Nice place. Bring money. LOT$ of money.

A lovely two–hour ride from Lyon on a local train, Geneva is a major center for the United Nations and some seriously overpriced shopping.

People actually commute daily to and from France on this train, and Cournavin station drops you right in the heart of the city.

Geneva sits at the foot of the Swiss Alps, which you could see had this been a clear day. Its Lake Geneva, on the left side of this bridge, isn’t really a lake at all, just a very wide spot in an already wide, swift and very cold Rhone River.

While we were there in November, the Rhone threatened to spill over her banks here and in several French cities downstream, including Lyon. Major riverside buildings, including museums containing priceless artifacts, had to be evacuated for safety

Luckily, the Rhone changed her mind at the last moment.

A very clean and pretty place, but take out your wallet only as a last resort. Geneva is one of those cities that can make your travel budget quiver in fear. My Swiss Army knife, my most treasured souvenir of the entire trip, was purchased in Paris, where it was almost half the price.

Switzerland may be officially a trilingual country — French, German and Italian, but in this town, the language most readily understood is the language of money.

If you’d like to visit Geneva, or any other part of Switzerland, you have essentially three travel options in this landlocked country — highway by car or bus rail or air.

Switzerland is an expensive destination to reach directly by air, but you can fly into France, Germany or Italy — whichever offers the best airfare — and take one of the European trains across the border. They’re fast, cheap, comfortable and treat you to some of the most gorgeous alpine scenery in the world.