Chapels, pot pies and cafes…. – Kavitha Karen Xavier

So while just walking around we chanced upon this cute little cafe tucked away near the lake, known as Cottage Cafe.

Of course, I had the hot chocolate…

My sister ordered coffee and we chose some mushrooms to munch on.

There were sparrows flying in and out, tweeting away and just eating off the table…
they add charm and beauty to this already hidden cafe.

The Cottage Cafe..

The structure that marks the entrance to the cafe…

The explanation…

So we continued our walk and this is just a pretty door we saw…

More pock marked trees

Saw this structure in Milieant and got down to explore it… it looks pretty on the outside. Inside it is plain, nothing to see, just a massive prayer hall.

Since I saw some video about pot pies, I’ve been itching to make them. There was some leftover chicken and paneer dish, so I put them in a pot and placed a layer of pastry sheet over them. Of course, pot pies taste great when the pots are smaller. You get the crunch of the buttery flaky pastry sheet along with the goodness of the chicken or veg stuffing steaming inside. But I had these large pots and I used them…

Made some designs, a cross and SH for Sherlock Holmes…

Here they are out of the oven…

Tasted good… can’t go wrong with pastry sheets. But the pots have to be smaller to really get the wholesome goodness of this dish.

During my first trip to Geneva in 2013, we went to a chapel nearby to attend a french mass. We met a very charming priest there, Fr. Gabriel. And since then we’ve been in touch, he has a fascinating life… born in Nigeria, he had to go through an initiation ceremony in his tribe and that left a scar on his brow. So anyway, we went for the morning mass one day to meet him and this is the charming chapel where he says the weekday masses, since the crowd is minuscule on a weekday.

After mass we decided to go have some coffee… this is the serene waiting area in the parish priest residence.

We went walking to a cafe nearby, had these whole wheat croissants… and hot chocolate. This was where he told us stories about growing up in Africa and the reason behind the pretty cool scar on his brow. It was nice listening to him, discussing his culture, African societies, religions, life in India among other things. He told us how he became a priest and how he had to learn French from scratch to write his exams in French. The world is filled with stories… you just feel lucky when you get to hear really good ones. We, me and Nam, had a lovely time with him then,

We walked back home, a pretty little house on the way…

The junction boxes look quite cute here with vintage pictures covering them.

A restaurant on the way…

The most beautiful chapel near home…

whenever we cross by this place, I can’t help but go in..

It is so aesthetically designed with natural light streaming in through well placed vents.

A wooden sculpture of Mary and child…

The bible bathed in natural light… and the cross nearby.

The entrance to the chapel…

The pathway to the chapel… then we walked back home, did some work, ate leftover potpies for lunch, slept a bit and then decided to drive to Le Recyclables, the charming book store and cafe.