Cause Catchin' Up is Hard to Do; also known as Geneva Week: Part Three...

[See ya in May, Paris!!!]
[Sun, old metal scales, and vintage Dior shades...what better way to spend a gorgeous Wednesday in Switzerland?]
[This man is putting shorts on a skeleton...I bet he doesn't even know if the skeleton likes shorts...]
[Rad!]
[Did I mention it was next to a sweet skate park?]

It's been raining for DAYS now. And now while posting these pictures of three super sunny days in a row I wonder if we're EVER going to have sun again. Ok I'm being a little dramatic, but the weather report is calling for 30 degree temps and a 60% chance of rain tomorra, which means there's a really good chance of NO flea market. Boo HISSSSS Boo. These shots are from last Wednesday's Plainpalais Flea Market in Geneva, where Kim and I lurked for several hours finding way too many goodies than our little arms could carry back via walking/biking/tram/bussing. Hopefully we can hit it up this Saturday (it's on Wednesday AND Saturdays every week) because there were a few items from last week that didn't come home with me that I still may have my eye on...

I hadn't realized at the time how long I had been holding the items I had procured, and how long of a walk back I had back to the "F" bus stop at Gare Cornavin. By the time I got home I was sore all over. At least I wore my hiking shoes since I knew it was going to be a day of serious walking and thrifting.

[Funny sign.]

Here are my sweet market scores! I wanted to take home everything, but my little arms could only carry so much. I actually can't believe how much I did carry home, as that large bowl is metal, the mirror is fragile, and the scale is also metal. It's amazing what incentive a design plan can be when expecting physical labor out of yourself. I'd love to be able to get everything we need for our new place in Thoiry via the flea market, and skip the quasi-inevitable-Ikea-step in between, but I guess that's just going to depend on my luck and haggling skills...

Sidenote: A special congrats to my hubby and all the guys and dolls over at CERN - today was truly a historic day and I watched a hell of a lot of it on the live webcast...I have no idea what it is exactly that I watched, but I know it was of epic proportions for physics and the world at large. Yeah for proton collisions!!!

The French Techno Children's Pinnochio Puppetry Circus; also known as give that child a glowstick...

After a long day of walking around Geneva last Monday, I came home exhausted and eager to get started on dinner and relax before Dan got home from work. As I got out of the shower I was startled by what sounded like someone having a techno dance party in our apartment, and later realized that the French Children's Puppetry people of some sort were putting on a circus in the parking lot next to our place. And they were blaring techno versions of what sounded like "It's a Small World After All" and Britney Spears "Oops I Did It Again." At first it was funny. Thirty minutes later it was getting old. Two hours later I thought I was going to lose my mind. Luckily the music stopped once the show started, but then I had to listen to the show in french, and children screaming bloody murder in the tent for most of the show. I don't remember Pinnochio being overly scary, but if the puppets and costumes were anything close to the music selection I'd probably have been screaming too. Here is a short video I took (you're welcome - I could have made this a lot longer) of the music that blared through our apartment unwillingly for two hours on both Monday and Tuesday evening.

Geneva Week: Part Deux

After exploring around Lake Geneva my wanderings took me to Old Town, which I was hoping to find. This is a cute little carousel that can be found at Place de la Madeleine, which also has a small (one or two vendors) manufactured goods market on Mondays. (Note: the above is not to be confused with the French techno Children's Pinnochio Disney Circus that took place for two annoying days last week in our apartment building's adjacent parking lot...)

[Bruno and Squirt.]

While walking around I found the most gorgeous book store, called Bookbinders Design. It's a Swedish company headed up in Stockholm, and they have just a beautiful selection of books in all the colors you could imagine for journals, blank books, recipes binders, photo albums, baby books, desk boxes, birthday books, frames, pens, stamps, etc. And the manager is just an absolute doll. It's a little pricey but hey, it is Geneva.

After swooning over all the goodies at Bookbinders Design, I continued on through Old Town and to my surprise found the adorable little square that Dan and I had found several weeks ago on a cold cold cold Sunday. It looked much different on this spring-time day as people were out and about and enjoying vin and cafes outside in the square. The bar/cafe on the left is La Clemence, where Dan and I had shared a glass of Pinot Noir and Gamay, as was mentioned in an earlier post.

The water fountain behind this guy is actually one of those fountains that you can drink out of. They are clearly marked as "potable" or "non potable" to help you know which ones to fill your Sigg bottles up with...

Two things can be found all over Geneva: Pinwheels and travel agencies. Lots and lots of pinwheels and lots and lots of travel agencies.

[I am Batman.]

[Want.]

[Home.]

Geneva Week: Part Three coming soon...Have a wonderful sunny day my lovely readers!!!

Geneva Week: Part I

[Jet D'Eau sits in Lake Geneva and is the tallest fountain in the world...]

[The Flower Clock...]

[More Jet D'Eau and Lake Geneva...]

[Pup on a boat...]

[Goofy guy with a goofy hat in mid-60 degree temperatures...]

Well ok, three out of the last four days I've spent in Geneva, two of which I went solo in order to try to learn my way around the town. I was really nervous at first and definitely spent about an hour or so beforehand prepping myself with google maps before catching the "F" bus into Gare Cornavin. I hadn't realized how close many of the places I had been previously were to each other, and I was constantly surprised that I was able to find things as I walked along (my directional sense is non-existent). I finally figured out that as long as I knew where the lake was I could find my way back to the train station, which definitely put my mind at ease. I didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb while trapsing around, so instead of pulling out my big Geneva map (which I had in case of dire emergency), I took a page from my friend Kim's book and took pictures along the way ("digital breadcrumbs," if you will) and drew little maps in my notebook as I walked, which was really helpful. I also wrote down the names of streets and stores as reminders of where I had been and where I needed to pass on my way back.
Stay tuned for the next installment of "Geneva Week" as I have many more pictures and stories to share...