Fête de l'Escalade

Last weekend, we attended the L'Escalade festivities. L'Escalade is the celebration of a defeat of the Duke of Savoy's troops in 1602. The name of this festival is taken from escalade, the act of scaling defensive walls. This is an annual event held in Geneva, and it goes from Friday to Sunday night, around the 11th and 12th December. We did not know what exactly to expect, so we read the English brochure on the event, and planned our weekend accordingly. 


We spent most of our time around Place du Bourg-de-Four.  It was very crowded, but we managed to walk around with some friends and check out some of the activities. First, was the parade of soldiers firing muskets: 

Next, we found a stand selling vin chaud, or hot mulled wine. Perfect for walking around on a cold day! We then we went to the Passage de Monetier, a tiny passageway between buildings that is only opened during the L'Escalade weekend. 

We went into a cafe near Place du Fourg-de-Bour and had a coffee. At one point, three children came in, dressed in 17th century costume, playing the flute and telling the story of the 1602 L'Escalade in old-French.
 
When it got dark, the lights really made this part of town look delightful. 

We wandered around some more, ending at Place du Molard and its big Christmas tree:

Sunday was the big parade. We were tipped by someone to go to a small cafe, Cafe Demi Lune, for a drink and snack at least an hour before the parade was to start, then go to the street just before 5pm. It was great advice, as it was the perfect location! 

Children were selling little kids lights in balls for 5 CHF:

This was just before the parade started, so the children who had one felt part of the parade, while the kids without looked on with envy. 

This is looking down to Place du Bourg-de-Four, just before the parade started. You can see the cathedral in the background. 

After the parade passed us, the participants sang the L'Escalade song in the Place. 





















We ended the day with Ryan smashing the marmite, a chocolate tradition of the festival, to represent the act of Mere Royaume throwing a cauldron full of hot soup at a French soldier climbing up the city walls. 

 
This was a wonderful weekend!

Chocoholics

We've always liked our chocolate, but moving to the land of chocolate has made us eat noticeably more than we used to! Switzerland is allegedly the topmost chocolate-loving nation (though I bet other countries would disagree), and has the highest per capita rate of chocolate consumption worldwide, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_chocolate)! I feel like we are personally helping Switzerland win!

Here is what we typically face at your average grocery store in Geneva:

 I could not fit the entire chocolate section in this picture. And I actually had to take this very quickly, as this is, not surprisingly, a very busy part of the store!

Ryan has a preference for dark chocolate, I think the darker the better. I go between milk and white chocolate, but I'm really not that discriminating. We do try to buy more Swiss chocolate than chocolate from another country, and we are stocking up on Swiss chocolate to give as gifts to our friends and family in the US.

Toblerone is of course a well-known brand in most countries, and you certainly can't escape it here!
I found this tasty delight at the restaurant where I have lunch on weekdays:

Yes, a pastry filled with gooey Toblerone goodness. Makes me think of pain au chocolate, which I have loved every since I was much younger, visiting my family in France.
Ahh, chocolate! I could on and on and on...

Saint Nicholas visit

I went to Germany on a business trip, and was staying the night of 5th. December in a hotel. I was told by my Germany colleague that in Germany, children clean and polish their shoes or boots, and put them outside the house on that night. In the morning, if their shoes/boots are really clean, they would find presents, such as chocolate, in them.
Well, the next morning, when I left my hotel room, I found that St. Nick had paid me a visit, even though I hadn't left my shoes outside the hotel room:

I found hotel slippers and a couple of chocolates outside my door!

That night, I flew on a Lufthansa flight, and instead of a typical sandwich and drink, they told us the story of St. Nick and then gave us little chocolates, cookies and a Clementine, in a St. Nick sack:

As a visitor, it was nice to be included in Germany's traditions, twice!

Geneve Servette Hockey

We enjoyed going to Carolina Hurricanes games in Raleigh, NC, so we decided to check out the local Geneva team with some friends. We found that the tickets were very reasonably priced, and we sat near a goal, in non-assigned seats on benches. For the money, the seats were a lot better than what we could get in the US!
These games typically attract about 8,000 fans. We were surrounded by fans who enthusiastically sang the GSHC songs throughout the whole game! We ended up clapping and singing along (as best we could), especially the one that goes "Allez, allez, allez, allez!"
On my return from a break, I ran into one of the eagle mascots Calvin, who gently pulled my nose, which made me laugh.
Here's one of the balloons we were given at the beginning of the game. Ryan bounced it into the crowd when Geneva scored its first goal.

GSHC lost to Bern that night, 2-3, in a nail-biting ending, but it was a great game and we plan on going again.

L'Escalade marmites

The city is full of these chocolate cauldrons, called marmites, for L'Escalade. The celebration will be over a weekend, and we cannot wait to join in the festivities!

We bought a dark chocolate marmite and a white chocolate marmite. The "vegetables" inside, which represent vegetable soup, are made of marzipan, although some of them don't taste like anything more than sugar.

Mme Smith et Mr Parker

Our names by our front door

We haven't found a permanent place yet, but the temporary place has been welcoming to us! Our names are on our door, which is a very ornate wooden door. Nice touch to an otherwise basic building.We should be here a month, which isn't long at all.