C tries his first snails: "I can see why the hens love them so much!"
- number of times son ate snails: 1
- number of snails eaten: 6
- his rating out of ten: 10
- total miles driven: 2,448
- days in France: 21
- days in Switzerland: 8
- number of strokes daughter could swim when she arrived in France: 0
- number of continuous lengths she could swim when she left France: 26
- number of long walks done: 5
- longest distance walked: 12km
- highest altitude walked: 2,021m
- number of mornings I had a croissant for breakfast: 20
- number of calories that adds up to: we won't dwell on that
- photographs taken in France & Switzerland: 1,471
- photographs uploaded to Flickr: 395
- castles visited: 3
- castle towers walked up by me: 0
- glasses of wine drunk at the village fete: approx 3
- glasses of muscat drunk at the village fete: not quite sure; perhaps 3
- jars of plums bottled: 9
- jars of fresh tomato and basil sauce bottled: 7
- words of German that I understood on arrival in Switzerland: 3 - "Ein Bier, bitte"
- words of German that I understood when I left: approx 23
- number of times I actually said "Ein Bier, bitte": 0
- number of times I used the car once I arrived in Switzerland: 0
- number of funicular journeys: 2
- number of train journeys: 6
- number of bus trips: 4
- number of tunnels I drove through: at least 65
- number of precipitous viaducts I drove across: more than 100
- longest tunnel I drove through: 6.872km
- highest altitude driven at: 2,210m
- number of rostis eaten: 3
- number of calories that adds up to: probably more than the croissants
- number of borders crossed: 4
- number of times our passports were checked: 1
- amount in Swiss Francs it costs for a permit to drive on the motorway: 40
- number of Logis hotels stayed at: 2
- number of times I wished I'd had a satnav: 0
- number of times I felt smug about travelling across Europe with just maps: 74
- number of cowbells purchased by son: 2
- euros I had left once I'd paid the last motorway toll at Calais: €0.21
- books I took with me: 14
- books read: 11 (bit too close for comfort)
- hours it took us to locate our hotel in Nancy: 2
- number of knitting shops visited: 2
- number of sewing shops visited: 2
- number of vide-greniers visited: 1
- number of local markets visited: 5
- number of visits to the extraordinary chocolate shop in Interlaken: 5
- number of bears carved out of wood that daughter took photos of: 17
- number of times I cooed over the view: at least 350
- lazy home-based days we've had since we got back to London: 7
- number of weeks left before school resumes: 1
Searing temperatures in Place Stanislas in Nancy
Happiness is a glass of chilled pink and a good book
The fairytale Schloss Oberhofen on Lake Thun
O at a funicular station above Interlaken
C heading down a mountain
C and O, with the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountains in the background
