Daily Photo – Musée Ariana

Back in 2002 I was strolling down a grand thoroughfare called Avenue de la Paix when I came across what I later found out was the Musée Ariana – one of Geneva’s architectural and cultural gems. I know this because I took a photo of it. 

Exactly what I was doing there, the route I took or in what direction I walked to get back to my hotel, I just couldn’t say. What would be a pretty good guess is that on the way back I probably stopped at the brilliant little neighbourhood bar right across the road from our hotel and used my non-existent french to order a beer – Kronenbourg 1664 I’m guessing.

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Daily Photo – Wandering the Les Pâquis District

Digging through an old archive from twenty-four years ago is a dangerous game. You stumble across frames from a past life that your memory has completely let go of. Case in point: a gritty, textured photograph of a magnificent corner building in Geneva that I simply couldn’t place. Any memory of standing there had long since evaporated, leaving behind only an image of heavy stone blocks and a stack of wrought-iron balconies.

A bit of modern digital detective work eventually cracked the mystery. The building stands at 55 Rue de Lausanne, on the corner of Rue du Môle in Geneva’s Les Pâquis district. It’s a handsome survivor from the late nineteenth century, built during the city’s expansion after the old medieval walls came down.

Looking at it now, I discovered that the ground-floor premises are occupied by a barber shop that has been operating there since 1932. The truth is, I can’t remember a thing about taking the photograph nearly a quarter of a century ago, but there’s something deeply satisfying about knowing this sturdy mountain of a building is still standing watch over the same intersection today.

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Daily Photo – Somewhere In Geneva

The mind plays funny tricks with old travel photos. It strips away the grand itineraries and leaves you holding ordinary scraps of memory.

Take this shot from Geneva, back in 2002. If you asked me for a detailed guide, I’d fail you. What I actually remember is a beautiful blur of aimless wandering, a nagging wish that my French was fluent rather than non-existent, and a brilliant little neighbourhood bar right across the road from our hotel.

Look closely at the quality and you are seeing the cutting edge of early-2000s consumer tech, or, more accurately, the cutting edge of casino promotion. We were armed with twin pint-sized digital cameras, courtesy of the Birmingham casino. They had run one of those loyalty schemes that felt like it required three million visits and a pint of blood to claim a freebie. In reality, it took thirty nights of dedicated, shameless commitment. Our routine was based on efficiency: we’d walk through the doors, collect our stamps, order a Coke at the bar, and vanish within ten minutes. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Back then, pocket-sized digital cameras were still an evolving novelty, a glimpse into a sci-fi future. Getting one for “free” – if you don’t count the month of nightly detours and the sheer volume of Coca-Cola consumed – felt like a good win. The interesting thing is that now we have programmes to recreate the exact look!

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