Savoie France with the Groffs

By: leelefever on November 6, 2006 - 1:33am

Early on the trip, I got an email from a person calling himself JFG and saying that he was working on a new project related to travel and was a fan of TwinF.  Further, he said that if we were ever near the French-Swiss border to let him know – that we had a place to stay.

Over the last couple of days we took him up on his offer and spent a couple of days with him, Jean François Groff, his wife wonderful Masumi and their sons August and James (and lovable dog Yu). Coincidentally, we were married on the exact same day and the women of both couples are Japanese (Sachi being half).

Apart from staying in a charming French house in the French Alps and eating delicious food with the family, I got a chance to geek out with someone who I learned is a true Internet pioneer.  In short, JF was a member of Tim Berners Lee’s team at CERN that originated the World Wide Web that we all use today.  He was there at the very, very beginning when Tim worked at the office beside his.  Today he is the CTO of Netvibes – a handy web site that brings together all sorts of information from the web in one place.  So, it was a pleasure to speak geek with someone who has seen it all happen and is into exciting things now.

Apart from the geeking out, our time with them also made us a bit envious.  Not because of their house or cars or anything material.  We were envious because they have a warm and lively home – something that we have been without for 328 days now.  Seeing their everyday life made us miss home a bit more and look forward to our arrival by the end of the year. 


We owe the Groffs a big thanks for their hospitality and hope we can return the favor in Seattle some day. 

Here are some photos from a walk we took just outside their home in Savoie…

This was shot from their front porch...

 These are from the charming town of Annecy, France...

 

 

 


Post From: Annecy, FR
Dang! No other posts from this city.