Let us go for a walk by the Rhône. The river as seen here looks quite natury even though it is located in a metropolitan area. Geneva tends to merge with all the little towns around it into a kind of citiplex monstrosity. Right now we are in Vernier, which is where I live.

The Swiss seem a very, um, sporty and excessively health conscious people to me. We are apparently walking along the river on a Swiss Running Walking Trail, which comes with informational signs on how to exercise better. Like this one right here, along with my shadow.

The area has some quite spectacular architecture. Here, right on the river, we get the first look at the destination of our little walk, a small teaser of what is to come.

We can only assume that these monstrosities are inspired by the work of Le Corbusier, the great modernist architect. He was Swiss and is on the Swiss 10 note. (Huh, hum, time for a little embarrassing anecdote. After first arriving here, having obtained some cash, another new arrival and I are sitting around, admiring the notes, seeing who is on them, and so on. He asks me, "who's on the ten?", I get my 10 out, start looking for a name, and then I confidently announce: "Dix Francs", which almost killed him...)

These are the Tours du Lignon, enormous, tall residential structures guarding the riverfront entrance to Le Lignon, a large residential complex. Let's have two pictures of the towers and the river. I love these things!

Aside from the towers, Le Lignon has this very long lower building, of which we already caught a glimpse above. The facade is 1065 metres long and zig-zags along a semi-arc, enclosing in the centre a commercial area and two modernist churches. It is quite difficult to get good pictures of all this. One cannot put enough distance to the large buildings to capture them in their entirety. Thus I show you only a small bit here. It is quite a different experience to be standing amongst these things though. They are all around, very large and imposing.

Vernier also has other goodies to look at. Like petroleum storage tanks. There are quite a lot of them, with interesting pipes, and filling stations for tanker trucks and trains.

The sun is setting, time to head home. This is close to where I live, one of the main roads to central Geneva. Petroleum storage tanks, construction cranes, mountains in the distance, electric bus lines above: who can say it is not beautiful?