On a recent on week long whirlwind trip to Switzerland, I visited several cities and Christmas markets. Dr, B had a conference there so I tagged along and played tourist while he worked.
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| Lake Geneva, Geneva Switzerland |
There were day trips to Montrex and Lausanne and lots of exploring of the city of Geneva. Several museums, exhibits, one gallery, one castle later, according to my iphone, 55 miles were walked and 106 + flights of stairs were climbed.
Fortunately, no stat exists on how much Swiss chocolate I consumed. I don’t think I want to know and I don’t need Suri tattling.
There will be posts on all that next month. In the next weeks, I will showcase on all the Christmas markets I visited in the area
Geneva hosted the smallest Christmas market on the list. Dr. B, who was in Geneva on business a few years ago during the holiday season warned me. He even used the words “pathetic” and “sad” for the market around the main train station (Gare de Cornavin). No surprise on his reaction. He’s German and is used to the most vast and exquisite of Christmas markets in his home country.
To be fair, as I was exploring the town, I saw signs for other Christmas markets in different locations in the city that were yet to open for the season. I was there Thanksgiving week, end of November, a bit early. This was the only one open.
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| View from the Christmas Market. Post Office on Left. Mountain View. |
The Christmas market was located right around the corner from our hotel and I found it charming, with some decent food and drink as well as some interesting things to buy.
There were fun hats and finger puppets aplenty.
Lots of sweets to sample.
This homemade nougat, found in many Christmas markets, was out of this world. Free samples!
As a matter of fact, replicas of some of the stands here were found at several other Christmas markets I visited during the week. I can assume they are popular. Like this one:
No shortages of sausages, meats and cheeses. This stand was stuffed with them.
My purchase of the market was this scarf, jewelry scarf holder combo. The clasps are handmade in the South of France. Guess which design this mermaid bought?
I also caved when I saw the raclette sign. I so love raclette. The Christmas markets in this area serve it with cornichons, marinated pearl onions, baby corn and salted potatoes.
Many beautiful hand carved wood items to buy were on display.
Anyone need a Pinocchio marionnette to hang up at home? Inside the stand on the right are beautiful handmade musical instruments.
Russian handicraft is also well represented here.
I walked through the market several times during our visit, during the day, dusk and evening. Even Dr. B had to admit the light installation hanging over the market was beautiful.
To sum up, I found this small market had a good variety of goods and food. Lots of small beautiful gifts. If one needed a quick and delicious Vin Chaud (hot mulled wine) and/or a raclette fix, this was the place to be.
Like this post?
Check out some of the other Christmas markets I have visited over the years:
Aachen, Germany Christmas Market
Basel, Switzerland Christmas Market
Colmar, France Christmas Market
Cologne, Germany Christmas Market
Freiburg, Germany Christmas Markets
Hamburg, The Sexiest Christmas Market in Germany
Maastricht, Holland Christmas Market
Munich Christmas Markets
Strasbourg, France Christmas Markets
Valkenburg Holland Christmas Market in the Caves
1 comment
What fun! We never went to the Christmas market in Nantes because it seemed to us that the good old traditional stuff was pushed out for cheap stuff. I like the look of this market in Geneva – I love that beautiful wood stuff, the bowls and cutting boards. And I wouldn't mind having a vin chaud with you there.