keep it like a secret

Last night we went around to R. and M.'s place for dinner, our very first social engagement with them. R. said something to us on our way out, after four hours and about as many bottles of wine: "Basel is really the only small town worth living in anymore. It's true. Whenever I go back to Berlin or Vienna, I'm always a little desperate because it takes so long to get anywhere."

And today I had breakfast with Se. after what felt like an age - and was likely at least a year - and our time together stretched until 4 pm. We walked along the Rhine to the Museum Tinguely to see the Situationist International exhibition. The water was turgid after all the storms we've been having, but that didn't stop dozens of intrepid swimmers. After we left the museum, we stuck close to the river, stopping for ice cream before camping out at the Schmale Wurf for Panaches and cigarettes, the first I've had in months. She said that she felt that Basel was the best kept secret and that she didn't want to tell anyone because she doesn't want it to change. Then again, her friends in Paris won't come and visit her here. The rest of Europe loathes Switzerland because, as she put it, "their biggest problem here is boredom."