European Trip 2012 - Geneva

Not our first stop on our European spring tour, but I have not posted anything for a while and I am afraid to lose my two readers :-)

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We did not think much of Geneva.  Sharon and I are far more in tune with the latin cultures of southern Europe and find little charm on the efficient and professional feel of places like Switzerland.  We took a walk and got lost taking a few wrong turns and ended up at a nice cafe close to the river.  The best part of this part of the trip was Cafe du Paris on Rue de Mont Blanc a recommendation from Bob that really saved the trip.

The place is right by the train station and has a single item on the menu entrecôte et frites.  As you are seated, the waitress asked for the temperature (medium rare for us) and what wine we wanted.  She then asked how many glasses we wanted to select the size of carafe to bring.

The salad that comes first thing is terrific.  It is just lettuce, fresh and nicely dressed with a little but of mustard.  The steak is served on a metal tray that sits on top of a table top burner/warmer.  It is served with herbed butter.  LOTS of herbed butter. As I see the serving platter I wonder how the couple in the neighboring table is managing to soak up all the butter with bread.  Seems too much.  Turns out it wasn't so.  The steak is tender and delicious.  The frites are great and we end up getting a second serving.  Soaked in the herbed butter are even better.  A second serving of bread also helps.  By the time they take the tray away, I don't think it will need much cleaning.

Dessert for Sharon was a mocha ice cream with cognac flambé. Not sure if it had a lot of cognac or if they didn't burn it long enough (probably a combination of the two), but it was like having a couple of shots with the ice cream.  I had a white chocolate mousse with a raspberry sauce that was pretty good too.

The next morning we get up early, have breakfast at the hotel and head back to Lyon.  We miss France and Italy. A day in Geneva was any for us, but will be forever grateful to Bob for his restaurant recommendation. Definitely the highlight of Geneva.

Entrecôte at Cafe du Paris

As a side note, we bought it fun to track the cost of Big Macs in Europe (no, we didn't even enter any McDonalds, it was just an interesting factoid to check on the European economy and inflation).  Here is what we saw (all prices in $USD):

• Geneva, Switzerland    $14.86
• Lyon, France                $10.98
• Florence, Italy                 $8.39
• USA                               $3.50