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Photos:
1. The Jet d'eau in Geneva harbor.
2. During the European football (soccer) championships in the summer of 2008 a huge ball was suspended above the fountain and kept up in the air by the force of the water.
3. Most people in Switzerland really enjoyed having the football championships in their cities of Zürich, Basel, Bern and Geneva -- but not everyone. This sign claims that EUROFOOT was not a festival at all, but merely BUSINE$$.
The Jet d'eau is Geneva's trademark, a water fountain in the harbor that shoots half a cubic meter of water per second up to a height of 140 meters.
Originally it pumped drinking water from the city water supply, but in 1951 the present Jet d'eau was installed in a partially submerged pumping station to pump lake water instead of city water.
Since 2003, the fountain has been operating during the day all year round, except in exceptional circumstances such as frost or strong winds. Except in winter, the fountain also operates in the evenings and is illuminated. Leave a Comment
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 1100m altitude... by Lilasel
Just a few steps from the Veyrier border, you may take the cable car which brings you to the top within five minutes.
There, a kingdom for lovers of nature, fresh air, fauna and flora unfolds, as well as a unique panorama over Geneva, its quays and the lake, with the Jura mountains as a backdrop.
Moreover, its southern side offers an incomparable view of the Alps and the Mont Blanc. However, the Mont Salève is not only a paradise for strollers.
It is a favorite venue for climbers, mountain bikers, paragliders, delta wingers and, in winter, cross-country skiers.
Several roads also lead to the Salève.
Saleve Cable Car
May-September: 9.30am-7pm/8pm
April & Oct: 9.30am-6pm (except MON) Leave a Comment Address: Etrembieres, FrancePhone: 0033 450 39 86 86
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 by Lilasel
Surrounded by walls at the end of the 16th century, it served as a bastion for the city. In 1628, it was transformed into a shipyard and carried the name "Island of the Boats".
It was only in 1832, with the construction of the Bergues bridge which was linked to the island by a footbridge, that it would take on the name of the great Genevan philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Transformed into a public garden, with a statue of this great man sculpted by the Genevan Pierre Pradier, a pavilion, now converted into a restaurant, was added in 1921. Leave a Comment Address: Pont des Bergues
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Photos:
1. Grand Théâtre de Genève.
2. Looking sideways at the façade.
3. The Grand Théâtre seen through the trees from halfway up the hill on Rampe de la Treille.
4. The Stage Tower, a typical feature of theaters and opera houses all over Europe.
Opera came late to Geneva. It was forbidden, like most other earthly diversions, during the grim era of the religious reformer John Calvin (1509-1564), and for around two centuries thereafter.
The great French author Voltaire (1694-1778) is generally credited with putting on the first opera performances while he was living in exile in Geneva and vicinity in the 1750s, 60s and 70s.
The first theater in Geneva (outside the city walls, actually) wasn't built until 1766.
From 1872 to 1879 an opera house was built on the site of the current one, at Place de Neuve, but it was an uninspired scaled-down imitation of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. When that one burned down in 1951 it was rebuilt with some important changes, and the result is the current Grand Théâtre de Genève, which reopened in 1962 with the five-act French version of Verdi's Don Carlos, even though construction work was still going on.
The current Grand Theater really is grand in a number of ways. It is beautiful inside and out, and it has the largest stage in Switzerland, with plenty of space above and below and behind and on the sides for all the latest stage machinery, which was modernized once again in 1998.
And it is democratic. You can see and hear perfectly from all 1500 seats, which is by no means true of all European opera houses. (Have a look at the notorious Teatro alla Scala in Milan for a particularly grotesque example of the contrary.)
Of course just having a great building doesn't guarantee having a great opera house. You also have to put on great productions, and this started happening in Geneva around 1980 when Hugues Gall (born 1940) was named director of the Grand Théâtre de Genève, a post he held for fifteen years until 1995.
(After that he moved to Paris, where he was the director of the Opéra national de Paris, comprising both the Bastille and Garnier opera houses, from 1995 to 2004.) Leave a Comment Address: 11, boulevard du Théâtre, 1211 GenèvePhone: +41 22 418 30 00Directions: GPS 46°12'4.80" North; 6° 8'34.06" EastWebsite: http://www.geneveopera.ch/
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 by Lilasel
One of the terms of his will specified that it was to build “a mausoleum in an eminent and worthy location, executed according to the established concept by the finest artists of the time, without consideration of cost”.
This was done, on the superb site along the quay, on the Square des Alpes. Leave a Comment Address: Quai du Mont-Blanc
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Photos:
1. Parc de la Grange and Lake Geneva
2. Statue of a patient lion at the park entrance
3. My rental bike at the entrance to the Orangerie Summer Theater.
4. Open-air restaurant at the Orangerie in La Grange Park
This Parc de la Grange, literally "Park of the Barn", is located on the south side of Lake Geneva and is one of the city's iconic sights, with its long stretch of lawn sweeping down from the Orangerie all the way (seemingly) to the lake.
From this distance and angle you can't see the obnoxious four-lane highway that separates the bottom of the park from the lakeshore.
The inscription at the park entrance, underneath the lion in the second photo, says that the park was acquired in 1800 by François Favre (1736-1814) and that it was enlarged and embellished by his descendants Guillaume Favre (1770-1851), Edmond Favre (1812-1880) and William Favre (1843-1918). Leave a Comment
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 Grand Theatre by LilaselLeave a Comment
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 Overview on Geneva by Tripack
The Mount Salève is just located to the Swiss border in France. From its 1'380 meter high you could enjoy a breathtaking panorama over all of Geneva, as well as the Alps. A panoramic restaurant and many outdoor activities as mountain biking, hicking, paragliding are available. A cable car built in 1983 let you to reach easily this panoramic point.
Opening cable car:
From May to September: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday opened from 9:30 to 19:00, Friday and Saturday : opened from 9:30 to 20:00
From October 2005: Opened everyday from 9:00 to 18:00 except Monday (closed)
Prices (2005)
Return ticket adult: 10.50 €/16.80 CHF
One-way ticket adult: 6.30 €/10 CHF
Return ticket children (6 to 17 years): 5.80 €/9.30 CHF
One-way ticket children: 4.70 €/7.50 CHF
Return ticket student (up to 25 years): 7.50 €/12 CHF
One-way ticket student: 4.70 €/7.50 CHF
Return ticket Senior (more than 60 years): 7.50 €/12 CHF
One-way Senior: 6.30 €/10 CHF
Return ticket family (2 adults and children up to 17 years): 21 €/33.60 CHF
One-way ticket family: 12.60 €/20 CHF
Combined tickets Transports Public Genevois (one day) and the Salève Cable Car
Adults: 19 CHF Children: CHF 12
Free transportation of yoour bicycles Leave a Comment
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 by Lilasel
Check the travelogue: La Terre Vue Du Ciel to see what happens in Bastion's Park this summer. Leave a Comment
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Photos:
1. Clémentine with her flower, and with clippings, messages and parked bicycles on the trees and fences around her.
2. Clémentine with the Café du Bourg-de-Four in the background.
A little park at the Place du Bourg-de-four is the site of a remarkable statue, not of Rousseau or Calvin or the founder of the Red Cross, but of a naked, emaciated, melancholy young woman named Clémentine.
The statue was created by a little-known Swiss sculptor named Heinz Schwarz (1922-1994), and was installed here by the Fund for Contemporary Art of the City of Geneva in 1974.
(Or the sculptor might have been born in 1920, and he might have created this statue in 1975. It depends on which website you read.)
On the trees and fences around the statue, as in these photos, there are nearly always clippings and messages protesting child abuse, mistreatment of prostitutes, female genital mutilation and domestic violence against women. Week after week, for the past thirty years, Clémentine has always been given a flower to hold in her hand. Leave a Comment Directions: GPS 46°11'59.96" North; 6° 8'56.17" East
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