Well, Jasmin and I are in Switzerland! I got to Geneva yesterday afternoon, checked in, and, you guessed it, went to the UN! It was so cool to actually visit the Palais de Nations, which was once home to the League of Nations. I took a tour and saw two amazing committee rooms (Human Rights Council and Disarmament committee), both with artwork by Spanish artists.
I met two German sisters on the tour, one who was doing an internship in the UN office for sport, and they told me that I was in time for Geneva’s biggest festival, which was happening this weekend. I had no idea it was on, so I think we were just incredibly lucky with the timing! More about that in a second.
I also visited the International Red Cross Museum while I was waiting for the UN tour (it’s just across the road). They have records of all the WW1 and 2 prisoners of war in huge cabinets, on index cards. It was a sober museum, but I learnt a lot. A highlight was seeing an original draft of the Geneva Convention, which was on display.
It was dark by the time I was done, so I waited to meet Jasmin (who was flying in from Manchester). We went out for dinner at a Swiss place and had roestis, which were cheesy, but tasty.
Today we planned our day around the festival, which commemorates the city being saved by a woman cooking vegetable soup late one night in 1602. She saw the Duke of Savoy’s army scaling (hence the festival name, L’Escalade) the city walls, and poured the hot soup over them (and then presumably alerted the army). Today’s celebrations were for the city’s victory over the invaders, which involved historical reenactments, musket and cannon fire displays, lots of people in costume and lots of horses. (The chocolate version of the woman’s pot with marzipan vegetables in it is a traditional festival food! We bought one each, but haven’t opened it yet! They look like this:)
But before we went to the festival (which started around 2), we visited a flea market and picked up what are now our week-long trip mascots, The Russians. We found a matryoshka doll of Gorbachev, which has Brezhnev, then Khruschov, Stalin, and finally a teeny tiny Lenin inside.
They have already had some adventures (Stalin tried to ”escalade” the Reformation Wall and Lenin was shot out of the jet d’eau), and will probably provide amusement for much of the next week.
Right, so we went down to the Lake, and saw the flower clock, and the jet d’eau, which normally only operates in summer, but which was on for the festival. We grabbed a quick lunch, then went back into the Old Town for some festival fun.
We began by following guys dressed in 17th century clothes holding muskets to the square in front of Saint Peter’s Cathedral, to see (and hear, boy could you hear it!) a live cannon and musket display.
We also saw a trumpet troupe perform in the Catherdral, and groups of drummers and flautists playing in the street. There were men on horseback prancing around and no matter where you walked in the Old Town, you could hear music and occassionally the sound of cannon fire! We drank spiced hot apple juice and ate apple tart, then watched a blacksmith’s display (making a sword and horseshoes). The whole atmosphere was amazing, with kids dressed up running around and Scout groups with their woggles playing games, people eating and laughing. I really really enjoyed the whole thing!
Once we’d seen pretty much everything, we headed back to the Lake, and saw the most spectacular sunset! It was like stepping into a watercolour painting, especially with the Alps all around.
We walked back to the hotel, relaxed for a bit, then went back out for dinner, as well as to check out the night lights on the lake. Tomorrow we’re off to Zurich, but might spend the morning looking around a bit more first. It has been a fantastic day, especially since we were so lucky in coming across the festival!
Posted in Europe, Food, Switzerland
Tagged explore, festival, food, friends, Geneva, L'Escalade, sunset, Switzerland, travel
I just got back after spending Sunday/Monday in Paris! We had such a short time there, and I still really wanted to see the Paris Opera and the Palace of Versailles, so I booked train tickets and a hotel and just did it. Because Chasselay is about an hour away from Lyon, we went to the city on Saturday and visited the Art Gallery. There was a great room with still life paintings of flowers, and I saw another Degas!
After the gallery, we had some time to kill before meeting Amandine’s friend, whose apartment we were staying at, so we went to this amazing bakery/teahouse and I had a ‘peasant apple tart’ and the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had! It was made from real, fresh cocoa beans, and was to die for! We met up with Amandine’s boyfriend Simon too, before finally getting to the apartment. We went out pretty much straight away again, on to a goodbye party for 2 of Simon’s friends who were, funnily enough, flying to Australia on Monday! I met some really nice people, and the bar was in Lyon’s arty area, which basically meant it was a really good night! We picked up a burger meal from Quick, the French Maccas, on the way back and crashed, not looking forward to the 7am wake up call.
Somehow we dragged our butts out of bed, and Amandine walked me to the station (Lyon Part-Dieu) for my 8am train to Paris. Once I arrived, I went straight to the Paris Opera (also known as the Palais Garnier). Ok, more later, gotta go!
A quick update – yesterday was a really really awesome day! Not only did it SNOW, but I got my Honours results back, and am graduating with First Class Honours!!!!!! I couldn’t believe it, it was so exciting to see the email, after all that work. To celebrate, Amandine and I went out into the snow and mucked around, and took a walk through the village, which was really beautiful. It was the first time I touched real snow, so it was really special for me. And, to top it all off, there was homemade custard and raspberry cake waiting for us when we got back (seriously the best cake ever – Amandine’s Dad is a baker, and he really knows his stuff!). Such a perfect day!
Today I decided to stay at Amandine’s parents’ house and rest rather than go on an overnight trip into Lyon proper, especially with a 6am start. It’s been a lovely lazy day and I’m feeling a lot better not having to go out into the cold. It was really nice to sleep in as well after being so busy in Paris.
So, Paris. The other thing that I loved about the Louvre was that, for someone who doesn’t know much about art, there are so many pieces there that you can learn what you like and why. For example, I found that a lot of still life pieces stood out for me as really beautiful:
The one above reminded me of my grandparents’s old house on the Central Coast of NSW – I think it’s because they always had seashells in the bathroom.
Anyway, we saw the Winged Victory (she was magnificent, really quite awe-inspiring), the Venus de Milo (which, incidentally should be the Aphrodite de Milo as Venus is Roman not Greek), and, of course, the Mona Lisa. Even though it was winter there was a crowd in front of her, and I’d been told how small she is, so wasn’t disappointed. We spend nearly 4 hours exploring, and apart from the Italian and French painting galleries, we saw a lot of the Egyptian gallery and some of the sculpture ‘garden’, which I found I could appreciate more than some of the paintings. I got pretty excited when it started snowing lightly outside too.
We decided to go to the Champs-Elysees before dinner, as it is lit up in the evenings in the lead up to Christmas. We tried to find the Metro as it was still snowing a bit (I was excited, but we only had one u,brella and it was cold), but in our search, we actually ended up walking the whole way anyway! So we browsed the Christmas stalls, and had a cup of hot mulled wine to warm up (it was delicious!).
We walked all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe, browsing in some shops along the way, and I found Ladurée! One of my missions in Paris was achieved – I got 8 amazing macaroons!
We ended up going back to Arts et Métiers for dinner, and I tried escargot for the first time! I actually really liked it, and the French ravioli I had for a main was to die for! The food here really is amazing!
On Saturday morning, we grabbed breakfast on the run and walked to the Bastille to see the art markets that Thea recommended. I like to buy a piece of art from each country that I visit, so this was a good chance to find something from France. I ended up getting two prints (the artist had already sold the originals of the ones I liked) of Parisienne balconies, which is what I loved most about the city. The lady was a bit nutty, but that was kinda cool and added to the experience.
From there, we wandered down to where Victor Hugo lived, in an apartment within a giant square of buildings. We didn’t actually know which one he lived in, but it was so cool to see buildings like that for the first time.
We had lunch in a Japanese restaurant after trying to find a street Amandine had eaten on before she went to Mali (we couldn’t find it), and I had a throwback to my childhood by drinking Orangina. The rest of the day was spent at the Musée D’Orsay (another excellent Thea recommendation), where I was completely blown away to see the originals of Degas’s ballerinas. Unlike the Louvre, photos aren’t allowed, but I really enjoyed seeing a lot of the impressionist works. The only disappointment was that the majority of the Monet collection was touring at the National Gallery, which we didn’t have time to get to, but it was a great afternoon wandering between works by Gaugin, Van Gough, Renoir and Degas, to name a few.
We were both exhausted by this point, so went back and had dinner at a lovely little restaurant (the decor was really nice), and this time I had veal liver with an apple sauce, to be adventurous. We ate very well in Paris, I think. I ended up buying another coat too, while we were looking for bags for Amandine. This one is orange tartan, and it’s really warm!
Yesterday was our last day, with the rushed visit to the Eiffel Tower (we didn’t have time to go to the top, only to the middle level).
The view was wonderful, and we were lucky that it didn’t rain. We grabbed a waffle to go (it was good, but not as nice as the one in London), and dashed back to the apartment to pack and give Amandine’s friend his keys back. We hurried to Gare de Lyon (let’s not talk about the number of stairs involved in this process and my 20kg suitcase, beyond saying that my arms are now guns), validated my Eurail pass, and got on the train to Lyon. Of course, after frantically rushing, the train was delayed by 20mins, so we just kinda sat there, hanging out for a while until the accident on the line was sorted out.
The train trip was pretty quick (the train was a TGV), and I slept for most of it, occassionally waking up to see different degrees of snow-covered landscape. And I think that brings things up to date. Amandine’s parents are so lovely – they don’t speak English, but talk to me anyway and her Dad even brought in macaroons for after lunch today because he knew I liked them!
I’m looking forward to exploring Lyon a bit tomorrow when I go into town to meet Amandine. For now, au revoir!
Well, I made it to Lyon after a couple of hectic days in Paris! The city is utterly amazing – there is beautiful architecture everywhere and, best of all, unlimited bread refills in restaurants! What more could a girl ask for? I’ll write as much as I can now but I am going to help Amandine and her Mum cook dinner so I might have to go before I finish.
Before I write about France, though, I have to be fair to England and say that I saw snow for the first time there! It was in the taxi up to Leeds Bradford Airport, and then again more heavily while I was at the airport. As an aside, LBA still makes passengers walk on the tarmac. Anyway, my flight was really smooth considering the heavy clouds over the Channel (which had me wondering why it is called the English Channel, not the French Channel?), and I found my way to the buses at Charles de Gaulle to get to Gare de Lyon, where Amandine met me. I had to wait nearly an hour for the bus, but I got there in time and it was just awesome to see her again!
We caught the Metro to Arts et Métiers, and met her friend Hugo, who very kindly lent us his apartment for the weekend. Thankfully it was close to the station, but the apartment was on the 6th storey of a building with no lift! That wasn’t fun with my suitcase, especially since we went into the wrong building the first time, and didn’t realise until we were half way up! Once we got there and settled in, we went for a walk in the surrounding area, past the Georges Pompediou (spelt wrong) Centre, aka crazy modern art building. We didn’t end up going in, but it was an awesome building.
We had dinner at a place nearby, and I had my first taste of foie gras! It was delicious, like paté but better, and the meal was scrumptious! I’m still sick, but it has become a bit better since I got to France, so I could taste more of the food than before!
One of the things that really struck me about Paris is the beauty of the residential buildings. I love the balcony railings and flower boxes hanging on them! They made up my first impression of the city from the bus.
Friday was a busy day – we visited Notre Dame and the Louvre, then went to the Champs-Elysees at night and soaked up the holiday atmosphere at the Christmas stalls. I was completely blown away by the Louvre – it’s HUGE! I mean, I knew it was big, but you don’t really appreciate how big until you’re standing there!
Ok, I think we’re going to start cooking, so I’ll try to write more later.
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes" - Marcel Proust
"In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors" - William Blake
