Lac Léman or Lac de Genève?

Last night in French class, we were scolded by Georges (our infallible instructor) for daring to describe the lake down the street as Lake Geneva...you see, much like in the U.S. where Minnesota and Michigan fight over which State is more representative of lakes, the Swiss have differing opinions on the name of their beautiful lake. (Minnesota claims to have more than 10,000 lakes, didja know that Minnesota is a Dakota Indian word meaning "water?"; Michigan claims you are never more than 90 miles from a Great Lake, therein making it the Great Lake State...Michigan is derived from the Objibwe Indian word for "large water"; since Michigan has an adjective and Minnesota does not, I decree Michigan as the superior Lake State, even though both States touch Lake Superior).

As you can see from the picture, the lake is roughly crescent shaped (although I could be convinced it looks like a delicious walleye leaping from the water). The Swiss like to divide this lake into two parts, the western part (what would be the tail of the fish...it's skinnier and runs roughly from Geneva to Nyon on the Switzerland side) is called "Lac de Genève," whereas the eastern portion (and subsequently grander, larger, deeper, and better portion running from Nyon to Villeneuve) is called "Lac Léman." Now I don't really understand how you could claim that one lake is really two separate lakes, but the Swiss are like that so I will humor them and only refer to the lake we live by as "Lac Léman" from now on (unless I am west of Nyon in which case I will call it "Lac de Genève").

Also, we were informed that in the French language, there is no word for liking something (as in "I like white bread") because the French love everything (such a passionate bunch of folks). So if you want to tell someone in French you like them, be prepared to meet their parents because you can only tell them "Je t'aime."