Panorama of the Alps at sunrise

These were taken by my friend Andrada from the top story of the World Health Organization, where she works as an intern. Beginning from the southeast going north. In the first, the two darker slopes in the foreground are the petit Saleve and then you see the beginnings of the (grand) Saleve.


The second

In the last one, Lac Leman is more noticeable in the foreground.

Escalade

Le fête de l'Escalade is a "cantonal" holiday here in Geneva celebrated each December. Apparently, the wily Frech Duke of Savoy broke his promises and decided to attack Geneva one cold December night. One of the men on guard saw their advance and raised the alarm. Apparently even the wife of the Captain of the guard (affectionately known as Mère Royaume) joined the fray by hauling her heavy cauldron full of soup to the pallisade and dumping its contents on the attackers followed by the pot itself.

This feat of heroism has somehow been transformed into a special tradition celebrated each year. Families gather around and the oldest and youngest person present break a chocolate "marmite" (cauldron) and solemnly repeat the following phrase: "Ainsi perissent tous les enemies de la Republic" (And thus perished all the enemies of the Republic [of Geneva]), and then they smack the cauldron into pieces.

I went out on Saturday night with my friend Andrada to see the Escalade festivities in the old downtown area. The streets were crowded and on our way up to St. Pierre, we came across a group of fife and drum players marching along in historic dress.

Further up the stairs we came across a group armed with guns from the era that were happy to take a picture with Andrada.

I jumped in the next photo with this fellow who just happens to be standing in front of the "Armory Hotel".

We eventually made it up to the square in front of St. Pierre's Cathedral. It was packed with tourists and reenacters. By the fat feather in his helmet, I imagine this gentleman is at least a captain.

We attended a special service in the church that included singing the official song that relates the events of that historic night (all 6 verses), a solemn reading of the names of all those Genevois who were killed defending their city, an excellent sermon and a trumpet fanfare.

Au Sommet du Saleve

I have been on vacation for this week. I was determined that this would mean more than sleeping in a few hours in the morning, so I took on le Saleve for the third time early Wednesday (22nd) afternoon. I 1st jogged up part of the way about a month ago. Then last Friday, I had fun on the frozen stairs, but started too late. A nice old man I met on his way down counselled me to go to the mountain town of Monnetier instead of pressing up to the summit. So I did. They have a nice church.

Back to Wednesday. I had noticed the day before that the top was covered in snow, and thought that would be fun to see and good training for later hikes. It was a beautiful, clear and sunny day, but still cool in the forest shadows of the mountainside.

A few vantage points on the way up allowed me to get some great shots of Veyrier, the neighboring vineyards, the Arve river and downtown Geneva. Even further up, where the mountain was dusted with a light snow, I could again see my town and the vineyards below.

As I climbed higher still, I was awestruck by the beautiful snow shrouding the deathly silent forest. The snow-crested treetops against azure skies were breathtaking (or was that me hiking too fast?!). A lady coming down the trail told me I was near the summit and that it offered an excellent view of the Alps further east.

Breaking into an uphill jog, I finally came out into a forest clearing and could finally see, about 120 miles in the distance, the majestic alps. This was an exhilirating experience for me. I hope you enjoy the other photos that follow:

Looking the other direction, across the valley (with Lake Leman and Geneva) to the Jura mountains.



Majestic Mont Blanc, the highest point in Europe, at 15,771 ft.

Looking back down the trail I came up.

My new ice axe (piolet) and backpack where I left them to take pictures.

An older fellow walked my way with his grandson as I was trying to make a monopod out of my ice axe, so I asked him if he wouldn't mind taking my picture. I'm not sure what happened, but this is what I was able to salvage from his shot.

My beautiful little village, Veyrier, nestled at the foot of Saleve mountain.

Looking out over Geneva from snow-topped Saleve.

Looking northwest to Annemasse and Lac Leman.

Frozen trees etched onto sky blue glass.

Père Noël and the children

Wednesday evening, two hours after I got back from my hike up the Saleve, my church had a Christmas party complete with ham dinner, carols, the nativity scene and Santa Claus. The children were adorable as they sang a Christmas song and then again as they greeted Papa Noël.

Rotoract Action Sociale/Vin Chaud

Rotaract buddies getting the "vin chaud" booth ready. This is their annual "action sociale", a way to raise money for a charitable cause.


I had promised to take some pictures, but could only drop by in the morning on my way to photograph Christian and Tabitha's wedding ceremony at the temple in Bern.

A number of businesses contributed to our effort, including this delivery fourwheeler with its cache of croissants.

More Rotaract friends help get the hot wine and snacks ready to sell.

Tabitha & Christian's Marriage

Two friends from my church asked me to be the photographer for their wedding. I readily agreed and had a great time shooting and attending their marriage ceremonies and reception. I'm still waiting with fingers crossed to hear if I've been invited along to photograph their honeymoon in Tahiti. : )

It was a lovely wedding. They first had the civil ceremony at the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) with the mayor and friends and family in attendance. Then they had their religious ceremony at the temple in Bern. The reception was loads of fun with traditional Tahitian dancing, a special song by Tabitha's sisters, a gameshow for the newlyeds, and lots of dancing and delicious snacking for everyone. You can see some of my photographs on this little site I created for them.

Crêpes!

The Monday of our last week of classes, my friend Cecile treated me and some other friends from school to a dinner of crêpes. We started with the crêpes salee and then had crêpes sucrés for dessert. Yum! I must have just told another one of my hilarious jokes to this group.

Here's Sylvain, Irene, and Agustina. Irene graciously let us get together at her apartment downtown.

That same morning, after our European Integration class, Sylvain kindly offered to put me up at his place Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I'm taking the TGV (high-speed train) to Paris the evening of the 24th and then flying out early afternoon of the 25th. I might of had some touching stories about sharing Christmas with the homeless in Paris otherwise, but I'm really grateful that he and his family opened up their home to me, especially on a holiday.

Kyoto Treaty/Duke's Tomb

I was quite early for the Rotary lunch Monday at 12:15, so I meandered from the central train station (Gare Cornavin) to the restaurant in the Palais Wilson (Though often belittled in the US for his idealism, Woodrow Wilson was quite the hero in Europe in his day). Along the way, a shop display caught my eye and so I stopped to check it out. It was an obscure men's clothing store that in addition to the regular displays of suits and ties, had this hilarious sign up with a number wine bottles that had the same on their labels. And then I found this mini-manifesto, poking fun at the US for not abiding by the Kyoto treaty.

Here's a non-professional translation for my non-francophone friends:

The United States, which releases 36.1% of the total carbon dioxide pollutants into the atmosphere, has refused to ratify the Kyoto Treaty for fear that so doing will weaken their economic competitiveness. This obstinate refusal will soon result in irreversible climatic changes. The lack of snowfall will have the dramatic consequence of preventing Santa Claus from making his rounds in his sleigh. Hundreds of thousands of children are at risk of no longer believing in him, which will have a disastrous effect on the economy.

Au Pere et Fils invites you to toast the 120 signatory countries of the Kyoto protocols who still believe in Father Christmas.

Well folks, there you have it! If the US doesn't ratify the Kyoto protocols we'll soon be without Santa Claus. And then, without all those gifts and new toys, we'll have to content ourselves with merely celebrating Jesus Christ's birth. What a tragedy!

I hope my sarcasm is obvious enough. I've merely imitated and continued the fuddled logic seen in the previous statement to show how it could equally serve completely opposite ends. But I hope both their point and mine are provocative in addition to being amusing.

After chuckling and snapping a few photos, I continued on and then took a moment to enjoy the mausoleum of the Duke of Brunswick (1804-1873). The Duke, Frederik August William (I took this photo over a month earlier, Oct 13th), appointed Geneva as his residuary legatee on the condition that they build him this splendid monument. Here's a closer shot of the monument. You can see that it was raining if you look closely at the blue ceiling with stars.

Here are 2 more from my photo spree on the 13th of October: winged tiger, jet d'eau, lion and a man; the southern reflecting pool.