This Treaty of Paris 1818 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border stretch followed historical field & parish lines, leading to a convoluted boundary with many stones demarcating the changes of direction. Lichen-encrusted border signs were slowly going feral; border stones stood to attention covered in beautiful moss, others restored & scrubbed clean: standing stones for modern political rituals not ancient religions, yet imbued with curious magic. #BorderWalk #mosstodon #lichensubscribe #StandingStoneSunday

In a howling north-east wind (“la bise” but not the kissing kind!) we continued our erratic multi-day ramble along the🇨🇭🇫🇷 border, from border stone 123 down to 99, in Meyrin, starting near the CERN (European nuclear research centre). Only dog walkers and keen runners were out, braving the near-freezing sudden return of winter temperatures. We’ll need to gain access to the closed cross-border CERN campus if we want to walk along that stretch.
#BorderWalk #Geography #borders #Geneva

Most of our walk followed the Allondon river that was used to define this stretch of 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border, a beautifully wild valley with sunny dry prairies and woods. There was fabulous moss and lichen all around, glistening in the sun.
The second 1818 border stone we encountered was incongruously in the middle of a Swiss campsite, no. 136. A few caravans were occupied, with families enjoying sunny picnics, perhaps just there for the day.
#BorderWalk #Geography #Mosstodon #lichensubscribe

Today we went back to connect two 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border stretches because we realized that we’d missed a small section of the right bank along the Allondon river as the path was roped off a few months ago. 16C, walking in a T-shirt in February. Bafflingly scary climate crisis, but unexpectedly delightful if you can block off the fear. #BorderWalk #geography #walkingMethodology #geneva #borderline

In today’s walk, started out along part of the 1815 border (Treaty of Paris), then along a stretch moved in 1897, and finished on a part redefined in 1963, part of the territories exchanged between 🇨🇭🇫🇷 to allow the extension of Geneva airport’s runway. Lines of history, in a couple of hours of a very cold walk. #BorderWalk #geography #walkingMethodology #Borders #BoundaryStudies

Today, in sub-zero temperatures, we walked from border stone 16 to 43, starting from Bossy, looping back to our starting point. We were close to here a few weeks ago, in much warmer weather. But despite the freezing ‘bise noire’ north wind ringing in our ears, we were pleased that frozen ground helped us walk across stretches that would have been too muddy only a few days ago. #borderWalk #geography #autoethnography #walkingMethodology #borders #politicalGeography

What is the point of all this walking? Perhaps because as I wander along these now-peaceful lines, exploring home, I can keep in mind other times and other places where boundary lines are still lethal. People kill and die for territories and imaginary lines only a few hours away. My local landscapes are now quiet but the sound of gunfire and strife, wounded bodies, fear and death cling to borderlines.

#BorderWalk #Boundaries #Borders #geography #peace #StandWithUkaine

A quick 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border cycle / walk at the end of a workday, to fill my lungs with fresh air and explore very close to home. It quickly turned very muddy… and rather dark! I look forward to Spring and longer days. But it’s lovely that even close by, I can have mini-border-adventures and come home muddy and happy.
#BorderWalk #geography #borders

Starting the year as I hope to continue: dragging the family along on improbable border rambles, chasing and experiencing imaginary lines of history & geography. Today, we ambled along the 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border demarcated in 1869, giving the Vallée des Dappes back to France in exchange of other territories further east.
We normally come here to ski in winter, but today was 12C in crazy sunshine, with fresh grass growing. ❄️🔥
#borderRamble #borderstudies #histodons #geography #borderWalk #climateEmergency

We trundled on a little way until border stone 17, before doubling back, hungry and damp, but still wearing our underwear. We felt like eating fresh crispy French bread & strong coffee, but unfortunately the villages we passed through on our way home were uninspiring — and the rare boulangeries we found were shut. Clichés of French cuisine be damned: this is a periurban area taking a break after Christmas, filled with crumbling malls not bijou cafés.
#BorderWalk #Geography #Borders

🤣😳In the interest of documentary accuracy, I must admit that we found a pair of rather kinky underpants for someone with a penis on 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border stone number 14! Perhaps these woods, easily accessible by car, are the site of delightfully furtive nocturnal encounters? Certainly someone had enough fun recently to leave behind their underwear… I delicately lifted them & placed them on a different stone. In case you are out looking for them?🩲 #BorderWalk #LostUnderpants

🇨🇭🇫🇷 Border stones 11, 12, 13, 14. Some have been restored and cleaned. So someone has decided to apply Swiss standards of cleanliness to these old ladies. Adieu romantic decay.
#BorderWalk #Geography #BorderStudies

🇨🇭🇫🇷 Border stones 8, 9, 10. On we go, in the light drizzly rain. Is anyone still following along? It is starting to feel like a rather laborious Advent calendar, a few weeks late…
Moss and ivy are slowly taking over some of the stones. Should we clean them? Let them be? I am torn between feeling that they should be cleaned & preserved and a fondness for the the romantic aesthetic of them merging and dissolving into the landscape.
#BorderWalk #Geography #BorderStudies #mosstodon

Border stones 5, 6, 7 mark out an odd little triangle, then lead us on along a field. We might feel in the middle of nowhere, but we are approaching one of the relay stations of the cross-border CERN hadron collider loop. Modern physics meets ancient political history. If it weren’t the holidays, we might imagine particles zooming around under our feet, oblivious to human territories.
#BorderWalk #Geography #Borders #physics #NuclearResearch

We scrambled up along the little stream used to define the border between the Versoix and border stone No. 4. This is a long stretch of the border demarcated after the 1818 Treaty of Paris, with a lot of twists and turns in a small area. So our walk is in stops and starts. The light is flat, and rain spits at us. Not a great day for photography.
#BorderWalk #Borders #Geography #HowMuddyCanItGet?

The theme of today’s 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border walk was mud mud mud. We certainly earned reaching border stone No. 3, down a steep & muddy gully, joining a stream to the more mighty Versoix river. We almost-but-not-quite joined up with where we stopped two days ago, but in the absence of a bridge we were trapped on the wrong bank. Some limits are truly material objects, even if we think of them as human political creations.
#BorderWalk #Geography #Borders ##Histodons #AreWeNearlyThereYet?

We followed the river for about an hour, enjoying the wintry landscape and beautiful woods. There were no more border stones along there, as the 🇨🇭🇫🇷border follows the middle of the river for a good stretch. We wandered slowly, stepping over muddy patches, enjoying the delightful intersection of #borders, #mosstodon #lichensubscribe, rather than the normal frozen ground of a usual December. It was 10C (i.e. much too hot…)! #Geography #Borders #BorderWalk

We continued our walk along the Versoix river, meeting border stone number 2 along the way, set in a wall. We were amused by a sign on the French side, explaining that when the border was redefined, the inhabitants of the village of Sauverny living on the left side of the river had to join a foreign country “without any choice in the matter”. No laughing matter, obviously, but it seemed to be implied that they were leaving civilisation behind… #Geography #BorderWalk

The Geneva/Vaud cantonal border is historically significant, as it used to be the international Swiss border before the Treaties of Paris & Turin extended the territory of Geneva & joined it to the Helvetic Confederation (“Switzerland”). We were amused to see that some of the old border stones remain, now marking an internal (cantonal) border. #Geography #Borders #BorderWalk

After the double fun of flu & Christmas, both spent in a cloud of brain fog, it was good to get out to continue our delightfully erratic border walk. Rather confusingly, we started at border stone no. 1, the “other” first one, this time on the right bank. Double border stones, at the tripoint of the Canton de Vaud & Canton of Geneva (both 🇨🇭) touching France (🇫🇷). The Geneva one dates back to 1818, Treaty of Paris. #Geography #Borders #BorderWalk #SlowScholarship