This day Scott had ring shopping on his brain. Since 2003, he has been buying rings as a souvenir of the places we visit. What started as an impulse buy at Centre Pompidou in Paris has evolved into a sometimes time consuming hunt. Now, when he goes chasing down leads on possible stores selling men’s silver rings, I find something else to do.

An artisanal shop nearby did not have anything yesterday, but the owner recommended another shop. We saw it as we walked to dinner. It was down a very steep set of steps.

The historic centre of Geneva is on a hill. Looking from across the lake, under the branches of the second-from-the-right plane tree, you can see the top of Saint Pierre Cathedral, which is the highest point of the historic centre.

To avoid aggravating Scott’s knees, we have had to figure out how to avoid going up and down the hills of the old centre. Scott wanted to get to the jewellery shop on one of the steepest of stairs and streets we have seen. So, we took the bus to get to the bottom of those steps. We still had to climb a couple of less steep steps to get to Sous les Pavés, a custom jeweller. It’s has the burgundy coloured sign on the left of the photo below.

Meanwhile, I went chocolate shopping. There were around 10 shops nearby. I only went into three. Some are very fancy; even the bag is fancy.

Lunch was at Le Perron, recommended by the jewellery makers.

We had two starters: fish soup served with aioli, cheese and croutons, and a crab and avocado entrée.

We had a Swiss rose from Neuchâtel but I forgot to take a photo of the label.

Along the route to return to the apartment, we did a bit more chocolate shopping. I don’t have much space in my luggage for chocolate but at least one person in Calgary is expecting some chocolate from Switzerland.

Back near the apartment, Scott returned to the first jeweller who was going to try to bring in some rings for Scott to look at. I went to Saint Pierre, which we looked at briefly on Sunday.

The front is based on the Pantheon in Rome. It was added in the 18th century. Doesn’t make much sense, especially for a Protestant church. Most of the rest of the church is Gothic, built largely in the 11th century.

The church is now the main Protestant church in Geneva. John Calvin preached here as his home church. Technically it’s not a cathedral, but everyone calls it a cathedral. Being Protestant, a lot of the Catholic decoration inside was removed. It’s fairly plain, except for the neo-Gothic Chapel of the Maccabees, restored in the 19th century.

The pre-Protestant era choir stalls have some cute decoration. Who doesn’t like a carved dog?

I don’t understand what’s going on with the decoration on some of the capitals of the columns.

Underneath the church is an extensive archaeological site. There are finds ranging from the first century BCE to the 15th century.

The mosaic tiled floor from the 11th century was impressive. Sadly, much of it was damaged by bad restorations.

We decided on a change of pace for dinner and booked a sushi restaurant, Maru Sushi. It is located on the next hill over from the historic centre. We could get there by crossing two bridges and avoid going down and up.

The area looks much like areas of Paris. Historic but much more recently built than where we are staying.

The sushi restaurant was tiny.

I never took photos of our sushi, which was pretty decent. But the pleasure of our meal was detracted from by the very loud extended family group right next to us and the only other occupants in the restaurant. Don’t want to know all the details of someone’s opinions. The downside of dining out.