Paquis: Geneva

The Paquis, in less than eight square blocks, bound by Parc Mon Repos (the grassy lakeside site of the WTO), the lake with its flotilla of sailboats, Rue de Lausanne and Rue des Alpes, is Geneva's most dense and diverse neighborhood. Some say the Paquis is the most fun, some say it's too wild, some say, at least the restaurants are open on Sunday in this neighborhood. Here you will find the majority of the city's 5-star hotels, you will find just blocks away the red-light district; you will find the best sushi and the best döner kebabs; you will see kids standing barefoot in line at the gelato shop, just come from the beach, and here you will see UN workers coming home late from working at the UN Council on Human Rights. It's all here, and it all mixes together in one seamless, and most of the time amiable, flow. Geneva is often characterized as a small town with the feel of a much larger city, most likely largely in thanks to its cosmopolitanism. The Paquis is the best show of this. And the best show of this in the Paquis is, come the summer time, La Terrasse. A make-shift bar erected on the stone wall between the sailboats and the wide grassy promenade where the Paquis' border makes a corner with the lake, this is where you will see all parts of Geneva mingling after work: the students sprawled out on the grass, the bankers with ties loosened standing with cool drinks in hand, the international NGO crowd in circles over ad hoc picnics of bread and cheese, passerby slowing down and running into acquaintances. The crowd grows and soon the groups overlap, and you get the sense that the smaller the spaces, the better chance for interesting combinations. © Editor