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A Weekend in Paris; Not So Romantic Trip...

Avenue des Champs-Élysées What to say about Paris ? A beautiful city in the eyes of us but with a "sinister" underground life! Romantic but full of darkness, life full of romance but with violence touch. Well last week, we decided to go to Paris despite: The riots  The bombing;  The forecasted heavy rain and wind...  Notre Dame Cathedral Well, frankly, the threats of riots and bombings were not an obstacle, but the weather was bad! We started our journey from home around 4am going to Paris using the scenic roads instead of highways.  We used the St Cergue road to the border of La Cure (between Swiss and France on Jura) snow showered heavily but it was quite lovely because you can see the flawless and whiteness of the snow. Because it was so heavy you can't see clearly what was in front of you. The snow was still virgin with no evidence of tampering by humans or animals at 2am! But it was quite eerie. We arrived at Paris around 1p...

C.E.R.N meneroka alam ciptaan tuhan

Sebenarnya banyak perkara yang hendak dicoretkan. Kalau boleh pada hari itu juga. Tapi kelemahan manusia (saya la tu!), tidak pandai mencuri masa. Oleh itu, guna alasan tidak berkesempatan dan sibuk dengan urusan kerja. My bad.  C.E.R.N sepanjang 27km di sempadan Switzerland-Perancis Hari ini saya nak mencoret tentang C.E.R.N. C.E.R.N? apa tu? Kepada ahli ekonomi, cikgu, pegawai bank, jurujual, pemandu, peniaga, perkataan C.E.R.N mungkin agak pelik. Tapi cuba tanya ahli fizik atau mereka yang belajar atau minat fizik  C.E.R.N adalah tempat 'idaman' untuk dilawati. C.E.R.N memiliki sebuat makmal kajian partikel fizik yang terbesar di dunia. Besarnya melangkaui dua bandar di dua buah negara--Switzerland dan Perancis. Masuk melalui pintu sebelah Perancis, boleh keluar melalui pintu satu lagi di negara Switzerland. Sebenarnya, saya dan rakan mendapat peluang menjejakkan kaki ke C.E.R.N apabila rakan diplomat dari Filipina memaklumkan bahawa suaminya yang bekerja di  C....

Here We Go... Colmar, France

Middle week August 2007, while visiting Wan (Muzalmah's mom) at Grand Saconnex before her journey home to Malaysia, our friends invited us for a trip to Colmar. It was a hasty decision on our end with Abahnya just came back from Malaysia and then, our Citroen C4 has not been serviced yet. However, it was a very satisfying journey. Colmar is so beautiful. No wonder who-is-the-millionaire-in-malaysia decided to create a twin city of Colmar at Bukit Tinggi.  Initially, we decided to go to both Strasbourg and Colmar but we did not manage to cover both. So we decided to go to Colmar only. In total, we had a convoy of 6 cars going to Colmar. So far it was the largest group of people from Geneva travelling together.  A bit info on Colmar:  Colmar is a town and commune in the Haut-Rhin département of Alsace, France. In 1999 Colmar had a population of 65,136. Colmar was founded in the 9th century. This was the location where Charles the Fat held a diet in 884. Colmar ...

My First Car: The Swiss Style!

On January 2007, upon arriving at the Aeroport de Geneve, we were awaited by Aida Shafinaz, one of the MITI officer currently resided in Geneve.  She took us to the parking lot dedicated for diplomats having the CD-plate no.  My first impression was "Oh my God! how small is the parking place! For a few weeks, we have to rely on public transportation since we were required to have proper ID to qualify us to buy a car.  In the meantime, we went from one garage to another to look for a used car for us to use. We were planning to have two cars so that I could independently use as my "supir" function. The proceeds of our disposal of our car and motorbike in Malaysia was then used to buy the used car in cash and we would resort to take loans for another car.  Our budget was somewhat around CHF4,000 to CHF5,000.  No more and no less than that and it must be an automatic car! We used online business search such as  http://www.autoscout24.ch/fr/voiture ...

Winter in Chamonix, France

During our first year in Geneva, the snow still shy away from us. After the last snow fall, there was no more snow, Ashraf asked again n again for snow but it refused to snow again! So, what now!! We need to chase the snow for him rasanya... One day, as if answering our bequest, our friend asked us to join them for a ski trip and this wouldbe our second trip out of Geneva. Since, we are car-less yet, we car pooled with kak Normah while Izan & Hairil in their Citroen.  This time we headed for a small, ski town of Chamonix which is famous for its majestic Mont Blanc (the White Mountain!!). Chamonix is just located 1 hour drive south of Geneva through the French highway A40 or known as the Blanche highway. I was so fascinated with the trip here because most of the time, we have to go over so many bridges or known as viaducts along the highway. In fact, the bridges are very, very tall along the mountainside.  Among the viaducts that we have passed are Viaduct des Egra...