One year and counting

Us on our first visit to Geneva!

Its hard to believe that a year has gone by since we moved to Geneva. It has been an amazing year, with its ups and downs, but I can look back and really know that we have had one of the best years we will probably ever have in our lives.  We have traveled all over Switzerland, made a trip to Hong Kong, and climbed up the Matterhorn. We've spent time in Munich, Paris, Barcelona, and London. We've made two trips back to San Francisco, squeezing in a stop in Maui. We have been skiing all over France and Switzerland, spending Christmas day on the slopes. We've had tons of friends and family come visit us. And ended our year with a trip to Istanbul, and a weekend of wine tasting in the Burgundy region of France.

And the best part is, we still have another year to do even more travelling and exploring.  We have several trips already planned for this year, one that I leave for tomorrow. I'm off to New York to hang out with my sister. YAY! Then I'll meet Travers in Sarasota, Florida so we can spend some time with his mom. And before we head back to Geneva, we'll swing through Connecticut for a wedding of two of our greatest friends, Tim and Jess.  After that, we'll see Amsterdam, Brussels and Bruges. Then later this year, we plan to cross Spain off our list by travelling from San Sebastian all the way down to Malaga, stopping at several spots along the way. Then we'll spend the end of the summer seeing Budapest and Ireland. That gets us through September, and we'll still have 7 more months of our 2nd year to plan even more!

Travers on his bike!

So to celebrate our one year of being in Geneva, a couple weeks ago, we went to this local bike shop that takes old bike frames, and gives them new tires, new seats, new handle bars etc to make them rideable. Then they sell them for a pretty affordable price. So we went and found some that worked for us and bought them! The next day we took them for a ride around Geneva to break them in.

Me with our bikes by the lake!

Travers biking in the vineyards

Then last weekend we rented a car, put our bikes in it, and drove up to the Burgundy wine region of France to a town called Beaune.  The Burgundy region is filled with tons of vineyards and wineries, and there is a path from Beaune that you can bike along through the vineyards. So we parked our car, got some cheese, bread and salami at a nearby market, and rode to the next town Pommard. We were a bit early for the vines to be blooming, but the ride was pretty to see all the different patches of vineyards and the stone walls that divided them.

Pommard was a bit of a letdown as a lot of the wineries were closed, but we managed to taste a little bit of wine, and bought a half bottle to take with us back to Beaune. We had a little picnic along one of the stone walls and enjoyed the views of the the hills and vineyards around us. After our picnic we headed back to Beaune to do some more wine tasting and exploring of the town.

Look no hands!

We rode our bikes through Beaune, along their cobblestone streets, by a huge church that had a wedding going on, and stopped at a few wineries along the way.  

Pretty church in town

Me in front of a winery

A few hours later, we put our bikes back in the car, and drove further north to Dijon where we stayed the night at the Hotel Wilson.  We checked in and about an hour later we were off to a michelin star restaurant right around the corner called Stephane Derbord.  We spent the evening enjoying a 8 course dinner that lasted around 3 hours!  I am kicking myself now for not taking any photos of the dishes that came out. They were all delicious and presented in such interesting ways.  After 3 hours we were the last ones in the restaurant and so full and sleepy that we were so happy our hotel was just next door!

The next morning we got up and explored the town of Dijon.  We bought two croissant au chocolat and two coffees from a little stand and strolled through the streets, stopping at a little store to buy some Dijon Mustard!

Huge Church!

Pastries in Dijon. Yumm!

We hopped in our car and drove back south towards Beaune along the Route de Grand Cru, a route that takes you through every tiny little town, to see the vineyards, the chateaus and the wineries. I loved seeing the views along the way of the countryside. And we got to explore so many tiny different towns that all based their livelihood on wine.  

Each town had a church, and some had a large chateaux. The roofs on these were almost always covered in colorful painted shingles.

A pretty church

A huge chateau

 We stopped at a couple wineries along the way, one had a huge basement filled with hundreds and thousands of bottles, some dating back to the 1940's.

Travers about to push over a barrel

Me with lots of bottles of wine

A cool wine bottle chandelier

After a few tastes and a couple bottles bought, we stopped in Beaune for a late lunch then headed home to Geneva, taking our time, driving down the Route de Grand Cru, through as many little towns as possible.  

What a way to end our first year!