Fête de sport and Caves Ouvertes - Summer in Geneva

How do you know that winter is out and summer has taken over in Geneva. Well, most obvious of course is to stroll around in the street and check out the number of people on terrasses, walking around, running by the lake, rollerblading, biking. The fact that the city comes to live.

Another way are through all the nice and often free activities that take place. Two weeks ago it was time for a weekend of dance with the Fête de la dance which meant all the dance classes you could take, and manage to get a spot in, for a total of 10 chf for the weekend. Great fun! We went to a Flamenco dance class, an African contemporary dance class, and a Hip Hop class.

This weekend the turn has come for two completely free events. The first is the famous, here in the region, Caves Ouvertes. This means a great day of fun and good wine as lots of wineyards open their caves for free tasting of last year's harvest. We went last year and managed to go to 4 different caves and try many many different glasses of wine. Oops. The atmoshpere is great as lots of people join this outing in the villages about 45 min by bike outside of the centre (there are also free bus connections, and you can go there by car, but probably not back). And the wine is mostly good. Only problem coming by bike was to transport home all the bottles we wanted to buy so this year the backpacks will be bigger ;) So a weekend of great fun ahead where we go and borrow some free bikes (hopefully, as they can run out but last year we were fine), bike off in a group of friends, spend the day tasting wine, nibbling on small also free food, going for lunch, more wine and then back to return the bikes a bit late having to pay 2 chf in a fee ;)

Then the second event this weekend is the Fête de sport, taking place both Saturday and Sunday for free trials of everything from climbing to boxing, from winsurfing to flying, from beach volley to rafting... Should be fun! The plan is to go on Sunday, and hopefully the wine headache from the wine tasting will be gone by then.

So a great weekend ahead as long as the weather keeps stable. And around the corner for the summer are waiting the Fête de la musique with free concerts all over town, the La ville est à vous-fêtes de rues where the whole city comes alive with activities in one neighbourhood per weekend, and free concerts in the park twice a week for 2 months of the summer. I love Geneva in the summer!