holed up in sion, waiting for the apricots to ripen

where im sat right now, Bastiens appartment, a beautiful place to be imprisoned.

The problem with fruit picking is its so dependant on the weather, I've been holed up in Sion for 2 weeks now waiting for work and whilst its been quite incredible, I've at least tripled my vocabulary of french and met some beautiful girls. I've finally run out of money. I don't mean that in a 'no money for luxuries' kind of way, I literally have £4 in my bank account and 70cents on the window sill.

vineyards stretch up the hills near sion, nearby to the orchards I soon hope to employed by

Fortunately my friend Bastien (a true Gentleman) isn't asking for any rent but i'm still in a pretty dire situation, with no money for a flight home & a maxed out overdraft I'm playing the waiting game for work. Some people in a situation like this would accept defeat but I'm no quitter.

So far I've busked in Sion on market day making about 15francs an hour and yesterday me and some friends cleaned the bar we frequent for a bottle of gin & a magnificent meal of canard, champignon, pomme de terre and ratatouille cooked by the owner who grew up in southern france explaining his cooking prowess.

The difference between the UK and Switzerland is its so much easier to have fun without spending money, I've been hiking in the mountains, swimming in freshwater lakes and enjoying live music almost every night.

2000 metres or so up with my Valaisian friends, Elda, Frederic, Yan and Oila

This weekend an incredibly talented Parisien musician and his girlfriend Stephan Lipiansky AKA Lafayette Young stayed with us for 3 nights at Bastiens appartment on Friday playing a night of amazing music a La Grenette (the aforementioned bar, the only one I know with a lobster on the ceiling and an owner who serves me suze in pint glasses) I had a great time speaking with them and I urge you to check out the music on his myspace. deep brooding voice, beautiful lyrics and a distinct guitar style that make me want to give up playing myself and cut off my hands. The one song he performed with his girl fired synapses wildly in my brain as the harmonies cut through the night air and the sound of falling rain.

The same night I enjoyed the music and company of Pierre & Marie a musical & romantic duo who play Belle and Sebastien-esque (hate grouping people together, they have their own sound but you get the gist) folk pop which I fell in love almost immediately.
Pierre started finger picking, tapping his converse and Marie acommpanied him with a cornucopia of wind instruments and occasionally a tambourine and cutesy dance. taking everybody on the bar on a sorrowful ecstatic adventure through life.
The next day Me and Bastien spent the day with the two parisian couples walking, drinking wine and eating some traditional swiss food (a beef cottage pie style dish & of course... fondue.) I've developed quite a passion for good fondue accompanied with white wine and the second best I've tasted was that day at Cafe des Chateuax in the old town district of Sion. The best continues to be served at Cafe Du Midi (Martigny, Valais)

crazy cacti spring up in the swiss mountains and wilt in the blazing sun

As always I've got so much to write but my attention span has already left me bored of what I have already spilled out of my brain so before I delete everything I'm going to post this entry and try to write another soon, remember open your eyes and look around you.
Stay Safe
Sam

Back In Switzerland For The Apricots

I couldn't stay away forever but obviously being the ridiculously skint student that I am, I had to get a job in Switzerland to visit again.

The problem with working en suisse is the outrageous language barrier. My french vocabulaire is limited mostly to fruits, stationary, shop names and numbers (everything I learnt in school) this left me pretty stumped last night when I tried to have a conversation about gallerie du rhone with a dude in a bar especially when it turned out he was Italian.

Fortunately in summer Switzerland has a ton of jobs involving menial labour without much french necessary. My friend Bastien who I am staying with called up a few places and asked around to see if anyone needed a skinny english kid to help them pick fruit.

It turns out they were happy to take me, surprisingly most people don't want to spend 10 hours a day in the blistering sun picking fruit from row after row of trees. Personally I couldn't see it being worse than being stuck in a stuffy office filing mounds of meaningless paperwork (my only alternative job offer in England)

Anyway to cut a long boring story short. I got the job, booked a flight, caught a plane to Geneva and hopped a train to Sion (Capital of the Swiss state of Valais, a popular tourist destination with a thriving cafe culture) and thats where I am right now, sunk into a leather sofa drinking coffee and listening to church bells ring out from the 3 churches nearby. Its a hard life riding the wave of my youth pushing my luck to the last minute.

I should have started work on the 8th but apparently the apricots that im going to be picking won't be ripe enough until the 15th so until then im trying to conserve my last 40 francs (difficult when a beer is 5.80 and you can't get a coffee for under 4, necessities you understand.)