Follow the illustrated fireplace advice of the Swiss energy and environment office to enjoy a perfect fire at home: light it from the top! This limits the bad smoke that pollutes the air you’re breathing. First pile untreated dry wood that has been brought to room temperature, then top it with small sticks of fire starters and light your fire as you would a candle, keeping the flames on top. More advice on the website, in French and German only.
Comparis.ch is a popular Swiss internet comparison service and it’s available in English.
Their latest: weekly food, wine and beer deals at major supermarkets are listed in the Special offers section. A free Smartshopper application is available for your smartphone.
Comparis has long been known for its comparisons of insurances rates for health, home, cars and travel. It also compares banking and financial products, TV and Internet providers, homes and car prices and more to help you to find the best deals.
The Swiss school holiday calendar is posted well in advance by school authorities, and shows the staggered school breaks by canton. Cross it with the French school holiday calendar to avoid traffic and tourist jams, especially for the February snow weeks and Easter vacation.
Fall, Christmas and summer school holidays all happen at the same time in France. But for the two-week winter and spring breaks France is then divided into three zones, each with different dates, so do check the school holiday calendar. The Jura and Alps areas are located in zone A. In winter and spring, one vacation week is shared by two zones, and roads and slopes can then become very crowded. The school calendar can be printed.
Swiss-based Jumbo stores offer a great combination of products to improve your home and garden. Save time and energy and in just one trip, find plants and tools, candles and curtains, storage boxes (a very large selection) and paints, carpets and lamps, even skis, indoor and outdoor bikes and cleaning products, to name a few. As far as services go, some Jumbo stores will custom-cut carpets and glass, frames and curtains. They will also service your skis, bikes and lawn mowers. Two stores near Geneva, in Meyrin and Chavannes-de-Bogis, three more around the north side of Lake Geneva and several others throughout the country (see map of stores).
Whether you’re cooking curry or spring rolls, shushis or pad thai, the Mekong Market grocery store in Ferney Voltaire carries all the dry and canned food you will need to prepare authentic asian meals. Along with all kinds of rices, in small or large bags (up to 20 kg), noodles and spices, you’ll find various vinegars, sauces, exotic beers and juices. The store also offers a selection of fresh fruits, vegetables and tofu, frozen food including raviolis, take-away Vietnamese dishes and even Asian tableware: 30 rue de Versoix, 01210 Ferney Voltaire. Tel: + 33 4 5040 4560.
Blackden is a boutique of Swiss-based financial advisers whose work includes expat mortgages and primary & secondary residences, pensions and taxation. Based in Versoix.
Good but unwanted furniture and clothes can’t just end up in the garbage! Some suggestions for recycling:
Neighbouring France
Two charitable French associations will gladly welcome your household items, books, toys and clothes as long as they are in good, working condition. The groups will even schedule a pick up at your home for big pieces such as sofas or refrigerators. The local chapter of Emmaus is near Annemasse, in Cranves-Sales. On the other side of the lake, visit AGCR, 129 rue Tiocan, 01630 Saint Genis Pouilly, +33 4 50 28 20 50.
The Pays de Gex Red Cross, in Prevessin, will also take clothes, children books, toys and tableware but can only receive small furniture (side tables, cribs). No home pick up. These places are also a good resource for buying second-hand items, now that your donation has made room at home!
Switzerland
A great way to try new salons, spas and hairdressers, the Body Pass card 2012 gives you a 50 percent discount on your first visit to a large number of wellness and beauty professionals. You can test treatments at more than 100 partners institutes throughout the Lake Geneva area, including one location in Saint-Julien. Cost: CHF80 on the website (English and French) or at Fnac in Geneva and Lausanne. It’s valid from 1 November to 31 December 2012 and the price stays the same regardless of the date of purchase. Gift passes are an option. Note: good only for the first visit to each participating business, although if you have a new pass the following year you can visit again for 50 percent off.
If you live in Pays de Gex, finding arts and crafts materials can be very challenging, especially since the only store selling a wide range of do-it-yourself products has a name not related to the field: Bureau Center in Cessy (select “Vos magasins” to access the store information). It offers scrapbooking materials, paper, canvas and paints, magnets and a boxes ready to be decorated. It has a child activity corner with pencils, playdough, games and books. The materials are not sold on Bureau Center’s Internet shop; you’ll have to go to the store itself to make your choice.
The same basic rule applies to recycling your old batteries, whether you live in Switzerland or France: take them back to the place where you bought them. Department stores, supermarkets, electronic retailers, to name only a few, have specific bins for them, usually located close to the entrance. Most recycling facilities have battery containers as well.
The flyer by Inobat, “Correct disposal of batteries“, written in 16 languages, has a wealth of information about battery recycling for those living in Switzerland.
If you’re on the French side of the border, your local town hall is a good source of information.
Swiss cities’ public transport systems revise their schedules every December, with the changes timed to match new CFF Swiss rail schedules. Geneva’s changes are heavier than usual for 2012 and combined with major renovations at Cornavin station, it’s not always easy to work out times and fares. The TPG public transport system is offering two good options, in addition to its useful web site: if you prefer to ask in person, find one of the TPG associates who walk around stops and stations wearing bright orange jackets or ask at the Plainpalais Circle temporary booth.
kosher chocolates, made in Geneva
Surprisingly, no one has done it before: two Geneva chocolate lovers teamed up to create the first certified kosher chocolates and truffles in the country. Made of high quality cocoa and without any animal ingredients, they’ll satisfy not only all kosher observers but chocoholics and vegans too. Online orders at chokacher.com for CHF39.50 (250gr) and CHF64.50 (400 gr), with deliveries in all Switzerland, France and more countries on request.
The Swiss Customs Administration has a page in English with the basics of what you can and can’t do if you bring a car into the country, and what fines you could face if you don’t declare your car. It includes useful clarifications on exemptions for students and foreign workers.
A tip for those with ittle time to shop for food: thiriet.com (if you live in France), lets you select quality frozen food from a large online catalogue with great pictures. Pick out your items and your shopping will be waiting for you a couple of hours later at your local store. Thonon les Bains is the closest one in the Lake Geneva area.
Home delivery is also possible throughout neighbouring France, but only once a month. You need to first enter your postal code to access Thiriet delivery services and create your account.
Picard, the high quality frozen food store, and every French mom’s best friend, delivers its soups, vegetables, fish, meat, fruits, cakes and much more right to your front door for €5, if you live in France. The website is in French but it’s quite easy to navigate thanks to its pictures. My favorites: appetizers, fish and uncooked veggies, all the fresh herbs and cakes. Free recipes will fuel your creativity. Go to “La Boutique”, open a free account and allow a couple of days for the delivery if you place your order at 20:00 like I did.
Canton Vaud started a new service called La Chaise Rouge (red chair) in October 2011 to provide handicapped persons with a trained volunteer assistant who can help them get out to concerts, exhibits or activities. The service is opened to handicapped people who live at home. It’s a project developed by Pro Infirmis Vaud and the Swiss Red Cross, which trains the volunteers. The web site is in French only.
France has a number of options for classified ads that include:
Geneva Craigslist is the Geneva version of the famous US craigslist website, with section titles in French but ads written in English. Further afield, with ads in French: Craigslist for Lyons and Grenoble.
In English: frenchclassified.com
The main “classifed” websites in France are written in French:
leboncoin.fr, with a Rhône-Alpes section
priceminister.com
ebay.fr
Artbootik opened its doors 17 November 2011, with inexpensive and fun art for your apartment. Just up from the lakefront at 19, rue du Nant.
The Know-it-all Passport book, which comes out every two years, provides a substantial collection of addresses and information about where to find things in the Lake Geneva region. It’s now part of a larger offer, with the web site providing information and calendars for activities, events, and local businesses, with companies invited to submit their own information.
The book began life as a guide for mothers in the area, written by Lisa Cirieco, who grew up in Geneva in an American family. It has been expanded over the years and a special strength, also reflected on the web site, is some of the smaller community groups and activities that are hard to find elsewhere.
The English Forum is Switzerland’s largest social network, with forums/discussions on numerous topics.
Use the search engine to find what you’re after. A strength is that it is active in all parts of Switzerland, although this can make it harder to find information for a particular region until you’re used to using the site.
The site is managed by a company based in Sweden. It added news, thelocal.ch, in 2011: this is part of a chain, based at the same company in Sweden, managed by a business staff rather than an experienced independent editorial team.
Glocals.com is a social network that started out in Geneva and now operates further afield, although the Lake Geneva region remains its heart and soul. The local nature of the site, with city groups, and the events organized by the owners over the years have made it a hit with people, especially newcomers, looking for entertainment and ways to meet other people. The “latest things to do” is a popular feature, as are the classifieds. The “Guides” by sponsors provide bullet point lists that are easy to follow, mainly useful for newcomers to Switzerland on topics like banking and insurance. The city guides are collections of addresses with starred reviews by Glocals members. The owners recently started a new online group buying business, BuyClub.ch, and Glocals members receive alerts about the offers there.
The Swiss government provides two useful brochures for people working here who are considering relocating or retiring elsewhere. Both are in pdf format and can be downloaded:
Social Security in Switzerland, January 2010 update
Leaving Switzerland and Moving to an EU or EFTA country
Additional information is available from the Swiss-EU Liaison Office.
Geneva-based Laura Moser makes beautiful classic cakes, cupcakes, cookies and more, but her specialty is custom designed cakes.
All ingredients are fresh, not frozen.
Most items need to be ordered in advance but a limited number of baked goods can be ordered with 24 hours notice.
It’s difficult in Switzerland to know what anyone earns, which makes it hard for many people to work out what their salaries should be, compared to the market. Some helpful official online tools: canton Vaud has a salary calculator, in French, as does Geneva, and the Union Syndicale Suisse has one, in French, German and Italian, for all of Switzerland. They’re imperfect and no calculator lists every job, but they’ll give you a relatively good idea of what value is put on various jobs, experience.
The Swiss federal Solarium web pages give salary data for regions, by gender, foreigners compared to the Swiss, and more – keep in mind that “foreigners” covers a wide range of workers, with many of them in the hotel and restaurant industry, one of the lowest paid business sectors in Switzerland.
TSR recently published a chart with salary indications.
The Swiss postal service, La Poste, bissued the Basel Carnival commemorative stamp 5 January 2009. You can order them online, in English. Great for collectors, or even as easy gifts for non-philatelists: these are particularly charming stamps. Background story on GenevaLunch
Check out Nextstop‘s brilliant list of all the trendiest night spots in Lausanne! (from Rambling Epicure, Jonell Galloway-White, on GenevaLunch)
Finding a home in Switzerland has never been easy, and the tight housing market in the Lake Geneva region makes it even more difficult. A web site that can might help you is Homes.ch, which has existed for some years, but owner Simon Allen has been adding new functions and marketing it more strongly. The site gives some idea of price trends and allows people to place free multi-lingual advertisements.
The Swiss Ornithological Institute has just made life easier for anyone who wonders what that bird is, on Lake Geneva or up in the woods or out in the garden. It has published, in five languages, the Swiss Bird Guide, for CHF38, available online from the institute’s shop. The book features:
- 500 colour photos, 256 pages, 105 x 18cm
- Information of species exclusively in form of symbols, pictograms an graphics
- Including CD with pictures and birc call (for Windows and Mac)
- Introduction and bird names in 5 languages
This could be the perfect solution to getting your French up to the next level: a free conversation cafe every Thursday night in Geneva, led by someone with a degree from the Arts faculty at the University of Geneva. You pay for your drinks, and talk. If you can’t quite manage to get your sentences out correctly, the organizers will help you. Reserve your place by phoning +41 76 504 8955. Details: Interknowsys
