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The République et Canton de Genève (Republic and Canton of Geneva) commands sweeping views of the French Alps and the French Jura from its fortuitous position at the southwestern tip of Lac Léman. The water flows straight through the city center and into the River Rhône en route to Lyon and the Mediterranean, leaving museums, shops, restaurants, and parks to jostle for space on its history-laden south shore, known as Rive Gauche. Busy shopping streets underline the hilltop Vieille Ville, the Plaine de Plainpalais lies to its west, and Eaux-Vives stretches along the quays to the east.
The quartier international (International Area), the Gare Cornavin, and sumptuous waterfront hotels dominate the north shore, or Rive Droite. St-Gervais, just north of the Ponts de l'Ile, was once a watchmaking quarter. Les Pâquis, a mix of artists, ethnic communities, and scrappy pleasure seekers, extends north from the Pont du Mont-Blanc. The International Area, on the outer edge of the city, is a short tram ride from Gare Cornavin; all other neighborhoods are easily toured on foot.
Designed as a granary on the site of a Roman marketplace and converted to a gunpowder depot after l'Escalade, this municipal storage space has sustained Geneva through the ages. The current 1636 structure stocks history: murals on the inner wall and frescoes along the outer rim of the arcade tell the town's story from Julius Caesar to 1848; records in the State Archives date back to 1387.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born in Geneva and the son of a Genevois watchmaker, is known to history as a liberal philosopher in part because the conservative governments in Geneva and Paris so thoroughly rejected his views. His statue on this former city bastion, erected reluctantly in 1835 (57 years after his death), was surrounded by trees and his face deliberately hidden from view until the 1862 construction of the Pont du Mont-Blanc gave Rousseau the last laugh. In 2012, for Rousseau's 300th birthday, the statue was turned so visitors can once again see his face.
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