Un Petit Tour de Genève

I spent most of the rest of my two weeks off relaxing, hanging out and going out with friends in town.  Since we got paid at the end of October, though, Iris and I decided to take a two-day trip to Geneva during our last weekend of vacation in early November.  It’s conveniently located only about two hours away from Lyon, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

The best part about the train ride was my delicious choco-suisse pastry which was one of my favorites while I was in Lille.  Also it seemed appropriate since we were headed to the land it’s named after.

We were lucky we were just paid in euros, because Switzerland is an extremely expensive country.  They still use Swiss francs which are almost the equivalent of the American dollar but it’s worth slightly more.  For example, you’d be hard-pressed to find any kind of lunch for less than about $15; even sandwiches from street vendors cost 9 francs, or about $10-11.  This is why we decided to do this trip as cheaply as possible and try our hand at couchsurfing.  This is the part my parents won’t be happy to read about, but it’s quite convenient and you get to meet some interesting people.  For those of you not familiar with the concept or website, it’s a way to connect people who are willing to host others at their houses for free with those who either can’t afford lodging or would like an interesting experience meeting new people who are knowledgeable about the city they’re visiting.  Our host’s name was Noé, a young Frenchman with a PhD in physics living in Geneva.

Upon our arrival in Geneva we went straight to Noé’s place to drop off our bags and head out for the day, since we’d only be there for one night.  He gave us a bunch of maps and good tips on what to do in the city, so with that we headed off to the city center to see some sites and grab some lunch.

Since Geneva is one of the United Nations’ headquarters, there are a lot of internationals and many multicultural influences on the city itself.  One of the first things we ran into was this Russian church.

Our main goal for the day was to get on a tour of the United Nations, but since they didn’t run around lunchtime we decided to do some more exploring in the meantime after lunch.

The Old Town:

Early in the afternoon we hopped on a bus that took us right in front of the United Nations.

 Unfortunately, though, we soon discovered that the entrance for tourists was on the opposite side of the building and we were already running pretty late.  Along our walk around to the other side we came across this art museum. Le Musée Ariana is a museum of ceramics and glass.

 When we got to the tourist center we found out that the next tour in English wasn't going to be for another hour or so, so we hopped on the French tour that was about to leave. This is what we saw:

The League of Nations

 Then at the end of the tour we saw this super modern meeting room named after a Spanish guy (I believe..).

 And then, of course, was the gift shop. The geography/flag nerd inside of me came out for a few minutes. I definitely recognized all the flags, thanks to hours on Sporcle. It felt like a Pokemon "I want them all" moment.

This is a famous chair.

 After our trip to the United Nations we headed back to the city center to get some dinner and wander around. We ended up eating at McDonald's. And here's why.. We considered the prices a small dinner would cost at a restaurant (at least 15 francs, or $16) and figured McDonald's would of course be cheaper and also faster. Standing in line at MacDo (as the French call it), we noticed the prices for a meal were no less than 11 francs each. We stood there for at least a half an hour, hungry and sick of paying money out our butt in this city (honestly, a one-way tram ticket was 3.50-$4), debating whether or not to try somewhere else because we couldn't handle knowing we'd be paying $12 for something that should barely cost $6. So we stayed. And it was decent.

Once we returned to Noe's place we were reminded of the fact that there were to be two more couchsurfers that same night that he forgot were coming. Yep. Four girls and one pull-out couch. Luckily when the other girls arrived they were really cool. They were both party promoters in Ibiza who were traveling around Europe on the cheap. One of them was Spanish and the other was a girl from Poland who'd done a lot of really low-cost traveling thanks to low-cost airlines and couchsurfs and covoiturages. Eventually Noe started handing out some beer for all of us. Since the other two girls were really tired from their long journey that morning, Noe, Iris and I decided to finish the night at a bar, returning home around 4 am quite buzzed. We ended up sleeping like sardines on the pull-out couch, each of us with our legs hanging off parallel to the couch. Somehow we managed to get some sleep, woke up around 10:30, got ready in about 20 minutes and got out the door because we were supposed to leave early that evening.

As we weren't feeling in top form that morning we decided to just walk to Lake Geneva and have a calm day without any stressful touring needed to be done.

There was supposed to be a giant famous water fountain here but it was under repair.

While we were spending our last hour or so around Lake Geneva we ran into the other two couchsurfing girls who were also about to leave Geneva. So we had them take the tourist photos for us. Then we headed back to Noe's, packed, and headed to the train station.

Iris's plan was to train back to Belley and I decided to try the cheaper way of carpooling (covoiturage) from Geneva to Lyon. This was another potential awkward stranger experience but it was actually pretty cool. The driver was a girl of about 28 years old and the other passengers were also around my age (22-25) and we all got along pretty well without any awkwardness.

On our way out of Geneva we passed part of the CERN grounds. This was another place I wanted to visit while in Geneva but there are a lot of other geeks who want to see it apparently, and the waiting list is a couple months long so I missed out.

All in all it was a successful, very random trip giving me the opportunity to enjoy a small part of Switzerland which is literally on our backdoor.

Les Vacances à Névache

Life as an English assistant is pretty rewarding.  After only 4 weeks of classes we had 2 weeks of vacation at the end of October and the beginning of November.  This meant two weeks off to finally let my life settle down a bit, considering the previous month had been completely hectic but incredibly exciting as well.  As a travel buff, I was expecting to be able to travel all around Europe during this break (London, the Netherlands, maybe even a little Switzerland since it’s nearby).  However, since we hadn’t received our first paychecks yet and I was nearing broke, there weren’t many options in my mind for exciting places to travel to—or so I thought.

One small lesson learned very quickly: some of the best experiences come about because of who you know and the connections you make (it’s worth getting off the couch sometimes).  I’m incredibly lucky to have already made friends with some cool people through my roommate Héléna.  Her friend Victoria was nice enough to invite me and Iris to spend a long weekend in her family’s chalet in a quaint alpine town of 350 called Névache, just on the border of Italy.  A €50 weekend including scenic mountain views in a quaint French town with the likelihood of crossing the border to Italy for some authentic pizza?  Umm, yes, please.  Also what better way to extend my birthday celebrations?

Having been raised a flatlander, mountains still don’t cease to amaze me, even though I live among them every week.  We left Friday evening from Lyon, once Victoria, Gladys and Helena got out of class, and drove for about 3-3.5 hours until we reached our mountainous destination.

Unfortunately though, since we drove through the night, all we could see were small town lights speckled across the darkness of mountain valleys and cliffs.  The following morning we were greeted with this extraordinary view that was worth any wait:

My first thoughts were: This is a postcard, this isn’t real life.  I just wanted to sit there with a cup of coffee and ponder over life.  What a beautiful place.

Fortunately there was nothing concrete on the trip’s agenda except relaxing, watching movies, eating junk food, eating delicious raclette, walking around the magnificent surroundings and enjoying each other’s company.

This is what our chalet looked like: 

 

 

Saturday morning we had breakfast (probably the best baguettes I’ve had in France so far, thanks Névache) and took the car to get a better view from a higher perspective.

An epic pose by Victoria's dog, F'djouley

 

After a nice long walk we went back to the town and then our chalet to relax, watch a movie and eat some raclette.

Raclette is a type of cheese that is eaten mostly around Christmas time.  When you make ‘raclette’ you melt the cheese in your own individual pan (see above) and either add some potatoes and other vegetables directly in the pan or spread the cheese on a delicious concoction of potatoes, ham, pickles, onions, etc. on your plate.  Raclette is a Swiss cheese and the tradition comes from Switzerland, but many people (especially from countries around Switzerland) enjoy raclette like this as well.  In Frankfurt last year for example, I was lucky enough to have it for the first time with some delicious mulled wine.  It’s such a treat and so easy to do.

Day 2:

Waking up in Nevache was always welcomed by a gorgeous view.  The second day was no exception.  Just when we thought it couldn’t get any prettier, it snowed.  The first snow of the season!  Yes, snow in October.  Only in the mountains.

With the snow came a frigid temperature.  -5 degrees Celsius, or 20 Fahrenheit. 

Of course we had to make the most of the snow and our time there, so we went for a short walk before turning back to warm up.

Day 3: Our big hiking day

On our last full day in Nevache we took a couple hour-long hike to Victoria’s family’s chapel and back.  You could definitely tell we were in the mountains because the air was fresh and there wasn’t as much oxygen in the air as there is at lower altitudes.  I felt like such a rugged mountain woman.

As night fell on Nevache and our stomachs were getting hungry for dinner, we hopped in the car and drove down the windy mountain rounds across the border into Italy for some authentic Italian pizza.

 

 We left the next morning and headed back to Lyon, the mountains disappearing behind us.