"Geneva" Geneva by mke1963

I'm not sure that 48 hours in a city on business gives me the ability to write a travel page on a place, but others seem to have created more out of a lot less.

Geneva is like a smaller, slightly colder version of Paris: blocks of visually interesting (if a little bland) late 19th Century buildings and a relaxed, friendly feeling. It's a city that has built its not inconsiderable wealth on a curious mixture of banking, the United Nations, fondue and Socialist politics. Almost entirely surrounded by France, the French influence is obvious and overhwelming; the German voices in Bern and Basel are conspicuously absent in Geneva and you will rarely hear the city described by its German name, Genf.

Another curiosity is the diverse mix of cosmopolitan seediness and old money: VW campervans vying for parking spaces with Aston Martins, old ladies reading philosophy at the bus-stop next to a guy juggling coins. All a bit surreal: like a city injected with a bit of Salvador Dali.

Geneva lacks any world-scale attractions - although the Jet d'Eau soaring into the sky in the middle of the river comes close - yet there is plenty of relaxing scenes, smallparks, pavement cafes, great restaurants and lovely hills and forests nearby (most of them actually in France).