Grand Saconnex part Trois

Friday morning, we had the usual breakfast before heading into town with Lucette. She took us on a tour of the “Vielle Ville” (Old Town) in Geneva. We admired the old architecture and the ancient Cathedral. From the Vielle Ville, we walked to a neighboring park and Lucette told us the story of Geneva gaining its independence by pouring soup over the wall to scald the incoming troops. We gathered chestnuts for our own attempt at roasting the delicious treat. We watching some old men play chess and took photos of the monuments before heading back to catch the bus.

We went a few stops before stopping for lunch at “the oldest” pizza restaurant in Geneva (est. 1955). Lucette, as with most meals, ordered us all a glass of wine. In error, she ordered another round and after our delicious meal of pizza, salad, a plate of salami, and icecream she was quite toasted. She held Corinne’s arm as we made our way to the grocery store. At the market, Lucette purchased foods for dinner as well as a menagerie of other random goods. We walked to the bus station and made our way home as we were late for our next engagement.

Once home, we left Lucette to rest and departed for the home of a family friend who were holding our train tickets. Upon arrival, as per-usual, we were offered homemade apple pie, cookies, chocolates and iced-tea. We conversed in their beautiful garden about our plans, their recent trip to America and life in general. Soon the sun began to set so we bid our adieus and headed onward.

We stopped on the way back at Camille’s uncle’s house (well, in front of it) to steal their wi-fi internet. There, we had some brief skype conversations with family at home and attempted to plan our trip to Munich for the following day. However, after examining the train schedule, it became evident that a 6 hour train ride (each way) would not be worth the 3 hours we would get to spend at Oktoberfest. Alas, we sadly had to scrap our plans for our day trip. We will still be visiting Munich but it will be after the festivities of Oktoberfest have ceased.

Noticing that it was getting late, we hurried back to Lucette’s house as we knew she would be worried. Upon arrival, we received “spankings” for our tardiness and she commenced cooking our dinner. We ate kebabs of scallops and salmon, along with potatoes, salad, bread and an assortment of cheese samples that Lucette had acquired over time. For once, we weren’t forced to eat dessert which we did not mention as the break from food was a welcome one. Lucette headed to bed shortly after and we were left to watch television. We found an interesting show on the BBC network (in English) before turning in ourselves.

Saturday, having scrapped our plans for Munich, we slept in until 10:30, a new record. We had breakfast before walking with Lucette to the grocery store and back. Upon arriving home, we attempted to roast the chestnuts we had gathered on Friday. However, this attempt failed. Luckily, Lucette had purchased some edible chestnuts so we were able to enjoy some after all.

We passed the day lazily by watching TV until Camille’s cousin and his girlfriend came over for a visit. We conversed about places to go out to this evening for a drink. Eventually they left and we began the preparations for dinner.

While cutting the potatoes and cheese, we snacked on salami and a Swiss version of Prosciutto. After the meal was in the oven, we settled down to watch some TV with Lucette. After a bit, dinner was ready. We ate Camille’s grandma’s famous potato gratin along with sausage (the house still reeks of sausage), salad and wine of course. Thankfully, again, a simple no thank you to ice-cream sufficed and we went dessert free.

We took turns showering after a bit and preparing for our night out in Geneva. After deciding on outfits and hairstyles, we gathered up some wine for our bus ride into town. Upon arrival (and finishing our drink) we realized it was too early to go to the bar just yet (it was an early 10pm- late for us). We set out in search of internet.

Turning a corner in search of a public park as they have free Wi-Fi, we were joined by two young men who begged to make our acquaintance. They asked us the usual questions of where we were from and how old we were, mentioning that they were from the Ivory Coast. After exchanged glances, we understood, between the two of us, that we were not interested in these fellows. However, they indicated that they knew where internet was. Intrigued, we let them lead us to a nearby public internet café. (Note to parents: there were people around and we, of course, would not follow a stranger to anyplace of any danger). Once at the internet café, we turned our attention to Facebook and online conversation, only answering a brief question here and there. Growing bored (thankfully) the fellows left us with the promise to return (not so thankfully). To our dismay, they did. As we had not yet finished our internetting, we told them we needed more time. Again they left, but this time we planned our escape.

We turned to each other and exchanged one of our favorite phrases: “Run away!” We packed up our things and made our way out of the café. We peered around the corner and once we saw the coast was clear, we hastily made our way back towards the train station. We found the neighboring bar that we had intended to visit and entered for a much needed drink. While walking through, we were welcomed with many “Bon Soir!”s and winks from some friendly looking young men. However, having just escaped some over the top fellows, we did not return their advances. We found a table and ordered a round of beer.

We drank and conversed while taking in the sights of an English bachelor party in the next room. After being ignored by the waitress for a while, we were growing impatient. However, just then, a new young fellow approached us. He used Camille as a translator to converse with Corinne, as he found her quite cute. He asked for her phone number to which we questioned how he would talk to her due to the language barrier. After some awkward translation through Camille, he politely expressed his hope for a rendezvous with Corinne and then left us to our drinks.

Having had an eventful night, we finished our beers and looked to the waitress for the bill. However, she was nowhere to be found. Eventually she came around only to spill some beer on Corinne and disappear yet again. Finally, we called it a night and headed home. We ran to the bus station, quickly bought our passes home and caught the bus just in time.

Once home, we quietly prepared for bed and reminisced about our adventurous night.