Geneva

It began as a valve to bleed surplus pressure off a hydraulic works, not as a sight. Now it throws lake water straight up; when the wind turns inland the pier walk gets soaked, and in winter it is stopped on days when ice is a risk.

Entry means leaving a passport and staying with a guide; nobody wanders alone. On days the chamber is idle you get the assembly hall and its coloured stalactite ceiling. Outside stands a giant chair with one leg broken off, raised to demand a ban on landmines.

The Reformation stripped the interior to wall and column. The wooden chair Calvin used stands to one side. Below the floor an excavation runs through layers stacked since Roman times. The tower stair is narrow and turning, so when two meet, one stops.

A sloping square at the top of the old town, held to have been a market ground in Roman times. People sit on the steps around the edge, and when those fill up the rim of the fountain takes the overflow.

A long relief cut where the city rampart ran, in the university park, with four figures together at the centre. Scenes from other countries run off both ways, and the figures stand so much taller than a person that faces are hard to read from below.

A bed planted on the park slope by the lake is itself the dial. The second hand sweeps past the edge of the planting, and the colours change whenever the bedding is turned for a new season. It was made to advertise the watch trade, so it does keep time.

Laid out in the eighteenth century by the kingdom of Sardinia as a rival to Geneva, so the streets run on a grid. The houses are low and each block keeps a courtyard, so a gateway opens onto a quiet yard one river from the city.

One watch house shows the old pieces and enamel miniatures it has gathered. A loupe is handed over, so the hair-fine painting on a dial is examined directly, and a bird that sings on wound power alone is set going. It closes on Mondays.

The whole timber pier running into the lake is the bathing place. In summer people are in the water the moment the gate opens, and in winter they warm up in the sauna at the end before the cold. It costs little, and the canteen cooks one dish a day.

The laboratory straddles the border west of town and the accelerator lies underground, so nothing shows. The visitor halls take no ticket. Pieces of detector and cut superconducting magnet are set out to be touched. Guided tours fill fast; book ahead.

A big museum below the old town hill with free permanent galleries. Konrad Witz painted his 1444 altarpiece, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, on Lake Geneva with the real Saleve behind, an early image of an actual place. Compare it with the lake outside.

A museum across from the Palais des Nations on how the Red Cross began in Geneva and how wartime relief works. Its card index tracing millions of WWI prisoners is UNESCO-listed documentary heritage. After a UN tour, just cross the road.

The oldest private house in the old town, these days a free museum of Geneva life from medieval times to the 1800s. The attic holds a big model of the city before its walls came down; note the ramparts and the curving streets outside make sense.

A broad park on the eastern lakeshore, with a terraced rose garden below an old mansion. No entry fee; June is when the roses are at their height. Even past bloom, the lawn slope faces the water and the Jet d'Eau, and many arrive with a packed lunch.

A free botanical garden on the north lakeshore, bordering the UN district. There are tropical glasshouses and an alpine rock garden, and one corner keeps birds and Alpine mammals in enclosures. After a UN tour, walk down the slope and you are at the gate.

Small yellow boats crossing Geneva harbour, part of city transit and boarded on an ordinary bus ticket. The Paquis to Eaux-Vives crossing leaves every few minutes, faster than walking round by the bridge. The transport card hotel guests receive covers it too.

Two rocks rising from the harbour water, granite blocks a glacier carried down from the Alps. A marker on the larger one was the reference point for surveying altitude across Switzerland. The railing by the Jardin Anglais gives the closest view.

On the big diamond-shaped square southwest of the old town, a flea market sets up every Wednesday and Saturday. Old records, books, crockery and even watch parts fill the stalls. Good finds vanish at opening; near closing many sellers cut prices.

A mountain over the border in France, south of Geneva, with a cable car rising from Veyrier. The summit shows the city and lake spread out, and Mont Blanc on clear days, hence the nickname balcony of Geneva. The route enters France: bring a passport.

A December festival for the winter night in 1602 when Savoy troops scaled the walls and were repelled. On the weekend evening, costumed marchers carry torches through the old town; vegetable soup is ladled out in the lanes, with long queues in the cold.

A walled medieval village across the lake on the French shore, reached by excursion boat in summer. Flower boxes hang on every stone wall, and a maze garden is laid out around the five senses. The lanes are few, so a half-day visit is plenty.