Every year, on a Saturday evening in mid-August, the Fêtes de Genève presents a grand fireworks display (grand feu d’artifice pyromélodique) over Lake Léman.We have heard about it every year and did not go until this year.  Reason?  We do not like crowds generally and for last two years, we saw the August 1st (Swiss National Day) fireworks in Lausanne just a weekend before.

Our friends F and A know of a special place to see the fireworks. It is a patch of lawn that slopes gently towards the lake in the commune of Cologny, a lakeside suburb of Geneva.

We brought beach towel and foldable chairs, settling down comfortably to watch first sunset and then the fireworks. A small crowd had the same idea.

We started with a chilled bottle of white from Vouvray and shrimp cocktail. It was divine.

These pictures were taken with my dad’s tripod from the 1960’s.

The event was free although it has a budget of some 500,000 plus Swiss francs, so it was reported in the papers.

Geneve at dusk

The fireworks involves about forty firing stations on the lake and about 30,000 rockets; it was about one-hour long and are accompanied by music and narration.

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The narration was in French and English – a nod to the international crowd.

That boat in the middle must have a fantastic view and being so close it also received a huge dose of smoke.

 This year’s theme was time – not surprising since the second half of the show was sponsored by Patek Philippe.

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Because there was hardly any wind, the smoke accumulated directly above the firing site and blocked half the sky. We ended up seeing only half the fireworks towards the end.

Fin

Good night.