Every year, around August, the same thing happens. You pack your bags to return to Switzerland after your holiday in Spain, and there comes a moment when you realise it won’t all fit. The ham goes in first. Always the ham. Then the olive oil – you can get it here, but it’s not the same or it costs twice as much. The chorizo, the black pudding, the paprika from your home region. If you have children, the biscuits you can’t find here. If you don’t, a liqueur from the region you’re from. The seasonal clothes that were on sale in Spain. The shoes that you know nobody in Switzerland will be selling in the same way.
Weighing your suitcase at home before heading to the airport has almost become a sport in itself. You take things out, put things in, weigh it again. You work out whether to pay the excess charge or spread the weight across your hand luggage. The family knows the drill. Mum has been putting things aside for weeks. The family WhatsApp group has had a list of requests since mid-July. Some people have spent years perfecting the logistics of this annual operation and know exactly what goes in the checked-in luggage, what goes in the hand luggage and what gets sent by post if there’s time.
Over the years, some things change. In big cities, there are Spanish shops where you can find quite a lot. Imported products have improved. But there are certain foods that, no matter how hard you look, you’ll never find quite the same here. It’s not nostalgia. It’s just that they taste different. And that, even if you’ve been in Switzerland for twenty years, never goes away.