Gargantua had grown to a great size; he had become a giant, with a strength capable of moving mountains. Wherever he went, he would pick up stones and hurl them about the countryside on a whim, almost like the Greek gods used to do when throwing discuses. Once, he decided to take a stroll to Geneva. On the way, he got a toothache. He pulled out his canines and threw them into the Sassenage Mountains in Isère; you can still see them there today. Then a molar started to ache as well. He threw that one to the ground, creating the Chartreuse Massif.

Gargantua rode a giant mare, a gift from the King of Numidia. She was as big as four elephants. As he rode her through the forests of Beauce, she tried to swat away the wasps and hornets with her tail. But because she was so huge, she uprooted the forests as well, leaving behind a landscape as flat as a pancake.

It was summer, the sun was beating down from the sky, and the farmers were harvesting the hay. It became too hot for Gargantua; he fancied a swim, but there was nowhere with enough space for him to lie down in the water. The giant began to dig himself a bath, and thus the bed of the Rhône was created. He dug and dug, flinging the earth far behind him, and there it still lies today, piled high between Annemasse and St. Julien.

The farmers, who were mowing the grass on the hill opposite in Saint-Gervais, watched the spectacle and were quite astonished as the mounds of earth and stones grew ever higher. “Hey!, the mountains are growing!” they cried. Gargantua had already widened the bed of the Rhône as far as Hermance.

“It’s getting bigger and bigger!” cried the farmers. But the giant dug on; soon he was in Yvoire, in Nyon, then in Lausanne... “Bigger and bigger!” marvelled the farmers. When the giant arrived in Le Bouveret, they clapped their hands and cheered.

“Now the bathtub is big enough,” said Gargantua to himself, for a great lake had now been created—Lake Geneva—and on the Salève, along the shore, stones piled up over a thousand metres high! Gargantua bathed and washed himself in the new lake, then he grew tired. He sat down on the huge mound of earth and pressed the mountain with his backside so hard that a chasm opened up between the Little and the Great Salève.

Now Gargantua felt like skipping a few stones across the water. He picked up a couple of round stones and they fell right into the middle of Geneva harbour. You can still see them today; they are the stones of Niton. One stone, however, went completely astray. It landed near Thonex; it is the Pierre à Bochet. “I think I’d better be off now …”, thought Gargantua, and he walked away. Left behind was the landscape around Geneva, and now you know why it looks the way it does.

Fassung: Djamila Jaenike, nach: C. Vellas, Légendes de Genève et du genevois, Genève 2007, Übersetzung….© Mutabor Verlag