Un Retour à Collonges et Genève!

Two years after leaving the quiet little town of Collonges, I returned- with my husband nonetheless!  We arrived late Tuesday night uneventfully, and I navigated us down the familiar streets to an old cafe I used to go to where we waited for Renee and Eloi, who were just returning from visiting family in Spain.  Much was still the same, though my memory was a bit fuzzy about some things and prices had certainly gone up :(

After the train ride from the airport to the station, a tram ride to a suburb of Geneva, and a bus ride to the French/Swiss border, the four weary travelers began the half hour uphill walk to their apartment on campus, backpacks suitcases and all.   We did go the slightly longer but less steep way, which was helpful.  They have a nice home, and we were quite comfortable in their guest room.  By the time we got there it was after midnight, so we soon headed to bed to gear up for the day of exploring Geneva. 


After stopping at my favorite boulangerie for a pain au raisin, we made it to the border only to discover we had just missed the bus by about 5 minutes and the next one wouldn't arrive for another half hour.  Bummer.  Oh well.  We continued on and after reaching Geneva we headed to the parc de Bastion, where we checked out the famous Reformation Wall, featuring particularly influential figures in Geneva's history, namely John Calvin.  Martin Luther actually got stuck in a corner by a bush haha. 

Reformation Wall

More Reformation history soon followed, as we trudged up the hill to old town to St. Peter's church where Calvin used to preach.  We went up the tower, went under the church where they've done a lot of archeological work, and saw the nearby Reformation Museum.  (the ticket guy who sold us the combined ticket seemed quite pleased that we wanted to do it all.  Him:  "Vous voulez tout??!"   Me: "Mais oui!  Bien sur!") 



The view from the top of the church is pretty cool, you can see most of Geneva, including the lake and jet d'eau.  Jon really liked the Reformation Museum, and I thought the underground part was really impressive.    We came back to the apartment the steep way through campus, so I could show Jon the trek I used to make everyday into work, as well as the various buildings of campus.

That evening Renee made us some amazingly delicious savory crepes, with cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, grilled squash onions and peppers, with a batter that had some squash blended right into it.  It was sooo good!  This was followed of course by sweet crepes for dessert, with bananas, nutella, honey, lemon, and sugar.   YUM.  That evening we played "There's a Moose in My House!", a very silly card game (as it says on the box), followed by a few rounds of Rook (Eloi and I actually won!).  We finished off the evening by watching a really cute, heart-warming move called Les Choristes.  A very French day indeed. 

















We would leave Geneva the next day, so we tried to take advantage of our time left.  We got up that morning and Renee joined us for a hike up the Saleve.  Oh it was steep.  And did I mention it was raining on and off the whole time?  Can't say that I had ever intentionally hiked in the rain before then...though muddy and wet we still had fun.  The cows were a bit surprised to see us.










After slowly hiking down the slippery rocks, luckily without anyone twisting an ankle or anything, we cleaned up, had lunch, and were off with our backpacks once more.  We made a quick run out to Le Palais des Nations (UN) and tried to (unsuccessfully) find the new South Sudan flag.  We had hoped to take some paddle boats out on the lake, but between the weather and running out of time before our flight to Paris, we settled for a closer look at the jet d'eau before grabbing my typical dinner of falafel kebab whilst catching our flight to Paris!

Le jet d'eau

United Nations