Today, I took a day off to apply for my chinese visa. I need one for my next trip in China. So I went to Berne, because the embassy of China is there.
After 1 and 1/2 hour in train, and 30 minutes by walk in 15 cm of snow, I found the embassy in the end. The room is too small, so many people, and the chinese guy was too slow. I hope you don’t have to go there once
My friend will return there soon to take our visas, because it’s impossible to the visa by post….welcome to China and their rules !

After that, it was a good opportunity to stay in the Swiss-German part, so I decided to go in Lucerne (1 hour by train from Berne).
I spent half day with Corinne, a friend who live near Lucerne. It was my first time in Lucerne, very nice small city. I think this city is one of the most touristic city in Switzerland. We saw so many tourist, especially Chinese people (hmm) !
I really liked my time there, happy to see her again ! I will return this summer to make a cruise on Lake Lucerne…and I will visit Grutli, the place where Switzerland was born in 1291.

After my trip in Belgium last year, where I visited Chris (or here , I’m very happy to spend few days with in Switzerland.
He stayed three days near Lucerne (german part of Switzerland) where he has also visited Zurich. After that, he joined me in Geneva where he was impressed by the Geneva Water Fountain
We also visited Lausanne, and have been to the Valais. The Valais is one of the most beautiful region ^[1] in Switzerland in you like mountains, and snow in Winter. The weather was not so good (raining and snowing day), but we had great time, especially the nightlife !

I really would like to thank him for his visit ! See you soon Chris…

The firefighters from Geneva Airport made a great clip :

It’s a famous song of Michael Youn in France. Sorry for people who do not understand french
I really like this clip !

Tout le monde a entendu parlé du fameux déménagement de Johnny Hallyday en Suisse (à Gstaad), et les nombreuses réactions des politiciens français à ce sujet.
Un de plus me diriez-vous ? En effet, Johnny n’est pas la première star à faire le pas. Alain Delon, Charles Aznavour, encore des sportifs comme Alain Prost, Guy Forget, Richard Virenque, Amélie Mauresmo, Sébastien Loeb, … habitent déjà en Suisse.
Mêmes certains célèbres avocats de la place genevoise (dont Me Charles Poncet) se permettent d’ajouter : L’État français fait beaucoup pour la prospérité de nos cantons, mais la Suisse n’est pas le seul pays d’accueil, il y a aujourd’hui une grande concurrence entre les différents exils.

Mais alors, pourquoi tant de stars en Suisse ? La réponse se trouve dans système fiscal français, l’imposition y est beaucoup trop lourde. L’ISF, ou l’Impôt Sur la Fortune, n’est plus adapté !

Et pourquoi Mme Royal se permet-elle de critiquer la Suisse, alors que le problème n’a rien avoir avec la Suisse ? Peut-être parce que la course à la présidentielle a comencé et que tous les coups sont permis !
Croyez-vous que des commentaires comme Si Ségolène Royal est élue, le Parti socialiste français prévoit de mettre sur pied un groupe de trois ou quatre grands pays européens pour remettre la pression sur la Suisse soient corrects ? NON, c’est inadmissible !
Ou encore d’accuser (via son porte-parole Arnaud Montebour) la Confédération suisse, qui sont ses dirs pratique un dumping fiscal qui cause préjudice à la France.
Selon ce brave Monsieur, cette concurrence exercée par la Suisse a des répercussions en France, où le taux moyen de l’impôt sur les sociétés est en baisse constante, avec des conséquences sur les impôts payés par le citoyen lambda.
L’ensemble des affirmations qui attaquent la Suisse sont disponibles ici. Ca vaut le détour !

La France est, à mon avis, très mal placée pour donner des leçons ! Et pourquoi la France ne s’attaque pas d’abord aux pays de l’Union Européenne comme la Belgique, l’Angleterre ou le Luxembourg qui pratiquent des rabais fiscaux encore plus avantageux que la Suisse.
Comme le dit Laszlo Molnar dans l’éditorial du Matin d’aujourd’hui :

L’Union européenne, faut-il le rappeler, a été bâtie sur la libre circulation des personnes et des capitaux. Johnny, comme d’autres, ont donc justement le droit de s’installer où il veut, n’en déplaise à M. Montebourg. En surtout, la Suisse n’est pas membre de cette Union, jusqu’à nouvel avis…

En bref, c’est à la France de mettre en place un système qui lui permettrait de récolter sa part sur les recettes engrangées par ces différentes industries sur son sol avant qu’elles n’aient se placer sur des comptes mieux gérés et plus profitables à l’étranger.

Et pour finir la conclusion de Pascal Comas dans son excellent article :

Espérons donc que l’exil de Johnny va contribuer a un véritable débat sur cette question, et si cela ne suffit pas, il serait fort utile que d’autres riches célèbres lui emboitent rapidement le pas avec force publicité : ils rendraient un service à la patrie !

Le problème est bien là ! C’est au governement français de faire quelque chose, et n’ont pas à la Suisse de se faire attaquer par celui-ci !

One year ago, I remember my very good Christmas dinner in a French-Japanese restaurant with Chistophe and Martin in Cairns.
My first Christmas day with more than 40 degrees, funny clothes for people who live in the northern hemisphere and great nightlife…I really miss it !

Anyway, I wish you a merry christmas !

Yesterday evening, I visited the Airport Security Service of Geneva airport (Service de Sécurité de l’Aéroport – SSA in French) with my firefighters team. It was very interesting, Their needs are very different than ours, so their fire equipment is also very different. The most impressive is their fire trucks :

• Weight : 38 tons
• Water capacity : 10 thousand litres
• Foam capacity : 1’200 litres
• Throw : 5’300 litres/min
• Engine Power : 1’000 hp
• Max Speed : 140 km/h

I was lucky, because I could see a demonstration of this fire truck. So you can find a small movie and few pictures here.

After three weeks, I finished my fireman or firefighter (more common) school ! It was very interesting, I learnt many differents things about fire, rescue, life-saving, flood, chainsaw, …

I passed my theoretical exam last Wednesday, and today my practical exam. The most intensive practice was the House of fire, more than 1200 degrees inside the house, heaps of smoke. The heat was very hot, but with a fire jacket, it was ok. The worst thing was the smoke, I could not see anyting and the smoke gets into my eyes. I stayed around 10 minutes inside the house.

I took some souvenirs for you, so you can find few pictures and movies on my new gallery.

Yesterday was the beginning of my fireman school. 30 people are following this school, with 5 girls. Every person come from different communes^[1] of the Canton of Geneva.
During three weeks, I will do different exercices with the most popular : House of fire. You can find few pictures here

Sometimes it is funny, because some people (from rich communes like Vandœuvres or Cologny) are the last fire equipment (new boots, new fire jacket, …). I do not come from a rich commune, so I have not the last equipment, but it does not matter, it is a very good equipment !

Swiss National Day ^[1] celebrates the time when the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden formed the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1291 against the Habsburg, who had revoked their independent status of reichsfreiheit and instated government with reeves in 1273.
It was first instated in 1891 when the city of Bern wanted to celebrate its 700 year anniversary. It is celebrated each year on August 1st with town-wide paper lantern parades, bonfires, hanging strings of swiss flags and fireworks ^[2].
I worked with the firefighters of my village (few pictures). After the bonfire, some firefighters had a little problem with fire, but without incident ^[3].

It was yesterday the second big party in Switzerland after Street Parade in Zurich : Lake Parade in Geneva !
It’s a techno openair party, in the center of Geneva ! More than 15 lovemobile ^[1] sound systems.
It was a great party, the weather was very good, so I saw many crazy or funny clothes, sometimes very small !
But why I wrote international in the title ? Because you can see many people from different cultures. Some “crazy” people dance behind the lovemobiles, some people look the “crazy” people
I met some people from Philippine, Japan, Vietnam, China, … but you can also see many African people. Don’t ask me about European people
I took many many pictures as usual…I put the best of my new gallery ! Take time to see all pictures !