The Middle of Somewhere: Here Comes The Sun (do do do do) (Featuring Geneva, Switzerland)

Over the last couple of weeks, we've all been woken up early from Mela's meowing at 6 in the morning. Last Wednesday, enough was simply enough. A sign was made and the rules were laid out.

The explanation in the video below to our little cat goes something along the lines of
'No cuddles here before 8am. Thank you for your cooperation, the direction.'

At 2am the following morning, Mela was at my door, demanding a hug. Eventually I gave in to make her calm down... I think we all need to be a bit more disciplined with ourselves.

Throughout the week I had several delicious culinary experiences. Firstly, look how amazing this lemon meringue tart is!

Along with last week came the amazing discovery of a French frozen food chain called 'Picard'. Now, Picard is a lot like a supermarket, only it specialises in frozen meals, ice-creams, vegetables and hors d'oeuvres. Don't be put off. A lot of it is organic and it's all free of nasties! The meals that I've bought there have been fantastic (and you all know how much of a food snob I am, so you can trust me on this one). So far I've had curries, lasagnes, pastas... It's been great. I'm not eating meals from Picard every day, but when I arrive home from class at 9 pm it's so easy to just throw a Picard meal in the microwave.

Here's a link to their website for further culinary exploration: http://www.picard.fr/

In other news, the sun is still shining! Still! While I walk around the streets of Lyon I can't help but continue to be amazed at how much of a beautiful city this is... And to think that it's more than 2,000 years old is just so cool! Sun makes everything wonderful! That's another thing that I've noticed here in Europe... The seasons are all so obvious. When Spring came.. BAM! It was Spring! The birds were out singing, the smell of flowers was in the air, the sun was out... It's all just so exciting!

Yesterday I went to Geneva in Switzerland with an Australian friend, Jess and her Spanish housemate Sara. Geneva is only an hour and a half away from Lyon by train, so we made a day of it! It was simply beautiful.

We picnicked by the lake (after walking by goodness knows how many Rolex stores and the Four Seasons Hotel). We hesitated walking across the grass because, as Jess put it 'it looked like grass not to be walked on'. It turns out that yes, it was simply parkland... Just.... Swiss parkland, which means clean and very well kept. The jet d'eau (fountain) being Geneva's landmark was actually very cool. We had initially thought it would be kind of lame... But water being shot up 150 metres into the air is actually pretty impressive.

We walked around the old part of town, bought some Swiss chocolate (an obvious must), admired the magnolias that were in full bloom and then made our way to the Pocket Watch Museum (not my idea). On arrival at this particular museum, the lady at the front desk was particularly impressed that we had chosen to visit on our only day in Geneva. Although I didn't think I was going to enjoy this excursion too much, I was pleasantly surprised. Some of those watches were very impressive! Rubies, diamonds, enamel... Some dated back to 500 AD! I couldn't take any pictures inside, so here are some magnolias:

We stumbled across a little market on our way back over to the other side of town (while enjoying a view of the Alpes), and then enjoyed walking by the ENORMOUS lake.

The lake was so big that it felt very much like the seaside and I was missing the beach a little (I need to make it to the coast sometime soon!) We even had ice-cream (the most expensive ice-cream in the world. Switzerland is rolling in it).

We walked out to the jet d'eau (feeling a little concerned about the lack of hand railing, its slipperiness and the number of people walking along this particular stoney path out there) but made it in one piece! From there it was back to the old town and up to the cathedral. Here's the view from the cathedral.