When the boys are away, the girls will play...

The last couple of days the boys were at their conference all day. So Ann Marie and I kept ourselves busy exploring Geneva.

Wednesday, we explored the village of Carouge - just south of downtown Geneva. It's a quaint, little village - a bit quieter than the city. We spent time just walking around...and happened across a highly recommended chocolatier, Phillipe Pascoet. Superb!

I think we both walked out of there with a decent amount of chocolate. There was a bit of a language barrier, so we just kept saying "Oui". Lol! One thing we noticed about this village, that was quite different than Geneva, is that most business owners spoke very little English. So with our broken French, it's amazing we walked away with anything we wanted. :)

That evening we attended a banquet dinner put on by the Canton of Geneva for the EUMETSAT attendees. It was in a gorgeous building - Batiment des Forces Motrices. The building was built in the 1880's to pump water to all the homes in Geneva and its "suburbs". It's now used for events & concerts. I completely failed to get any of the inside, but here's a shot of the outside.

Thursday was another day of exploring. Ann Marie & I headed out to CERN.  Apparently you are supposed to book the guided tours months in advance, which we did not. So we decided to just explore the two self-guided exhibits...one of which was closed. #totalcernfail.

The closed exhibit - the Universe of Particles

The exhibit we were able to visit was the Microcosm. The entire time we were there I felt like I was in an episode of a The Big Bang Theory.  Ha!

A replica of the Large Hedron Collider...

They have parts from past experiments out in their garden area for the kids to climb on. Kind of cool!

After CERN, we headed to the United Nations of Geneva (UNOG).

We were able to take the guided tour here, which ended up being 3 of the available 6 rooms due to other meetings that were going on.  

We started out in Room 19. There was nothing too special about this room - just similar to a normal sized rooms here.

Next we saw the Council Chamber (AKA Spanish Room), which is mostly used for disarmament meetings. 

The walls & ceiling of the room are canvas paintings from an artist in Barcelona. The wall on the right had two different paintings.  The one on the right is a man giving vaccinations. The one on the left is a mother holding her baby up representing a future life without war.

The ceiling and the back wall are similar.  They both have five arms holding onto one item representing the 5 main members (countries) working towards the same outcome.

Finally we visited the largest meeting room, the Assembly Hall. Organizations like the World Health Organization (also housed in Geneva) hold their annual meetings here among other things.

Outside the UN is a monument titled, The Broken Chair. It's enormous and represents individuals who have lost limbs due to land mines.  Pretty moving.

We walked by the World Meteorlogical Organization (WMO) on our way back to the hotel. We weren't able to tour this facility, but did get a couple of pics.

Thursday night, we headed out to dinner with several other meteorologists. We stopped at a recommended Swiss & Italian restaurant, Au Petit Chalet. Delish! Haven't had a bad meal yet...unless you count the plane. :)

Friday (today) was out last day in Geneva. The conference was only a half day, so we got to hang out together afterwards. We spent the afternoon walking around the city, since he missed out on a lot if that this week. We've had mostly gorgeous weather while we've been here. So lucky!! 

We chose Italian for our last meal and opted for a place we went to earlier in the week. Never did I expect to have so much Italian while in Paris & Switzerland...but I guess it makes sense, we're so close to Italy! (Take note of the spicy oil! Definitely making this when we return!!)

Merci beaucoup, Geneva! Au revoir! A bientot!

The Three Swiss C's - Chateaus, Cheese & Chocolate!

Tuesday we all took a trip to Gruyeres, Switzerland, which is about a two hour train ride from Geneva. We managed the train quite well, with two different connections, I might add. Another public transportation success. It actually has left us wishing that the U.S. had more trains. It's so easy to get around this way!  As you might imagine the views from the train next to Lake Geneva and though the mountains were quite amazing. I'm not sure our little iPhones could quite capture it at the speed that we were moving...but here's a shot of the station. 

After arriving in Gruyeres, we headed "up" to Chateau de Gruyere, a medieval castle. It was quite a bit of a climb, but the scenery made it all worth it. Here's some pics from our "hike".

Can you see the "hike" behind me? I made it!

At the top of the hill was this charming village - so Swiss!

After a bit more of an uphill climb, we arrived at the chateau.  

More stunning views from the chateau gardens...

A "brocade" ceiling...

The interior was also grand. All the "wallpaper" is actually paint on the walls.  Amazing!

A few more scenic views from the interior...

After the chateau, we headed straight for some fondue, which was completely amazing - as was the Mac & cheese!! Then we made outer way back down the hill to Le Maison de Gruyere (the cheese factory). This visit included a self-guided tour and tasting of Gruyere cheeses aged for different times. Delish!

Our last stop of the day was in the neighboring town of Broc - just a quick 10 min train ride. The Cailler chocolate factory is owned by Nestle & has their factory there. It's such a large facility for the area and is surrounded by mountains & dairy cows. 

The tour was fun - very creative! I'd highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in that part of the world. It started out with the history of chocolate & Cailler.  Then it took you through a portion of production.  

Last but definitely not least, the tour ended with a tasting.  I think we might have even heard angels singing as we walked through the door.  Lol! There was so much chocolate!

Chad was so excited that he kissed a chocolate cow!

All in all it was a very "filling" day! :). So glad we made the trip!!