Jet d’eau

A much quieter day. I didn’t sleep well, so wasn’t moving very fast. I walked to the harbor, in search of the famous water jet, the Jet d’Eau. Not that I had to search very hard! It goes so high that you can see it from just about anywhere. It is impressive! A water jet was originally built around 1886 by the water department, as a safety valve. But it became famous enough that it eventually earned its very own water station and mechanism and now operates specifically as an attraction. The wind wasn’t blowing too hard, so it was on today. 

The Jardin Anglais, English Garden, is along the quay and was well-populated today, by tourists, locals and scavenger pigeons. I sat on a bench and just watched the world go by for a bit.

A sailboat, much bigger than the one my father and his best friend built from instructions in Popular Mechanics when I was a kid. This is obviously a working boat. I was surprised that it had sails.


And ducks. Lots of ducks, mallards mostly. They look the same the world over, just as pigeons do.


And swans.


Such interesting architecture, all over the city. This seems French-inspired to me, which makes sense given how close Geneva is to France. In fact, the Geneva airport is in France. No border crossings, people going back and forth all the time. Rather like I drive back and forth across state borders. 

There are quite a few buildings in Geneva that remind me of New Orleans, actually, some even more than this one. Some sorts of balconies, architecture, “feel”.

Tomorrow I meet up with storytelling friends at the airport, then take the train up to Verbier, in the Swiss Alps. Looking forward to seeing all of them again!