Civic-minded people on clean pavements: that's more or less the image that the French have of Geneva. The smooth cliché is not entirely untrue, and visitors never fail to be amazed at the cars that stop dead at pedestrian crossings, the total absence of greasy paper in the streets and the lack of confusion on trams and buses at rush hour. Provided you have a minimum of means - Switzerland is not cheap - business life in Geneva is particularly pleasant.
An airport close to the city centre, a city on a human scale, exemplary public transport, minor traffic jams, a magnificent site: a whole host of practical and aesthetic details that make it easy to work by the lake. And there's plenty of work to be had in this region with no real natural resources, which has built its wealth on high value-added services.
At the top of the list, of course, is finance. Because when you think 'Geneva', you think 'banks', and the giant advertisements that crown the buildings on the Left Bank confirm this initial reflex. The tranquillity of the city and the Swiss tradition of neutrality have also attracted an impressive number of international organisations to Geneva: the Red Cross, the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Office, the World Trade Organisation, the European headquarters of the UN, and so on.
The massive establishment of headquarters for multinational companies has completed Geneva's transformation into a cosmopolitan city, 40 % of which is now made up of foreigners. But for decision-makers from other parts of the world, as well as for the natives, the essence of social life revolves around the lake and the Rhône, on the "right bank" and the "left bank", where the overwhelming majority of Geneva's major addresses are concentrated. These are the places to go if you want to get to know the city better.
