Chocalate Festival at Versoix!!

It's the annual Chocalate Festival at Versoix, Geneva again and this year marks the 5th anniversary!

The festival was located in Versoix, a town that's in the canton of Geneva (yes, Geneva is the name of BOTH the canton AND the cantonal capital city) and is about 1 hour train ride from Lausanne. That town has several famous chocolatier, one of them being Cartier

I had been looking forward to it this whole week! Must have my fill of chocolates today!!

It was a less than enthusiastic start for the festival. It was raining for most of the day. Not those howling storms like back in Singapore, but still it was much colder and wetter than what I would have liked. I was enough to make me open my difficult-to-open umbrella and damage my friend's not so sturdy one. However, the day got increasingly better.

Well, first of all, a lovely helper lady told us that there was a free "choco train" ride to take us to the destinations in the town. That saved us the misery of trudging through the town like a couple of wet dogs... Next, There was a string of chocolate tasting at a chocolate factory that gave out fondue sticks as door gifts. Now I have a bunch of fondue sticks to add to those at home. Then, just when we were unimpressed with the size of the fair, we stumbled upon the place where all the main action was taking place.

Yeah, bring on the chocolates, man!!



It was really great!! Not to mention packed with people. The festival showcased several chocolatiers, mainly from Switzerland and France, with free flow of clhocolate and fondue to taste. Too bad the chocolate pieces were so small.

There were one or two that tasted weird but overall, the chocolates were great!! It was delicious, marvelous, any other adjectives that one could use to describe that piece of cocoa heaven that melts in your mouth!! There were a couple of samples that were really able to send one to heaven. Sigh, unfortunately, I only have that much money to spend and a piece of heaven, no matter how small, still has a hefty price tag attached to it. Sorry guys, I can't bring back a piece of heaven for you, but no worries, I did manage to get chocolates. Hopefully it's enough for all of you...

Anyway, after the main attraction, there was not much left to see in the town, so we decided to stop by Geneva on our way back to do a little exploration. So off to Geneva we went.

We didn't really visit many places in Geneva, just a couple of destinations, the Patek Philippe Museum and the Jet d'Eau.

I loved the museum!! Or rather the pocket watches that were on display. Really, I'm not that into Patek Philippe's watches but their pocket watches are some of the most intricate and detailed master pieces I have ever seen. The details on the cover, the size of the watches, it all makes one marvel at their ability to craft such pieces! Imagine! being able to craft a pocket watch smaller than the size of a pea, in the 19th century (1800++)! It was most impressive! I've never spent so much time in a museum and not get totally bored at the end. Definitely worth a trip down for those who like such stuff!

Jet d'Eau, literally means water jet, is the most famous landmark of Geneva (or so wiki states, but honestly, I've never really heard of it... :-P But I think I remember seeing it on a brochure somewhere, so I guess it's pretty famous) What can I say about a water jet?.... It's nice, yes, but that's all. If you ask me it would be a huge waste of money to spend all that electricity to pump water that high for asthetic value. But well, thats just the pragmatist in me speaking. No offence to any one out there.








And look what I saw in the tourism office? Its the return of the Blue Cow!!