Masami's Japanese friend has been living in Lucerne with her Swiss husband and their beautiful daughter for the past 2.5 years. We wanted to see them before their move to Pennsylvania in the next few months, and therefore traveled directly from Paris to Switzerland. Visiting the remainder of France will come another day.

The saying goes, "In heaven everything is organized by the Swiss". From Paris, we sent an e-mail asking if it would be OK to visit from July 1. The Swiss husband responded that a room at the Backpackers Lucerne had been reserved, that he'd meet us on the train platform when we arrive, and that he could take us to a Swiss festival the following day. Like the French chefs, Swiss organization met the saying.

Lucerne is a small city with an old section that's interesting for a day stroll. The annual Swiss festival was also interesting in that it was a unique collection of Swiss culture grouped into a slow moving parade. However, we were most impressed with Masami's friend's daughter's vocabulary. At age 2, she speaks comprehensible Swiss-German, Japanese, and English. She would immediately respond in the language used by the questioner. She spoke to her father in German and her mother in Japanese. She spoke to Masami in Japanese, and she didn't know what to make of Wes who talked to her in Japanese and English.