Bienvenue a Geneve..

Wow, this is somewhat embarrassing that I’m blogging my last month in France after the fact, but oh well. The night after I left the Julienne’s home, I hopped on a train headed for Geneva, Switzerland. While pulling into the station and hearing “Bienvenue à Genève” and seeing the hills of the Swiss countryside, I knew I was going to love Switzerland from the second I stepped off the train.
The first impression I got upon stepping out into Geneva is how clean it was! The buildings, though old, were sparkling, and ironically, when I looked into the gutter, I saw a piece of chocolate, where normally one would see a cigarette, hahaha. I had to laugh when I saw the metro map—coming from Paris where I had learned to work the 14 metro lines and 4 RER lines, I was shocked to see two metro lines here: one going North to South, and the other from East to West. I stayed in an “auberge de jeunesse,” a nice youth hostel, right on the shore of Geneva Lake. I could see the United Nations building across from me and vineyards on the hills surrounding me. The first evening, Brother Welch gave a fireside to the youth of the Geneva stake and he had me present for five minutes on the ancient seals that I’d been researching in the Louvre during the previous weeks. It was absolutely terrifying, but I think the youth enjoyed hearing the connections I made between the worth of the kings’ seal and how binding those ties were, both figuratively and literally. My friend Michel Gaginni, from the French house, grew up in Geneva, so after the fireside, I met his brother and sister and they took me to dinner and for a drive around the city. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Early the following day, the Welch’s and a few girls went to visit the Saint Pierre Cathedral. This part of Geneva is bursting with history from the days of the Protestant reformation. John Calvin considered it his ‘home ward’ I guess we could say. The remains from the 8th century on were amazing; I even saw a baptismal font in the underground portion. (Photo Right)
Finally, my favorite part of Geneva: the Bodmer Museum. I can honestly say, outside of Paris, this is the neatest museum I have ever seen. It’s located in a village called Cologny and is the private collection of Martin Bodmer. There are over 160,000 documents in 80 languages including a rare copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the oldest manuscripts of St. John’s Gospel, Greek coins, Plato's manuscripts, and fossils dating back hundreds of thousands of years. M. Bodmer didn’t want these pieces of history to be scattered with his death so he created this foundation. There was also a room devoted entirely to letters: collected from queens, thieves, celebrities, poets, authors—among these were letters from Marie Antoinette and Moliere. The letter to the right was written as an image. I hope to visit this astounding museum again in my life.