This famous restaurant was conceived in 1900 around the time of the Universal Exhibition. At that time, it was the Gare de Lyon’s station buffet, which later became Le Train Bleu. It was a famous architect named Marius Toudoire who was responsible for the Gare de Lyon clock tower and the façade of the building who was entrusted with the design and works of the restaurant. The management of the railway company wanted to create an unmissable gourmet expierice for people travelling through the Gare de Lyon.
The station buffet was opened by then French President Emile Loubet and became Le Train Bleu in 1963, the name apparently a tribute to the ‘Paris-Vintimille’ line from 1868 on Le Train Bleu (the legendary train that services the towns along the Mediterranean Coast and the French Riviera). The decor of the restuarant retains that sumptuous ambiance that the Belle Époque (c.1871 to 1914) is so famous for.
It’s like a time capsule…
The restaurant is quite large and has a large lounge/bar area as well, so I looked up to see how many diners they can seat and it’s a huge 200 people that can be seated here at any time. That is quite a considerable number of people and certainly explained the general hustle of the place; totally consistent with being in one of Europe’s very busiest train stations. I also learned at this time that Le Train Bleu is a two Michelin Star restaurant. Seems 2024 is accidentally becoming a ‘Big Year o’ Fine Dining’.
Naturally, we decided to stick to our resolve to drink as much champagne at every opportunity while in France… the Bollinger, always a good choice (for breakfast, lunch or dinner!), was delicious and moorish.
The meal started with a small purée of herbed carrot that wasn’t on the menu… very tasty!
I spent more time looking at the ceilings than at the menu!
Just beautiful!
Mr K looking very happy with his wash… bit of Bolli before lunch will do that.
M. Alain preparing Mr K’s entrée, table side…
Devilled eggs and Petrossian caviar for me; herbed Green Asparagus with vinaigrette for Mr K…
M. Alain returned to prepare Mr K’s main meal table side also… I thought these staff members were wait staff, but it seems they need to be capable chefs too.
Pork medallion Mignon, with champignons for me; braised lamb shoulder with garlic and potato au gratin for Mr K…
Delicious so far – and large portions! Like, pushing American size portions.
I was amazed at how quickly they could turn the tables over. There were loads of people waiting for tables when we arrived. We had booked this on the recommendation of some colleagues before we left home, so had no trouble getting seated but many were standing around for quite a long time waiting for a table to be vacant, but I swear the party opposite us finished up and paid their bill, a new party of diners were being seated within about 3 minutes… impressive.
I had had an elegant sufficiency so passed on dessert, but Mr K had ordered the Iranian pistachio soufflé served with Turkish sour cherry gelato at the beginning of the meal, (as is usually the case with soufflé!). I had a tiny taste, and it was delicious! Seriously, it was a next level super tasty dessert – likely due to the complete lack of chocolate! 😉
A lovely long lunch in a gorgeous restaurant – certainly would recommend it to anyone coming to Paris as an opportunity to step back in time, and have a lovely meal in absolutely beautiful surroundings.
Sainte-Chapelle is a small Gothic royal chapel on the Ile de la Cité that has always been somewhat overshadowed but the awe-inspiring Notre-Dame de Paris that is almost literally right next door. If you have time to visit one Gothic church when right there – most people are going to choose Notre-Dame. However, since Notre-Dame has been closed for the reconstruction and renovation, this underrated but stunningly beautiful chapel has become super popular with people wanting to experience visiting a Gothic church complete with gorgoeous vaulted ceilings and medieval stained glass.
The chapel is within the medieval Palais de la Cité, (now the Palais de Justice – so security is high here), which was the residence of the Kings of France right up until the 14thC, and served as the private royal chapel to these Kings for centuries. .
Construction on the chapel is understood to have started sometime after 1238, and it was consecrated on 26th of April 1248! Coincidence of course, but it was consecrated exactly 776 years ago today! It’s kinda mind blowing how a place like this this has survived nearly 800 years, through political revolutions and wars and industrialisation and progress… it’s withstood the enormous adversity.
I digress, the Sainte-Chapelle was considered to be one of hte highest achievements of the Rayonnant style of Gothic architecture and was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his reliquaries. At one time it housed what was believed to be the actual Christ’s Crown of Thorns which was later moved to Notre-Dame (I believe that reliquary survived the 2019 fire, but am not sure where it is currently located).
It was such a feature of the medieval Parisian skyline that it appears in several manuscripts from the 14thC and 15thC, which is so cool; you can see it was iconic even then. Though it is hard to imagine people harvesting a field outside these walls, which are now full of streets with traffic, and cute little cafes and cosy restaurants!
Portal of the Lower Chapel… The Lower Chapel was used as a church by the non-royal inhabitants of the Palace and surrounding neighbourhoods. The Palace was the seat of justice at the time, so lots of public servants, palace servants and local farmers if this manuscript image is anything to go by. This small chapel was dedicated to the Virign Mary, hence the statue at the entrance.
For a chapel built ‘not-for-Royalty’, is is remarkably beautiful! The walls and ceilings are covered in the fleur-de-lys motifs of France, as well as the castles of Blanche of Castile (a nod to Louis IX’s mother).
The original 13thC-14thC stained glass from the lower chapel was largely lost in a flood event in 1690 and subsequently replaced with plain glass panels. Then a restoration of the Chapel was undertaken in the 19thC, and most of the stained glass was replaced at that time with vibrant and colourful scenes depicting the Virgin Mary’s life. During this 19thC restoration, most of the ceilings, walls, colonnades and column capitals were also restored, which accounts for the chapel’s vibrant hues.
Most of the red and blue painted columns, and their golden fleur-de-lys and castles motifs were restored in that 19thC restoration period, but the floral acanthus leaves on the capitals are very typical of 13thC Gothic design, so these appear to remain unchanged during that renovation.
I’ve been to a LOT of medieval churches and cathedrals all over Europe, and have rarely seen anything so beautifully preserved.
It’s so very detailed, and so well kept. I love this place.
From the lower chapel (which also contains a gift shop and a small area to sit and admire the Lower Chapel, there is a winding stairway to gain access to the main feature – the Upper Chapel which served as a private chapel for the French Royalty. Thirty-five steps up a tight spiral staircase, (yes, we counted them because my knee is so fooked, I can hardly walk, but there was no way I was going to miss this… so I let a bunch of people go up before me and went about as slow as a 80 year old granny would going up the steps one at a time!) to see this:
SPECTACULAR! The Upper Chapel is only 33m x 11m or so, but the walls feel like they are made almost entirely of stained glass. There is apparently 670sqm of stained glass in here (not counting the rose window on the west end of the Chapel); there is so much medieval glass here, it makes you wonder what is holding up the gorgeous ceiling! The first thing we did was find a seat and just take it all in. There was an English guide to the iconography of the glass – which I scanned and have added in here in case anyone is interested or I want to read it again later… but this chapel is so overwhelmingly in it’s beauty, I didn’t want to sit and dissect the art work white there. So this is an explanation of the glass:
Stained glass is often quite hard to photograph – but this Chapel has it’s two lengths running north/south, so at certain times of day, the lengths of the building are receiving indirect sunlight, which is perfect conditions for attempting to photograph stained glass. I also have to admit, that the iPhone 15 Pro does a fantastic job of managing the low lighting conditions and the wide contrast ratio. I am seriously impressed, Mr Tim Apple.
More heavily decorated colonnades, capitals and walls.
The altar area is just ‘ahhh, ahhh, ahh’… holy light spilling down from the medieval glass. Most of the windows were put in place between 1242 and 1248, and it’s not hard to see why medieval people would have come into this place and believed with their whole heart that ‘God Lived Here’. No matter how hard I try to imagine what it would be like to enter a place like this when you live in a world without the constant bombardment of modern imagery – photographs, books, newspapers, media, television, film, advertising etc, I am sure I am failing at trying to imagine the full impact that a place like this would have had on a medieval person. It would have been awe inspiring in the truest sense of the word, ‘awe’.
This is why we travel… you can see pictures of these amazing places on the internet very easily every day, but you can’t fully appreciate the grandeur, the detailed workmanship, the dedication, and the enormity of an undertaking that is was, to build a place like this.
The Rose Window of Sainte-Chapelle on the western side of the chapel, was installed in the 15thC and depicts scenes from the Apocalypse. In the 15thC the painting of stained glass became popular usuign a technique called silver-stain, which allowed the glassmakers to pain onto the glass with enamel and then fire the pieces to fuse the paint to the glass. This allowed for more detailed design work with shading techniques becoming prominent in stained glasswork around that time. The Rose Window was cleaned between 2015-2019 so it appears particularly vibrant today (thank goodness we weren’t here while that was all under scaffold).
Mr K was enamoured of this little multi-headed beastie that resides on the lower left side of the Rose Window… again, iPhone – colour me impressed.
This is one of those posts where I am completely unapologetic about the bulk of imagery included (sorry Yale). Words just don’t do it justice.
We must have stayed in here nearly an hour, just marvelling at the glass, the painted ceilings, the floor tiles, the light pouring in. It was incredible.
So many beautiful aspects to turn the camera to.
Patience is rewarded – if you can out wait the people who insist on taking so many selfies that is.
Wow. Just amazing. If you’re coming to Paris, and whether Notre-Dame is open or not, do yourself a favour and try to visit Sainte-Chapelle. Who knows, if Notre-Dame is open, perhaps it will fade into obscurity again and you will get a chance to visit with fewer fellow travellers. I would definitely put a couple of hours aside to come back next time I am in this part of the world.
Back out into the Real World. The Palais de Justice is still a working building today and was bustling with robed barristers and lawyers coming and going.
Such a cool morning out! We have a lunch appointment and then back to the hotel for work.
Since learning we’d be in Paris leading up to the 2024 Olympics for work, I’ve been following some Americans who moved to Paris on YouTube – their channel is called “Les Frenchies”, (yes, I know… but what can you do?), and they have some great, up-to-date content for people visiting Paris. One of the things they highly recommended, was something I thought would be way too touristy for my liking, but based on their frequently voiced dislike of highly touristy experiences, I thought we’d give it a try. So, I booked us a dinner cruise on ‘Le Calife’.
Seeing we are now staying in Saint Germaine (*wipes away faux tears* – it’s lovely, but it’s not the Georges V!), we had only a short 350m walk to the Pont des Arts, where ‘Le Calife’ is berthed.
I love this! I wonder if this was dedicated before she passed away in 2020… ‘On 23rd September 2021, “The ‘Place Juliette Gréco’ was inaugurated in Paris. It can be found beside the Church of Saint-Germain-de-Paris, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.” Bummer.
This is not out boat.
This is our boat. Le Calife was originally built in Belgium in 19as a cargo carrying ship and has large twin stream engines, but when this type of transportation became less popular it was sold to an enthusiast for restoration. It apparently took 18 years to restore and transform it into a restaurant; it has its original engines still operating. The ship is all fitted out with red mahogany, brass and other decorative details, including seriously vintage stained glass lamps from 1789… which I will no doubt mention later!
Square du Vert-Galant…
Pont Neuf…
We were welcomed aboard at 20:00 with a glass of champagne, and a set menu with several delicious choices for each course…
Our delightful waiter asked us if we would like a bottle of red wine or white wine, all chosen by the chef… we had both chosen meat for dinner so opted for a bottle of red. Which may or may not have been a bit of a mistake, because we didn’t realise that we weren’t going anywhere until 2045, and the first course of dinner wouldn’t be served until roughly 21:30..!
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris… still under masses amounts of scaffold as the restoration after the 2019 fire, but expected to reopen December 2024.
A nod to the teams of people working on the Cathédrale…
L’entrées… the vol au vent of chanterelles with foie gras and morel mushroom sauce for me, the Label Rouge salmon fillet gravlax with fresh cheese and herbs for Mr K:
Ah, there they are, the fabulous antique stained glass lamps through the verandah of the boat. A lovely touch, but perhaps not so practical when it comes to photography reflections!
The mains… Rossini style beef tenderloin, with foie gras, Dauphinois potatoes and roasted vegetables for me, and Lamb shoulder confit, with seasonal vegetables and baby roast potatoes for Mr K:
Just as dinner was being served we sailed into view of the Eiffel Tower. Gorgeous! I particularly love the stained glass motif they have incorporated into the lighting! 🙂
It is a striking element of the Parisian skyline for sure. A little after these pictures were taken, we swung around and the tower started to ‘sparkle’ as they have the flashing lights going for five minutes on the hour every hour… kinda gave up on the photos by now though.
The underside of one of the several bridges we went under… complete with reflections of someone’s dinner. 🙂
Dessert… Lemon cheese cake, with lemon cream, lemon sorbet and limoncello for me, and Chocolate lava cake, custard and Madagascar vanilla ice cream for Mr K. The lemon on lemon with a lemon motif was really quite good!
Alas we were back to the quay all too soon; not really it was just before midnight. The dinner cruise was really lovely. The food was nice, but we made the mistake of doing this *after* we’d had the fanciest meal of our lives at Le Cinq! When will we learn… you don’t go China straight after you go to Japan and you don’t go to a *good* French restaurant the night after going to a internationally famous three Michelin star’d French restaurant!
Concierge: Oui, madame? Kate: Yes, bonjour. Do you speak any English? Concierge: Of course. This is the George V, not some backpacker hovel.
Ever since seeing those hilarious and famously snobby lines in the 1995 movie, French Kiss, with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kleine, I’ve wanted to come check out the Georges V hotel in Paris… and here I am nearly 30 years later finally getting a chance to do so.
The hotel has an artistic director, and one of his responsibilities are the famous floral arrangements that are found throughout the hotel’s foyer, restaurants, bars and rooms. The flowers are replaced every 21 days like clockwork and they order between 12,000 to 14,000 stems per week with a budget of around $.1.4M (and I assume that is USD) per annum! Seeing that it is spring, I was expecting bright colourful displays something akin to what we saw at the Kukenhof only, indoors… instead it was a rather understated affair with the boldest element being masses of yellow roses:
Juliette checked us in and let us know that she was available to assist us with anything we might need. She congratulated us on our silver wedding anniversary, and showed us to our room personally. Along the way, she confirmed that our dinner at Le Cinq was confirmed and should we need anything at all special at dinner, to please let her know so she could take care of it for us.
The room was beautiful – and enormous. We booked a standard king room, but Juliette led us to a superior room with a balcony. As a general rule, the hotels of Paris are busiest in the high season, but in the shoulder season, like this, the busiest time of the weeks is Wednesday to Sunday with many rooms remaining empty on Monday and Tuesday nights… so hint for new players; best chance for a room upgrade on Monday or Tuesday nights.
Juliette was sure to let us know that the Georges V wished us a very happy anniversary and they offered us a bottle of champagne with their compliments, (a bottle I later spotted on the room service menu for €170)…
Also was a piece of chocolate cake that I am sure Mr K will enjoy later…
And some very pretty love heart chocolates filled with liqueur…
It seems sweet treats are the favourites in this part of the world, as we were also bestowed a box of delightful macarons, and a special chocolate and pecan brownie from the hotel’s patisser.
Juliette wished us a very nice stay and handed us our keys, and I got to poke around properly. lol. The keys, btw… beautiful.
We had a delightful space to make tea and coffee with a ceramic and leather kettle, a coffee machine and a huge variety of teas and coffees to choose from.
We also had a well stocked mini-bar, and the fridge was bursting with goodies also… though I’m wary of the price point on some of these! That’s the problem with hotels of this level of luxury – they’re usually catering for people who don’t care what the bill comes to! Not people like us, who are splashing out as a one-off!
The bathroom had a beautiful and deep bathtub, which I took full advantage of!
The bathroom was as stocked with amenities as a minibar – loofah, bath salts, dental kit, sewing kit, nail kit, shaving kit, cotton buds, make-up wipes, comb, hair brush, shower cap, mouth wash, dental floss, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, hand wash, moisturiser… you name it, it was probably already here for you.
This is *half* the walk in closet, complete with safe, slippers, bathrobes, laundry bags and god knows what else.
The bed looked so good, I almost didn’t want to jump on it… but I did!
Complete with monogrammed pillow shams…
Every little detail was beautiful… I had a lovely hour relaxing in the tub followed by the decidedly thoughtful champagne; felt thoroughly spoilt.
Dinner was booked months ago when we booked the hotel. The Georges V is famous for its Le Cinq restaurant… of course with claims like this, you wonder if it will live up to the hype.
The restaurant is actually quite small, seating only 60 guests and very elegantly appointed. I snavelled some stock photos of the restaurant as it was quite dimly lit and I forgot to stop and take a picture.
Before we even saw a menu or the wine list, (which btw, is like a 200 page book!) we were presented with some delightful canapés… the caviar was the really good stuff!
The degustation menu looked really good, so we decided to order that. Given we have no allergies or anything, the only information we provided the staff, was that I don’t like chocolate, so would be grateful if the chefs could find a different dessert course for me.
Mise en Bouche: White asparagus and carrot and champagne foam.
Foie Gras poached like a pebble in a iodised broth…
Truffled Gree Asparaus, with a Château-Chalon wine mousseline…
Matured Ossetra Caviar and Bulltermilk with warm smoked salmon… (this dish was my favourite).
Pistachio Sorbet with Citrus Flavour and lobster bisque…
Black Pudding scented with passion fruit and coffee…
M. Roman came along at this moment with the highlight of the meal… le chariot à fromages magique! We chose about six different cheese, and they were all delicious.
Mignardises…
Dairy Iced with yeast flavours…
Crunch Grapefruit, preserved and raw…
Chocolate and Hazelnut Crisps with malt whisky ice cream…
Vanilla mousse served with Strawberries and pesto…! Which sounds bizarre, but tasted amazing.
M. Roman with a Chocolate trolley also filled with ‘Pastry from My Childhood’. Mr K took a selection of chocolates, truffles, marshmallow and other sweet things, but I well and truly felt I had exceeded my sugar quota for the month by this point!
We were also presented with a small chocolate plaque beside some vanilla ice cream to acknowledge out special occasion.
Mr K looking happy and relaxed* (*He hadn’t confronted the bill yet, lol… oh, and I should mention this, as you don’t see it much anymore – my menu had no prices in it, only his did! Que c’est démodé?
Even when we thought dinner was over, we were presented with two little boxes full of fudge to take back to our room…
… which another staff member promptly put into bag with two more little boxes of fudge and another box with a breakfast pastry, ‘in case you need a little something in the middle of the night!’
All up we had an amazing night. The staff were attentive and super friendly. The sommelier was generous, down to earth and told us she is doing an apprenticeship in wine so she goes to study wine one day a week. I realised after dinner that I had expected this to be a stuffy affair – but everyone was friendly and their English was certainly fluent enough to be bantering with the guests, so that kept the atmosphere light and entertaining… and the food was amazing! I don’t know that we would ever do this again, but it was certainly an experience we won’t forget in a hurry.
My mum has alway said, “I wonder what the poor folk are doing today?”, when she was in a luxurious mood… and now I feel like I know what the really rich people are doing!
Mr K posted this on FB:
🌿 Celebrating Our 25th Anniversary 🌿
On this day, a quarter of a century past, we entered into the marrriage, witnessed by our friends and family, to embark upon a partnership of profound affection and mutual respect. I could not have imagined a greater setting to celebrate our love and 25 years of marriage than to be with you now in Paris. This is a significant occasion, and I am compelled to reflect upon the years we have shared, each marked by trials and triumphs that have but strengthened the bonds of our union and have deepened my love for you.
These 25 years have been as full as my heart if of my love for you, as we made a wonderful home together, built multiple careers and now a business, studied, laughed, loved, and grew a family through the blessing of our dear son, Angus. Everything I cherish, and everything I have done of worth in this life was only important to me because you were there and only possible because of your love, belief, and support.
I have always loved you, (and told you so in the first three weeks after we met) but I never believed that anyone could love another more than I did you then. Yet here I stand by your side 25 years later loving you more every passing day as our adventures continue, my love for you deepens, and our friendship grows.
So today know that there is no limit to how ardently I admire and love you, and with great joy can express my deepest gratitude and love on this, our silver jubilee.
May we continue to walk together, guided by affection and esteem, through whatever our future may hold and to embark as soulmates on new adventures until we can no longer travel and then, we can sit together and reflect on what amazing lives we shared and enjoyed together.
To our next adventure, and our next 25 years. Love your dedicated (and hopelessly in love) husband.”
The next morning we decided to just sleep in and luxuriate in the beautiful room. Juliette had given us a late check-out… 3pm! Which is unheard of, (again Monday or Tuesday night bonus apparently!), so we decided to take advantage of the down time before we had to face the work that would be taking over this week. We are here to meet with bus people and Olympics transport organisers for the 2024 games, which happens in less than 100 days, so there was going to be plenty to do. We ordered in breakfast around 10:30am.
Eggs Benedict. I loved the little stamped cultured and uncultured butters… you guess which is which.
We had an amazing stay… the hotel really pulled out all the stops. I’m not sure I would want to stay here a week, even if we could afford it, mostly because this area doesn’t really reflect my perceptions of ‘typical Paris’, but it has definitely been an amazing anniversary interlude in the middle of a work week – even if we did end up on zoom meetings this morning!
Just when we thought they couldn’t exceed expectations any more with the personal touches, Juliette came to see us as we were checking out with yet another gift, this time containing a candle that has the Georges V’s signature scent – and indeed, the box smells just like the entire hotel does! I❤️ Paris!
Bern today! Bern, apparently so named because Berthold V, who established the city in 1191, held a hunt and the first animal that was killed was a bear (‘bero’ being Old High German for ‘bear’). Bears are the most popular decorative motif throughout the city, appearing on statutes, and monuments, and of course the town’s heraldry which is everywhere! The most famous Bern landmark is probably the bear pit, where bears have been kept at the city’s expense, since 1480! Bern’s Old Town (Altstadt) has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1983.
The Bärengraben or Bear Pit was first opened in 1857, the current iteration is the fourth bear enclosure to be by the Nydeggebrücke and the River Aare.
As animal enclosures go, it’s very old fashioned and a little sad (though not so sad as the Barcelona Zoo!). Luckily for the bears that live here, they have tunnels in and out of this pit to enormous wooded enclosures that line along the Aare riverbank, and they have space to run and hide and interact with the other bears.
I think this cutesy statue has probably been deliberately placed by the bear pit to stop people from doing dangerous things to capture a photo of themselves with a bear in the background! Here have a photo with this cute bear statue instead, why yes, you will have to line up for it!
Mr Bear, shitting in the woods.
The visitors are actually quite close to the bears as you look down into their large enclosure by the river.
The Aare River.
View towards some terrace houses from the Nydeggbrücke…
Bern is actually the capital city of Switzerland where the Swiss Parliament sits, and diplomats meet in the Bundeshaus (Federal Palace). It is not a large city (population approximately 120,000), and it’s easy to think the capital is Geneva or Zurich, as those two much larger cities are much more well known. The city is built in a large bend in the Aare River and has its origins in the 12thC – the Old Town, (Altstadt), here is remarkably well preserved… with it’s tiled rooftops and cobbled streets, it’s like something out of a Disney cartoon.
Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen who founded the city in the 12th century.
With some cool plaques extolling his many deeds and martial victories – he apparently died without a living heir, so his line ended with him; which no doubt was a huge disappointment for a medieval Duke.
This monument had the coolest little Bear Squire holding his helm… such a cool addition to the statue.
Berthold, Bero, Bern… I am sure he loved the bear being the mascot/device for the town.
Mr K, ever the transport nerd…
The Altstadt is very cool, with loads of cobblestone streets, and lots of fancy shopping (homewares and fashion rather that touristy souvenir stores – though there are a couple of those too). There are also basement shops under each side of these rows, which seem to house quite a few barbers, alternative stores and other less lucrative or salubrious establishments.
Bern has over a hundred of these incredible fountains spread throughout the city. The fountains existed since the establishment of the town and were originally made from timber to allow citizens easy access to clean drinking water… but were replaced around c.1550 with these elaborate stone fountains. They are stream fed from the Aare River and the water is still clean and drinkable. Most of them are positioned in the middle of streets and make for the most truly charming traffic calming I’ve ever seen.
One touristy shop – first cuckoo clocks we have encountered since we have been in Switzerland – weirdly. Tbh, I don’t like them. Never have.
And as I was saying, interesting basement establishments…
More statues clinging to buildings – no doubt this one had something to do with one guild or another, but I couldn’t ascertain the origins of this rather odd looking monkey.
Each fountain is unique…
Walked by so many fountains, Mr K had to stop for a coffee, which turned into an affogato, which turned out to be a dessert???
More fountains… note the bear on the heraldry of Bern.
The Zytglogge Clock Tower, located at the very centre of town, was built in the early 13thC and was a was a multipurpose tower gate, serving as a guard tower, prison and clock tower.
The clock is 15thC but of course has been maintained and reconstructed in parts over the centuries.
Just around the corner from the famous Zytglogge was the famous Zur Käshutte Cheese shop! In situ for over 125 years, this famous little speciality cheese shop with it’s 100% local produce and the most famous Swiss cheese sourced from right around the corner in the Emmental Valley.
Cheese Heaven!
After a quick stop by the smelly cheese shop… we had to get going to make it to Geneva for the evening.
