Wednesday, April 9, 2014

H is for... Helvetica, and Heights

H is for... Helvetica.

Helvetica, which means Swiss in Latin, is a typeface designed in 1957. Then there's the Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin name for Switzerland. And then there's Helvetia, the female national personification of the country:

Helvetia in the Jardin d'anglais
From Wikipedia: "The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing gown, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Swiss flag, and commonly with braided hair, commonly with a wreath as a symbol of confederation.
The name is a derivation of the ethnonym Helvetii, the name of the Gaulish tribe inhabiting the Swiss Plateau prior to the Roman conquest."

His also for heights!


We took a drive up to St Cergue, on the foothills of the Jura mountains. The temperature dropped five degrees Celsius on the way up!


If we'd gone a little higher, we would have seen snow -- but I had enough of that back in Montreal!

From there we drove down toward the village of Gland, which is near Michael Schumacher's estate and ranch, and where apparently Phil Collins has a house. It's also near the UEFA headquarters.

In the afternoon we stopped by a bakery that had some inspirational sweets:

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