Switzerland Guide
Geneva
Carouge
The suburb of Carouge is a quite different experience from Geneva proper. Practically deserted until 1754, the township – then, as now, beyond the city limits – was granted to Victor Amideus, King of Sardinia (ruling from Turin). The king envisioned Carouge as a trading competitor to Geneva and turned it into a refuge for Catholics, Protestants unable to stomach Geneva's puritanical ways and, uniquely in Europe for the time, even Jews. Turinese architects developed a chessboard design of crisscrossing streets planted with trees, and low houses with wooden, Mediterranean-style galleries looking into internal gardens. Between 1774 and 1792, this hamlet of a hundred people grew to a bustling town of four thousand and, although Carouge never overtook Geneva, it's still something of a refuge from the city, its quiet, attractive streets packed with artists' workshops, old-style cafés and some of the city's best small-scale nightlife.
Trams #12 or #13 from the city centre can drop you at the Place du Marché in the heart of Carouge, still used as a marketplace and starting point for exploration of the quarter. Rue St-Joseph is shoulder-to-shoulder artisans, from carpenters to milliners – check out the elegant exposed-mechanism clocks of Jean Kazes at no. 21, Anne-Claude Virchaux's linen-cotton clothes at no. 13, and the delicate artworks of the florist Les Cinq Sens round the corner on Place du Temple. A major feature of Carouge are the delightful internal galleried gardens which lurk behind almost every gate: most are open, so feel free to explore.
Website: www.carouge.ch