A rainy day in Geneva

After a picture perfect sunny afternoon in Geneva when we arrived yesterday, today was overcast and showery, as predicted.

So we did what we normally do on a wet day, go to sites that are indoors. A bit of cheating getting into the city as we got dropped off rather than travelling by public transport, however Michel ensured that we would not have any problems in where to catch the bus, as well as where we should get off plus the route number, whenever we decided to head home.

First port of call was St Pierre Cathedral,which can be dated back to the 12th century. The cathedral itself is interesting, however for me the real interest is the area beneath the cathedral. This area has been excavated extensively, revealing the history of the archaelogical site dating back to the time of the Roman Empire. We spent several hours going thru the various areas with the aid of a guided audio tour.

This is of a late Roman mosaic that covered the floor in an area where visitors would be received, amazingly it is still pretty well intact.

We had lunch at at small Creperie close by the cathedral and the excavation site, absolutely fantastic, with a glass of white wine


Then a short stroll over to the Patek Philippe Museum.  The museum houses a collection of watches from the 1500's thru to the present, with antique watches up to the 1850's. Most people would know of Patek Philippe watches probably not owning one as they are amongst the more expensive and better known watchmakers in Switzerland. Four floors of stunningly designed watches that evolved over the years into complex masterpices, that were continually improved upon and further miniaturised.

The most complex being The Caliber 89, a pocket watch that included the date for Easter for 30 years. This was a mechanical device without any computer module or chip, note that Easter falls on a different date each year. An absolute masterpiece in design that took 5 years in research & development and a further 9 years to develop.

The Caliber 89















This is another museum where we simply ran out of time, it closed at 6pm and we left a few minutes after that, after arriving at about 3pm. So on the next visit to Geneva, I will need to come back here and spend some more time on the areas that we rushed past.

A short walk back to the bus stop, just missed the most direct, but caught the next bus from Geneva to our stop at Ferney-Voltaire across the border in France.

Once again we were lucky with the rain in that there were only light showers as we walking betweens sites and the bus stop, although there had been heavy rain during the day. whilst we were inside.