Memories of Motier

When I was first in Switzerland I lived in Môtiers, a tiny village in the Vals de Travers between Neuchâtel and the French border. I describe it as having 600 people, 6000 cows and 6 million flowers, which was more or less accurate and as a city girl I fell in love with country life. Never before had I been awakened to cow bells as their bearers marched down the street on their way to pasture next to where I was living.

Today I found its website http://www.motiers.ch/ and I was transported back to the village with its fête des fountains (check out the photo with the gnomes – it is on top of a fountain) where once a year each neighbourhood decorates the fountain closest to it. I could almost hear the waterfall where Jean-Jacques Rousseau pondered weighty topics. I visited the cave where champagne was distilled in the old abbey. Before a dinner party I would lead guests to it and we would sample what I would buy for our apero. And I saw the fields where my chins Albert and Amadeus played. I couldn’t help remember the time they routed out a soldier hiding behind a hay roll as part of his military exercises. Less pleasant was the memory of Albert fresh from his bath rolling in a fresh cow patty. He was proud of his new odor, I rebathed him.

Today has been a day lived in my imagination and memory. Tomorrow I will live once again in real time. But then, I may also take a real-time visit to the village and stock up on my Mauler & Cie champagne even if it can’t call itself champagne officially it tastes just as good.