We got up a little earlier today to make sure we were on time for our only scheduled activity in Geneva; a chocolate tour! We ended up having a private tour by accident, and our tour guide Lily was so lovely. The tour took us to 6 chocolate shops where we tried a bunch of different chocolate items. The first place was called Laudree, which is actually French and I went to one when I was in Paris last year. From there we had some drinking chocolate and a chocolate square. Then we took a boat across the lake and had a coffee chocolate and a hazelnut chocolate in shop number 2. Shop number 3 was the home of a chocolate cake that had chocolate ganache, Salted caramel, walnuts, and a brownie base. It was soooo yummy.

After a quick stop into the towns cathedral, our next chocolate was not in a shop, but was a chocolate cauldron that we smashed before we ate it. Apparently it’s a tradition here because at one point there was an invasion to try and occupy Geneva, and the only person who heard the soldiers was a woman making a huge pot of soup at 2am. She poured the soup out onto the soldiers and their screams woke everyone up so they could fight them off and stop the invasion.

Shop number 4 was the home of some truffles (Popcorn and lavender) as well as a ruby chocolate. Made from a special kind of cocoa bean, the ruby chocolate is naturally a pinkish colour and has a fruity taste to it. In shop number 5 we had 3 different chocolates, the best chocolate covered almond I’ve ever had in my life, a chocolate with a very intense lime flavour, and the winner of the chocolate rally, which was crunchy and complex and delicious!

The last stop of the day was at a shop called Sweetzerland (…get it), and here we got to choose what we wanted to try. In all the other places, it was a set menu, if you will, but in this shop our guide told us what they all were and let us pick. I chose the trio chocolate, which was shortbread base, hazelnut filling and milk chocolate on top, a raspberry truffle, and a milk chocolate truffle where all of the ingredients were from the same region. The whole way along the tour, we were also getting a lot of historical info about chocolate, and Geneva in general. We learned about some legands and myths, why the swiss are so well known for chocolate and watches (religious reasons, believe it or not), and about the parts of Geneva that we were walking through.

After the tour, we wanted to spend just a little more time in Geneva before we caught the train the Annecy, so we walked down to the flower clock that they have here. The picture below is what it looks like right now, but I think they change how it looks pretty often.

And that was it for our time in Geneva. Our train to Annecy only took about an hour and a half, and after getting settled in our hostel, we got some crepes for dinner down the street. It was a build your own crepe place, so I got one with some kind of cheese that came with the crepe, boursin cheese, tomatoes, and ham. Honestly, I got the boursin cheese for the novelty, but it was actually really good!

And that was all for the day. Geneva was our shortest stop yet, not even 24 hours, but we made the most of it! Tomorrow we go to the cow festival here in Annecy.