Geneva Day 1: They heard I was coming so they got extra police with big guns

On Saturday morning, 30th January 2009, I had the 10:50 train from Grenoble to Geneva. Being rather late in the morning, I had plenty of time to watch BSG and download the associated podcast. With thoughts of death and despair pervading my mind, I arrived at the station a little early. I took the opportunity to investigate nearby shops to look for a gift for Nadine and I discovered that unfortunately Grenoble has very little to offer in that area. Curses. One day I will find something and pay her back for her hospitality though.

I got onto my train and hung around in the vestibule by the toilet until it started to move, causing much confusion as a queue formed behind me. Once I knew the direction of the train (which, for future knowledge, is towards the town centre) I found a seat facing in the correct direction. The journey was long (2 hours 40 minutes) but pleasant as the track wound between mountains, around lakes, through tunnels and by adorable villages. My one moment of worry was when the train stopped, turned around and started to revisit stations.

But we arrived in Geneva on time and I recognised the station. I got out and was yet again baffled at the passport control where uniformed officials stood idly by chatting to each other and paid the disembarking passengers no notice. Still, I waved my little maroon passport around as if fanning myself.

As soon as I was through the unmanned customs area, I saw Nadine. I grinned and then was fearful as she came towards me with the intention to greet me French style... but it turned out okay. My first task was to get some of the local currency which I had previously found tricky (and lost about €20 in the process) but I remembered where there was a cash machine and got 50CHF without hassle.

Nadine took me on a little walk to the Forbidden Planet style shop they have there. On the way, I saw a little boy wearing a Spider-man hat and impressed Nadine with my super Spidey spotting skillz. She in turn impressed me by showing me a building where Spider-man had been painted on the wall. As an aside, this is surprisingly common in Grenoble as well as Geneva. Not Spider-man- I mean murals and welcomed graffiti. It does add a great pop culture flavour to old places.

I quickly bought a baguette avec jambon for lunch and avoided the extensive chocolate section in the shop (perhaps foolishly as adverts all around the city advertised a flavour of Lindt I can't find in Grenoble- chili and pomegranate). We went to the comic shop and Nadine looked at the price of a calendar she wanted to buy. Even though it was the end of January, the price was still ridiculously high so Nadine didn't buy the item and we went on. (Rather daftly, the next time I went shopping in Grenoble I went and bought Spidey comics written in French... I think Nadine affected me after all but it needed time to work on me).

We went on a walk through the old town and found a statue of a woman with a bag on her head. Nadine told me who it was and explained some of the rather taut relations between the French (though Nadine explained that there was, properly, a different name for the inhabitants of the region that I have since forgotten but I suppose it is related to what we learnt in QI recently about the French not actually speaking French until rather recently). As I was taking photos with my compact digital, Nadine gave me a pitying look (not really- I think it was more smug) and then let me play with her camera. I say play but I basically stole it and kept it for the entire weekend except for when I was tired of carrying it.

I haven't mentioned the police yet but I probably should. In the station, we noticed lots of armed policemen. In fact, there were some on my train picked up at our second stop at Bellegard. They were everywhere in the city too, armed and armoured. It was quite strange as there were no signs of trouble though once we did hear some raised voices... but they were briefly silenced. I mention the police here as I took a few photos of them with Nadine's camera feeling rather naughty but untouchable as I did so. With her zoom, I could take photos of people too far away to see that I had a camera. Quite amazing.

We mosied the mean streets and found some mosaics. Nadine explained some of the history behind them but I was distracted by the camera which she set to take low light photos for me. An age later, I was ready to move on. Our primary port of call was the cathedral which has entry to the towers for views over the city and to underneath the cathedral for a museum on the archeology studies that had been done there.

We first went inside the cathedral and would you have guessed it, spent ages taking photos. I had to hand over the camera to Nadine for most of this as I was failing to get how to shoot with low light indoors. It was nice inside but quite typical for a cathedral, I felt. The wood carvings on the chairs were interesting though especially when Nadine explained that they depicted how the people that sat there died (for example, mauled by dog). I think I spotted her tongue in her cheek there.

We paid some money and got tickets to climb the towers (and to go to the museum after). Nadine moaned on the way up about being unfit and unable to take all the stairs but she kept us moving at a fast pace so I am certain she was exaggerating. Indeed, I walk faster than most people but never found her walking off my pace over the weekend. The climb was interrupted by people coming down but we finally made it to the north tower.

We were disappointed. It was a room with dirty windows that had wires over them, obscuring the view. A bit miffed, we walked out of that room to follow a route through the roof of the cathedral. The beams and struts were fantastic and I adored seeing this normally unseen part. I had thoughts of being a moody fantasy character, sitting up here and speaking dreary poetry with crows as my audience. As you do.

We came out in the south tower which was again a room with windows but these were quite clean and clear. We spent ages taking many photos out of each and ever window. Oh, okay- I spent ages.

Then we found a door that took us out of the room and into the freezing air of Geneva. At last, we were outside and standing by the battlements of the tower. Cue many more photos but this time, my hands were freezing and my grip on Nadine's camera was becoming more worrying. Bravely, I continued to snap picks and I found a girl with a red hat standing outside in another turret. I realised, wait a minute, there must have been a way out onto the north tower after all.

Nadine and I crossed back to the north tower where I saw the girl in the red hat depart down the staircase. Realising she must have come from nearby, Nadine found the entrance to the exterior of the tower. Again, we spent more time than strictly necessary out there, freezing ourselves. But the views and the stonework of the tower were fantastic.

We left the tower and went back down the spiral staircase, through the cathedral and then down into the archeology museum. We should have picked up audio guides here but we were happy to follow the signs and talk to each other about what we imagined the objects were for. For example, Nadine was convinced that a star formation in the rock that had something to do with grinding corn was in fact used for torture. She reasoned that there had to be a torture chamber somewhere in the cathedral...

We never found one though. Instead we found the archaeological remains of the structure used to cast the bell for the cathedral, a stone with the word "sex" carved into it, and an arch that reminded me of a Stargate.

We also heard a recording of some Gregorian chanting. We followed the sound to another museum that I think I failed to get the point of. I believe it was about reforms in religion and it contained a tree showing different branches of faiths today and how they all came from a common point. There was a gallery of satirical cartoons which Nadine helped me translate. The humour was lost in the process somewhat.

We left the museum and went back out onto the streets. Nadine guided me to the Pont des Bergues and Rousseau Island. It was coming up to 6 and the evening was closing in and the temperature dropping but we spent a fair amount of time just standing on the bridge taking photos of the birds. Gulls flocked from one side of the bridge to the other while swans and ducks swam, ignoring the yahoos flying above. The island itself was just a large rock with a couple of benches (and a man who must have been far too cold to be sitting out there), a statue of Rousseau and a tent advertising itself to be a restaurant. We hurried on as fast as our frozen legs could take us without snapping.

Our legs took us to the nearest Starbucks. It was crowded but we were too cold to leave and find another place to drink. I got a chai latte as is my way in Starbucks and we found a table after a few minutes of wandering around searching for space. We sat and flicked through our photos on our cameras and got warm again before braving the freezing evening.

The sky had that deep blue cast of entering the night when we made it out. We squandered our regained warmth by standing by the side of the river taking photos of the city lights reflected in it. Once my hands grew too cold to hold Nadine's camera, we left for the tram.

The tram took us to the border (between Switzerland and France) after a (I think) thirty minute journey. We arrived at the border, which I don't recall being guarded, with about twenty five minutes to kill before our connecting bus so we ducked into the nearest cafe. It was a Turkish place I think and we both got small glasses of mint tea for €1 or something delightfully ridiculous after the expense (and daft non-Euro currency) of Switzerland. Then we were on the bus which took about thirty minutes to get to our stop.

From the bus stop, we walked to Nadine's tower block, discovering on the way how useful barriers on the footpath designed to stop scooters were (for indeed, the scooters no longer went on the footpath, preferring the grass to the side). Nadine's flat was on the ground floor and seemed rather typical judging from my meagre experience. Perfect size for one and furnished with a mix of the modern and old, mostly functional and stocked with essentials chosen for their utility. As an aside, and not at all a comment on Nadine's place in particular, the style in France reminds me of my grandparents' way of living, as if the war only just happened. It seems odd for a country famous as the centre for style and fashion but there we are. And there certainly is a lot to be said for living in a manner that reuses old items and doesn't have a house per person. I digress.

Nadine quite wonderfully cooked me a meal (steak with mash potato and fried courgettes, delicious) and sat me down in front of the computer as she did so. I browsed through the photos we took and also turned my attention to her fabulous dvd collection. We grabbed our plates and sat down in front of the telly to watch Stargate (I selected a few films I was interested in and from there, Nadine chose Stargate, possibly influenced by our investigation of the cathedral's archaeological dig). We ate and discussed the merits of Richard Dean Anderson above Kurt Russell and argued over who was better between James Spader and Michael Shanks. We also discovered that much of it was spoken in a form of Egyptian and subtitled in French which gave me some surprise exercise in translation. The rest of it was spoken English with French subtitles of course which also let me read and translate. I was able to identify a few lines where the translation was abysmal. I felt very proud of myself.

After we finished the main meal, Nadine enticed me with more foodstuffs including more cheese than I knew could fit in a fridge. I don't normally eat cheese except to have on toast or in a panini (panino, I mean) so it was a bit of an adventure for me. Nadine spoke of cheese in a way that would have the cheese obsessed nun in Wonderfalls impressed. I tried one... and it was rather salty but okay. Another tasted worse than my own feet so I gave up on that after a small nibble. The cheddar was sweet and lovely though but I was too full to eat much. Of course, that didn't stop Nadine putting out more food. This time, a sweet crispy type thing that made me think of poppadoms coated in sugar. Nice and not filling enough to stop stuffed me from eating one. By this point we had moved onto a second film (Out of Sight) which was great for nonlinearity and fancy directing.

The day had been quite tiring and after the second film, we both retired to bed. I think it was early for Nadine but all the walking had had an effect on her too. I got into the little putmeup bed and fell asleep before I could say sweet dr....