“Parlez-vous anglais? …”

Last year when Hubby came over to work in Genève for a few months I took some holiday and jetted over to join him and experience the city for myself.  We both loved the relaxed and healthy atmosphere and were surprised at how we managed to get by with no French.  Ordering ice-cream was easy enough and in the supermarket buying food was not too bad (although I did end up buying some dodgy cheese).  Almost half the population in Genève are international and most people seem to speak at least a little English, this would be easy...

Then we moved over here and quickly realised that you do need French in Genève!!!

It is easy enough to get by with no French with the basic things but as soon as you try to sort out more complicated, and important aspects of living here (apartments, health insurance etc) you quickly realise that not everyone speaks English and that French would help A LOT!

The sentence we say the most is “Parlez-vous anglais?” (do you speak English?) J
We are very happy to receive a “Yes” response but when the response is “No” there is pretty much no point in trying to speak any further, particularly on the phone. 

Even before we realised how much we would need French hubby’s work signed us up for French tuition, which we are very grateful for,  and we take classes once a week.  Now that we are taking lessons we have quickly realised how complicated French is.

Our French books

We have a long French filled road ahead but lets hope that it will be an interesting road filled with croissants and all things good.

Other than looking at people blankly when they start rattling off in French, we went on a tour of United Nations (http://www.un.org/) .  This was another glocals event.   We arrived early for the tour so headed to the Ariana Museum next door, where we saw some lovely ceramics from all around the world and sculptures.

Photos of the Ariana and one of the sculptures

Then we headed to the United Nations. Our tour guide was very friendly and knowledgeable and explained that the United Nations was founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 Countries. There are now 192 Member States. Interestingly the Vatican City is not a member state.

The United Nations emblem

The United Nations has a very strong presence in Genève as the European headquarters are based here. 

The front of the United Nations building

The view from one of the windows

The tour guide took us around some of the buildings and into some of the meeting rooms where many important decisions are made.

In one of the meeting rooms
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The roof of one of the meeting rooms

We were also shown some of the many gifts that are received from countries around the world. The tapestry below is from China and is called "temple of heaven". No matter what direction you walk and from which angle you view the image it always looks like path is in front of you leading you to the door of the temple. An amazing optical illusion that kept us walking from left to right in amazement.

A couple of the gifts received. The tapestry called "temple of heaven" above is from China.

The weather here has been lovely the past week, although as I am writing this they are predicting rain and thunderstorms for later today. We have been making the most of the weather and I have been meeting Hubby in a nearby park for lunch.  We eat our sandwiches and then we lay down in the shade under one of the beautiful trees and enjoy the sunshine! 

Lying on a picnic blanket enjoying the weather...bliss!