Category Archives: Geneva Activities

Gratitude Friday: The Great Outdoors

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Post by Lauren

One of the things I am so grateful for in Geneva is the beautiful parks and green spaces. I wrote about this on a previous post when we first arrived.

However, I am just continually impressed by how the community uses these spaces, especially in the summer when the fountains are on for the kids swimming pleasure. Even better, the ville de Genève hosts tons of extraordinary events outside. These don’t just happen every week, or once a month. There is something literally every day and usually two happening in the same evening. Sadly, we haven’t been able to experience it much this week because of the monsoons, but here are just two ways we have enjoyed it in the last 2 weeks:

# 1 – Free concerts in Parc a la Grange – these are twice a week – Wednesdays and Fridays for the entire summer. There is seating, or you can choose to bring a picnic. Large groups of people meet and picnic together, listening to the music. Gabe and I biked there and enjoyed a little picnic for two.

# 2 – Free movies in Parc Perle du Lac – this happens four times a week. Gabe really wanted to see Top Gun, so we spread the word and had a really nice evening with A & A, D, and C & M last Saturday night.

We loved the spirit of the movie-goers. Someone dressed up as an air-traffic controller, and others brought sparklers. However, the funniest part were the Swiss spoofs on Top Gun they did before hand. You can see the spoof videos as well as more detail on the evening here on A’s post about the evening.

We look forward to trying out the other things but in the meantime, we are just so thankful that Geneva offers these programs and we get to enjoy them in the beautiful open air, gratuits!!!

Bon weekend, everyone!

Fête de la Tomate & Carouge

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Post by Lauren

Friday night, we checked out the Fête de la Tomate in Carouge. The Swiss love their festivals (we have seen/been to 4 already in our short time here) and we equally love going to them. Mainly, because it provides a neat outing and more tasty & affordable cuisine than we can find in the restaurants.

The Fête de la Tomate was a really enjoyable evening, but this festival was a lot smaller than the others. Especially as I think it is a bit more lively on Saturday vs. Friday night since it apparently was the first year its been open Friday night. Maybe everyone didn’t get the memo including the vendors as the tomato stands, tomato sauce stands, etc. weren’t open.

We explored it for a bit, enjoyed the band, had some food, and then headed back into Carouge to have a glass of wine and dessert.  Ironically, we ran into friends A & A and their pups during our walk.

 

What’s the opposite of Lance Armstrong? That’s me.

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Post by Lauren

Yesterday was really pretty so I decided to go to the beach to study French.

Normally, my mode of transportation is the TPG ( transports publics genevois) because #1 – I am lazy and #2 – I have a toe condition that I am supposed to limit walking and # 3 – TPG is awesome. We splurged on TPG annual passes and it was our best purchase yet. We can hop on and off the trams, buses and boats anytime we want. Even still, I probably still walk 2 to 3 miles a day.

While there are two buses that go to the beach, they require connections. It’s not a bad walk either, but yesterday with the sun shining, I felt brave enough to take my bike out.

We have been out on our bikes 3 times, but this was my first time without Gabe. I have been afraid so far since I am not a very good at it and city biking is intimidating to me. The big deal is that In Geneva, you have to blend in with traffic and are forbidden from using sidewalks. I like to follow him and just do whatever he since I have no clue.

I should also note that the few times we had been, it was late in the evening or on the weekends where Geneva is very quiet so there weren’t a lot of cars. For a great recap of what it’s like to bike in Geneva during the day with obstacles, check out my friend A’s post. She has really good diagrams.

On the way there, I got honked at twice. Once, really really loud. I am not sure if I mentioned that Swiss people like to point out when you do something wrong, so this was no exception. It has just never happened to me with horns yet.

Nevertheless, most of this venture to the beach was downhill, so I just managed to weave in and out of traffic to make it to the main Quai where it was easy-peasy and I could mingle with the other beach cruisers on the large bike path.

Grateful for still having my life, I happily camped out on the beach for a few hours with my French workbook enjoying the day.

Going home, I was more determined to not have anyone honk at me. I choose to go home through the park where I didn’t have to work in with the traffic. The steep park. I almost had to stop halfway through as my legs couldn’t go anymore. Then onto the main roads again.

Stopped at a light, a homeless man kept smiling at me and pointing at a BMW motorcycle parked right beside me and pointing. I am not sure if he was saying that bike was better than mine, or just laughing at my bike-skills, but it was in French and I couldn’t understand.

Nevertheless, I trudged on, up more and more hills. Cars, motorcycles, and buses whizzed by me coming about 6 inches from me. I wish they knew that I didn’t really have very much control at all. In fact, I almost hit an elderly lady while going uphill in the park. However, they continued to get within inches.

I considered leaving the bike on one particular hill as my legs wouldn’t go anymore after a really hard lifting session today at Globo Gym. I could always go back and get it later. However, I realized how hard Gabe would laugh at me if I did this. I am not sure where the energy came from in the end, or maybe it was the flat road that finally came, but I finally made it home. I had never been so grateful to see that place. I was so tired, it took 3 attempts to lift the bike back on its hook in our scary basement.

I think I may stick to the TPG during traffic hours from now on. It’s much safer for me.

A fantastic 4th of July with Henry Birmingham

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Post by Lauren

Sorry for the tardiness of this post, but Gabe and I have been trying to recuperate from the weekend and it has taken us some extra time to get back in the swing of things, due to its epic proportions.

As most have caught on, we give our friends abbreviated names often times to protect their privacy. So, instead of a simple abbreviation, our fun-loving guest chose his alternate name as Henry Birmingham. It is a combination of the street he grew up on and his first pet or middle name. Some of you are catching on….

Anyhow, Henry was in Europe for work and we were quite excited when he announced he was coming to see us at the end of his trip for the 4th of July. We had so much fun, we have dedicated this post to…..

Top 10 reasons why we love to travel with Henry Birmingham

#10 – The flower clock reads 3:30 on Friday July 2. Gabe would normally be at work at this time but motivated by his buddy being in town, he took off and we were able to have an incredible Friday afternoon spent exploring Geneva and lake-bar-hopping. Awesome!

#9 – He is always up for Donor Kebabs and trying new beers!! Exactly what Gabe likes to do best so I am glad he had someone to do it with wholeheartedly!

#8 – Ingenuity – I mean, who else can create a cup-holder so resourcefully in a country known for no cup-holders in cars!?

#7 – His appreciation for art – he got some amazing shots at Jazz Festival

# 6 – Love of adventure. I mean, this guy just had knee surgery like 3 weeks ago and he scaled the wall for this photo. However, along this same theme, I may need to deduct some “awesomeness” points in this category as his encouragement of a third bottle of wine on the train may have given the author a headache the next day and prevented the timely posting of this entry.

# 5 – It would have been anticlimactic if Gabe and I saw T’s doppleganger by ourselves

#4 – We haven’t made late night food in a long time. Thanks for re-igniting the magic.

# 4 – We couldn’t have justified ordering both raclette-for-two AND fondue if there weren’t three mouths to feed.

# 3 – We finally have photos of both Gabe and I in Switzerland, not just one of us taken by the other one. Thanks for all the incredible shots 🙂

# 2 – His interest in snow & ski led us to pick this 2nd day trip to Chamonix / Mt. Blanc which is only 45 minutes from our house. Keep in mind folks, this is June. Outrageous!

# 1 – It was just awesome to see a great friend and have the luxury of spending a nice weekend catching up and making new memories. Thanks for coming — we had a blast !!

Canadienne Buffet: USA Style

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Post by Lauren

This week, we had a patriotic Canadienne Buffet. Not to celebrate Canada Day which was Friday I think, but a potluck picnic to celebrate the Fourth of July. If you are just catching up with our blog, my French teacher taught me that the best way to say potluck in French is “Canadienne Buffet”. We love the phrase and I plan to use it until you are tired of hearing about it. Sorry in advance.

And here is the birth story of the CB: In Switzerland, we read in our Swiss Rulebook that if you make plans for dinner with people in a restaurant, the tradition is that you should always pay — the concept of “dutch” on anything simply doesn’t exist. This wouldn’t be a big deal back in the US. To treat friends to dinner at our favorite restaurants – Alexander Michaels, The Penguin, Big Daddy’s, etc. – would be no big deal and could cost us 50, 75 bucks – maybe $100.

However, when the average decent meal out with friends in Geneva could be 250-350 CHF (300-400 USD), we found that the “potluck” allows for the social aspect of a dinner out with friends but without having to refinance the house to enjoy a night out. Plus, we think the food our friends make is better than 95% of the restaurants in Geneva.

This weekend, in honor of the holiday, we decided to grill out in the park beside the lake. We are pretty sure we aren’t supposed to grill out, but we figured it was 4th of July and that could be our excuse if we were apprehended – in our country, it is actually ILLEGAL not to grill out on 4th of July. Also, we had our friend Henry Birmingham visiting from the US, so if all else failed, we planned to blame on him and act as innocent Swiss bystanders to these crazy American ways of lighting fire to food.

It was a pretty lovely evening spent with fun folks. Happy Birthday, America!! And thanks to Henry for the fabulous photography!

My first Swiss Painting

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Post by Lauren

So, you may have noticed on our post about our new home that our water closets have an “interesting” tile color.

I took some inspiration from the Friday hikes I do with the American International Women’s Club to try to improve the situation. Two weeks ago, we hiked through some wheat fields from Jussy to Vesenaz and some of the natural yellows in the wheat fields and paths were similar to our the bathroom. So, I figured it might help our visitors not concentrate on the tile-work. Let me know what you think on the “match”.

Also, I thought you might want to check out a few photos from the hike that provided this inspiration and also see the faces of some of the wonderful women who have helped me feel more at home here in Geneva.

Plainpalais Flea Market

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Post by Lauren

This week, a highlight was my Wednesday outing with new friend, Joanne, of Lady J’s Musings. Joanne is incredibly talented in the culinary arena and takes amazing photos of her daily creations that I often spend my mornings drooling over. She is always on the hunt for unique beautiful pieces to serve her treats, so this week we decided to check out the Plainpalais flea market to see if we could discover any new finds.

This is the same market that has fruits & veggies Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays so it was pretty neat to see it in a different light.

Check out her “Bargain Hunting” post for a recap of the adventure. Next week, we plan to explore Carouge. Stay tuned!

Gratitude Friday: Mon Mari

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This Friday, I just wanted to dedicate my post on gratitude to mon mari (my husband).

Last night, I was just reflecting on how lucky we were to not be doing the long distance thing anymore. For two and a half years, both of us traveled back and forth from Charlotte and Atlanta. While we love to travel, four hours each way on I-85 is not an ideal experience to have most weekends. During that time, neither of us felt settled in our own cities or with any free time going back and forth.

I remember a dream of mine was just wanting to watch a rental movie with Gabe on a weeknight. It was never really possible on our short weekends as we usually had events or plans with friends.

Just 8 weeks ago, we were doing long distance. And now, I find myself married to my best friend.

And, last night, we watched a rented movie from iTunes, it hit me that all I ever wanted had come true…..getting to live in the same place as the one I love. Each night, I get so excited for him for him to walk through the door.

Beyond that, we get this great adventure as our honeymoon. While the move may have its ups-and-downs, it is an incredible thing to experience a new country together. We share all the tough points, as well as the awe of the fact that we live in this absolutely amazing place. And sometimes, usually as we cross the Mont Blanc bridge in our car, I have to pinch myself and say, “we really live here!” and then we both smile.

A selection of photos taken in a few week period – our wedding, a picnic and our first weekend in Geneva at Caves Ouverts.



So, this week, and every week, I am thankful for mon mari, and all he does to make me the happiest girl in the world.

Fete de la Musique

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This weekend Geneva hosted the 20th annual Fete de la Musique in Old Town – three days of non-stop music, ranging from classical, to jazz, to reggae, to rock. It was only a 5 minute walk from our house, so really close.

We tried to go Saturday, but were rained out after about 45 minutes. We returned home rain drenched but happy as we got delicious “to-go” fair food from the Madagascar tent and sausage tent.

We returned Sunday in the better weather and enjoyed the different artists and venues they had set up in 30 different locations, all over Vielle Ville. Here are a few photos below.

What a great weekend! Those wanting to come visit next Summer, should definitely try to come for the Fete de la Musique.

A rainy regatta

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This weekend was the Bol d’Or Mirabaud on Lake Geneva. It is the largest regatta in Europe, and we had planned to go out, bright and early and picnic to watch the sailboats set off for their journey to the other side of the lake.

Mother Nature had other plans.

As we approached the shore from our 10 minute rain-soaked walk from home, we saw this scene:

At one point, the sun sneaked out a wee bit and we could see a more beautiful kaleidoscope of sails that was originally hidden by the grey sky. There were so many!

The ducks enjoyed watching the faint images of sails on the skyline as well.

Maybe next year we’ll get to enjoy this beautiful scene in the sunshine!