Goddamit! Today I found a photo of my old summer boarding school in Switzerland on the net: Les Volets Jaunes (The Yellow shutters) in Chateau d´Oex - near Montreux. Oh memories!
Situated in a beautiful valley near Lake Geneva the Les Volets Jaunes boarding school taught English and French - and manners - to teenagers from all over Europe. School regime was very strict with the boy´s dorm on the upper floor and the girl´s on the lower. "Instructive games" were played at night - well chaperoned by the teachers. BUT we had fun! And we surely learned about languages, each other and... some realities of life:The French teacher who used to chase the girls down the alp slopes with an Edelweiss stuck behind his ear, happily joodeling!
Towards the end of the term, I could not stand the strict regime anymore - being Swedish and all that - and escaped from the school and hitched down to the Riviera. In a red wide brimmed hat. Being 16 years old. Hm. Adventure started to beacon..Later on this trip, I by accident run into my favourite cousin Bitte in Basel, and we made Europe together until we finally reached Stockholm Central station (we got friendly with a train conductor and managed to hitch another free ride in a sleeping compartment all the way to Copenhagen) our fathers were there (they were brothers) to pick us up! Smiling- but shaking their heads! " Our wild daughters" they seemed to say while they hugged us.. I guess they were happy we were all in one piece.
Anyway, I just found out that Les Volets Jaunes has been transformed to a hotel these days. The bording school days of strict regimes are now gone.
However:
How I would love to go there and check into my old room once more!And to practise a bit of the long forgotten joodeling skills of youth..
