Genève Enneigé

Snow on the Saleve (my mountain) and Geneva.

A day or two after the first big snowfall, a biting wind (called la Bise) swooped down on Geneva and blew fiercely for 2 or 3 days. My bus shook slightly back and forth on the bridge, and I cringed for the few pedestrians that were struggling to walk across. Walking to school from my tram stop was an adventure and watching the waves crash against the retaining walls was impressive as well. On Wednesday morning, the wind was so bad that it broke the metal latch that would usually keep the double-doors facing the lake in my classrom shut. We had to have class up stairs, where I got some more pictures of the crashing waves. Compare this with a calm, warmer day back in October.

This was also bad news for many of the folks who had their boats docked in the harbour. Some of them, heavy with ice and battered by the waves and wind, sunk or were damaged. Here's one pushed ashore.

Wednesday night, as my friend Joao was driving me home, we heard on the radio that the weather station up on the Juras registered gusts as high as 170km/hr (109mph)! I imagine our worst gusts didn't go beyond 45 mph, but the wind was bitterly cold and constant for those few days.