Europe Impression - Geneva & Evian-Les-Bains

We took TGV train in Avignon to Geneva via Lyon. From the seat occupancy rate in the first class carriage, I felt paying extra on the reservation wasn't necessary.  When I purchased Eurail pass online, I saw the second class option but it couldn't be selected. Based on my observation, even if you were allowed to buy the second class pass, paying a bit more to get the first class seat is worth it. Although the train ticket is a bit pricy, the well known French high speed railway system does provide convenient and punctual service as long as the railway workers are not on strike. When there is a strike, you will have to look for other options and I don't think you will get the refund for the Eurail pass you have purchased.

Avignon TGV Station

People waiting for the arrival of the train

We now know what Postal office looks like in France

The train arrived in Lyon on time. We didn't plan to stay or look around in Lyon but we had to look for a postal office in order to mail the house keys back to the B&B we stayed in Avignon. There was no postal office/counter inside the train station. With the help from a policeman, we were able to find a postal office 5 minutes away from the station. The clerk at the office didn't really speak English but he was able to send the parcel out for us and lent us his cell phone to call Veronique.

Geneva doesn’t seem like a popular travel destination as I didn’t find a whole lot of travel tips for this place online. For some reason, it is a place on the top of my head whenever I think of Switzerland.  I decided to loop this beautiful place into my route although we could only spend 2 hours there. The easiest way to tour a place with 2 hours is to go to the tourism office that is not too far away from the train station and ask the clerks for recommendations. The people work there are usually very professional.  They can quickly draw a route for you on the map and introduce the highlights. If you do have a few spots in mind and ask them to accommodate these spots into the route, they would be more than happy to do so.  We had been helped by the tourism office along the way. I was so impressed by the people and the services they provided.

Flower clock

A perfect location for my own dream coffee shop

Obviously, Geneva is a completely different place from Provence, France. The first thing we noticed was the flowers and the watches signs. Geneva is considered as a small United Nations since it is the headquarter for numerous of international organizations and you can see people from all over the world. It is also a global financial center.  For us, the most obvious thing is how pricy everything is. No wonder it is one of the top ‘most expensive cities’ in the world. By the way, Euro is not used here but it is not too difficult to withdraw Swiss Francs with US Debit Card on any ATM.

Swan Lake? Geneva Lake?

4.5 Swiss Francs/100g fish filet

Swiss Wine is good but only for domestic consumers

Sunset - Geneva Lake

After the short visit in Geneva, we took the train to Lausanne in order to take the ferry to Evian-les-bains.  We had a fun conversation with an Italian who sat at the same row with us on the train. He also pointed us to the right direction for the local subway to the port. My personal impression is European don’t usually talk to strangers like what most American would do but Italian seem like the exception.

Ferry

There are also buses and trains that connect Evian between Evian and Geneva and Lyon. They are either too complicated to figure out the transitions or too time-consuming. I chose to get there by ferry. The CGN ferry between Lausanne and Evian runs every hour and the fee is covered by Eurail pass. The journey is 35 minutes. With the free wi-fi on the ferry, the sail time wasn’t a problem at all. Do check the dock number before you get on-board. It was different from what I saw on the printed time table.

 

The Cachat Spring - The source of Evian Mineral Water

Evian-les-bains is the spa town between France and Switzerland. It is also the source of the famous Evian mineral water. The hotel price here is much much lower than it is in Switzerland (>50% less). Numerous hotels and a casino (d’Evian) are on the lakeside. The residential area is more on the upper hill. The building style is more Swiss and the blooming flowers are everywhere. I am not a big fan of Casino but I think it is the good dine out place, especially in the late evening. 

Not sure whether it is Royal hotel - most luxurious hotel in town and is also where G8 summit  was held.

Varying Evain water bottles at the hotel

d’Evian is the largest themed casino in Europe - worth a tour