I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.
3 Comments on “Frenchness rubbing off on the Swiss”
Well, me and my colleagues reckon that Geneva is not truly swiss. Its seems like a strange mix of swiss idiosyncracies mixed with french laissez-faire sprinkled with a good dose of internationally-flavoured topping. Recently the Geneva police went on a work to rule/strike in that they refused to verbalise anyone. Passing the border each day, often the border police are nowhere to be seen, even the vignette sellers are often not outside. I think the visible absence of motorway police shows they just let us frontaliers sort outselves out and squabble amongst ourselves even tho’ its generally quite disciplined apart from the odd ass who causes a shunt (at least 3 or 4 a week) that makes like a misery for the rest of us. Give me France anyday.
Uh oh, one of those days, but what can you do? I have to say I thought everything ran smooth as clockwork in Switzerland too.
Actually Jayne, I didn’t buy a vignette in all of 2010. I tried, but they kept letting me through. In the end, it became a challenge to end the year without one and I did!
Steph, yep, just one of those days – probably due to the huge amounts of snow falling that day putting everyone in slow mode or something…
Well, me and my colleagues reckon that Geneva is not truly swiss. Its seems like a strange mix of swiss idiosyncracies mixed with french laissez-faire sprinkled with a good dose of internationally-flavoured topping. Recently the Geneva police went on a work to rule/strike in that they refused to verbalise anyone. Passing the border each day, often the border police are nowhere to be seen, even the vignette sellers are often not outside. I think the visible absence of motorway police shows they just let us frontaliers sort outselves out and squabble amongst ourselves even tho’ its generally quite disciplined apart from the odd ass who causes a shunt (at least 3 or 4 a week) that makes like a misery for the rest of us. Give me France anyday.
Uh oh, one of those days, but what can you do? I have to say I thought everything ran smooth as clockwork in Switzerland too.
Actually Jayne, I didn’t buy a vignette in all of 2010. I tried, but they kept letting me through. In the end, it became a challenge to end the year without one and I did!
Steph, yep, just one of those days – probably due to the huge amounts of snow falling that day putting everyone in slow mode or something…