when I flipped to the page with his family tree, I found myself listed! I honestly hadn't expected the genealogy to be that up-to-date - I figured it was more of a historical thing, but even my youngest cousin was there. It's really an indescribable feeling to know that my name is recorded in the Book of the Joliats, and that when I marry and have kids, they'll be in there too.

Stéphane insisted that I put my address and the date I visited on the page where I am, and then he asked if I'd like a copy of my own. Of course, I said yes, and after a phone call, Gérard and I were off to visit Maurice. Maurice speaks very little English, so Gérard kindly translated for us. Since The Book is huge and heavy, Maurice is going to send it to me in America. Maurice was also amazed and pleased to meet me, and he insisted on a picture (he likes to have faces to put with the names on the giant scroll), so I took a picture of Maurice and Gérard in return. One of the things that struck me when I was putting the photos online was that Gérard is something like four or five generations removed from me (I won't know the exact relationship until my copy of The Book arrives), but there's still a very definite family resemblance. Check out the picture of Maurice and Gérard, and then the picture of me that Gérard took, and you'll see what I mean - even in the first instant that I met Gérard at the bike shop, I saw that he had the "Joliat eyebrows"! (All the Joliat women know exactly what I mean here...)

(Author's edit: after I e-mailed this out, I got a reply from my aunt Nancy, confirming that she and my cousin Jana do indeed know what I mean by the Joliat eyebrows! They're the curse of the females in this family.)

When it came time for me to head to Lausanne, I thanked everyone profusely, and promised to come back at some point. Gérard sent me off with a jersey from the bike shop that says Courtételle on it, and some stickers advertising Joliat Cycles, so if any of you Joliats want one, let me know! I caught the train to Lausanne and arrived there at about 4:30 PM. I was originally planning to take the boat over to Chateau de Chillon, an exceptionally well-preserved medieval castle, but since it closes at 6, I didn't think I'd be able to get there in time. I settled for a round trip boat cruise around the eastern end of Lake Geneva, which took three hours, gave me exceptional photo opportunities, and was a lot of fun. We stopped at various small towns, plus Chillon and the resort of Montreux (which struck me as the Swiss version of the French Riviera). By the time we got back to Lausanne, it was 8 PM and time for dinner, so I ate at a cafe in the lakeside district of Ouchy, my favorite part of Lausanne. I tried a Swiss specialty called rosti, grated potatoes and cheese, and liked it very much.

After dinner, I headed over to the youth hostel, which proved to be incredibly hard to find (which, of course, wasn't helped by the fact that I got off at the wrong bus stop and had no map), but I found it eventually and spent the night there uneventfully. The next morning, I went to visit the Collection de l'Art Brut, which I highly recommend seeing if you're ever in Lausanne. It's art that's been created by people who are neither trained artists nor part of an artistic community, many of whom are mentally ill or criminal, and it's a really interesting collection. Some of the art is childish, some is incredibly sophisticated, but it's all good and a great museum experience.

When I was finished at the museum, I went into the old center of town to get lunch and explore. I'd planned to do some shopping (or at least window-shopping) at the watch and jewelry boutiques that are all over Lausanne, but unfortunately everything's closed on Sundays so I was limited to window-shopping. I made my way up to the cathedral, took some pictures, explored the neighborhood, and headed back down to Ouchy, where the fun is. (I should point out that although it's spelled quite amusingly, it's pronounced oo-SHEE.) I still had a couple of hours until my train left, so I took another cruise, this time on the solar-powered tour boats that zip around the harbor, got an ice cream cone, and settled in for some serious people-watching. Lausanne is a beautiful city, with the huge lake and Alpine views, but if I ever had to move there, I'd definitely live in Ouchy. The old city is completely dead outside business hours, and Ouchy has most of the cafes, pubs, ice cream shops, and the endless parade of sailboats on the lake.

The rest of my trip was uneventful - I took the train from Lausanne to Geneva, spent a couple of hours at the train station in Geneva until my train to Paris left, and eventually got back to Paris just before 11 PM. During the train ride, the conductor would periodically turn on the intercom and let us know the score of the World Cup final, which ended just before we arrived in Paris. Unfortunately, as you probably know, France lost, so the Parisians were a lot more subdued than they have been after previous matches!

Here ends my travelogue. Unfortunately, there won't be any more pictures for a little while, because my camera's in the shop, but my credit limit just got raised and I've been thinking about upgrading anyway...

Somebody stop me before I do something stupid involving the Nikon store and a lot of money!