Re: Geneva (long)

[Guest guest]

> I managed to get some Easyjet offer flights to Geneva for a weekend in

> Nov(one way cheap, one way free) for us with the DDs (10 & 7) ..has

> anyone been there? Do you have any tips on hotels, things to do?

>

> Barbara

Hi Barbara,

I lived and worked in Geneva for 5 years :-)

In November, I'm afraid, the weather is often rather dreary - the

basin of land around the lake fills with foggy low cloud (they call

this 'stratus en plaine' in the weather forecasts). Very depressing

not seeing the sun for weeks at a time... However, you can get above

this by cablecar or driving up the local mountains, and get stunning

views of the Alps. Local mountains with cablecars: at Crozet for up

the Jura on the French side, and at Mont Salève on the south side.

It will still be fun to walk along the parks by the edge of the lake,

though I suspect the jet d'eau will be switched off for the winter.

One of the bridges across the Rhone has a hydro-electric station built

into it, and it's interesting to see the water pouring into the

turbines. There are pleasure cruises along the lake to Nyon, Evian,

Montreux etc in the summer - not sure if they still run in the winter.

The old town around the cathedral is interesting to walk around. The

rest of the city is fairly bland Euro-urban architecture, though the

Rue du Mont Blanc is made slightly surreal by an English country church

which has teleported in from the home counties! (There is a ish

church too, but it's away from the town centre and less easy to find.)

There is a festival around that time of year, but I can't remember

if it's in November or early December. It's to commemorate a

cauldren of soup which was once poured over a Frenchman's head (!)

(this seems as daft to us, as celebrating a Catholic being burnt at

the stake seems to them). There is a street parade, and you can buy

festive bowls of soup, and little cauldrens made of chocolate filled

with sweets.

I think the headquarters of the Red Cross and UN do guided tours, but

I never did this myself so can't comment on how worthwhile they are.

Museums: not very exciting, IMHO. I may be doing them an injustice,

but I didn't spend much time in them. Shopping: plenty of fur coats

and watches to ogle at in the windows, but apart from maybe Swiss

army knifes and some chocolate, we never used to buy much in Geneva;

we tried to do all our shopping in the UK and take it back.

Eating: the town centre is pretty pricy - they are catering for the

international expense account and rich tourist crowd. We tended to

eat at small backstreet places, many of them pizzerias. There are

good, cheap places to eat, but they aren't obvious. My favourite places

were actually just outside the city - the winegrowing villages to the

west have real old village inns, selling good hearty food washed down

with the local wines from the fields just outside the door. If you

can get transport to Satigny, Dardagny or thereabouts, you will see

a different side to Geneva than cuckoo clocks and diplomatic number

plates.

Hope this all doesn't sound too negative - I had a lot of fun living

there. There are lots of wonderful places to see around there, but

they do tend to involve having a car. What would we be doing at a

weekend in November? Maybe going for a last bit of hillwalking before

the winter sets in, or possibly the first ski daytrip, depending on

the snow conditions. The town centre is pleasant enough in summer,

but a bit boring in winter.

Email me if you want to ask any specific questions!

Liz (suddenly appreciating how much there is to do in Edinburgh in

November!)