Circus in our backyard

The weather was awful today, so when in the evening the sun pushed its way through the clouds, we went for a short walk in Saint Genis. You can't imagine our astonishment when it turned out that just a few meters away from our doorway we had camels, donkey, horses, lamas and various other creatures that came here with the circus. We could actually touch them, though they didn't reciprocate our interest and were utterly involved in nibbling at grass. Anyway, for me - a city dude, as well as animal fan - such proximity of oriental creatures was awesome.

Geneva downtown

The weather is not very favorable for me during my stay at Radek's. Today was more or less the first day with the sun shine long enough to actually get out somewhere further, so we set off to Geneva for a walk. The city itself is not new to us, but you can always discover something unexpected in large places like that.

We started from the old city of Geneva, with its St. Pierre cathedral. We also strolled through the narrow, cobble-stoned allays and enjoyed the first breath of summer.

Old town, although very nice, is not a very extensive one, so after a while we moved to Les Pâquis, the lake side district. First we passed by a must-see in Geneva - a flower clock. It seems like it looks differently in every season, always spectacular though.

Then we moved to the lake side, with an emblem of the city - jet d'eau - a water fountain of 140 m height.

First we marveled at it from the distance, but when we saw the impending rain clouds, we sped up a bit and walked close to the fountain pump. After a short discussion what would happen if someone pulled his hand over the pump, we rushed to the car, as the sky turned pretty gloomy.

Pinot

Last week I has a guest. Her name is Pinot (from the name of wine sort: Pinot Gris). It's a cat of Ania's colleagues from french classes - they were travelling on holidays for a week and were looking for someone to take care of their lovely cat.
So, for a week I had yet another flat-mate: Pinot. She is a very adorable cat who likes a presence of people. She also always reacts to her name. On top of that, she is very pretty - a bit grey, a bit ginger, a bit white.

Night Above Jura

I've wanted to make some photos of the night sky for long time. First I did't have lenses bright enough, then I did't have any opportunity to be in a remote place at night. I hoped to do the photos when I arrive at CERN. I live in a very small town close to the mountain so in a few minutes I can reach a place with no light pollution. But for the first one and a half month of my stay here the weather was awful. Fortunately last week the weather changed and there were two cloudless nights.
So at 19:00 I drove to a place that I spotted earlier and waited until the sun set. While waiting I made a short TimeLaps:

After 10 pm I started shooting and I think that this photos were worth all this waiting. Enjoy:

Sunny Jura

One again I hit the track of Le Reculet. This time the whether was better, snow was less slippery and I had trekking bats. But once again I didn't reach the top. During the trip I had a few nice encounters, though:

Also there was a lot of spectacular views, without the mist ;-)

Unfortunately not so far away from Le Reculet top I was forced to turn back because there was too much snow. When I fell into snow up to my chest and I needed to dig myself out I decided that this was time to go back home. Nevertheless, because of beautiful weather and spectacular view, this day was totally successful.

Lazy Afternoon

Well isn't he cute? Tripod does what cats like most - taking a nap.

Foggy Jura

Today I did my first mountain hike. The weather was not perfect, but in the end mountains get a very majestic look when in clouds, so it's worth hiking even without the sun. I tried hiking the most well-known summit - le Reculet (1717 m).

Higher parts where covered in the soft snow and it was difficult to walk ahead without snow shoes. On top of that, I didn't see any trail sign (everything was covered in snow) and the fog made the view limited, so in the end, I didn't reach the cross which stands on the top of the mountain. But that's fine, I will have plenty of opportunities yet to climb le Reculet. Most probably I'll have a next trial the next week.