La Suisse Romande May 21, 2009

Switzerland as some of you probably already know is a small “neutral” country. It is not part of the European Union, but it is part of the Schengen region, which means you don’t need to go thru cutoms when you cross the border, but they don’t have the Euro, they still use the Swiss Franc.

Yet basically Switzerland is a good scale model of Europe. You have on one side the “suisse Romande” ie the part of Switzerland that speaks french, then you have the kind of swiss German side and the swiss Italian side, there’s a forth official language, but I know little about it, it’s called Romansh. Of course if you go on the French side, most people will pretend not to understand a word of German, and most likely vice-versa (at least that’s how it felt when I tried to buy food in Zurich).

Geneva is a beautiful city by the Lac Léman. Old buildings, many fountains with drinkable water, small streets, designer stores and delux hotels! I think it would be hard to resist Geneva… Although there is one slightly irritating thing, everything closes early, very early and on the dot, the swiss punctuality is no urban legend. 

I spent my Thursday walking around the city, it was a public holiday so everything was closed but it made the streets quiet and mysterious. Sometimes it felt like going through a ghost town! Anyways it’s not like I could have gone shopping… I think I’ll wait to get myself a Vuitton or a new dress from Paul & Joe!

I’m really happy I got to see this beautiful and elegant city and of course I had a glorious time with my friend Julia catching up, gossiping, enjoying good food and wine. So a special “Xiexie”  to Julia!

Russian Orthodox church

Swiss pride. The Eagle and the key – the “Garde Swiss”  are the one protecting the Pope

You can go on a short ride around the Lake

Lake Leman

There a lot of amazing property

And of course my favorite part you can see snowy mountains from a distance! Even the Mt Blanc on a clear day!

Julia my wonderful host in Geneva

Geneva and the pot of Gold May 20, 2009

The beautiful Julia who I met last year in Germany is now living in Geneva, Switzerland. We decided to try and meet up… well actually once again I invited myself at her place  

My arrival in Geneva was… epic! I had forgotten to give her my number and I had taken her old number by mistake… It’s times like these you think… “How the hell were we able to get by without mobile phones!

Well  after a roller coaster of funny events, including her finding through the yellow pages somebody with the same family name as me living in Paris which luckily happened to be an uncle, who then called both my sister and father who ended up reaching me! While I befriended a group of young people having a picnic, to work out what was wrong with the number I had… In the end it all worked out! Hurray!

 

Geneva- I find this impressive fountain to be quite an interesting image of Geneva, when the sun allows it a rainbow appears beneath it. Considering how wealthy the city is I guess Geneva is indeed a pot of gold… I’m not sure about the Swiss being Leprechaun… I doubt they’d like that!