Léman and Mont Blanc
The whole lake and the Alps — on clear days only.
HJPD — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Björn S. — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Björn S. — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Björn S. — CC BY-SA 3.0
**The cable car** if you have no car — bus 8 from Geneva plus a short walk gets you there, and the ride is part of the pleasure. **Driving** is cheaper for a family, reaching car parks near the top by a winding road on the French side, and it leaves you mobile along the plateau afterwards — it is also your only option during the cable car's winter closure. Either way: do not go up on a cloudy day.
No extra visa: Switzerland and France are both in the Schengen area, and one Schengen visa covers both. But **always carry your passport**: the border between them sees intermittent police and customs checks, and Switzerland is outside the EU customs union, so customs inspections happen in both directions. Bus 8 ends exactly at the border and you continue on foot.
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The Salève is a long limestone ridge standing above Geneva's southern edge — the green wall behind the city in almost every photograph of it. The surprise is that it is **not Swiss**: the whole mountain lies in French territory, in Haute-Savoie, yet it serves as Geneva's natural balcony, which is exactly what locals call it, and its highest point, the Grand Piton, reaches 1,379 metres. The cable car climbs from Étrembières at 432 metres to an upper station at about 1,097 metres in under five minutes. It has run since 1932 and its stations were rebuilt between 2021 and 2023. Before it there was an **electric rack railway** here, working from 1892 to 1935 and usually described as the first electric rack railway in the world. From the top Lake Geneva stretches out along its length, the Jura sits opposite, and the Alps with **Mont Blanc** appear — on clear days only. The mountain has a place in climbing history too: the Grande Varappe gorge on its western flank gave French the word *varappe*, meaning rock climbing, and the cliffs are still the training ground for the region's climbers and a launch site for paragliders over Geneva. Above are easy walking paths, two restaurants and open ground — an excellent half day, on one condition: a clear sky. In haze there is nothing at all to see.
The whole lake and the Alps — on clear days only.
French's name for rock climbing came from these cliffs.
One of the best-known launch sites above the Geneva basin.
Route du Téléphérique, 74100 Étrembières, France