Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève

This may be my favorite flower picture from the day...tell me which ones you like best!

This weekend was my first home based weekend in a while, and I was actually quite excited to have the opportunity to explore Geneva in greater depth. Our first, and main, stop was Geneva's botanic gardens. At home in Miami, one of my family's favorite pastimes is wandering around Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens, so this was a nice reminiscent trip. The overall gardens in Geneva may not have been as lush as Fairchild's, but they definitely had more sections and themed greenhouses. Hands down the best part of the botanic garden though was it's price: everything was completely free. For a city as expensive as Geneva, which some argue to be the most expensive in the world, it is quite refreshing to have free nature exhibits. 

The gardens were filled with varying sections, including rose gardens, vegetable gardens, cotton fields, medicinal plants, an arboretum, a farm animal section, and multiple greenhouses. The greenhouses ranged from climates including temperate, winter, and tropical. All of us agreed that the tropical greenhouse was by far the best part of the botanic garden--it strongly reminded me of a mini-Fairchild, too! Still, it was really wonderful seeing so many different plants and flowers that I had never seen before. All of the flowers were such vibrant colors and some of them were of the most interesting formations. 

I may have gone a bit camera crazy, but I hope you enjoy the strong colors and various plant shapes. I would love to hear which ones you like best!

garden goats

lawn chairs and sand in front of a pond in the gardens.

The arboretum: equipped with pine trees and spruce. It was really difficult holding back the urge from climbing some of these.

Trying to Beat the Heat

A few of us went into Geneva yesterday; on the way to the tram station I complained about how brutality of the heat. Immediately, one of my friends commented "you know it's really hot when Megan is complaining about it." The first few weeks I was here the weather was perfect: highs in the upper 70s/low 80s and lows in the mid 60s. There was even one week where the weather was consistently below 70, and it was quite chilly. However, the temperatures this past week are the hottest Geneva has recorded in over a decade. The temperature climbed to 97 degrees yesterday.

Yes, I do realize I am from Miami where it is summer all year long, but this is much different. First off, in St. Genis/Geneva, we aren't blessed with any ocean breeze. At all. The second you step onto the pavement you can feel the heat radiating from the ground below you, while simultaneously feeling the sun's rays beating down on you from above. Secondly, and possibly more important, air conditioning is extremely limited here. This means that there is no escape--you go inside trying to evade the sun's beating rays, but instead are trapped in an oven. My office at CERN gets especially overheated: we have limited ventilation--our window seems to trap the sun's heat more than let a breeze in--and the combination of 5 people and 7 computers generating enormous amounts of heat is a recipe for disaster. Honestly, Becky and I have joked about using our office to bake in since we have no oven in our apartment.

Thankfully, we ended up our day in the heat by taking a dip in Lake Geneva. We went to an area on the lake called "Baby Beach," which was essentially a 200 ft strip of sand with every inch of it covered by people. However, the lake water was a perfect chilled temperature. I also had not been able to go swimming for the past couple months, so being able to do some open water swimming was an absolutely incredible feeling. I miss the water and swimming. This was hands down the best, most refreshing way to beat the Geneva heat.

Geneve's Baby Plage

The French Riviera

View of the Nice coast from atop a hill

"The French Riviera - Holiday home of the rich, the famous, and the half-naked." --Apples to Apples card 

This past weekend the four undergrads in my lab all took Friday off and went on a "lab retreat" to Nice. (There are 12 Yale undergrads working at CERN in total, 8 under Professor Golling and the remaining 4 of us under Professor Demers. Our Nice trip--partially because we planned it during lab and partially because no one else jumped in on it--was restricted to the Demers crew). The four of us did some late night planning Thursday night, then left a couple hours later at 3:30am to walk to the airport (public transportation isn't quite up and running that early) to catch our early morning flight out of Geneva. We accidentally overshot our walk to the airport by 30 minutes and ended up having to back track to find it. After loads of tension and 30 minutes before our plane was set to take off, we finally made it to the proper security check-in and walked straight through boarding and onto the plane. After a 49 minute flight, we arrived in Nice at 7:15am with the entire day ahead of us. You have to love early flights.

view from the apartment we rented

Becky, Ryan, Vijay and me

Becky, me, Ryan and Vijay at the top of the hill

This weekend was probably the exact opposite of last weekend's trip to Paris: there were no museums or palaces, but instead it was a much more flexibly planned trip of sun, beaches and exploring towns. We started off our trip exploring the Old Town part of Nice--lots of colorful building with side street gardens and markets, shops and cafes lining every inch of space, and the occasional cathedral sprinkled throughout. We climbed up a hill (elevation 92 meters above sea level) that we found; every time we got to the next out look, the view of the city and coast line kept getting inexplicably better. On one side of the hill there was a view of the coast line and all of the Nice beaches a shops, while the other side displayed houses lining a cliff  on the edge of the Mediterranean. At the top of the hill there was a massive waterfall, easily recognized from the beach down below.
For lunch we stopped at one of the cafes lining the street and enjoyed one of Nice's specialties: Socca. Socca is essentially a crêpe made from chickpeas; definitely a fun snack to try. 

Nice boardwalk

Ryan, Vijay and Becky getting ready for the beach

Becky and me soaking up the sun!

After the hike and lunch we made our way to the part of Nice I was most excited for: the beach! I've been craving the beach since I left home; traveling Europe, climbing mountains and museum hopping is incredible, but there is always a part of me that needs my beach fix. The views of the Nice coastline are absolutely breath-taking; however, speaking completely objectively, it's pebble beaches are kind of terrible. There is just something about the soft powder that molds to you as you lay down on a sand beach that the jabbing rocks of Nice do not have.

Still, other than the harsh rocks, the beach was beautiful--perfect sunny weather with few clouds and a the Mediterranean filled with beautiful turquoise water to cool you off when it got to warm. This definitely satisfied (and exceeded) my beach fix.

Becky and me on top of a cliff

We returned to the hill in the evening to picnic and watch the city and coastline transition from daylight to dusk. Little did we know, the park on the hill closed at sunset...and we were locked atop it. After climbing up and down every possible gate, we finally found a side gate to get out off of the hill so that we could make our way to the pier and back to our apartment for some well needed rest.

Nice coast at dawn

Nice coast at night

what a beautiful view...

Moon over the beach at night

 We spent the first half of Saturday touring Monaco where we saw just how much wealth could flood a city. The coast was lined with 200-ft yachts and sailboats and every building looked like a palace. The entirety of the town and it's shrubbery was perfectly planned and manicured.

Monaco coast

Me overlooking the Monaco coast

Our first stop in Monaco was an exotic botanic garden located 100m above sea level, which was essentially filled with lots of varieties of cacti, colorful flowers, and gorgeous views of the coastline and cliffs. There was an observatory cave made of limestone rock that was carved out by acid water high in carbon dioxide. The cave descended all the way down to sea level (a 300 step climb) and was jeweled with stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, and columns. It really was an impressive site of natural beauty.

Monaco: view from the Botanic gardens

Becky and me at the botanic gardens

cave at the botanic gardens

Vijay, me, Becky and Ryan in front of a palace in Monte Carlo, Monaco

After the botanic gardens we walked towards Monte Carlo to look at the ostentatious casinos, houses and yachts.

Vijay, Ryan and Becky in a park in Monaco

Monte Carlo casino

In addition to the beach, Nice had this really amazing gelato restaurant, called Fenocchio, that had restaurants and stands all throughout the city center. Fenocchio carried about 40 different types of gelato, with flavors including violet, rose, mojito, baileys, tiramisu, lavender, tomato basil, olive, speculoos, lychee, mango, salted caramel, dark chocolate, etc. Unfortunately, Fenocchio did not let you try different flavors, which made deciding all the more difficult! Thankfully though, every flavor (from the wackiest to the most basic) was incredible and you really couldn't go wrong. The first day I was in Nice I got a scoop of guava gelato; it was a great reminder of home and made me feel like I was eating guava paste on Cuban crackers at my Bito and Bita's house. The next day I decided I needed to try some of their crazy flavors and decided on 2 scoops: one of cactus and one of avocado. The avocado was a creamy treat that was savory and sweet all in one and the cactus was super refreshing, as if you were eating a cool aloe. Needless to say, I was very pleased with the cold treats.

some of the Fenocchio ice cream flavors: cactus, avocado, tomato basil, olive, lavender, rose, mojito....

My gelato: cactus and avocado

The French Riviera is definitely one of the prettiest coastlines I have seen. It was a relaxing trip of natural beauty contrasting the extremely busy, somewhat stressful, Parisian trip dedicated to man-made artwork from the weekend before. All in all, it was a wonderful visually stunning 2-day trip.

It seems I may have taken the wrong flight and ended up at home...

Paris + Bastille Day

Becky and me!

My trip to Paris this past weekend was absolutely incredible. It was exactly my type of trip: we woke up early and got back to our hotel late each day, going to as many museums/palaces/attractions as we could to optimize the amount of time we had in the city. I planned the trip specifically around this weekend so that we could be there for Bastille Day, which is essentially France's Independence Day--if I couldn't see fireworks for the 4th of July, I was at least going to see them for Bastille Day, and what better place than in Paris? We had two days to devote to exploring the city and one day to enjoy the Bastille Day festivities.

We took a train from Geneva to Paris' Gare de Lyon Friday morning and got in at 10:45. After getting our bearings, we made our way to the city center and stumbled upon Notre Dame. The architecture at Notre Dame is designed so perfectly on the outside and it is such a huge cathedral!! However, to be honest, I was not wholly impressed by the cathedral's interior. Of course, it was extremely opulent and well manicured, it just did not match the extravagance of the exterior, or of other cathedral's I have seen around Europe. When we entered the cathedral, a short service was going on, so I got to participate and take communion inside the church.

Entry to Notre Dame

Inside Notre Dame

Ryan, Becky, Mark and me at gardens behind Notre Dame

that's a lot of locks....couples come to this bridge and "lock their love" together and throw the key into the river Seine to signify an undying love

After Notre Dame, we went to Saint-Chapelle, a cathedral that is essentially decorated fully with stained glass. We went in the middle of the day so were able to see the chapel in all of it's beauty as the sun shined through the colored glass. The whole time I was there I could only think of my mom who used to make her own stained glass when she was my age. Mom, you would have loved it! We then stopped by the Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette was held prisoner and then eventually beheaded) and saw Marie Antoinette's prison cell.

Saint-Chapelle

Saint-Chapelle

Conciergie

Victims of the conciergie--Marie Antoinette

Finally, we made it to the Louvre. Thankfully, we all got 2-day museum passes so were able to bypass the monstrous Louvre lines. The Louvre building itself and it's architecture was so beautiful. I know everyone always complains about the Mona Lisa and how underwhelming it is, but to be honest, I thought it was great and was super happy to have seen it. And yes, the surrounding paintings in the same room are just as stunning if not more, but still.

the Louvre

Me, Ryan, Mark and Becky in front of the Louvre

Ryan at the Louvre

Winged Victory of Samothrace

Veronese's The Wedding Feast at Cana

Mona Lisa

me and Venus de Milo

sketching a statue in the Louvre

From the Louvre we went to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed up to the top (50 m) where we were able to see a view of the city. Every afternoon they light a torch on the tomb of the unknown soldier, which sits beneath the arc, so we were able to the that as well. The view from top of the arc showed the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and all other notable buildings. After we climbed back down, we searched around for our first Parisian meal--I ended up getting a duck and duck pâté salad. It was fine and I'm glad I tried pâté while in Paris, but it was nothing extraordinary. 

view from the arc de triomphe

The tomb of the unknown soldier with a flame lit

Arc de Triomphe

Ryan, Becky, me, and Mark at our first Parisian meal

We ended our first day in Paris at the Eiffel Tower. We got there right before sunset and were able to see it as it transitioned to a golden hue after dusk. Objectively speaking, it is much more spectacular when lit up at night. We climbed up 400 ft of the tower and were able to experience our second elevated view of the city that day. And we were able to start feeling our quads burn after all those stairs... The Tower is such a phenomenal structure. When you see how tall it is compared to other buildings, you realize just how huge it really is: it is 6 times as tall as our beloved statue of liberty. 

View of the city from atop the Eiffel Tower

Ryan, Becky and Mark at the Eiffel Tower

Becky and I holding up the Eiffel Tower!

The Eiffel Tower from below

Saturday morning we woke up early and took a train to Versailles in hopes of beating most of the crowds. I was aware of the palace's impressive history, but even so, I was still taken aback by it's size and vast grandeur. It got to the point where every time I entered another room I just thought to myself "oh great, another incredible room plated with gold leaf, marble, crystal chandeliers and painted scene ceilings...nothing special." It's very sad to think that after a while you can get desensitized to the extent of beauty such as that. After the palace we were able to walk through Versailles' gardens, which were accompanied with running fountains and classical music since we visited on a Saturday. The gardens went on forever, and it was amazing, because every inch of this enormous piece of land was perfectly manicured. Not a branch was out of place. I guess when you are in charge of a piece of land like Versailles, you have to make sure that everything not only meets but exceeds expectations. Needless to say, Versailles took a good 5 hours to fully go through. 

the opulence at Versailles palace

marble statue in Versailles

gardens of Versailles

garden's of Versailles

The gates to Versailles

Entry to Versailles

Versailles palace

Me, Stuart, Mark, Becky and Ryan at the Versailles gardens

decorative statues at a pond at Versailles gardens

Row boats at Versailles

View of Versailles garden from the palace

After Versailles, we went to the Musée D'orsay--this is my all time favorite museum by far. We only had about 2.5 hours there, so unfortunately could not cover the entirety of the museum in the least. The museum has an extensive impressionist collection, consisting of Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas and Cézanne, which I completely fell in love with. I could have stayed there for hours just staring at each impressionist painting. Their brush strokes and uses of multiple colors to create one embodied paintings that from close up just look like random brush strokes but from far away create a perfect image of color and meaning. I was in heaven. I love Monet. In addition to the Impressionist section, the museum also had a huge collection of Van Goghs, which was wonderful because I had just been to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam the previous week, so it was like a continuation of his collection. There was also an extensive section on pointillism, including the original sketches/paintings of portions of Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. I really loved this museum and know that the next time I am in Paris (and every time thereafter) I must revisit this paradise.

We have this painting at home!!

Mark and Degas's The Dancer at Musee D'Orsay

Monet

Me, Mark and Becky enjoying Renoir

Saturday night I was able to meet up with my dear suitemate, Mary Mussman. It was so so so wonderful to get to see her and be reunited. Mary will also be studying abroad next semester (she will be in Paris), so hopefully we'll be able to do more European meet-ups in the coming months. Mary, Becky, Mark and I had a picnic on the River Seine for dinner, complete with 3 different types of breads and cheeses.

Mary and me reunited in front of Notre Dame!

Shakespeare&Co--a notable bookstore by the Latin Quarter which is decorated in the fashion of an old apartment with typewriters, small beds, etc. To this day it continues to house visiting writers. Mary works here.

Me at Shakespeare and Co.

After our picnic we climbed the tower at Notre Dame in order to complete all elevated climbs that we could do to see the city. This one measured in between the other two at 227 ft. However, this time we got there right at sunset so were able to see the entire city under a fiery sky.

sailboats lining the Seine

Mark and Becky enjoying a chestnut crepe while in line to climb the tower of Notre Dame

Me, Mark and Becky atop the tower of Notre Dame

view of the Eiffel Tower from Notre Dame tower at sunset

view of Eiffel tower and Seine from Notre Dame

view of Seine from Notre Dame

Sunday, our final day in Paris, was Bastille Day--a day for parades and festivals! And lots and lots of people... We woke up early once again to make it to the city center to see the military parade. When we got there it was as though every local Parisian had left there homes to line the streets and every tourist (which was much more than normal given the day) congregated in one place.  The parade consisted of lots of military officials in uniform marching, as well as a fighter jet show in the air, and a tanks demonstration on the streets. Still, the millions and millions of people was a bit overwhelming.

planes during the military parade

Becky and I with French officers during military parade on Bastille Day

Jets flying by on Bastille Day with red, white and blue smoke

Following the parade we tried to get to the Musée de l'Orangerie, the last major art museum we needed to see while there. We walked around the entire city trying to get there, but of course the entire city was blockaded off for the parade, making directed movement close to impossible. Eventually, they began to open streets at 2pm, at which point we were able to have a picnic in the jardin des tuileries and then go into the Musée de l'Orangerie. I'm so glad we were finally able to make it in, because this museum was also breath-taking. Monet's waterlilies are on display here, along with an impressive collection of Cézanne, Matisse, Modigliani and Picasso. There are two oval rooms upstairs that are decorated each with four of Monet's waterlilies and Les Nymphéas paintings--paintings that are approximately 20 ft long and 5 ft tall and that perfectly curve to the ovular room. Together, the four paintings in the room give a 360 degree feeling as though you are in the middle of the pond with the waterlilies themselves. It was such a phenomenal experience.

Jardin de Tuileries

Monet's waterlilies in Musee D'Orangerie

Mark, Becky, Ryan, Me, and Ryan on the lover's lock bridge at sunset

We made our way to the Latin Quarter for our final dinner and then attempted to venture towards the Eiffel Tower for the Bastille Day festival. There was a concert at the tower at 9:30 and a firework show beginning at 11pm to celebrate independence. As a consequence of Bastille Day, the two nearest metro stations to Eiffel Tower were shut down to try to control traffic. As such, we had a long walk in streets that were completely packed with people for miles and miles. Once we made it to the Eiffel Tower though, I realized just how happy I was to be there. The firework show itself was the most spectacular show I had ever experienced: it was a 45 minute show coordinated with music. The tower was lit up different colors throughout the show (it started off with the classic gold, then went silver, then sparkle, then rainbow) and finally ended with the Eiffel tower lit red, white and blue with the French flag flying in the center. My weekend was incredible and all of the art and museums I saw were remarkable, but this way by far the greatest highlight of the trip. As you can imagine, I am so glad I chose this weekend to visit!

Eiffel Tower lit up for Bastille Day, with concert stage at base

Eiffel Tower lit up rainbow during firework show

The trek back from the Eiffel Tower to our hotel took nearly 1.5 hours, due to the hoards of people and stopped metro stations, and resulted in 3 hours of sleep in order to catch a 7am train back to Geneva. Yet, in the end, all of this was completely worth it in order to be in Paris for Bastille Day and see the fireworks light up the city as independence was celebrated.

Eiffel Tower red, white and blue with French flag in the middle at end of firework show