The interior courtyards
Gardens, vines and workshops hidden behind the street fronts.
HJPD — CC BY 3.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France — CC BY 2.0
**Saturday morning, before eleven** — that is the short answer. The market on the Place du Marché is running, the workshops are open, the cafés are full and the town shows itself properly. Wednesday morning is a smaller, quieter version and suits anyone who dislikes crowds. Avoid Sunday and Monday: many shops are shut and you will walk through handsome but sleeping streets. Two hours are plenty, three if you add lunch.
That is a marketing phrase, so set your expectations. The architecture is Sardinian-Piedmontese in character, the atmosphere is southern, and the Italian cafés and gelato are there — but you remain in an orderly, clean, quiet Swiss suburb, not in Naples. Its real value is three things: the hidden interior courtyards, the Saturday market, and food prices lower than central Geneva's. Go with that expectation and it will be among the pleasantest two hours of your trip.
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Carouge is a separate town of about twenty-two thousand people that begins on the far bank of the Arve, a short tram ride from central Geneva — and it does not look especially Swiss. The reason is political: the **Kingdom of Sardinia** built it as a planned town from the 1770s, Catholic and Mediterranean in character, to serve as a commercial rival pulling merchants and artisans away from Protestant Geneva next door. It was granted city status in 1786, and only joined the canton of Geneva in 1816 under the Treaty of Turin. Because the Sardinian planners copied the layout of Turin and Nice, the whole town is a low, regular grid: two-storey houses with wooden shutters, each building with an **interior courtyard** behind its façade. Push at a half-open door on the Rue Saint-Joseph or the Rue Ancienne and you find gardens, vines and workshops hidden behind the street — this, rather than the frontages, is the real pleasure of Carouge. The old town is listed in the national inventory of Swiss heritage sites, and today its courtyards hold potters, jewellers, instrument makers, small galleries and cafés under the trees. Practically: **tram 12** from central Geneva to Carouge-Marché takes about twelve minutes. The market on the **Place du Marché** runs on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, Saturday being the important one and a good reason to time your visit. Outside market mornings the town is very quiet and many shops close on Sunday and Monday. One note that matters in a city as expensive as Geneva: food and coffee here are generally cheaper than in the centre.
Gardens, vines and workshops hidden behind the street fronts.
A market under the trees, with cafés spilling outdoors.
Pottery, jewellery workshops and small galleries along the street.
Place du Marché, 1227 Carouge