Minigan's Travels -Summer 2015
Bonjour to Paris and Geneva!
Day 6 - Switzerland - Here we come!
Parting is such sweet sorrow. Our hotel has been so wonderful. Each of the people at the front desk have been helpful to us in their own special way. They gave us recommendations, directions, helped us with our French, and were friendly to us each and every time we saw them. We will not forget the Hotel de Seine.
Jim and I went down to have our last breakfast in Paris of Cafe Americana, baguettes and cheese. Manuel the waiter, bellhop, handyman, etc was wonderful as always. We don't really know what his name is but he reminds us of the bellhop in Faulty Towers. He is so helpful and so friendly. His English is not very good at all but he smiles so much and tries to understand what we are saying. Each morning he has tried to remember our room number............. each morning he has failed. But he smiles when we tell him the correct room number so he can bill us our daily breakfast charge.
The taxi driver arrives on time to take us and our copious amounts of American-sized luggage to the train station. This is both exciting and sad. The time we have spent in Paris has been wonderful and it is very sad to be leaving. However, heading to Switzerland is extremely exciting!
Jim tells the cab driver where we are going. Gare de Lyon. Apparently he says it just a little off.
The best I can tell is that the train station is pronounced GeAir and the word Jim has been saying in Gair.......... which means war. So Jim has been asking our cab driver to take us to the War of Lyon. Oops. Very funny though. At least to us.
We get to the train station with plenty of time to spare. Beautiful station.
The problem............ we had no idea what we were doing and there was very little English being spoken. I saw a sign that said Lyria, which was the name of our train. I sent Jim to talk to the lady standing by the sign. Bad wife. I sent him into a restaurant named Lyria and the woman spoke no English and tried to sell Jim a drink and breakfast. Apparently we were in the "Lyria" station (kind of like being in the Southwest terminal at the airport) and everything was named Lyria.
Next stop (for Jim) was the Information booth, They had to find someone that spoke English. He finally found the terminal we needed to go to and they said once the train showed up, the boards would show us which platform we needed to go to. Very easy, if you knew what you were doing. We didn't, of course.
We made it onto the train with no problem. Very nice except space for luggage was limited. Jim found room for everything though and the train was on its way. This was the high-speed train. I was under the assumption that I would see no scenery since we were going so fast. I was wrong. We had beautiful views and it was a very comfortable ride.
We arrive in Geneva with no problem. More rested than when we left. So exciting!
Mike is there to greet us and take us back to their place for the beginning of our Ferney-Voltaire, France and Geneva, Switzerland adventure!
We see him immediately. Having someone you know waiting to greet you with a smile is worth millions! Now we have to get our copious American-sized luggage and 3 additional people into his European-sized car. Take the car apart, insert luggage, put the car back together again. Easy Peasy....
Mike and Graciela's home is as welcoming as they are. Graciela is still at work but will be joining us later.
We settle in and Mike gives us an option of going out for a bit. Of course the answer is yes. We take a brief walk through Ferney-Voltaire, where the writer Voltaire lived.
Afterward, we drive to Geneva (5 minutes) and park in the garage of the building he works in. From there, we walk. We walk through Geneva seeing the sights and then ................
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| United Nations in Geneva |
Lake Geneva!
We could spend hours, or days at Lake Geneva. More than I could have hoped for.
We walked around looking at the sights. Graciela was going to meet us at the Lake after she got off work.
Graciela shows up on her bicycle with a very large smile. She is so cute! We continue to walk around the lake and talk while they fill us in on all the local flavor.
Our stomachs are beginning to tell us it's time to eat. Mike and Graciela have a place they would like to take us. There is chicken involved so we all agree!
About 300 blocks later (or so it seemed on an empty stomach) we end up at this delightful restaurant where we are greeted with wonderful hospitality. We are seated outside. Such a perfect night. We all order the chicken special. I have never had chicken that tasted so good. This place is a favorite of Mike and Graciela's and we can definitely see why.
We drink, we eat, we cheer. Life is so good and with great friends, life is even better! Mike and Graciela both work with us on our French, which may be a lost cause but we still are trying.
After dinner we are exhausted. We beg to go back to the house. Time for a good night sleep.
BonneNuit!
Wow, I feel like I was there!
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