7. The Wedding: Geneva. 9/3/22

After a quick brunch at Christie’s a wonderful little bakery (which we learned is owned by Ukrainian bakers) we got ready to head to the wedding.

All 70 guests gathered at the century-old Mairie de Troinix (little town hall in Troinix, a village that is about 15 minutes from downtown Geneva, and where Julia and Julian purchased a house about 18 months ago). Once the bride and groom arrived, we all headed to the top floor of the old building—climbing the winding wooden stairs to the third floor—where the ceremony would be held. The bride and groom and the “witnesses” (Julian’s best friend and Julia’s sister, Emma)  sat in the center of one side of a very large “conference-style” table that probably had about 25 chairs around it. Guests then filled in at the other chairs and the remainder of the assembled guests sat around the room. The brief ceremony was conducted by the officiant (maybe like a justice of the peace). After about 10 minutes, they were married.. and signed all the official documents. The ceremony was completely in French so I can’t tell you too much about what was said, but I’m told she talked about destiny… how people meet and how if not for destiny they might just miss each other and never meet! Julia and Julian’s two children were adorable although I’m not sure they really knew what was going on. Ella (nearly 3 years old) managed to crawl under the table when she wound up on the opposite side of her parents and decided she needed to be with them. The under-table route was clearly the most direct one to take. Louis (about 4-1/2) sat more quietly than I have ever seen him before.

I should say that we arrived by taxi which was a bit harrowing … we gave the driver the address and he took us to a little square with a café.. and we were sure it was the wrong place. Then he asked in French if we were going to a wedding. I responded in the affirmative.. and so he immediately turned the taxi around and took us to the neighboring church!! After a quick call to Elizabeth, we went back to that little square with the café. The “mairie” was next door to the café.. and that was the location we needed. Guess the driver just assumed weddings take place in churches.

After the ceremony and some champagne in the courtyard everyone headed to Julia and Julian’s house for a great array of foods and lots of drinking. The weather prediction had been rain but it’s like the clouds just disappeared, and the weather was perfect…. However, at about 5:00 there was a lot of wind and the skies turned dark as a squall blew in with heavy rain for about 20 minutes.. Everyone gathered inside the house, and many stayed out under the tents.  We left the party at about 7:00 and from what we know the “young” crowd—30s and 40s– (which comprised about 85% of the guests) were headed to a club for lots more partying with the groom. Julia was headed to the hotel where Julia and Julian will spend two days. He would come a few hours later.. Given that Julia is 5 months pregnant, the idea was that she would be able to rest and avoid what I’m sure will involve a lot of alcohol at the club scene.

By the way, we took a taxi because the garage where our car is parked (about a block from the hotel) is so tightly laid out that it takes about 15 minutes to get the car either in or out. We decided it was best to just leave the car in the garage for our entire stay. And also, that meant we could drink as much as we wanted and not worry about driving.

We opted to head back to the hotel and then get a snack at about 10 pm… rather than to go to Elizabeth’s because little Finn (Emma and Hem’s 3 year old) developed some kind of stomach problem last night and was really not feeling well. So he and Hem never made it to the wedding. We figured there was enough going on at the house and we didn’t need to complicate things any further. 

That’s about it… definitely, the day was focused on the wedding which was truly lovely. 

We did have a few interesting conversations and learned that the language (which is spoken throughout northern Switzerland) referred to as “Swiss-German” is very different than German (which they call “high-German”). And we’ve been trying to understand how people can afford to live in this country. Prices are totally outrageous. At restaurants you are always asked if you want water, but you always have to pay for the water. In some places it’s a flat amount–$5 for each person at the table, regardless of whether or not everyone at the table wants to drink any water; in other places you pay by the glass. It’s next to impossible to get out of any restaurant for under $100 per person. We know that the minimum wage is something like $23-$27 depending on what “canton” you live in; housing is incredibly expensive—about 30% higher than the Bay Area. Everyone thinks they pay very high taxes but frankly they seem to be pretty much like the US or maybe even lower –depending on one’s tax bracket, from what we can tell; and the more important issue is that they get a lot for their taxes – free quality education, including university, excellent healthcare, good roads and public transportation… and only a very very small part of taxes go to national defense. Quite civilized, I think.

Fern