Europe,  France/Switzerland

Days 3 – 4: Geneva & Evian (Switzerland & France)

It was exactly a week ago that we were hanging out in our friends’ backyard in Astoria having farewell drinks and appetizers. It’s hard to believe we’re now a few days into our journey with a couple more exciting days logged into the books.

Yesterday we made our way into Geneva (capital of Switzerland, super financial center, pre-UN League of Nations, WTO, mega-retailer of Swiss chocolates, Rolex, Cartier, etc…); it’s a beautiful town situated on Lake Geneva – ultra clean and orderly.  It’s also home to a couple of super dear friends (Dawda, Claire & their son Aden), with whom we spent the afternoon lounging in a beautiful city park and watching Aden play in the kiddie pool. It was amazing to see how much he had grown and what a smarty pants he has become! There was nothing better than catching up with old friends you only get to see a couple of times a year. In the evening Dawda and Claire treated us to an Italian restaurant called Luigia – a local hotspot that dishes out very tasty food… but I must admit this place makes NYC restaurants seem like a bargain!

The next morning we got a tour of Geneva’s vieille ville (old city), from Dawda. Lots of cobblestone streets, cool churches and luxury retail shops. But the thing that stood out the most was how eerily quiet the town was. There were barely any people in the streets because on Sundays everything is closed. As Dawda put it, it felt like the beginning scene from Vanilla Sky – in which Times Square was completely empty. Where were all the Genevans?

For lunch, the 5 of us met up with James and Samira in Nernier (a very small village in France that’s right on Lac Leman), and ate at one of Dawda and Claire’s favorite old spots: La Comete. This rustic family owned/operated restaurant has been serving the same menu each day for the past 50 years… put it this way, plenty of awesome meats, blocks of cheeses to choose with no limit in sight, salad, dessert, wine and coffee – all for 20 euros a head (about $28). D, good call bro!

After lunch we made our way back to Evian and in the evening we enjoyed a lakefront stroll with Samira. Life here is really laid back in every sense of the word(s). Between Geneva’s historic old city and the French countryside villages, it felt like we were living in a fairy tale…

 

 

 

 

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