Another beautiful meal at the Beau Rivage, Catherine and Werner's favorite restaurant in Thun, and one of the best meals I have ever had. I really must remember to take my camera if we are to go again (which I am sure we will as we have gone three times already), for the food is always as beautiful as it is delicious, and the owner always places nice flowers on the table since Catherine and Werner have been going there since the restaurant opened 10 years ago.

Yesterday we had delicious beef with mushrooms and asparagus with a goat cheese cream sauce accompanied by a delectably sinful risotto and preceded by grilled shrimp. For dessert was a symphony of little bites of everything, creme brulee and chocolate mousse and ice cream and truffles galore, and followed by the requisite espresso and limoncello. The waitstaff is so friendly here and reminds me very much of my time in Italy a few years back.

Today Werner joked with me more: he told me that when one of the waiters says 'How do you do?', I am to say (I cannot remember the words in German) that he can spank my bottom. He had quite a laugh hearing me repeat the words--although I repeated them only to him, not the waiter of course. Afterwards, a man who looked like the now infamous Dominique Strauss-Kahn entered the restaurant and Werner told me to draw nearer to him if he happens to pass our table.
I so love being here. Even just driving through the little villages in the rain brought me such joy.



One of the oldest houses in Bern.

The gorgeous blue-green Thunersee ('See' meaning 'lake' in German, just a bit confusing for the English speaker)

I watched Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina for the first time a couple days ago and upon its conclusion (or even at its beginning) I could not believe that I had never seen it before. It is a most beautiful story, with just the right amount of predictability and suspense and the most extraordinary of characters. I should very much like to feel like Sabrina--a willful stubborness that gives way to a graceful sophistication and yet never lacking in imagination and a desire to always aspire to more than mediocrity.