Handpicked experience · Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
Three hours on the ground across the border: the bishop Geneva expelled, the prison in the middle of the river, and how a lake that was choking got clean again.
A led walk through the old lanes and along the canals
A pause to photograph the landmark that sits mid-channel
Time of your own by the water and around the market streets
The castle museum as an option, admission settled on site
A short cruise on the lake on departures where that is included
Annecy is a short run south from Geneva, across the border into Savoy, and the town is built around the outflow of its lake. Five hours sounds generous and is not: an hour of road at each end leaves roughly three on the ground, which is enough for the old town and a stretch of shoreline, and not enough for both plus the castle.
The connection between the two places is stronger than the distance suggests. After the Reformation took hold in Geneva, the Catholic bishop was no longer welcome there and moved his seat down here, where it stayed for around two hundred and fifty years. The town grew into that role, which is why a place this size has the churches and institutions it has. The best known of those bishops is buried in a basilica on the hill above.
The small stone structure standing in the channel like a moored ship dates from the twelfth century and has been, in turn, a private house, a courthouse, a mint and a prison. It was still holding prisoners during the Second World War, including members of the Resistance. Most people photograph it from the bridge without knowing it was in use within living memory.
The channel running through the centre carries the lake's overflow and is only a few kilometres long from source to confluence, which puts it among the shortest in France. It also did all the work. Its fall powered mills, forges and later factories, and the town was a serious industrial centre for cotton, paper and precision engineering long before anyone came here for the view. The canals are infrastructure, not decoration.
It was not always. By the 1950s the lake was choking on sewage from the villages around it. The response, unusually early and unusually decisive, was to ring the entire lake with an interceptor sewer that collects everything and takes it away downstream. Work started in 1957. It recovered completely, and the scheme has been copied elsewhere since. What you are looking at is a piece of successful environmental engineering, which is rarer than it should be.
Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, through the old lanes and along the arcades. On those days the town is at its best and also at its most crowded; on other days the same streets are quiet and the shops are ordinary. Worth knowing before you choose your date.
Look up over the far end of the lake and there will be paragliders, often dozens. The mountain slopes at the southern shore produce reliable thermals and the sport has a serious home here, with competitions run on the ridge. It is a good reason to keep your eyes off the shopfronts for a moment.
This has been French only since 1860, when the territory transferred by treaty and plebiscite from the kingdom of Sardinia. The double-cross flag you see on buildings and number plates is Savoyard, not decorative, and older residents still make the distinction.
The castle museum charges separately and is not covered by the booking. Carry identification, since the route crosses a national border. Meals are your own arrangement. Cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
It covers the old lanes and some shoreline. With an hour of road at each end you have around three hours on foot, so the castle museum has to displace something else if you want it.
Because the Catholic bishop of that city relocated his seat here once the Reformation took hold, and it remained here for roughly two and a half centuries. The town's churches and institutions date from that period.
A twelfth-century structure that served as house, courthouse, mint and prison in turn, and was still holding detainees during the Second World War, including Resistance members.
They carry the lake's outflow, which is only a few kilometres long in total and among the shortest waterways in France. Its fall drove mills, forges and factories; the town was industrial long before it was scenic.
Because of a scheme begun in 1957 that encircled the whole lake with a sewer collecting waste from every village and carrying it away downstream. The water had been badly degraded and recovered fully.
Tuesday, Friday and Sunday mornings. Those are the liveliest and the busiest days; outside them the same streets are quiet and much less interesting.
Carry identification, since the route crosses an international border. The castle museum is settled separately on site, and meals are your own arrangement.