On A Grand Tour

Our latest Geneva adventure has been a two-month saga in apartment hunting, which we had no idea could possibly be so complicated! With our new apartment not ready for a few weeks (one of the important lessons of Geneva rental practices: there are only two days per month on which a lease can begin—the first and the fifteenth—which is not very helpful when your current lease ends on neither the first nor the fifteenth), we decided to make an adventure out of our situation and move to France.

Geneva is surrounded on three sides by France, and with rental prices and cost of living being much lower there, small suburban towns line the border. This is particularly true in the areas around CERN, which straddles the border, and many of Kurt’s coworkers opt to live on the French side. It is one of the dilemmas facing anyone living in Geneva, us included. If you move to France, apartments are bigger, cheaper, more modern, and actually come with elements that we are used to considering standard, like kitchen appliances and maybe even a closet. It’s a tough decision, to be sure. After much back and forth, we ultimately decided that we did not move to Europe to live in a bigger, cheaper, more modern apartment, and that the sacrifices we make in space and cost to live in Geneva are worth it. This didn’t keep us from having a great time living in France for a month, though!

We are living in a cute little town called Prévessin-Moëns, and the countryside is all green fields and country roads in the shadow of the Jura mountains. Our very first day in France, as we were approaching our new apartment, a man on a bike passed us, calling “Bonjour!” as he went. On the back of his bike, he had strapped two baguettes. We couldn’t think of a better way to welcome us to France.

We continue to get used to the European way of doing things, which includes learning a whole new style of bathing. Fixed shower heads are most definitely not a thing here. There was a learning curve required to figuring out how to shower in this adorably pink and floral bathroom. My first shower, I succeeded in giving not only myself but the entire bathroom a thorough soaking.

We are completely enjoying our month in France, hiking in the Juras (more on that later!), strolling through small towns, enjoying the space, eating all the baguettes, and drinking all the French wine. I’ve only gotten myself stuck circling in the inside lane of a roundabout once, and we haven’t been stopped by the gendarme once for missing curfew (a 6:00 pm curfew is really hard to make!). After two too many times narrowly missing the bus into Geneva and having to wait an hour until the next one, though, we are happy with our decision to permanently live in the city. In the meantime, we are enjoying the ride!