Thursday 25 February 2010

Genève, or : Farewell to the fairground

Genève is a city that I got to know somewhat well in the past few months. Since last September, I have been spending some days every month or so here, and I now know my way around the city quite well. That is to say, I know my way about a part of the city, the one that led down from where I used to stay to the downtown. You could go about it a couple of different ways : sometimes, when I felt like walking a bit, I could go down from Le Grand-Saconnex, and past Le Palais des Nations, and then it would be a nice walk by the lakeside until you reach the centre of the city. On one side of the Rhone, just where it exits the beautiful Lake Geneva, you find the city's main transport hublink, where you can travel to and from all kinds of places inside the country and elsewhere, as well as a handful of interesting places to shop, including one of my favourite comics stores ever, Au Paradoxe Perdu. On the other side of the river, and just past Bel-Air, which, surprisingly - or maybe not - was strangely bereft of Will Smith..., there you'll find all the nice (and expensively so!) places to shop, and also the best vistas the city has to offer. Walk up L'escalade, and at the top you will find a verdant little park that leads directly to La Place Neuve, the centre of cultural life in the city : Museums, The Conservatory and the Theatres. Walking past that, we reach what I believe is called Le Plaine of Plainpalais, but I might be wrong. Near there, I found one of my favourite Video Games store ever, as well. It's called Virtual Dreams, and it's well worth a visit, if you're into Video Games. Be prepared, though, to want to spend thousands and thousands of swiss francs there... the amount of stuff they have on offer is astounding.
Naturally, the other way of doing this would be to just catch one of the regular buses that take you downtown in about 15 minutes. It is by far the quickest and easiest way for you go do this, although I highly recommend strolling through the city as much as you can - it has a certain undescribable quality that soothes you so, and seems to take your cares away.

I can safely say that, had I been to this city, and gotten to know it, say, some ten, fifteen years ago, that I would not have liked it a lot. On the surface, it seems to be way too laid-back, whilst being paradoxically no-nonsense and business-like. If I had been here when I was younger, I'd've thought this city dead, or near lifeless. I would have craved something that, while the city may have on offer, it would be in limited supplies only. And so I would have left, disappointed and bitter, mayhaps never to return. Thank God for getting older, and maybe wiser. As I sit here typing this, I look at a view that my younger self may have scoffed at back in the day. The Alps, snow-peaked and mighty in the distance stare at me, almost daring me to do something. Probably, and ever since I started to make my way around the city, and got to know it; since I started listening to her beat, and to fell her rhythm beneath my feet; since I could close my eyes and then just walk, and know here I'd be just because of the feel of the different cobbles in the pavement... she let me walk around in her streets at ease. It was like there was a proprietary swagger to me, as I walked around the place. It spoke to me, in a way, and I understood what I could not have understood all those years ago, if Destiny had conspired to bring me here.
And now, now comes the time for me so say farewell : not forever, but for a while. Maybe, one day, I'll find my way here again.

Maintenant au revoir, tend tes mains vers le ciel
Laisse cet hymne au courage s'élever dans la nuit

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