Journey to the centre of research

(Distance from home 925 km). Back in green Switzerland. We were in the French part of the Swiss country a short distance from the border and it felt rather odd to cross the frontier for 10-minute trips and always be afraid of not having your identity card with you. They do not carry out checks as a rule, but it can happen! Base of the trip Saint-Genis-Pouilly (in French territory) with subsequent forays into Swiss territory to visit Geneva. The historic centre of the city is very nice and so is the walk along the lake: what you notice as a first impression is a remarkable sense of civility, tolerance and respect for the other cultures that swarm in their various forms scattered all over the city.

It was very pleasant to go into a pub for a beer and be invited to sit down by a perfect stranger with whom we chatted using a bit of French, English and some other newly invented language while there was a metal concert in the place. The main object of our trip was the visit to CERN (the European centre for nuclear research). You realise you are dealing with people with huge brains who have "emigrated" so that the efforts made in their studies could be rewarded: we found ourselves face to face with the famous brain drain.

The guide was very interesting and the thing that struck me most was a fact about the centre: the funding of one year of CERN, which only works on projects with non-military aims, costs as much as 5 days of war in Iraq! THINK ABOUT IT, PEOPLE! Other very interesting visits were: those to the headquarters of the Red Cross with a route with images, films and various documents that were anything but predictable; the UN headquarters with the Broken chair placed at the entrance, which depicts the horror of the use of anti-personnel mines and has a very strong visual impact. The food: those who love cheese are in the right place, but other palates too, surely, will find nothing to complain about.