Richard Flynn

Around Geneva

Photos from my Modern Languages year abroad in Geneva.

A Swiss SBB/CFF/FFS inter-city train and a French TGV sit at the Genève-Sécheron railway junction.
Black and white Railway Train Winter rhjf 20080203 9947
Portrait Candid Street Waiting Winter rhjf 20080209 0009
Street business • This couple seemed to be doing some transaction over the telephone (the next photo I took featured the gentleman speaking on the phone, with his credit card in hand). Principally, I just liked his hat.
Portrait Candid Street Talking Telephone Telephoning Winter rhjf 20080209 0017
Ghosts at the UN
Car City People Street Twilight United Nations Office Geneva UNOG Walking Winter rhjf 20080304 0073 blended
Lighting-up time • The Palais des Nations at Geneva. Originally built for the League of Nations, it now houses the largest UN office apart from the headquarters at New York.
Car City People Street Twilight United Nations Office Geneva UNOG Walking Winter rhjf 20080304 0112 version
Speeding by • The WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) building is just off the Place des Nations in Geneva, near all the other UN organizations housed here.
Building Car City Traffic Twilight Winter rhjf 20080304 0126 version
Pools of light • Patches of light on the surface of the Place des Nations in Geneva. The square gratings you can see in rows are in fact fountains which rise up from the surface. The fountains are presumably only turned-on in warmer weather.
City Lights Square Twilight Winter rhjf 20080304 0134 tonemapped
Incongruous • The flags of the Swiss Confederation, the Canton of Geneva, and the European Union. Some of my books tell me that it is principally people in this part of Switzerland which are keen for the country to become a member-state of the European Union. As things currently stand, the Swiss have a fairly good thing going: they have negotiated individual trade and other agreements with the EU so that they can benefit from those without being encumbered with the burden of bureaucracy implicit with membership of the EU. Though of course, as I know, the Swiss are no strangers to bureaucracy. One such agreement between Switzerland and the EU was recently signed.
City Clouds Flag Winter rhjf 20080305 0028
Bags packed, nowhere to go • Rows of check-in desks sit empty at Geneva (Cointrin) airport. I was waiting for Greg to arrive on the last London flight, after check-in for all departing flights had closed.
Airport rhjf 20080308 0049
Insert your own ‘those crazy Swiss’ joke here • Crack-sticks ready for purchase from the chiller-cabinet in my local supermarket.
Food Packaging Shop rhjf 20080311 0063
Glowing Alps • The French Alps as seen from my flat glowing in the sunset light.
Mountain Snow Sunset Winter rhjf 20080313 0246 featured
Shepherds’ delight • As seen from my flat.
Mountain Snow Sunset Winter rhjf 20080313 0249 tonemapped noise removed
A city in preparation • Geneva—along with the rest of Swtizerland and Austria—is quietly preparing for the European soccer championship, which is due to kick off on 7th June. In order to prepare for that, the city commissioned a large (15 metres in diameter) football-shaped balloon [article in English], which is designed to appear to float over the Jet d’Eau (when in reality it is held there by cables). Unfortunately, something appears to have gone wrong (I have searched the newspaper websites with no success), as the balloon has been tethered to a barge on the surface of the lake for the whole of this week…
Ball Clouds Football Fountain Jet dEau Geneva Lac Léman Lake Lake Geneva Soccer Spring rhjf 20080501 0546
Moody • One of the paddle steamers operated by the Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le lac Léman (CGN) as a ferry to multiple points around the lake in Switzerland and France sits moored on the north-west shore of Lake Geneva.
Boat Clouds HDR HDR multipleexposure Lac Leman Lake Lake Geneva Spring Sunset rhjf 20080501 0550 tonemapped featured
Moody (take two) • One of the paddle steamers operated by the Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le lac Léman (CGN) as a ferry to multiple points around the lake in Switzerland and France sits moored on the north-west shore of Lake Geneva.
Boat Clouds Lac Léman Lake Lake Geneva Spring rhjf 20080501 0560
The end of the work day • People travelling along the Quai Wilson, which leads to Avenue de France and Rue de Lausanne.
Clouds Lac Léman Lake Lake Geneva Spring Sunset Swan rhjf 20080501 0594
Glassy stillness • Private boats moored on Lake Geneva in the early dusk light. On the opposite shore of the lake you can see the buildings of the rive gauche; in the distance are the still-snow-covered French Alps.
Boat Clouds Lac Leman Lake Lake Geneva Mountain Spring rhjf 20080501 0613 featured