"You may be the beauty babe, but I was the teenage beauty consultant.

Jaime on the boat trip from Switzerland to France

Geneva is an international city that attracts a lot of ex-patriots.

It is more French looking than Swiss and everything is expensive. I’m not just talking about the rate of exchange. Geneva is one of the world’s most expensive cities. And this is coming from New York. Unlike New York, however, everything shuts down after 10pm. I couldn’t believe how quiet the man drag was after dinner.
But it is beautiful and clean. We saw the Russian Orthodox church which Jonathan says was painted with gold paint.

Geneva's Jet d'eau

In the middle of the lake is a big water fountain, called the Jet D’eau.
We got a great view of the fountain from Jonathan's apartment and the boat ride.
The boat ride took us to different port villages and cities in Switzerland and France.
We spent some time in Evian-Les-Bains and Lausanne. I loved Lausanne. When you arrive there via boat, you get a beautiful view of the marina. We spent a good part of the afternoon wandering the steep cobblestone streets, walking up and down the winding city. My mom said she felt like she were in Seattle. I’ve never been there, but Lausanne did remind me of San Francisco.

I bought a pain au chocolate, which was much better than the one I had the day before. The Geneva croissant was heavy and tough. The Lausanne croissant was flaky and light.

Instead of taking the boat home to Geneva we took the train. We bought the tickets very quickly, and I goofed. I bought us 2 child tickets. Our conductor was less than pleased but I coughed up the additional money I owed him.

Trains are such a great way to travel. You get to see the countryside and, in my case, you get to watch your mother flip out every time a train passes by.

But seriously, trains are affordable and comfortable. We need more fast trains in the U.S.

Speaking of trains, we ate dinner at a sushi restaurant where sushi rolls come around on a train ~ a moving belt. You reach up and grab a plate from the caboose. It was good. Also, I tried my first panache. That’s one-half beer, one-half lemonade.

After dinner we returned to Jonathan’s apartment to pack up. No surprise here. My mom packed too much. She took all her vitamins. No joke, she must have 4 ounces of vitamins with her.

I was sad to leave Geneva and Jonathan, but I was not sad to leave his killer plant.


Every time I walked by the plant to get to the computer I was attacked. It was pretty, but awfully large. I will miss Jonathan's hospitality.