International pavement pounding amongst other things..

Two weeks in and the air of excitement about our new home city has been partially replaced by one of normality and a daily grind - not that there's anything wrong with the daily grind here. We are eating and drinking very well and the weather has been wonderful since the first day of September.

V started her new job last Monday and is now well settled in. She particularly likes the cafeteria where fish fingers and cold, runny mash potato are definitely not on the menu. It is only a 10 minute walk for her through the beautiful Parc Bertrand with its views of both the Jura and Mt Salève so she seems happy enough.

My days are split between filling out job application (I'm losing count) and shopping/house-keeping. I have had a few days 'out'. Last Tuesday I went for a long walk through the town of Carouge (part of the canton of Geneva but a town in its own right) which was very nice. The market square was almost rural Italian in style - I think the area is an Italian one. It had a rather ornate fountain and a few other interesting pieces of architecture.



I then continued via the Stade de Genève and the LaPraille shopping centre(!) and then walked like up the Voie Central to the Bois de la Batie set on top of a hill near where the Rhone and Arve rivers have their confluence. Here I walked through the wood dodging falling acorns to an small zoo. Lots of birds including a massive collection of wildfowl most of whom didn't get on and few other 'alpine' wild animals such as chevrouilles, wild boar and deer (plus a few others I wasn't sure of their names!).



Afterwards I headed along the Rhone back into town and home via the Parc Des Bastions with its amazing and famous wall commemorating the Reformation. This is one of Geneva's landmarks and is also a great place to chill out - you can hear the traffic buzzing around its permieter but after a few minutes you just somehow tune it out.



If that was a long walk then last Thursday was even longer. It was a bank holiday in Geneva (just Geneva) and being a nice, sunny day we went for a walk along the Arve in the direction of the French border near Gaillard. After about an hour and a half we reached the border and though lets have a look around as we want to move out to that area in a couple of months time. So we sneaked across a bridge we were not supposed to into France, trekked around the communes of Gaillard, Ambilly, Ville-la-Grande and Annemasse checking out the area.

They seem quite nice, fairly busy and lots of apartment blocks but there are enclaves where you get that laid back almost rural quietness which in warm sunshine felt very relaxing indeed, and in some places you could clearly see the Alps and Mt Blanc.

On Saturday more pavement pounding out to an interior design store near the airport - yes we decided to walk again - quite a long way but we did take a bus back.

On Sunday we woke up with the intention of going up the cable car to the top of Mt Salève. With lunch packed and the hiking gear in our larger backpacks we set out across the park in lovely sunshine towards the bus stop only to see (or not to see) that the top of the mountain was in thick grey cloud.

Plans ruined we returned home, changed into something more comfortable and went for a walk back to the Jardin Botanique where we had been the previous weekend but not really explored to its fullest. It is a really nice place, not quite the Eden Project but still plenty to see. There are several greenhouses with various temperatures - believe me going from the tropical the the temperate exhibition was a pleasure! I was able to give the macro function a real workout and think I might have taken one or two really good pictures. There is also a big rockery which took a good hour to wander around. There were plenty of frogs or toads (I don't know the difference) in the water too.






Yesterday anticipating the first visit from the cleaners (yes we have cleaners!), I cleared off for the day back to France where we had been last week, to do some more reconnaissance for the accommodation situation. I did catch the tram out to the border and thought that a little wander around Annemasse and its adjoining towns would be ideal.

It was a another warmish day, although a cool breeze off the lake was around in the morning. I did some serious pavement pounding zig-zagging around looking at apartment buildings and grabbing photos or jotting down details of any places for rent or for sale either from banners hung from balconies or in estate agent windows. By time I sat down in Annemasse for a lunch of sun-softened cheese and slightly stale baguette from the day before, I realised my poor old feet had just about had it. Blisters were developing just about everywhere, probably through to over-use considering all the other walking we have been doing.

So did I give up - no. Against all common sense and medical advice I took a nice walk along the Arve under the Salève, and then through a lovely neighbourhood back towards the border where I did finally give up and jump on a tram back into town to do the daily shopping and took a bus home.


Today I am doing nothing other than writing this, putting my sore feet up and sitting and waiting for all these job offers to come in.... yeah right! Its a nice day so I may just have to head out to the park with a book and soak up some sunshine - again...