Weekend Adventures: Lausanne and Ferney-Voltaire

Since I work full-time during the week at the UN, my weeknights are ususally really relaxed; cook dinner, maybe do some reading, catch up with Kris and my family, and go to bed as early as I can stand to. I have found that the key to working full-time and staying sane is to adventure relentlessly on one's days off. Fortunately, in Switzerland, this is easy to do, and I have been having so much fun exploring the region, both by myself and with my classmates. 

Last weekend, my classmate Kate and I visited Lausanne for the day on Sunday, and the previous day, I went on a solo adventure across the French border to Ferney-Voltaire. The weather was great all weekend, and both adventures were grand!

Lausanne (Sunday)

Lausanne is a beautiful city. Kate and I took the train there without too much of a plan in mind, and we had a great day wandering all over town. We checked out the Old Town area, the Cathedral, the huge park on the hill at the top of town, and even walked all the way down to the lakefront area (technically a different town, called Ouchy). After having transited through Lausanne's train station to get to Montreux/Chateau de Chillon and the Lavaux Vineyards, I was happy to have finally stopped in to see the city!

I really liked this giant Swiss flag hanging in the square.

"I'd like to kiss the shadow of your lips"

Inside the Lausanne Cathedral

A beautiful day by the lake and mountains! We had a picnic lunch and enjoyed this view.

These succulent 'bubbles' were part of a temporary landscaping exhibition in the park.

A classic European sign at the top of the park.

In the huge city park, we came across a giant wooden observation tower. It was free to climb, and given my penchant for climbing European towers, I had to go up! The views of the region from the top were gorgeous.

"The necessity of elevating oneself to see the horizon and perceive the way."

After our big walk though the park, we headed back down the hill and stopped by a Belgian bar for a delicious beer! The bar stools were pretty awesome as well.

 

At the lakefront town of Ouchy, we walked through the small Sunday market, treated ourselves to ice cream, and tried in vain to find a beach at which to dip our toes into the water (you had to pay to access the one not-rocky beach area. Boo). As always, I was impressed by the gorgeous landscape of the northern end of Lake Geneva.

The swans were beautiful!

Ferney-Voltaire, France (Saturday)

I had heard that Ferney-Voltaire had a really nice farmers market on Saturday mornings, so I decided to hop on the bus for the quick 15-minute ride across the border to check it out. French farmers markets are my absolute favorite, and this one was particularly great! I picked up some amazingly delicious fresh raspberries and peaches, a couple of bottles of French wine, some dried sausage, and two types of French cheese, including my all-time favorite, chèvre cendré!! I was in heaven.

Chèvre cendré - YUM!

 

While in town, I also took a tour of Voltaire's chateau. Voltaire is the "Father of Ferney", having developed the town significantly during his twenty-year residence there in the late 1700s. It was fun to see the interior of his chateau and enjoy the gardens and ponds on the property. I even met a cute frog! :)

And finally, on Saturday night, there was a huge 75-minute long fireworks show on the lake right by downtown Geneva. Although my view of the fireworks wasn't the best, it was a great show. I think the almost-Supermoon hovering over the mountains as the sun was setting took the cake, though!