I spent 6 weeks in Geneva as a student at the WHO. The following year spent 3 months. Beautiful city. Switzerland is sometimes called the Disneyland of Europe.
The food is great. The fountain someone mention is called Jet d'O or the like, means jet of water. A restaurant in old town call Les Armores (the armory) does great fondue and raclette and serves inexpensive local wines. I would recommend a Mont su Rolle with any hot cheese disk. there is also a restaurant downdownt called "Cafe d' Entrecote (sic) Paris" Terrific experience. A steak cut thin witha special sauce and all the french fried you can eat. PM me for more information if you want.
Another advantage is the city bus takes you to Fermet (or Formet) France, just across the boarder where things like wine and cheese are very inexpensive. My french is nonexistent and I got along fine as long as I was courtious.
There is a small inexpensive hotel called the Rousseau that many WHO visitors like. American hotels cost more but the comforts might be worth it (breakfast, etc).
Bon voyage
Beret
I was thinking of taking a trip there. Not to work, for vacation. Any info. would be great! Heidi xxoo
Heidi,
Geneva is a beautiful city in the Fall and Spring. The city surrounds a lake - lake Geneva. There are lots of great hotels with lake views, lots of great restaurants, etc. That said, Geneva is a business oriented, rather than vacation oriented city. Make sure there isn't a big trade show in town. These can suck up hotel rooms for up to two hours away. If you go all the way over there I'd stay a couple of days in Geneva and then move on to one of the other great cities nearby, and there are plenty.
Hope that helps.
Thank you very much. Where did you stay?
Yes, and it's a beautiful "Old European city" - with the mountains - Alps being most prominent. There are lots of great restaurants and you can spend a lot of time just bar hopping in the old city.
I found lots of hot ladies there - many administrative types who work for the United Nations. I had carnal knowledge of a svelte and wild lady from Thailand who did some interesting things to me with a string with little beads attached to it. Changed my life!
Churches and museums (although far less than Paris or London) and just neat places. There's a fountain I can't remember the name of that is a historical and prominent place - it can be seen from all over. I was drunk and damn near fell in the thing- that would have been heavily frowned upon.
More French spoken there - and I'm not particularly fond of the French. There, I'm "outed" - but that's just me.
Switzerland as a whole is a little more uptight - sort of a smugness. They have money and a high level of living standard and aren't afraid to let you know. You will see police with sub-machine guns.
Every home in Switzerland is required by law to have one gun per adult. At least that is the way it was.
Hope this helps. Go there and take lots of money. The Euro is very strong, the US dollar very weak.
Is there such a thing as a person that is fond of the French? If so, I have never heard of that. I think the French hate themselves, first and foremost.
I suppose I'd have to see what people are complaining about to judge for myself. Oh, I've run into a couple of Quebecois I thought were a little stoopid, but no more so than you can find in most garages or dive bars.
hardwood's right. If you want quiet and order in lovely surroundings, Geneva is for you. If you like interesting cities with lots going on -- you can bored rather quickly in Geneva.
I was there with some Italian journalists a while back -- they were impressed and a little envious at the order and discipline of the place, but quickly grew restless and critical of the hyper-orderliness.
If you want beauty, liveliness, cultural and historical stimulation, and lots more, there are any number of places in Italy that would be preferable to Geneva. It may be late enough in the season now to avoid the tourist hordes in Rome and Florence, but even if not some of the smaller cities are gems and very interesting.
I recently visited Martinique the french side. Boy, those people are mean and stuck up. Once, they find out you are from the US they can not stand you! Thanks for all the input from everyone! Heidi xxoo
If you enjoy driving and can afford it, a full day excursion around the entire lake with lunch in Rapperswill can be a high point. Be careful where you park 'cause the Swiss police will ticket you and track you all the way back to US. Of course you will be tempted by all the beautiful Swiss watches. I bought a Raymond Weil that is the thinnest, most masculine watch I've ever owned.
after a couple days take a steamer across Lac LeMan (Lake Geneva) to Montreux-- check for music festivals before you go and book ahead. Casino action in both cities. If you've time catch a train up to Zermatt for a look at the Matterhorn, or at least Grindlewald. There's so much more to Switzerland than Geneva...
I spent 6 weeks in Geneva as a student at the WHO. The following year spent 3 months. Beautiful city. Switzerland is sometimes called the Disneyland of Europe.
The food is great. The fountain someone mention is called Jet d'O or the like, means jet of water. A restaurant in old town call Les Armores (the armory) does great fondue and raclette and serves inexpensive local wines. I would recommend a Mont su Rolle with any hot cheese disk. there is also a restaurant downdownt called "Cafe d' Entrecote (sic) Paris" Terrific experience. A steak cut thin witha special sauce and all the french fried you can eat. PM me for more information if you want.
Another advantage is the city bus takes you to Fermet (or Formet) France, just across the boarder where things like wine and cheese are very inexpensive. My french is nonexistent and I got along fine as long as I was courtious.
There is a small inexpensive hotel called the Rousseau that many WHO visitors like. American hotels cost more but the comforts might be worth it (breakfast, etc).
Bon voyage
Beret
Hi Heidi
It is funny reading all the comments about my country, some of them are true, some of them are wrong, no problem, we are used to it, hehehehe...
Here it goes. Geneva is probably the most international city in Europe, this because of its international reputation. There is the WHO, UN, Unesco, Red Cross, Olympic games and so on and on. So you will find all kind of people living there (ambassadors, diplomats etc). This is also the reason, that you can find police men walking the street with a machine gun. This is only when there are important politician in town. G. Bush and all the important politicians are often in Geneva. So the reason for that is for the safety and is no big deal, just ignore them. Otherwise Switzerland is a very safe country.
About guns, yes we do have machine guns at home, we have a miliz armee and every military men has a gun at home, like myself. This does not mean that we are walking around with our guns, it’s more a political and historical reason and is discussed right now. No big deal.
Geneva is in the French part of Switzerland but still in Switzerland near the French border, in Switzerland we speak 4 languages, French is one of them. Being an international city, English is no problem, we are used to it. Just say “Hi and do you speak English” and the rest is done.
Now lets go to the more interesting things, what to do.
Switzerland is famous for 3 things: watches (expensive and nice ones, if you want you can spent 50 Dollar (Swatch) but also more then a 100.000 Dollar. Just go shopping and you will find lots of shops. Chocolate: best in the world and the alps. About the alps you can travel in Switzerland and will find the alps always present. Zermatt, Grindelwald and also other places are beautiful to visit, lots of tourists. Like above, they call Switzerland “Disney World of Europe”, but don’t tell them, we don’t like this. About travelling: we have a very good train system, for example you can travel to almost every city in Switzerland, trains are leaving every half hour or even more. And the train station in Switzerland are always right in the center of the city. I don’t recommend a car, it is not America, driving in Europe is much more stressful then in the USA (streets are narrow) and most places are not so far away, our country is very small. There are many nice cities and all of them are completely different. For example Bern (german part), Luzern, Zurich, Lugano (Italian part) etc. Within a few hours by train you will be there. And visiting lakes and going on the boat is also very popular in our country.
There are at the moment 2 bad reason visiting Switzerland. First the Dollar is high for Americans and second, it is spring time, the weather is getting colder, in the mountains it has already snowed in the mountain (early for that season) at the moment right now it is raining. Better would be in Summer or Winter for skiing and fun in the snow. Anyway, I am sure you will like it. If it is the first time travelling to Europe, I remember an Australian I have met once. He told me: “It is amazing in Europe, you just go around the corner and then you will find other people, other language, other mentality, other food, other nature, other buildings, just all is different just going around the corner”. Yes that’s true. If you want some more information, just ask.
Have a nice trip and enjoy.