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| Geneva's Jet d'Eau |
Joie de vivre...the joy of living. Yes, I changed languages just now because for a brief moment last week, we ventured into the French speaking part of Europe. Annie is finishing her three month internship at the World Health Organization in Genève, Switzerland so we took advantage of her proximity and met her there for the weekend.
Switzerland has four official languages, each of which is the primary language in different geographical regions. German is spoken by 65% of the people in the eastern and northern regions, French is the language of 22% in the western region, Italian by 8% in the southern region close to Como, and Romansh is spoken by less than 1% in a tiny southeast corner of the county. Luckily, since my high school French was never worth bragging about, we found that most people in Geneva were fluent in English as well.
Geneva is the second largest city in Switzerland and is located on the shores of Lake Geneva. The Jet d'Eau which is a symbol of the city has been shooting a plume of water 140 meters into the air for over a century. It is truly a global city filled with many international organizations including many of the main agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross. The World Health Organization is a specialty agency of the U.N. with a focus on international public health. I felt privileged to meet some of my daughter's colleagues who represent many different cultures and areas of expertise.
Since the city is also known for being one of the top five most expensive cities in the world, we were happy to cross the border into nearby France with its more affordable prices. Annecy is in the Rhône-Alpes region of France and is known as the Alpine Venice with its scenic canals in the "Vieille Ville" (old town). Flowers abundantly spill out of window boxes and along railings and swans glide along the water in the reflections of medieval buildings. The outdoor cafes were filled from one end of town to the other with everyone enjoying the end of summer sunshine. The lake at the edge of town is surrounded by mountains and has the turquoise hue of a glacier lake. It is quite simply one of the most appealing places I have ever been.
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| World Health Organization headquarters |
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| W.H.O. meeting room with simultaneous language translation |
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| Annecy |
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| Palais de l'isle |
We returned to Geneva and spent the next day exploring the northern shore of Lake Geneva. We stopped in a village and shopped in the Sunday morning market filled with fresh vegetables, wine and bread products and then headed to Montreux which is on the part of the shore known as the Swiss Riviera. We walked 4 kilometers along the wide, flat trail lined with flower gardens that follows the lakeshore to Chateux de Chillon. This island castle is between 800 and 1000 years old and looks like a perfect sand castle guarding the end of the lake. Annie was able to hop on a train to take her back to her apartment in Versoix and we drove up into the mountains, through the San Bernardo tunnel back to Italy. Au revoir for now.
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| Château de Chillon |
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