Sunday border scramble in the sun, near Malval in Geneva. Political borders seeming dauntingly less trivial this week, as we think of people in Europe fleeing to safety across borders, while soldiers invade across others. #Geography #BorderNerds 🇫🇷🇨🇭 No. 138 We chased down lots of border stones in a marshy wood, of different ages. This one was apparently moved to save it from being swept away by the stream, so the marks on top indicate this, showing that the border follows the stream after this point.🇨🇭🇫🇷 #Border #Geography

Epic border nerd egg hunt this morning along the Franco-Swiss border near Chancy (aka bribing the kids to go on another of mama’s mad border expeditions!). This is ‘borne’ number 1.5 which, confusingly, comes before 1, with wiggly line to mean ‘then the border follows the river’. Borne 1.4 seemed to change its mind about the direction of the border in 1946 and a new line was carved. Another chocolate egg was found by our brave adventurers.

More pandemic border stories, this time in the snow: to ski on the Dôle, in Switzerland, you have to drive into France to park. This is within the 30km circle from our home address, defined as the transborder ‘bassin de vie’ that we can move around in. Border guards checked our I.D. as we crossed the Schengen border. We came armed with an electricity bill showing our address, proof we were less than 30km from home as the crow flies. Wearing medical masks, not fabric ones, in line with 🇫🇷 law, even for our 11yr-old, exempt in🇨🇭.

Lockdown (Season 2) begins in Geneva in a few hours.
I decided to revisit the sites that featured in Fenced In (journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…), my comic on borders. France has been in état d'urgence sanitaire since 17th october, so the border is again closed for most, including me. People can cross if they have a reason like coming to work with the required paperwork. Leisure trips are forbidden for Swiss residents wishing to go to France (by the French authorities), so no cycling across as we did all summer. Cement blocks used in Spring are still in place.

More exploring of Swiss / French borders, on this Pentecost Monday holiday. Today, we cycled to Veyrier to see the unique cross-border Jewish cemetery: the Oratory building is in Switzerland, the tombs in France. Living and dead divided by careful diplomacy. From 1876 to 2005, the Canton of Geneva only allowed secular cemeteries. In 1920, the lack of suitable burial space for local people of Jewish faith was solved: a building in 🇨🇭 close to the border, with coffins carried for burial in 🇫🇷. Access guaranteed within the site.

Geneva is a true border city, spanning both sides of the Swiss / French border. We set off early Sunday morning to see some of these Covid19 newly-closed urban borders. This is the Swiss end of our wonderful new Voie Verte for bikes & people, stretching through the city. Cut off. The thick purple line is the international border, giving some idea of how 'urban' it is in places. Closing the border has a massive practical & symbolic impact. Although Switz is slowly starting up economically, the border remained closed until today to all but essential workers

Sunday morning bike ride with my family chasing newly/temporarily-closed borders around the Canton of Geneva during Covid19 pandemic. France & Switz are both in the Schengen area: these are usually open to people. Fascinating ad hoc use of different material. (Bardonnex, Soral) We chased closed borders on bicycles for three hours, starting early. Luckily, in Switzerland, we are allowed to exercise outside in family groups as long as we maintain distance to others. On the other side, in France, people are more tightly policed & controlled (Soral)