the eclipse was the big event of the day. everybody had a plan, everybody drove up the salève, eclipse glasses were sold out in every shop in the city, only available on the black market at black market prices.
i didn't have any. tried a staring contest with the sun instead, realized after a few seconds that was genuinely stupid, took a photo like everyone else. it was fine, kinda mid honestly.
the real show was that same night, the perseids peak, and by then most people had already gone home satisfied.
i went the other way, north into the jura, to a pass called marchairuz. nobody there. parked, walked into a meadow, put some music on, laid down in the grass.
saw like twenty shooting stars, maybe more, stopped counting at some point.
meanwhile the salève was still a parking lot, fifty minutes to cover one kilometer, people abandoning their cars on the road, three hours to get back down. someone i know was stuck up there all night and didn't even see one.
i texted two people, told them to look northeast. one was stuck in traffic, the other was out with her friends. nobody looked.
so i stayed there on my back in the wet grass until my jacket was soaked through, alone, at the best spot near geneva, on the best night of the year. it felt like real happiness.
then drove home with the windows down, got back at some absurd hour, like 2am.