Our pastor Mary from Trinity Presbyterian Church in San Carlos came to visit us to immerse herself in the roots of Protestantism and to see how we live here. She brought the sunshine from California with her, and we finally had gorgeous weather!
Mary arrived Thursday, the 20th May and we explored Ferney Voltaire together, reading up a bit about Voltaire at his statue in the center of the city. Then we took the bus to Gex, a neighboring town at the foot of the Jura, where we sampled good small cakes and smelled lilac as well as look at the church and view.
Friday was spend in Geneva visiting St. Pierre, the Reformation Museum and the Wall of the Reformation. We both learned a lot about church history during turbulent times. In the evening we went to a small restaurant just around the corner in Ferney that has superb food for a reasonable price.
Mary in front of the Great 4 Reformers.
Saturday Uli took Mary to CERN for a visit to the “Microcosm” exhibit since the accelerators are all running and inaccessible. Science meeting faith is always stuff for interesting thoughts and discussions, esp. when, as in the present round of experiments at the LHC, the questions posed are truly fundamental on a grand scale.
After all the tough stuff we headed up the lake to Rolle (not far from Lausanne) for the “Caves Ouvertes.” As the name says, all the wine cellars in that area are open for tasting. We took the train to Rolle and then a shuttle up the mountain. The weather and view were spectacular as you can see in the photo. For 10 Francs we bought a glass and could taste as much wine as we wanted at the 30 or so local wineries! The vintners poured generously, and we had to give up at the 10th tasting place. The chasselas, a white wine only grown here, we liked very much while we did not care so much for the red wines. We were also offered some home made bread straight out of the oven and in one yard adorned with sculptures (presumably by a local) we could sit down for a rest & more food.
Mary & Sylvia in Mont sur Rolle
Sunday we went to Geneva to the Lutheran Church—our church while living here. What a priviledge to be there at Pentecost. The Swedish congregation celebrated with us so we had songs and text in that language as well. In all we estimated about 25 different nationalities were present. An African infant was baptized in the orthodox tradition (plunged into the baptismal font and held up high thereafter to show the congregation!) during service as well. The most moving part was the singing of an African song outside the church in a huge circle. We were a “tourist attraction”!
In the afternoon we went to Lausanne to hear an organ concert at the Lausanne cathedral with its magnificent Fisk organ which was built in 2003. Played by the organist of the church, the Messe à l’usage des Paroisses (Mass for usage in the Parish) by Couperin, framed by Bach’s famous Prelude (before) and Fugue (after) in E-flat major, enchanted us and the audience and the well deserved applause got us an encore.
Monday I spend time in Nyon with Mary enjoying the town in the gorgeous weather. We discovered lilies in all shades of colors in a public garden.
Lilies in Nyon (Photo M. Graves)
During all these days we loved the cows outside of our living-room window—their bells making for a constant and at times meditative noise.
It was a most enjoyable visit that had to end when Mary left to continue her trip in France, and we ourselves shortly thereafter to Italy.
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