Then I became Iranian by marriage. Matters of languages and multicultural life got even more complicated. Meanwhile my husband and I have three children and still live in Switzerland. For my living I work as a handcraft teacher, a job I love very much.
When our kids got older, we decided it was time for them to get to know their third home country Iran (after Switzerland and France). The decision wasn’t an easy one considering all the negative reports about Iran in our medias. But after detailed research, we finally made up our minds to go for it.

First trip to Iran
So at last, thirteen years after our marriage I went on my first journey to Iran. That was in the year 2005. At the time our kids were still quite young. We wanted to celebrate Noruz, the Persian New Year in Tehran with the family. We did what most Iranians living abroad do: we went to live with my husband’s family and spent most of the time of our stay by visiting endless relatives in and around Tehran. There I got to know my husband’s huge family and the life of an Iranian woman as a member of the clan. It was for sure a stunning and very new experience, but apart from that I still hadn’t seen much of the country.

Second trip
The year after that we went on a second trip to Iran. This time we planned to take the kids north of Tehran to the coast of the Caspian Sea. Instead, I found myself suddenly engaged in the marriage bazaar, I met even more relatives, and we visited the zoo and some parks in Tehran. Once more our lives had been taken over by the clan and we hadn’t seen much of the country.
At that time, I was pregnant with our third child and in the following years we renounced further Iran travel. Instead we spent holidays by the Mediterranean Sea in summer, in the Swiss mountains in winter or travelling around my other home country, France.

Getting to see more of the country
In 2013, however, we decided it was time to give the country another chance. Now the kids were old enough to be aware of what they saw. This time we entered the country at the Airport in Shiraz and went sightseeing for the first time.
I still can remember the moment when I finally lost my heart to this country: We entered the Bagh-e Eram in Shiraz and immediately found ourselves in the quiet and restfull athmosphere of a persian garden. And then we discovered in front of us the turquoise pool with the white garden pavilion behind it. It was like a dream right out of Thousand and One Nights in the middle of the noisy and busy city. The beauty and tranquility of the moment went straight into my heart.
In the three short days we spent in Shiraz, we visited the sublime ruins of the ancient cities of Pasargadae and Persepolis, we travelled through arid desert areas and rugged mountain landscapes, we saw magnificent sunsets, wonderful palaces, and again and again extremely polite, interested and hospitable people. Still on the flight home it was clear that we would have to come back to see more of this country.

We have to come again
Isfahan, Nain, Yazd and Kashan were our next destinations. Here we found the impressive aesthetics of the bridges and palaces of Isfahan, the quiet beauty of the desert city of Yazd and the fascination of the Persian Paradise Garden in Kashan.
Since then we travel once a year to Iran. Each of these trips is carefully planned and each time we come back very enthusiastic and so rich with many new experiences. We have managed to find a good mixture between sightseeing and visiting the extended family.
Year after year, piece by piece, like a puzzle, I complete and expand my picture of this complex, fascinating but also strange and sometimes incomprehensible country and its inhabitants, and every time I look forward to the next journey.

Our journeys so far:

2005: Tehran - Karaj

2006: Tehran - Shomal

2013: Shiraz - Persepolis - Tehran

2015: Isfahan - Nain - Meybod - Yazd - Kashan - Tehran

2016: Kerman - Mahan - Bam - Dasht-e Lut - Tehran

2017: Tehran - Damavand - Dasht-e Kavir - Abyane - Kashan

2018: Tehran - Hamedan - Bisotun - Kermanshah

2019: Tehran - Khorramabad - Shush - Ahvaz - Abadan - Shushtar - Andimeshk - Dorud - Borujerd