Mont Salève, France (and a little bit of Geneva!)

Day two of our Geneva adventures took us on a bus ... to France!  The goal of the day was to take the mountain cable car up to the top of Mont Salève!

The morning was cool, but the afternoon would get warmer as we walked across the border.  That's France and those are people waiting in their cars at the border.

I'm currently on the border of Switzerland and France!

The Téléphérique (or cable car) was just a few minutes walk from the border.

Wait... what?  You want me to go up in that thing?

Don't touch the wires!  This translates to, "absolute defense against touching electric wires, even fallen to the ground, life threatening."

The kids stood by the window while I (far right) stayed safely in the middle of the cable car.

The views from Mont Salève of Lake Geneva (and Le Jet) are stunning!

Look at Le Jet!  It's so tall!

There's a restaurant at the top of the mountain with incredible views of Geneva.



This is us.  In front of Lake Geneva. I love these babies.



Watching the Mont Salève cable car descend back to Earth.  Way in the distance on the left, is the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (and I know you won't get this acronym but it's a derivative of Conseil européen pour la recherche nucléaire, which means European Council for Nuclear Research.)  But the Large Hadron Collider is "the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator."  It literally sits on the OTHER border of Switzerland and France (Geneva is like a small land peninsula that jets out into France.)

Baileys and Ingolds at lunch at the Restaurant le Panoramique.  We had to get a little food before we took the REAL hike up to the top of the mountain.

The hike up the mountain was actually not an easy one.  It wasn't Everest, but if you didn't have the right shoes (ie: Converse) then it was a bit of a hike!

I kind of laughed because it reminded me of Medjugorje with all of its rocks.  Natalie took care of Reagan on the way up.

Once we got to the top, Reagan had to lay down.

And then Grant had to lie down.

We had a beautiful view of the snow capped Alps.  

Another pretty view of the Alps and everyone enjoying the views.  And resting after the long hike.

We made our way to the top... or at least what I think was the top.  There is a paragliding take off spot from where you can (very carefully) check out the views of Geneva.



I really love this picture of Todd.  Lake Geneva and Le Jet and a beautiful city.  He just looks like he loves this view.

Three, two, one... jump!  No, wait... maybe don't do that.

Human head for scale.

Todd went closer to the edge where the paragliders jump... but you know I could never get that close!

The kiddos were so cute.  They laid down in the warm sun and enjoyed relaxing in the fake grass.

Natalie took this cute pic of me and Todd on the edge of the world.

I didn't want the kids getting close to the edge without an adult near them.  I know. I'm overprotective.  But it made for really cute pictures of the kids and their Daddy!

Awwww.  What I wouldn't give to have more pictures like this of me and my Dad.

Eeeeek, they're so cute together!  She was always his mini-me.

And then Reagan went to the edge of the world with her Mama.

I love this picture.  I just know what's going on here.  Grant and I are holding hands, Reagan is snuggling with Heather.  What is Natalie doing?

Grant was so funny laying on the ground at the paraglider jump off point!

After we hiked back down the big hill, we treated ourselves to beer for adults and ice cream for the babes.

And with that, we headed back down the mountain on the cable car.

I legit don't even know how you get to this place.  I think it's the Château d'Étrembières which was built at the end of the 13th century.

Once we got back down on the flat land, we went back into Geneva to meet up with some new friends at LaPotinière for happy hour.  But we stopped by the Flower Clock on our way there!  It's the biggest clock in the world that's made from flowers!  Superlative, check!



During happy hour, I had a little friend land on my phone.  Only, he wasn't as angry as the ones in Germany.  He was a nice little guy!

For dinner, we walked to the Demi Lune Cafe for a fantastic meal.  The kids went outside and ran up and down the street (Natalie!  You're in charge!)  Then they peeked in and tried to spy on us!  Silly geese!  After dinner, Heather's neighbors joined us for some shenanigans and an Auburn football game.  It was fun trying to explain American style football to people who aren't American.  (In fact, they were German!)  Unfortunately, Auburn lost to future National Champion LSU (AT LSU) by only 3 points.  Next year, Burrow... next year!

We headed back to Germany on Sunday after a great visit with our friends.  Hey Mom, look!  It's Emirates! 

Until next time Geneva!  And thank you Heather for your fantastic Swiss-American hospitality!

Geneva, Switzerland

Since we don't have much time left here, we found ONE good weekend where we were able to fly down to Geneva to see one of my oldest and dearest friends, Heather and her daughter Reagan!  Unfortunately her husband Jack was out of the country, but we still had a blast tooling around the city and drinking entirely too much wine.

Grant hates sitting next to me when we fly cause I'm such a nervous flyer.  His face shows it.  Our flight was pretty early, so we went down the night before and spent the night at a hotel near the Munich airport.

BUT... we were greeted with the most BEAUTIFUL sunrise!

I mean, seriously.

I swear I didn't filter ANY of these.  I caught the sun JUST as it was coming up on the horizon.

You can barely see it here, but the moon was also up above it.

As we were ready to land in Geneva, we also got to enjoy the sunrise over the Alps.

I spy Lake Geneva, below. That's the town of Lausanne on the northern coast of the lake.

Just a few mountain tops peeking above the cloud cover.

Aaaaand then this is what we saw when we landed in Geneva.



Thankfully, the fog didn't stick around for long and after we took a cab to Heather's house, we headed out to explore Geneva.  Natalie and Reagan were so cute!

Whoa, that's a lotta Swiss flags!

The French word for Gluhwein is Vin Chaud.  And I thought it was funny that they were already selling Gluhwein in October!

Our first stop was the St. Pierre Cathedral.



St. Pierre was formerly a Catholic church, but it was the home of the reformer John Calvin.  He moved to Geneva in 1536 but the leaders didn't like his ideas so they kicked him out of the city.  Eventually, he was invited back (in 1541) and he stayed there until his death in 1564.

You can't go to St. Pierre and NOT climb the tower.  There's a lot of narrow steps going up, but the views are amazing.  Grant of course, led the way.

Heather and Reagan stayed below in the church while we went up to take pictures of ourselves with Jet d'Eau, or as everyone calls it - "Le Jet."

What what??  That's one amazing view of Geneva and it's pretty lake!

Just a closer shot of Lake Geneva from the tower at St. Pierre.

The sun was peeking through the clouds as we looked to the south.

Le Jet is HUGE!  About 130 gallons of water are jetted (ha) up every second.  It goes up to about 460 feet or 140 meters.

Looking down at the roofs of Geneva from the St. Pierre tower.

When you're short and you can barely see over open air widow ledge.

 The tall, green spire of St. Pierre Cathedral.

Todd looks like he's auditioning to be in the Queen's Guard.

I loved the very busy inside of the north tower of St. Pierre.

Interestingly, this is the facade and front entrance of St. Pierre Cathedral.  It looks like it belongs in Rome!

On our trek around the city, we saw the Restaurant Les Armures which memorialized a letter they received from Bill Clinton after he and Hillary ate here back in 1994.  So funny.

(This is the Restaurant Les Armures.)

Across the street from the Restaurant Les Armures,  we stopped to visit the Old Arsenal.  The open aired (on three sides) cobblestone granary sits beneath the state archive.  These cannons are from the 17th and 18th century.  Little boy, circa 2009.  Stalker behind him - from the early 1970s.



Alexandre Cingria did these amazing frescoes showing three different time periods in the history of Geneva.

Here we are, me and Yori... friends since 6th grade.  Having a nice picture 30 plus years later. Todd told me later Grant was SO excited to see what my reaction was when I finally saw this picture - with his little photo bombing self behind us!

Switzerland is the Maryland of Europe.  They love their flag!

We walked down the Promenade du Lac for some closer views of Le Jet.  We ran into a bunch of swans sitting on the crystal clear water.

Yep, more flags!

Reagan joined us for a nice picture on Lake Geneva with the Le Jet (Todd Bailey for scale.)

It's not quite visible from space, but if you were flying over Europe on a clear day, you could see Le Jet from way up high!  (How do I know this? I saw it on our way to Spain earlier this year!)



Lake Geneva's water is VERY clear (despite being adjacent to a large city here.)  The water comes down from the mountains and the Rhone Glacier via the Rhone River, which eventually dumps into the Mediterranean.



In 1886, the first Jet was installed a bit downstream from here to control the excess pressure at the hydraulic plant.  It was moved to it's current location in 1891 as people started coming to see it as a attraction.



Three silly girls in front of Le Jet.

This picture of Grant in front of Le Jet makes him look enormous.

I can't get enough pictures of the hundreds of sailboats in the Lake Geneva harbor. 

The reason Le Jet d'Eau is white is because there are millions of little bubbles in it!  If you walk out on this jetty, be aware that if the wind shifts just slightly, you're gonna get drenched!

We took a little boat across the lake and when we did, we saw a rainbow in the middle of Le Jet!

My boys relaxing on a boat as we sailed across the lake in Geneva.

One more view of Le Jet with the east side of Geneva behind it (the side we started the boat ride on.)

We went across the lake to a) visit a store that sold a lot of KPop albums for Natalie to visit, and b) to go to the United Nations.  But when we passed this beauty on Rue Lissignol, I had to stop for some pictures!

The crosswalk at the corner of the above building is also in rainbow colors!

We spent a little too much time in the KPop store (Tanigami), so when we caught the next bus to the Gare Cornavin, we were running very late.  Then, of course, we had to do actual running because the bus stop we got dropped off at and the bus stop we had to catch our next bus at were a block or two apart.  We ran, but the bus was already pulling away. Well, at least we got our workout in for the day!  We also got to see the snake and the jaguar called Pinta Cura by Frédéric Post which is across the street from the Gare Cornavin.

Our last tourist stop of the day was the United Nations, although we arrived too late to enjoy the fountains AND still get a tour of the building.  It was okay though because I'm not sure my kids would have been super interested and we HAD walked almost 20,000 steps at this point!

Periodically, the fountains turn off and you can walk through them. But look out! They could turn on again at any second!

Natalie and Reagan, still hand in hand at the end of the day, trying to avoid getting wet at the United Nations fountains.

The Broken Chair is a very moving piece by Daniel Berset.  It was "originally conceived with the aim of urging nations to ban anti-personnel mines (in 1997) and cluster munitions (in 2008.)"  Much like those who have lost limbs to a land mine, Broken Chair is also missing one of its legs.

Welcome to the United Nations with it's 196 flags.

Nations, this way.

After our brief visit to the UN, we went back to Heather and Jack's apartment where Grant had a deep conversation with Diego, one of his favorite Doggos.

Speaking of Diego, we had to take him on a walk because the poor little guy had been inside all day.  This is the street Heather lives on!

We were heading out for the dog park so Diego could run around and I saw this building. The ivy was changing on this building and it was really pretty.  

The dog park they take Diego to is a subset of a much larger park called Parc Bertrand.  The mountains in the distance are actually in France!  (But weirdly, to the east of Geneva.)

Grant loves dogs so he jumped at the chance to take Diego to see his puppy pals.

For dinner, we were all VERY excited to go to Restaurant Edeweiss for some Käsefondue!  They even had live music in the form of an Alpenhorn!

 

I LOVE this place!  It totally feels like a place we might have visited down in Garmisch!  But with Swiss flags, not German.  The best (!!!) part of this restaurant was that ... well, it smelled like a fondue restaurant.  Grant was literally gagging, so early on in the night, we sent him upstairs to the restaurant to sit in the lobby, supervised by the front desk staff.  I felt really bad, but we had already ordered by the time he went upstairs, and you can't exactly take fondue home!  He was very grumpy but... (shrugs.)

Meanwhile, we got to listen to some really great music.  A long time ago, I saw this musician named Bain Mattox play a saw at one of his shows in Atlanta.  It totally blew my mind!  So I was very excited to see this guy make beautiful music on a saw!



But then it was time for the main event:  The Alpenhorn!  The Alpenhorn was formerly used in the Alps as a means of communication but later was used to make music.

Not only did he play a beautiful Alpenhorn, but he allowed everyone to come up and play as well!  Of course, the germ-a-phobe in me was like, "Ewwww."  But they cleaned it off pretty well and only a few other people did it (other than all of the Baileys and Reagan.)  Here is Natalie, who did really well on her first try! 

After some amazing fondue (a scratch off food map of Switzerland, whoo hoo!) we indulged and had dessert.  And mine is on fire.



Yori is amused by my flaming dessert.  They poured alcohol on it and lit it on fire, something they would never do in America.



Our evening ended with another serenade on the Alpenhorn.

We took the bus back to Heather's house, but before we did, we stopped to pet this cute elephant outside of the Bollywood Studio Indian restaurant.  So fun!

Until next time, Geneva!  Cities are always so much more fun with friends!