Geneva. Christmas Eve 2019

Christmas Eve
2019

Merry merry and happy happy.

After catching up on a bit of much needed sleep, we strolled to Geneva’s annual Christmas Market located in the Parc Bastion. En route we stopped for breakfast in a cute little bakery about a block from the hotel. Turns out it has only been open three months. The husband/wife couple who own the bakery were very friendly. She’s the baker and he runs the front end. Interestingly, as we listened to him speak, it was clear he had a totally American accent or rather he was definitely American. Turns out he grew up in Palo Alto; his dad was in tech. Not sure how he wound up in Geneva, but pretty sure the wife is French (or Swiss-French). Anyway, the breakfast was great and we’ll go back again, including to pick up a wonderful cake (we ordered a buche noel) tomorrow morning for Christmas lunch at Elizabeth’s house.

It was raining (winters in Geneva are really pretty wet and grey) but we decided to walk to the Christmas Fair which was located at Parc Bastion which is only about ¾ mile from here. The Fair was cute, with lots of little wooden cabins that they bring into the park – with each cabin holding a different vender – foods (very international) and crafts made by local artisans. There are also small wooden pavilions scattered about – some covered and some open air – with small sculptural metal grates into which patrons could stuff wood which was stacked about… little warming stations.  There was also a full-blown restaurant inside a large log house and a full blown bar. There were rides for kids and chess boards and other games. Mike actually made a purchase of some environmentally-friendly eyeglass frames made of wood and leather. A very very different look for him in shape and color. But now he’s afraid no optometrist in Oakland will be willing to insert lenses into these frames. We shall see. In any case they are really cool.

After strolling the entire fair, we headed to the restaurant whose focus was – naturally – fondue. We opted for soup and risotto, not wanting to have that much bread and cheese. We then strolled around and headed back to the hotel to dry off a bit and then take a tram to meet Emma and Hem and Finn at the Museum of Natural History.

Somehow we got a little lost and went in the completely opposite direction on the tram, but realized very quickly and jumped off at the first stop. However, although asking several people, we couldn’t find the street where you could get the tram in the reverse direction. Eventually after walking a bout a half mile, we finally got onto a bus that took us to the museum. But, because it was Christmas Eve, the museum closed earlier than posted so it was closing as we arrived. But we met Emma and Hem and Finn as they exited and we strolled to the lake as the rain had stopped.. and went into a little café at the lake for hot chocolate. Then we strolled a bit more and all boarded the same tram, although they went on beyond us. So we had a good amount of Finn-time!

Given the weather and the hour, Emma, Hem, and Elizabeth opted to eat at home and Mike and I walked to a local Chinese restaurant for that Jewish Christmas Eve tradition. It was truly a little hole in the wall place – with only about 5 tables and the usual extensive pages long menu with some interesting translations from Chinese to French to English! I’d rate it “fair to middling.” And while about four of the tables were filled, I don’t think there were any other Jews eating. All tables were occupied by Asians (not to stereotype some might have been Jewish, but given that they were all young couples and not families, I’m going to guess they were not doing the Jewish traditional dinner).  We strolled back to the hotel after dinner in the chilly Geneva evening.

Tomorrow we’ll head to Carouge (a sort of a suburb within the city of Geneva) to have a holiday lunch at Elizabeth’s – a sort of pre-Christmas, since we’ll do the more official meal and gift exchange on Thursday, December 27^th when Julia and Julian and family return from Bordeaux.

More tomorrow and hoping for clear skies.

Fern