Busy day today! Mary, the program director here, happens to be personal friends with one of the big executives at Nestle Global HQ, so some of us went over there this afternoon for a personal tour with him and a Pepperdine grad who now works there.
Nestle has over 10,000 products sold in 130 countries. The entire top floor of the HQ is dedicated to displays of various products. Chocolate, of course…
…and fairly recently, Gerber. Check it out–it’s basically a Keurig for baby formula.
Mary’s friend oversees a lot of the ethical dimensions of the company. Grandiose claims of moral behavior by billion dollar companies always make me skeptical, but I was overall impressed by the company’s professed desire to be above reproach in matters like child and slave labor or environmental sustainability on every level of production. Not that I really buy many of their products since I cook from scratch, but I will feel more confident using Nestle chocolate chips without worrying that a slave harvested the cocoa beans that went into my chocolate. (And if you never wondered about that, you obviously have a lot less hipster friends than I do.) =)
Nestle HQ is actually in Vivey, 15 minutes by train from Lausanne, so Derek and I decided to channel our inner Amy March and Laurie and wander around the city for a few hours. We followed a fragrant flowery walkway up to the cathedral above the city…
…and had a beautiful view over Lake Geneva to the Alps.
The church was beautiful, too.
Then we wandered along the lakefront, encountered a 5K race (in which half the contestants–adult and child alike–were riding on razors rather than running), got “in” the lake, and had a caramel crepe.
I’m just going to say it. Sometimes Europeans have bad taste, too. Yes, that is a 10 foot sculpture of a fork. In Lake Geneva.
Back in Lausanne, we splurged and got fondue for dinner. Yum.
Chocolate and cheese factory tours tomorrow!
Awww-you look like you’re having fun! And super cute, Emily!!