Geneva is not a place that inspires great passions — what can you expect from a city whose most famous landmarks are a 150-meter-high water spout and the austere church of John Calvin? It is the product of centuries of political neutrality and financial discretion. Where Paris has its bustling bistros and brasseries, Geneva has its watch shops, banks, hotels and luxury cigar stores. Not to mention its worthy institutions: the headquarters of the International Red Cross, the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), the World Trade Organization, and numerous United Nations agencies.
The one place where I saw a hint of passion — a quiet, brooding, introspective sort — was in Promenade des Bastions park, where groups of men were playing chess on a half-dozen oversized chess boards using knee-high plastic pieces. One guy would lug his queen across the board and snatch the other guy's rook, sending murmurs of "ooh la-la" up from the handful of afficionados watching from nearby benches. There was nothing particularly Swiss about this restrained display of emotion, however: judging from their dress and the babel of languages they were speaking, most of the players and spectators seemed to be immigrants.
Lucky for them — and for Geneva's general excitement level — that a recent referendum seeking to limit immigrants to 18% of the population failed. "The Swiss do have a passion, a passion for banks," says Mark Favresse, 62, a French painter and co-owner of an art gallery in the Carouge quarter of Geneva. "But it's a Calvinist passion — money is not dirty, but you hide it."
Carouge, he explains, is the closest thing in Geneva to what you might call a funky neighborhood. It has art galleries, cafes, cabinetmakers, potters, seamstresses, clothing designers. The two and three-story Germanic-style houses, with their neat wooden shutters and pastel-colored facades, do have a certain charm that is enhanced by the backdrop of the surrounding Alpine peaks. "I have been here for three years," says Favresse, who hails from southern France. "Before that, I was in the Vieille Ville — the old quarter of Geneva — but it was dead! Here, at least, there is a spirit, a soul. This used to be a neighborhood of artisans and peasants, very simple people. Now there are a lot of artists and creators."
"Yes," I remark, "but it seems pretty quiet around here for 5 p.m. on a weekday. An artsy-craftsy quarter like this should be crawling with people."
Favresse laughs. "All of Switzerland seems pretty quiet to me," he says. "Even the University of Geneva. What a sad place. You go in their cafeteria and you'd never think the students were young people. There's no noise, no grafitti, no political posters. Pathetic!"
|
|
|
|
New Heights
From virtual life in a Geneva lab via a bird's eye view of the Alps to a pavement perspective of old and new in Greece and Rome
Photo Gallery
Check out the photos from this leg of TIME's Fast Forward Europe voyage
Insect Power
Software that imitates the behaviour of ants could make highway and telecom traffic more efficient
Firm Foundation
Scarred by war and restoration, the Parthenon gets a facelift
Next Revolution
The Palais de Tokyo, site of Paris' first modern art museeum, will re-open to showcase young artists
Italy's Future
Will center-right media magnate and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi regain the title in the spring? He's up against Rome's Mayor Francesco Rutelli in the center-left corner
Speaking in Tongues
Films in local Italian dialects are a surprise box-office hit
Sky's the Limit
A sneak preview of Airbus' three-decker superjumbo with its casinos, shops and piano bars
Fascinated by Fire
Public spectacle designer Yves Pepin on the need for fireworks, fountains and mass celebrations
A Greek Sojourn
TIME's Paris bureau chief Thomas Sancton discovers the old and new Greece
Songs of the South
TIME explores the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland
City of the Future
Toulouse could well be a model of multi-culturalism
The City That Always Sleeps
A visit to Geneva's wild side
The Mouse That Roared
TIME travels to Andorra, one of Europe's smallest countries
The Eternal City
>A trip through the glory that is Rome
Pasta Bella
A visit to Barilla, pasta purveyors to the world
Top Gear
TIME test drives a Ferrari | Photos
A Second Life
TIME meets Hollywood star turned restaurateur Leslie Caron
My Dinner with Claude
TIME dines Claude Nobs, the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival
Thinking Outside the Sandbox
Innovative teachers in northern Italy are integrating technology into classroom life
Mind Trails
Forget Al Gore: TIME Speaks with the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee
A Brief History of the Higgs Hunt
Scientists in Switzerland may have solved one of the great mysteries of particle physics. Why should we care?
People To Watch: Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann | Amélie Nothomb | Mirko Nesurini | Michel Meyer | Neil Barrett
|
