Each year, the citizens of Geneva take part in the tradition of smashing a chocolate marmite (cauldron). This annual tradition is a tribute to a historical event that took place in 1602 whereby the people of Geneva summoned their courage and defended their city against an attack from the Savoyards.

Decorated with the city’s colours — red and yellow, the cauldron also features its coat of arms.

It is tradition for the youngest and the oldest member of the household to smash the marmite together, which for Louis Degallier 56 is Taisiia & Sakura! 🤝🎁✨

The History behind the tradition… ⭐

The attack of the Savoyards on Geneva took place during the evening of December 11, 1602. That night, when the soldiers arrived and the church bells sounded the alarm, the citizens of Geneva took it upon themselves to stop the invasion. Legend has it that Mère Royaume, a woman who was cooking a pot of soup, threw her cauldron and its scalding contents out the window to prevent the enemy from advancing. Although a rather violent act, it symbolises the spirit of the Genevois during this battle. Regular citizens taking the initiative to protect their city! And, succeeding! To honour the occasion, chocolatiers in Geneva began creating cauldrons that are made of chocolate and filled with sweet little marzipan versions of Mère Royaume’s vegetables. The cauldron tradition apparently did not become established until the 1880s.

It’s wonderful for our students to learn about the rich culture of Geneva. And of course, they get to enjoy the chocolate after 🍫

This weekend, the girls in Louis Degallier created a Gingerbread House masterpiece that will compete in the final House Competition of the year ⭐

Polina, Daria & Sangeetha worked together on this project, each bringing their own unique style and flare to the decoration, watch the video below to see the process ⭐

Half way through the task, a friendly dog appeared in our garden! We managed to get hold of the owners who picked him up, but we were very grateful to look after him for a short while 🐶

Well done girls for your efforts, the house looks amazing and we are very proud of your decorating skills! 🤩

Today we visited the famous Montreux Christmas Market and had a wonderful time looking at all the traditional festive gifts and tasting traditional Swiss food 🍭🍫

As you can see, we were extremely lucky with the bright blue skies, however, the temperature was a chilly 3 degrees so the girls found an indoor cabin to enjoy some hot drinks and warm homemade soup ready to start shopping again 🥣🧀

Surrounded by beautiful snowy mountains, right on the shore of Lake Geneva, Montreux is a wonderful town to visit, especially on a day like today 🌞❄

We even got a wave from Santa Claus who was making his way up and down the Christmas market 🎅⭐

All in all, it was a lovely day filled with lots of festive spirit 🎄🎀⭐

Polina, Daria & Defne spent the evening creating some chocolatey marshmallows ready for the charity bake sale tomorrow! 💖

After melting the chocolate, they added some sprinkles & sweets, and then put them into Christmassy bags, ready to sell ⭐

The school Charity Club aims to raise funds for charities in Switzerland and this year, they are supporting a local charity based in Geneva called ‘MADS’ (Make A Difference in Society). Run by students, the school Charity Club puts together a bake sale once a month to raise money for this wonderful cause. They also organise other charity events throughout the year in order to raise as much money as possible for MADS ❤

Thank you girls for making a difference to ‘MADS’, your charitable work is much appreciated 🙏

💛💚💙💜🧡

So we know it’s not exactly the festive season just yet, BUT, we just couldn’t resist baking some festive cookies ⭐

Regina & Daria used their baking magic & produced some beautifully creative biscuits 💖

They experimented with the food colour and decorated the biscuits in all the colours of the rainbow 💜💙💚💛🧡

Delicious, festive & colourful, thank you girls! We will definitely enjoy them 💖⭐✨

Today I made “White chocolate & Raspberry Blondies” for the house ❤

First, I melted down the white chocolate and butter. Then I whisked eggs and brown sugar until it was light and fluffy. Next, I combined those together and mixed it until smooth ⭐

After that, I added flour, baking powder, and chunks of white chocolate, and stirred it until my arm started to hurt!

Then I poured the mixture into the greased tin, covered  it with raspberry jam, and topped with raspberries 🍓

Lastly I put the mixture into the oven, waited 40 minutes and cool it down for 30 minutes in the fridge 🙌

This was the first time I baked blondies, but it was easy to bake and delicious to eat, and the girls loved it 🥰

Written by Sakura ❤

On the weekends, we have the option to do different kinds of activities 🏸

This Saturday Defne and I chose to do climbing at the local climbing centre 🧗‍♀️

There are different levels of climbing you can pick represented by different colours. Define and I chose to do yellow, red, and orange and we managed to reach the top.

We thought it was easy so we challenged ourselves to do the blue ones next, but it was too difficult and unfortunately we couldn’t get to the top!

Overall it was a fun activity to do (especially as it was bad weather outside), and we had really good quality time just the two of us 🥰

Written by Sakura ❤

Last night, Sakura & Defne designed, crafted, and carved their very own pumpkin masterpiece 🎃✨

This ‘frighteningly’ good pumpkin will compete against the other hand-carved pumpkins in the annual Collège du Léman pumpkin competition in the hope of earning points in the House Competition 🏆

Fingers crossed for the competition, but 10/10 for effort and enthusiasm, well done girls! 🥰🎃❤

Today, Daria made a Dinosaur shaped marble cake for the whole house, and it’s safe to say, it was a ROARING success ⭐✨

Without exaggeration, the whole cake was devoured in the space of 5 minutes! A sign of a very good cake indeed 🍰

Here’s a short video showcasing the whole process:

Well done Daria for making this delicious homemade cake, we are very proud of your achievement ⭐

And of course, thank you to Regina who helped with the clear up… making sure there was zero food waste 🍫

Thank you girls, we are already looking forward to the next one 💕🥰

This weekend, we took the entire Collège du Léman Boarding community to the Swiss mountains and had a fantastic time!

Our students went to the popular town, Verbier, where they were spoilt with blue skies & endless sunshine 🌞

There were a range of activities available including; mountain biking, zip lining, ropes course, hiking, rock climbing, mountain scooters and plenty of traditional sports, which meant there was something for everyone 🏀🏓🏸

It was great to see our students discover and enjoy new activities 🛴🚴‍♂️

Sangeetha bravely opted for the zipline! Starting at 3,330m, with a vertical drop of 383 m and a total length of 1.4 km, the Mont 4 Zipline the highest in the world and the longest in the Alps.

Well done, Sangeetha! We are very proud of you! 🎉

On Sunday morning, everyone participated in the Mountain Mini Olympics 🥇🥈🥉

In groups of 10, the students had to work together as a team to try and win the overall competition 🏆

And of course, the best ‘Fancy Dress Photo’ station was a clear favourite from our students! We very much enjoyed their style and creativity 👗🎩👒👑

All in all, the students made lovely wonderful memories and new friendships over the course of the weekend. A weekend we won’t forget! 🧡💛💚💙💜