After one last fancy breakfast and checking out, I walk through the streets of the old town once more to explore the last corners that I haven’t seen so far. I even step inside the cathedral and am surprised with a wonderful organ concert. The streets are full of vegetable and fruit stands at this time of the day and everything has the flair of a market. It is sunny and warm with a fresh breeze and people who are not working enjoy the morning in the many cafes or buying their food on the market. I also see many students coming out of school for lunch break or relaxing in parks.
Around midday everyone storms into the hyper fancy bars and markets to buy some takeaway lunch and eat it in one of the many parks, stairs or other recreational areas around the town. The world is in perfect order here.
As the design museum I had planned to visit is currently closed, I make my way out of the old town towards the neighborhood of “Le Flon”. This is the newest and fanciest part of the city, where everything smells like art, design, and modern architecture. Fancy cafes and restaurants, art galleries, painted houses, sculptures, a music school, an event hall, and many small artisanal artsy hipster shops and galleries define this neighborhood.
Right behind it, I find the “Esplanade de Montbenon” with a huge palace, a gigantic park with lots of fountains and a great view over lake and mountains. I would immediately come to live here.
Francesco finishes around 2 and after a small organization break in a bar, we take the bus down towards the lake and Ouchy. We walk along the shore to the left until we reach the Olympic park and museum, which is also next to another park with a Thai temple in the middle, that was a gift from the Thai king in 2005 to honor 60 years of diplomatic relationships between Switzerland and Thailand.
We have our lunch on a nice spot next to a frog pond and then take another bus all the way to the other end of the promenade where there is a big cemetery (Cimetère du Bois-de-Vaux) and an archeological park with roman ruins. We spend a lot of time at the cemetery and some time with the Romans before we walk back along the lakes shore towards our starting point where arrive around 7 pm.
Tired, thirsty and hungry, we get a metro to the hotel, get our bags and then take another bus to our Airbnb for tonight and then head off again to have dinner (Slice Pizzeria).
