Hopefully the headline grabbed your attention like I intended. I was going to write about how Emily and I are living in the condo version of Gilligan’s Island. Among our neighbors we have a professor, a Mr. and Mrs. Thurston Howell III, a skipper (of sorts), and older versions of Ginger and Marianne. Emily and I would be Gilligan. That story line didn’t play out though because there is too much depth of character in our neighbors, and the TV show equivalents would not do them justice.
We had met most of our neighbors on separate occasions prior to a small gathering last Wednesday evening. Michelle and Jacqueline (pronounced Mee-shell) are our neighbors across the hall. They are the only other mostly full-time residents and are kind of like the condo/HOA president. Michelle has worked as a management consultant in far flung places like New York and Columbus, Ohio. He and Jacqueline also have a place in Geneva and enjoy golf.
We met our neighbor Janet two weeks ago when we got locked out of our place because of the lock breaking. At the evening soiree, we got to meet her husband, the professor, Pierre. Pierre is a linguist and has been teaching in and around the subject of languages for many years. He is now helping Emily and I with our French when we have questions. Pierre speaks, as far as I know, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian and is teaching himself Mandarin. He can read many other languages as well. Emily and I are learning a lot about the nuances of languages from Pierre.
Janet…, Janet is hard to wrap your mind around. If I could put the little exploding head emoji on here, I would probably take the easy way out and just use that as my description for Janet. I am not sure what all Janet has done in her life for work, but suffice to say it has been a variety of things. Now she mainly skis and does long trail runs and apparently enjoys technical downhill running (she’s 72)! Janet is also the person in the know regarding anything going on in the Cham valley. She helped me volunteer for the race Emily did this past Sunday which helped raise money for the local kid’s Nordic team. Janet is also going to help Emily and I get involved in some of the various clubs in the valley, such as the Chamonix Mont-Blanc running club.
The last, but certainly not least, person at our little gathering was the now unfortunately christened, “Downstairs” Chris. Chris has lived in the condo below us for many years, and was previously known simply as Chris. My entry into the condo above her’s resulted in the new nickname. Chris is a serious cyclists and skier. She is going to kill me, er, I mean, take me out for a bike ride sometime in the near future. Although she doesn’t know it just yet, Emily and I are also hoping she will be a guide for us during the ski season.
Our gathering last week had a mixture of French and English along with appropriate translations. It also had a bit of the history of Le Tour and the Cham valley. A wonderful mixture of fresh tomatoes, olives, mozzarella and herbs was served with either wine or Champagne. Emily and I had a wonderful evening and are looking forward to getting to know our neighbors in even more depth as we continue on our adventure.
Instead of Gilligan’s Island, I think we determined our condo is more like a novel. Something along the lines of Fredrik Backman’s, “A man called Ove.” Either way, we hope the story continues for a long time.
Now go out and be consistent.