The fete des vendanges is the Geneva festival of the vinyards. We had heard about it from the woman we are staying with and were eager to see what it was all about.

The festival was held in a small town of 400 ppl outside of Geneva called Russin. For this one weekend a year, the town of 400 welcomes thousands of people to drink their wines, eat their food and celebrate the grape harvest. The city was really cool, and full of tents serving wine, food and playing music. the swiss love to sit having their wine and enjoy music in the company of new friends. They were very kind and shared a glass of "mout" with us. It is the juice from the grapes right after they crush them just before they start to ferment. We explored the city and looked around at the different menus offering traditionl swiss meals: Sausise au choux, croute au fromage(something like that), apple pie, potato salade.......no hot dogs and hamburgers here...just good swiss eating!

There was also a parade later in the after noon through the streets of the town. People lined the streets and the parade made its way through the crowd handing out wine and playing music. We saw the geneva hockey team, town choirs and the best attraction of all, a sheep dog herding a group of ducks!

After the parade we settled into one of the tents with a half bottle of the local wine and a plate of sausise au choux with potato salade. oh man..unreal good.