Our Swiss friends Laure and Stephane had returned to their home in Gretchen Switzerland, and had invited us to visit if we didn’t end up being able to sail that summer. We checked in with them and a plan was formed. We booked tickets via “Captain Train” which was the cheapest way to buy the tickets, (even though train travel throughout Europe is very convenient, it is not cheap!), and they would collect us at the station at Lake Neuchatel. They would be caravan camping with the kid’s when we arrived as they were running the official scale at a tractor pull that weekend, near Chevroux. This sounded fantastic as we had never been to a Swiss tractor pull and were looking forward to camping out in their van and watching the competition.
In the early evening before we left for Switzerland, 2 of the young carpenters Florian and Luric stopped by to see how we were doing, and invited us for beers at their favorite local bar 10 minutes away in Cabestany. “VB’s” was a great place, selling a huge selection of beers and wines, and had outdoor tables and a Boules court. 
We spent a fun few hours hanging out and meeting some of their friends, a few of whom spoke English, and watching the Boules match (both of the lads were very skilled at this and Florian had about 6 sets in the boot of his car from winning various matches). It was good to be reminded that there were still a lot of nice folks around and that our recent experience did not need to over cloud our stay in France.