#borderwalk — Public Fediverse posts

I don’t think I ever shared that we walked the border stretch near Cara 🇨🇭/ Carra 🇫🇷 a few weeks ago, did I? (Clearly this is news that the fediverse has been waiting for with baited breath😛!)
I love it when the 2 countries can’t even agree on spelling for place names: the near-abroad is made subtly more Other. Several great border stones and border infrastructure to keep me amused on these last steps of our epic & mundane slow walking adventure. #borderWalk #border #geography #visualMethods

Today, for Ascension weekend, we walked to Spain.
Ok, not really! We actually scrambled in the woods in the Jura mountains looking for three elusive border stones, the oldest of which was laid in 1648 when there was a border between Franche-Comté that belonged to Philip IV, king of Spain & the Pays de Vaud (then part of Berne). Although this remained an international border until 1862 (Traité des Dappes) this area is now entirely within France 🇫🇷. #BorderWalk #geography #history #mosstodon

We reached the end of the line today in Hermance, but we actually still have two holes to plug until we can officially proclaim to have walked the whole 🇨🇭🇫🇷 Geneva border. #BorderWalk #Genève #Geneva #Geography

Hurray, we have secured access badges to CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research) to walk the short stretch of the 🇨🇭 🇫🇷 within the cross-border science site tomorrow, with two knowledgeable staff members. I am so loving this adventure along the borderline, taking us to many unexpected places large and small!

And, yikes, my comic book coming out of this project needs to be handed in at the end of the month! Almost there!
#borders #borderWalk #geography #history #borderstudies #cern #comics

We then got into trouble traipsing across cross-border fields, ending up in someone’s garden, trying to accurately follow the line where it left the river. « We are just trying to follow the invisible borderline» not surprisingly comes across as rather odd to people who are wondering if the walkers wandering into their land are a) lost or b) burglars! To be fair, none of this really makes any sense, does it? Other than as geographical poetry of the absurd. #borderWalk #geography #borderlines

We found ourselves in formerly Sardinian (!) territory as a splendid crested border stone across the 🇨🇭🇫🇷Hermance river reminded us that this was part of wider kingdoms in 1816, before the same stone was recarved when this area joined France, but maintaining the Sardinian royal flag. On the other side, the Geneva crest was spectacularly inaccurate, and as a result really rather cool. #borderWalk #history #borders

We joined up with the border & continued upstream, along the river Hermance. The border now runs down the middle of it here (here it was formerly along the talweg, i.e. following the deepest bit of the river bed). It is a picturesque and languid river meandering in a rural landscape punctuated by the usual border infrastructure: border stones, disused border guard buildings and rusting signs and fences. #borderWalk #geography #switzerland #visualMethods #visualEthnography #walking

It’s Sunday so off we go 🇨🇭🇫🇷boundary-walking, through fields & along the river Hermance. We walked from border stones 210 to 216 on the left bank, close to Veigy-Foncenex.
We started by stumbling upon a memorial in Crevy to some of the Righteous among the Nations, i.e. local people who helped Jewish refugees flee to Switzerland during WWII. (We reckon we’ve got about 5-6 stretches left to complete our tour, but we might stretch it out a bit!) #localHistory #borderWalk #geography #history #ww2

We wore Wellington boots today, which was inspired, because it was muddy in places, we waded through the stream used to define the 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border for some stretches, and it was POURING with rain as we turned back to the car. Home for tea after another lovely walk seeing the superb and the mundane, following an (in)visible line. How much effort goes in to making us believe in the reality of the arbitrary territories we carve out!
#BorderWalk #geography #borders #borderlands #sovereignty

Lots of lovely border stones to keep me happy along the way (left bank 72 to 85 today), large and small, old and new(ish). Some easy to see, some requiring a phone app with gps to find in brambles, some needing repair, and some behind private fences (ahem…). #BorderWalk

Another Sunday exploring. No snow on the mountains, so the family isn’t skiing as much as some winters. Time to border hop!
We connected back with where the photo above — showing a border that closes at night — was taken, and tootled on. I love spotting all the infrastructure connected to the 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border. I now have an official list of it all from the Office du Patrimoine but it’s usually pretty legible.
#borderWalk #geography #borders #slowResearch #visualEthnography

Smile moment last night as we hopped into France to celebrate my lovely father-in-law’s 80th birthday, crossing by car at a place we have walked. I know all the slightest details of the borderline there, and the location of every stone. But politics also has daily rhythms that we forgot. When we wanted to go home, the border was shut. Ha! My daughter took one look at me and said “Ah, yes, Captain Geography…” 😂 I now have a new ironic title! #borders #geography #borderlines #politics #BorderWalk

Sometimes, my walks lead to unexpected marvels. It started out today as a quest to find old border buildings near Moillesulaz (🇨🇭) / Moëllesulaz (🇫🇷) but they were all apparently flattened & replaced with a shiny new (& super useful!) cross-border tram & modern blocks of flats or administrative buildings. So, a frustrating start if nostalgia is your thing. But what happened next will surprise you, as they say... #BorderWalk #geography #border #borderStudies #visualMethods #SlowScholarship

The border first followed a stream, then a series of extremely muddy canals dug through the boggy forest. We walked very slowly, hopping from log to log, as the paths turned to brooks and the stones became islands, fired on by our delightfully pointless quest to find all the stones. Geneva felt like an island surrounded by boggy lands.
A lovely day in the sun with three of us walking for a change, fired on by biscuits and chocolates. #borderWalk #geography #riverBorder #mosstodon #visualmethods

The border first followed a stream, then a series of extremely muddy canals dug through the boggy forest. We walked very slowly, hopping from log to log, as the paths turned to brooks and the stones became islands, fired on by our delightfully pointless quest to find all the stones. Geneva felt like an island surrounded by boggy lands.
A lovely day in the sun with three of us walking for a change, fired on by biscuits and chocolates. #borderWalk #geography #riverBorder #mosstodon #visualmethods

The border first followed a stream, then a series of extremely muddy canals dug through the boggy forest. We walked very slowly, hopping from log to log, as the paths turned to brooks and the stones became islands, fired on by our delightfully pointless quest to find all the stones. Geneva felt like an island surrounded by boggy lands.
A lovely day in the sun with three of us walking for a change, fired on by biscuits and chocolates. #borderWalk #geography #riverBorder #mosstodon #visualmethods

The border first followed a stream, then a series of extremely muddy canals dug through the boggy forest. We walked very slowly, hopping from log to log, as the paths turned to brooks and the stones became islands, fired on by our delightfully pointless quest to find all the stones. Geneva felt like an island surrounded by boggy lands.
A lovely day in the sun with three of us walking for a change, fired on by biscuits and chocolates. #borderWalk #geography #riverBorder #mosstodon #visualmethods

The border first followed a stream, then a series of extremely muddy canals dug through the boggy forest. We walked very slowly, hopping from log to log, as the paths turned to brooks and the stones became islands, fired on by our delightfully pointless quest to find all the stones. Geneva felt like an island surrounded by boggy lands.
A lovely day in the sun with three of us walking for a change, fired on by biscuits and chocolates. #borderWalk #geography #riverBorder #mosstodon #visualmethods

Yesterday, we got chased down the mountain we were staying on by a blocked toilet (not fun in an isolated chalet in a snowstorm!), so back to walking the 🇨🇭 🇫🇷 border. A lovely but VERY muddy walk today, back near Jussy.

First: a curiosity. A house built using recycled 1754 border stones, removed in 1798 (thank you French Revolution!) during the short-lived creation of the French Département du Léman. #borders #borderWalk

This stretch of our long ongoing border walk saw us traipsing along paths, mostly on the Swiss side, and sometimes crossing muddy fields, digging in brambles looking for border stones and wandering in unexpected stretches of mossy woods as we traced our way along the 🇨🇭🇫🇷border. This was an old section of the border of what was the Mandement de Jussy, belonging to the city of Geneva before the canton was made into one contiguous unit in 1815. #BorderWalk #geography #borders #frontières #mosstodon

My, my, guess what we’ve been doing today for a blissfully sunny & warm Boxing Day? Unseasonably warm, but just perfect for hopping across and along the 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border, this time near Jussy. Four hours to walk from border stones 120 to 155, and back to the starting point, with two extra bonus old ones incongruously moved from elsewhere & reused rather oddly to mark the entrance to a property. #BorderWalk #borders #geography

We ended up in Thônex, just after a beautiful borderstone showing the Sardaigne/Savoie arms, and the Geneva key & eagle. Home for tea! #douane #thônex #borderWalk #border #geography #borderline #borderstone

Term-time is ended, the archives are closed, and we are back outside celebrating the beginning of the holidays by walking! Walking the wiggly borderlines along the Foron river, where the border is unusually not in the middle of the stream but along the right (Swiss) bank. France has full rights over the water. Interestingly, 🇨🇭and 🇫🇷 haven’t formally agreed on the exact location of the border here and discussions are ongoing. #Borderwalk #geography #borders #frontières #visualMethods

We wandered on along a charming path in the evening sun, enjoying the usual mix of contrasting landscapes on either side of the line: small villas on the Swiss side & rather charmless apartment blocks in France. I love spotting the immediately-recognizable former border posts, often now converted, built in the 1920s & mostly designed by Marc Camoletti: the architect who built the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire. #localHistory #architecture #borders #frontières #borderWalk #douane #visualEthnography

Sunday morning wandering and cycling around between past and present, in slight drizzle, chasing border stones & French boulangeries.

In case you missed it, a short comic stemming from this walking & drawing border project is mentioned here: https://mastodon.social/@JulietJFall/111427226794927481

#BorderWalk #geography #politicalGeography #VisualMethods #Borders #Borderstudies

Anyone care to sponsor me to buy this abandoned border post? This would be my dream drawing studio for finishing my border comic! Maybe I need a fundraising project here, or a spare 450’000 Swiss Francs, or a real bestseller? Hmmm…
#borderWalk #walkingEthnography
#borders #geography #academicFunding #prettyPlease

A walk of contrasts today, with many brambles, some light trespassing into a gravel quarry, pretty countryside and industrial stretches between Bardonnex & Croix-de-Rozon. #Borders #geography #borderWalk

It’s surprising to me how many border stones are carved erroneously. It’s almost embarrassing / delightful how much time and money must have been invested to lay this one with an S (for 🇫🇷 Savoie) carved backwards (🇨🇭was G for Geneva on that one). Or maybe it was done on purpose as a subtle insult?
(One advantage of my mini-border-crossing adventures is that I get to visit French boulangeries. For research purposes, obviously.)
#BorderWalk #borders #visualMethods #geography #StandingStoneSunday

Back to border-hopping after a long summer of heat and travel further afield. Yay for restarting mini-adventures close by, hopping back and forth in time with many archival photos stored on my phone! We haven’t walked all the way round the Canton of Geneva yet: endless little treasures to find, and new places to explore. #borderWalk #walkingMethodologies #geneve #swissBorder #FrenchBorder #geography #history

A different border, close by, built of fear, determination and some hubris. Now mostly associated with a chocolate bar: the line of toblerones near Gland, built during WWII to slow down a feared but hypothetical foreign attack. Now preserved as heritage. Look closely at the Maison Bleue — the blue house. It’s not a real home but a fortified and camouflaged gun position. Borders disguised as rural idyll. Somehow chilling. #borders #mosstodon #geography #walkingMethodology #borderWalk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@geography We meet some friends along the way: mysterious footprints (badger?), cows and lots of people on horseback. The border feels like it’s at the end of the world in the middle of rural landscapes in🇨🇭but across in 🇫🇷 it’s close to an industrial centre, power lines, a gas pipeline and roads. We end up near the cross-border nuclear research centre of CERN, and turn back. #BorderWalk #Geography #BorderStudies #Walking #SlowScholarship