Geneva, Martigny Ville

A large clock, on the ground in a flower garden, decorated with flowers, is located near the lake in Geneva, and there is a famous fountain that spurts water high out of Lake Geneva.

Well, that’s what pictures show. The first time we were in Geneva, was in the wintertime, so there were not many flowers around the clock, and the fountain was not in operation. We remember other flower-garden clocks in Interlaken, Switzerland, Thessaloniki, Greece, and in Edinburgh, Scotland. We faintly remember others, but can’t remember just where, but it seems one was somewhere in Yugoslavia.

We visited Geneva’s Protestant St. Peter’s Cathedral. The year we visited, the Cathedral was under renovation, and the floor was almost completely dug up. After they had started all the work, they found some interesting ruins in there somewhere. They were looking further to see what is there, and how best to preserve and display what they find.

We have always heard that Swiss banks were a great place to put money, if we had any. Just for fun we stopped and talked to people at a couple of banks, and asked why we should have a Swiss bank account. What it boils down to, but is not said in quite these words is, “If there is money to hide, hide it in a Swiss Bank.” Don't we wish. That includes us out!

In Martigny Ville we found a huge old barn, right along the street, just filled to overflowing with maybe thousands of old copper and brass pots and pans of every description, all covered with a deep layer of dust. The prices seemed excellent, and while we saw plenty that were appealing, we saw none we couldn’t live without. We did see a small mantel clock we thought was worth more than they were asking for it, but we didn’t follow through with the negotiations.

For the next year or so, I often mentioned the idea of buying the whole barn-full of pots and kettles in Martigny Ville, shipping them home to the USA, then open a store. When we finally stopped a couple of years later, we found that in the meantime someone had the same idea. They had cleaned up the store, dusted all the pots and pans, and tripled the prices. Both the charm and the prices were out of sight.

I keep trying (not too hard) to find someway to make these trips deductible, if not profitable.