Above - The centre of Geneva, Switzerland. But it could be anywhere really.
Above - Geneva, near the station.
Above - A street in the old part of Geneva.
Above - Geneva's tramway. The most ancient I've ever seen.
Above - the flower clock at the entrance to le jardin anglais. I'm sure it's prettier in summer...
Above - le jet d'eau. And it is indeed that - a jet of water. I'm still not quite sure of it's purpose...
Above - a Swiss police car. Stylish.0904 Lyon Train Station. Platform I for the train to Geneva. We went to platform I and we got on the train that was sitting on platform I. We were sitting comfortably. We started to move. We then began reading the list of stations where the train would stop. Geneva wasn't one of them... Umm, where are we going??! After a considerable amount of pacing up and down the train looking from map to map we realised we were going to somewhere south of Geneva called 'Genois des bains' or something like that, anyway, it wasn't Geneva! It wasn't even in the right country! Hmm. It turned out that the train was going to divide into 2 at some point so, at the first stop, we got off the train, ran down the platform and asked the man at the door for the other half of the train 'est ce que c'est ce train pour Geneve?'. The reply we got was 'What Love?'. Yep, we had stumbled across the Manchester United supporters from the night before. When we asked him in English whether it was the train going to Geneva he said 'oui' in a very English accent and so we got on. We had to walk the length of the train to find a seat. It was like walking through the middle of Manchester. Not a french person in sight, just Manchester United supporters everywhere. What amused me was that all these non French speaking English football fans had managed to get themselves on the right half of the train...
When we arrived in Geneva at 10h57 we stumbled across our next challenge. Things today were really not going well. Anyone would have thought that there was someone somewhere who didn't want us to go to Geneva. As Geneva is in a different country. Ie, Switzerland not France, we needed our passports. That was fine for me. I had mine. Aimee on the other hand had completely failed to realise we were leaving the country and so didn't have hers with her. Trying to cross border control with a provisional driving licence is not recommended. France were happy for her to leave but Switzerland were reluctant to let her in. There was a second when it appeared she was going to have to remain in the bit of land between borders for ever. I think the thing that eventually swung it was the fact she was young, female and white. The man infront of us had his passport examined closely - his french passport may I add, and was also asked where he was going! I thought, if they ask me that what am I going to say? Je vais faire les choses touristiques!
When finally in the country we were disappointed by what we found. I had an image of a rich, clean, elegant city. A city of banks and beautiful architecture. A nation with a clear identity: They're not a member of the European Union, they still have their Swiss Franc. We did not however find any of this. The reality was somewhat different: A city that could have been London. I felt like I'd been before. It was not clean. It did not strike me as being rich. There were no banks, no impressive buildings. The city was far from elegant andwas, it seemed, struggling to find an identity for itself. All the prices were in Swiss Francs but yet everywhere excepted Euros. This made for a complicated system. I bought a postcard for 80 centimes (Swiss Francs) and handed over €1 to be give 50 centimes (Euro) change. Aimee then bought some postcards from the post office and handed over a €10 note only to be handed a whole handful of Swiss currency. I guess it makes for an easy system for short changing. Surely even the Swiss themselves cannot get their heads around such a system! Despite the confusion, our first encounter with the Swiss Franc was a positive one. It is a currency of beauty with charm and character - more than can be said for the Euro and certainly more than can be said for Switzerland (or at least Geneva). We were fascinated by this currency and wanted to get a collection of a few coins to take back to France with us. We continued walking around Geneva. The weather didn't help, it was cold and cloudy. but I think it would have taken more than the sun to make Geneva impressive. We saw the huge waterfall, the clock made of flowers at the entrance to le jardin anglais, albeit dead flowers but I guess that was the time of year. We walked around the old quarter and saw the cathedrale (although we were unable to go inside as there was a funeral going on).
We then went for some lunch. My word, Switzerland is expensive! We had jokingly said that we should take a sandwich with us as we would be unable to afford Switzerland's prices. It shouldn't have been a joke... We eventaully found somewhere that was reasonably priced. We had sandwiches in a very very very busy place. I say 'place' because it was neither a cafe nor a restaurant. It was a cross between the cafe you find in Marks and Spencer and a sushi bar. It was so busy as it was reasonably priced and tasty I guess. We eventually found a seat and sat and ate. Switzerland do not appear to have a smoking ban so we didn't stay long. Whilst we were there however we heard English, French, German. The lady next to us was French and so too was another lady who wanted to know whether a seat was free so why oh why oh why, in a French speaking country did one french person talk to another french person in English?! Like I say, this city really needs to find an identity.
We decided after lunch that we would go around the museum in La Maison Tavel - Geneva's oldest house dating from the 12th century. The Musuem was of old Geneva and was possibly the most intersting thing we saw all day. We saw a model of Geneva that had been made by a Genevois who, for some reason we were unable to imagine, had been so proud of his city he felt the need to make a scaled model of it. A project that took him 16 years to complete! The model was impressive, I'm not sure if it was 16-years-worth-of-work impressive though! We stopped in a cafe for a drink and by this time had collected quite a bit of Swiss currency, we thought it might be wise to spend some of it! I sat photographing the 20 Swiss Franc note and the 10 Swiss Franc note which earnt us some strange looks. We then got excited about the packets of sugar (there isn't much else to get excited in Geneva about). Each packet had a map of Switzerland on and highlighted a different area. We wanted a packet that highlighted Geneva so, at the end when we were paying, we asked the waiter if he had one with the area of Geneva on. He handed us the whole pot of packets of sugar and we went through them. All of them. Well, they already thought we were strange after having photographed bank notes, why disappoint them?! We did not managed to find a single sugar packet for Geneva though. We left disappointed.
We then decided to get on the tram. We had a bit of time left and not a lot to do so thought we'd have 10 minutes going in one direction and then get off, have a walk around and then 10 minutes going back. We got on the tram and realised we were heading for the train station. It was almost as though Geneva was trying to tell us something... We were in plenty of time for our 16h58 train. I seemed to still have a lot of Swiss Francs left so I bought a magazine and some Swiss chocolate. I paid so as to elicit a 10 Swiss Franc note because I thought only the notes would be able to be changed back into Euros in France. The man gave me 2 coins each worth 5 Swiss Francs... So, after having started the day wanting a collection of Swiss currency I now had quite a lot of it. Hmm.
Me and my Swiss currency now needed to get Aimee out of the country. You'd think it would be easier to leave a country than to enter one wouldn't you? Not in Switzerland it would appear. She was told her passport was compulsory and that she couldn't leave without it. Her provisional driving licence was not enough. Even though we argued they'd let her in the country with it just a few hours before. A €200 fine was in order. Either than or prison. Yes, it sounds like he was being funny. He was serious. Very very serious. After a couple more minutes discussion he agreed to let her leave the country. Probably persuaded by her being young, female and white, the fact she had her tickets to show she'd been in the country for only a few hours or maybe, just maybe, he was concerned by the amount of paperwork not letting her leave would entail. That is of course if Switzerland is anything like France. Once safely on the right train, Aimee and Swiss Francs in tow and not a Manchester United supporter in sight, we sat opposite a man who, upon hearing me moaning about 'the damn Swiss currency' told me to use it as an excuse to come again. Haha! I don't think I'd go back to Geneva even if you paid me! He turned out to be a very nice man. Paul, aged 62. Extremely well educated, interesting, well travelled. He lived in France and England, that was when he wasn't flying to Japan or America to interview people for his recruitment firm. When we finally arrived back in France we went for some tea before going back to the Youth Hostel completely exhausted. There were two new people in our room. Both from Argentina, both very nice. One of them is a student in Toulouse and speaks English, Spanish and French. The other is just over to visit her friend but could also speak English. They were really nice. That was one thing I liked about the Youth Hostel - there were so many people from so many different places. Interesting.
So yes, Geneva was dissapointing. It's tainted my view of Switzerland. But I refuse to believe the whole of Switzerland is like this. Maybe because it's only just in Switzerland it isn't a true representation. I'll keep my Swiss Francs, well, I mean, I don't really have much choice. They'll give me an exuse to go again. To a different part of Switzerland may I add. It can't do an harm. any future Swiss experiences can only improve my view of the country!
