Carouge, Switzerland - Nearly Geneva, Part One

Well, Mr. Paradis has sworn

that we will never

set foot in Switzerland again.

Our holiday planned for Switzerland last September

fell apart in a very expensive way.

Bookings that were not honored.  Long elaborate fantasies that were spun by a certain travel accommodations booking agency.  And a great deal of my time wasted on the phone with dishonest people.  It happens, I guess, doesn't it?  But it's discouraging.  It makes you very distrustful.

Train passes had to be cancelled and were not fully refunded.

I had had a lovely image of Switzerland.  A nation that loves its chocolate and its cows  (Two of my favorite things!)  What's not to like?

I had really wanted to see its mountains in all their glory.  Something I hadn't done since college.

When I was half asleep on a night train at Christmas.

Our travel book did not really even cover Geneva.  The writers seem to think it's uninteresting.

But since we were only 40 minutes away.  We felt we had to visit.

We went on a Friday, so missed the Carouge Saturday market.  Which is supposed

to be one of the biggest flea markets in Europe.

I did think that Carouge was a lovely place.  The kind that is ever more disappearing these days.

It's a village which seems to have become a suburb just to the Southeast of Geneva.  If you want to see more, do come back for Part Two!  Would you go to Geneva just to see this?  I might.  I would visit Carouge again.  But I would have a different plan for the rest of Switzerland.  You know what?  Even the Lindt chocolate let me down!  It's so sad to have to say that.

But Carouge Part Two?  You'll see.......