Monday, September 29, 2008

Des Alpes-Saint Cergue



Our family spent Saturday experiencing "When the cows come home."  It is a Swiss tradition to bring the cows off the tops of the mountain in the fall.  They have a festival in the village to greet the farmers and the cows.  The cows and the farmers get all dressed up and parade into the city.  What a fabulous experience.  I really wanted to cheer, but the crowds were pretty mellow.  Maybe because it was so cold?  Maybe because it is Switzerland?  As with the beginning of any parade-I did get a bit misty eyed.


Elsa and Ruby
Ansel and Pony
Henry and Alex
We met our friends the Claytons up their.  The kids had fun getting their faces painted, feeding the animals and playing around.  Ruby is pretty special to Ansel.  He only says a handful of names and hers is the only one that isn't a relative.  He already has great taste-she's a cutie pie.


On our way to the parade while walking through the village, we came across a restaurant roasting their meat for lunch.  Shocked to see a little piglet-we pointed the barbecue out to the kids.  They haven't really made the connection between the dinner table and the petting zoo.  When Henry saw the pig it came together.  At first he was a little bit disgusted by the thought of eating an animal.  Walking away he was still a bit shaken so I told him that ham comes from pigs.  It all clicked and the carnivore in him came out . . ."well, I sure do like ham."  

4 comments:

Kimberly said...

How cool is that? It's just like one would picture the Swiss cows with those big bells. I'm a bit misty-eyed myself.

LeAnn said...

Beautiful!!!
Well, excepting the roast piglet. that's just yum.

Roseanne said...

the land is so beautiful and seeing all that cool european culture, I'm so jealous! What a cute comment from Henry, I can hear his voice saying it too...:D

Alison said...

That just looks like such a great parade, great setting, great kids, great everything. I like Henry's taste in meat and cutie pies. =)