Pavillon Cafe: A Review-ish
NOVARTIS PAVILLON CAFE REVIEW
a personal memoir, one-page zine
A cafe review of Novartis Pavillon Cafe + What I do When I Feel Flumpy
EVERYDAY EXPEDITIONS is a personal memoir, one-page zine created with love & courage by Christine Gerber Rutt. Brewed in Basel. 18.6% Sassy.
I made a free downloadable, one-page zine & a video where I show you how to fold it.
The inspiration
I didn’t want my first cafe recommendation to be that of a corporate behemoth. I usually prefer small, cozy, and local cafes. But, to be honest, I was in a rut and needed to get outside of my normal routine.
My Inspiration stemmed from Basel’s first Idea Party with Ophelie Cabanero, a hypnotherapist in Basel.
When I slowed down, got quiet, & really listened to the whispers of my heart, I wanted: impersonal, anonymous, expansive, space. I wanted to feel like I was in a new city, a new country even. And, when I was really truly deeply honest, I wanted to feel like I was new. And by “new” I mean: curious, adventurous, full of life and vitality.
I will be the first to admit that the cafe of the museum of a ginormous international pharma company appears like the absolute last place I would feel full of joy.
But I couldn’t ignore that internal urge to go there. So I did.
I did not regret it. Surprisingly.
The Experience
To be honest, going to Novartis is like going to a city within the city. It is like it has it’s own norms, rules, cultural codifications, and everyone speaks English.
And I must admit that was probably the part which made me melt the most.
Everyone needs spaces where their first language is spoken by others around them. The way it calms our insides is often overlooked. I’ve not seen scientific studies about this (also haven’t looked & don’t care to) but my experience is that for me to stay sane in Switzerland I must have spaces where English is spoken around me—even though I am fluent in Swiss German.
I would go so far as to say that if I couldn’t speak my first language here, I would not be sane.
Which is to say: apparently, I speak Novartis.
Novartis is a language. And the Novartis cafe language is: be welcoming and warm. Smile. Look in their eyes.
Warmth is a vibe that is alarmingly missing in most of the service in the city. Admittedly, I may over-emphasize it when I do come across it.
This is where I give my highly opinionated review of Novartis Pavillon Cafe in Basel.
The HOPE
Going to the Pavillon Cafe ended up waking up the part of me that used to be a travel writer.
The soft spa music that was playing. The Philippino server. The English being spoken. The largess, the emptiness, and the sterility of the space. All of these washed my soul of the weariness & resistance that is sometimes so prevalent in Basel. All of these awakened the part of me that remembered sitting in pristine 5-star hotel lobbies in the Middle East, with a Phillippino server, speaking English, and a view of the Arabian sea outside.
That part of me is: always up for an adventure, insatiably curious, bountifully creative and courageous. She was fun and funny.
To be honest, I desperately miss this part of me. She disappeared when I moved back to Basel 10 years ago. Then a different part of me was up for development. The part of me that was responsible, completed things, planned, organized, disciplined.
In following my inner voice to Pavillon Cafe, I feel these two parts of me beginning to join one another. Supporting each other in my next adventures.
I hope this zine inspires you: To slow down & pause. To really listen to the whispers of your heart. To your curiosity. To let it lead you to a place you may not typically go to. Or, maybe, to a place that feels like an old and trusted friend. To allow that space to surprise you. To allow that space to enliven your senses, to fill you with it’s energy and life.
To read what I do when I feel FLUMPY you can download the zine and some things I do when I feel flumpy. Tangentially related is a blog post I wrote about where to find the best Eclairs in Basel & Beyond. Which including A Total, Barely Related, Tangent on the Top 3 Most Disgusting Things I Have Ever Baked—one of which includes an Eclair Cake. I highly recommend reading if you’ve ever made a mistake that in retrospect was ENTIRELY predictable and TOTALLY avoidable.
The Read
To read this zine you will need to print it out, fold it, cut and staple. Instructions for how to fold a double-sided, one-page zine are here.
I recommend pairing the reading of this zine by listening to: Aluna George—You Know You Like It.
This song and Your Drums, Your Love were two of my Qatar road trip songs. I was introduced to it on a road trip to Shamal where I took with three women and a dog to see the northern part of the country. Even though they had all lived in Qatar for years they had never been. One of the women was a DJ on the side and was in charge of the music playlist for the trip. She introduced me to Aluna George and it became one of those songs that I’d play on repeat for hours when traveling.
Enjoy.
