Swiss National Day 1st August

Happy Birthday!!

The Swiss nation celebrates its birthday tomorrow.  The date, 1st August refers to an agreement called the Federal Charter, between the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden (now split into Nid- and Obwaldens) in 1291. The Switzerland of today however dates from the formation of the Swiss Federation in 1848 (a busy year!). Prior to this year, which marks the founding of the modern state, the cantons' sovereignty was recognised in the Treaty of Westphalia, which sounds important and if you had to pick a year out the air, you'd probably guess was signed in 1648, and you'd be right!

Last day of school

Marching band, just what an 8 year-old loves

The small one and I tried to go the Parc des Bastions on Wednesday, and were confronted by marching bands followed by troops of school children variously dressed up as treasure chests and pilots. Inside the park had been transformed into an 8 year-old's wildest dream. At the end of the year Geneva puts on a big party for all the children in its primary schools as they move up a year - it's like the school trip to the zoo, or the theme park, but instead of each school organising their own trip, the city does it for everyone. Like the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games each school had a child marching at the front of it carrying a sign with the schools name on it.

Fete de la Musique

Sunday in Parc des Bastions we finally managed to find proof of the existence of Fete de la Musique, the weekend long festival that takes place across Geneva. The website for the Fete lists dozens of performers at dozens of venues, but the one near us, in Grottes, was not to be found when we went searching for the 2.30 performance on Sunday afternoon. We wasted a good 45 minutes in not finding the venue, the website directions were completely useless, and whilst we strolled through Grottes, with our ears pricked, we couldn't detect the slightest squeak of music.
We gave up on finding something to watch near to us, and with no idea what we might see we jumped on a bus to Parc des Bastions and spilled with the hundreds of other people into the park.

Parks in Geneva are a two faced thing. During the day they are chock full of children running and screaming, accompanied by careless parents assured that their children will be fine, beyond a scrapped knee or two. However, at night, as I found out in my first week in the city, they generally become home to drug takers, pushers and drunks.
Back towards the end of the first week of October, I was toddling home after more than a few beers with a friend of mine, when spying a park near to our house, I thought I'd take a quick look at it to see whether it was suitable for a three year-old. As a reconnaissance spouse, in a new city, these are important things you need to consider in your first week.  However, it turned out, that at night time the swings and slides do not remain the property of the under 4 foot tall.  A guy approached me, what did I want? he asked. In my usual defence I began to answer him in German, rather than give away the fact that I might be from off the continent (I have been accused of being American accented whilst over here!). He was offering me hard drugs, something I wouldn't have understood in French. Anyway, we continued to have a very garbled bi-lingual chat, until I nodded and wandered off, figuring my departure was probably for the best. Fortunately, when the sun rose, there were other parks around to take the girls too and we've never been back to this other one.
But it's not the only park like it, many is the park in Geneva that suffers from dealers staking claim to the patch whilst the swings are still and the sun is down. I was cycling into work the other day, when I heard sirens all over the place, a police van came past me, and I noticed that the park beside the road was taped off, with a couple of coppers hanging around looking like they didn't know what they were doing. In the Tribune de Geneve, the local paper, the next day was a headline about the bodies of two women found in the park, apparently they were known to the city's drug agency.
We'll stick to the parks during the day I guess.

Bois de la Batie

On Sunday morning we went to Bois de la Batie, a little animal park over near Lancy. We drove. The closest the tram gets is the circle in Jonction, at the bottom of the hill, which we didn't feel like walking up with little kids. The alternative from the right bank is to walk or cycle through St Jean, and then cross the Rhone on the railway bridge.  From here you can look down on the confluence of the Arve and the Rhone and you get a great view of the city as well.

Weather in Geneva

I feel like something needs to be said about this. For the last week or two the weather in the city has been quite frankly amazing, the sun has shone and regularly the temperature has been up around 12C.  I am completely unable to fathom what has happened to the winter.  If I had any interest in snow I would probably be worried, but what I've heard and seen, adrenalin junkies who know a thing or two about risking their necks are turning to other means.

It certainly makes getting out the house a lot more pleasant.