yes i actually agree.

i however still feel swiss germans are friendlier to english speakers. as they speak nearly perfect english. i have few friends who speak only french. they tend to pretend german speaking ch doesn't exist haha.

And this is a good thing

its good in there eyes. i think they should be proud of their entire country like the french are though.

a friend of mine from paris said that the main difference between a french and swiss french is that. french people are proud of their country. swiss french are not at all and if anything want to be part of france.

French is a "majority-language" and whomever speaks French only is happy if he/she is member of the/a majority. And so, quite many Romands are very grumpy about the point that French in Switzerland is a minority language. They indeed could be proud on the whole country and of their contribution to the country with people like General Dufour, Henri Dunant, and General Guisan, just to name a few.

I remember that, long ago in London, a Spaniard told me that two Romandie girls had informed him that German in Switzerland only was spoken just along the German border and that the rest of the country spoke French. I then asked the man to pay a visit to "Foyles" . There, as I learnt a day later, an English sales-woman was as shocked as me by such a position, and even donated him a small -- a bit damaged -- booklet about Switzerland. Thereafter, it was up to me to explain, as he concluded that even in his country (Franco Spain) nobody in Castilia would boast such a nonsense about Catalonya ever.

Back to "Anglos". Do not forget that most Romands regard the Anglos as potential allies of the "Alémaniques" and so as "cultural enemies". Quite many of them, percentage unclear, however are proud that many Romand leaders like General Dufour, Henri Dunant, General Guisan, Bundesrat Graber, Bundesrat Petitpierre, Bundesrat Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, Bundesrat Couchepin, Bundesrätin Calmy-Rey, and Bundesrat Berset (and many many more) spoke/speak a superb German, but it is very difficult to help against a deep-rooted inferiority complex.

They print the schedules in Geneva for us foreigners that are always coming to visit, buy chocolate and watches and are smart enought to NOT drive in down town Geneve.

Lived there for over two years and only drove into the city a few times. Much better to take the train.

Maybe no headmats because they are taken by tourists as souvenirs?

But seriously, unless they are replaced every time someone new sits in the seat, I find that head mats are disgustingly filthy and I don't need anyone else's hair product on my head and shoulders.

Oh oh oh, so sorry indeed. I heavily thought about "headmats" until it suddendly dawned upon me that some of you are travelling FIRST CLASS , something I cannot afford and leave to rich Anglo Expats

A Zürich friend came over to us some time ago and remarked that it looked like the Suisse-Romande seemed to get the cast-offs trains from Zürich after they'ed been in use there for 30 years. Obviously didn't apply to IC or ICN which ply their way across the whole country, but the RE trains between Geneva and Lausanne are really old.
Yes there are cultural differences between the Suisse-Romande and Swiss-German parts, but even within the Suisse-Romande there are differences. The Genevans have a reputation for being difficult (just look at the fuss being made about the changed TPG routes, mind you with some justification), whilst the Vaudois tend to be much more laid back.

And your Parisian friend would know this because?
Having lived in here for 16 years, I can assure you the last thing the Swiss-French want to become is French. Also, Swiss-Romade is not just Geneva, you know.
It reminds me of a British friend who worked in Germany for a while. One of his German colleagues stated that the problem with the Swiss was that they had forgotten they're just part of Germany.

Oh, I see you've been banned, I wonder why.

Whereas the Fribourgeois are just simply awesome in every respect

Total rubish.

I tell everyone that in "real" Switzerland one always speaks Italian or Rumantsch, and it's only "up north" that they speak German (and sometimes, even French)

Tom

Is that so? I have often been warned to beware of the Vaudois, that they were even worse than Swiss Germans

Having lived on both sides I can only say that some statements in this thread are totally false while other are true.

Transportation services are of the same quality if not better than in the German part. The French part is so clean or cleaner than the German part, believe me.

In the French side people are more social, meaning by that that they tend to relate more with other people, hang out more often, party more often, talk more often and showing more intense feelings.

That said, salaries are sightly lower in the French side. (just check the statistics, that's a fact)

Both the Swiss in the French side hate to speak German or Swiss German, and the Swiss in the German side hate to speak French, that's a matter of fact. (just ask Swiss random people on both sides)

A part of me is Swiss-German and the other Swiss-French and I lived in both regions of the country: Yes ! there are cultural differences.

But I think that makes the fun and the richness of Switzerland: to me the country is like a greek meze dish where you can choose from different little delicacies to enjoy at your convenience and the best of it, distances are short! A puzzle I'd wouldn't miss.

...and this applies to Europe for me too.

This is not really surprising as Switzerland is the result of a continued secession from "Greater Germany". Culturally, German speaking Switzerland never stopped to contribute to German culture (poets, writers, newspapers, books, magazines, and last but not least bank-presidents). That Zürich, and even Basel, very often outclass Stuttgart and rival München for many Germans is unacceptable. That the secession of the Confederacy in the end was successful for many Germans apparently still is a "mental challenge" . It is a love-hate relationship. You will hear a lot of rubbish on both sides, but look what Germans and Swiss do when being 1000 kilometers away ? They re-unite, re-unite on the beach, re-unite in restaurants, and in groups, and forget that Germany is just a bigger Canton of Switzerland .... sorry, I mean the other way round

Total and complete and absolute rubbish indeed ! But absolutely TRUE. That Spaniard was NOT a liar, not at all.

The behaviours of many German-speakers in the Ticino however is often extremely embarrassing. Behaving as if being the delegates of an Empire, and often beating the Germans by miles in regard to arrogance and pompousness In such cases always good that my lousy Italian apparently still has a nice Toscana accent.

I don't know how's it in Geneva, but equating Geneva with Romandie schedules are totally respected in here

It's not a matter of having more persuasive politicians, it's just that CFF is german-biased, and this is a situation the french Swiss have been long complaining about; an example is Rail2000, where apart from the Gotthard Base Tunnel that benefits in no way the whole western Switzerland but is also funded with contributions of people living here, the authorities promised too funding for improving rail in Romandie, but so far nothing has been seen around here of that extra funding and almost everything keeps being pumped in the GBT, Zurich and Bern. It is true about the co-investment, although in reality what cantons do is giving a loan to CFF as federal funds take long to be awarded: Due to the industrial crisis that badly affected Romandie during the 90's, french cantons had less francs to do that and that's why they're lagging behind in using these policies.

This is even more dramatic if we consider that Romandie has been growing faster and creating more jobs than the german side during 2000's yet the infrastructure investments by the central government do not keep up at with that growth. For example the railway linking Bern and Zurich was heavily upgraded and is the only HSR link plus it has 3 tracks, whereas Lausanne and Geneva are desperately asking for the third track to the government but so far they keep being ignored.

No they're not, at least for qualified professions in Lac Léman region the wages are as high as in Zurich.

An example to illustrate it:



the lowest salaries are actually in Tessin followed by eastern Switzerland whereas the highest are in VD, GE and ZH.

Just some add-ons to your rant :

> You mention Bern-Zürich and deplore that things "behind Bern" are not as good than those on the Zürich-Bern route, BUT
-> Olten-Zürich is THE axis on which SBB-CFF-FFS ultimately depends
-> the trains from Zürich to Bern-Lausanne-Geneva mostly originate in St. Gallen, and all those "Easterners" from the "Far East" have the same complaints as the Romands, just the other way round and in German

> ZVV is the public railways company of the Canton of Zürich and one of the most powerful units of public transport in Switzerland. And most of their expenses are NOT loans to the SBB but simply cantonal expenses. Cantonal programs often force SBB to go along, and this means that you have a "doubling-effect" in regard to what gets achieved. And many parts of public transport in the Zürich area (even outside the city-limits) are done and paid for by VBZ, the transport-company of Zürich-City. Overall, the people of City of Zurich and Canton of Zurich in recent decades possibly paid more per capita for public transport than most folks all over Europe. When sometimes visiting a places in the Solothurnese Prairies, I find it amazing first to travel in top modern S-Bahnen and then change into fast but outdated SBB-"carts".

> Look at the Zürich-Winterthur link. In order to have urgently needed improvements pulled through swiftly, the Canton of Zürich even had to finally take over some financing in order not to have them cut by the SBB. And these expenditures are NOT retrievable. BUT it is clear, that the improvements will be good for the economy and in the end also good for the state, so that this money is well invested.

> Look at the Bundesrat. For decades, the job of the transport-minister was either in the hands of Berner or of Zürcher and right now in the hands of a "Züri-Agglo" (Mrs Leuthard) and such realities HAVE their results. The Romands for decades were eager to have the Foreign Ministry "occupied" by the Romand. Would the Romands propose a "swap" by taking the transport-ministry and giving up the Foreign Ministry, they might get practical influence where it counts.

> Look at railways east-west. Many Zürcher when "going West" are NOT going to Olten and/or Bern, but a good part of them to Lausanne and/or Geneva. That you are, out of Zurich, very swiftly in Bern is nice, but that the sectors west of Bern tend to be slower (etc) also affects them.

> you then mention the North-South corridors. None of the possible North-South routes (Lötschberg-Simplon, Gotthard) is getting through the Romandie. What might be needed is a joint regional transport system between Lausanne and Geneva, at least covering the whole route Annecy-Geneva-Lausanne-Vevey-Montreux. But as far as I know Lausanne and Geneva, the relationship of the two cities is hardly really a "love-affair" and so, to launch such a structure may prove to be difficult. Add to this that many people on the Lac-de-Genève/LacLéman talk in regard to public transport as people in Zürich did in the 1960ies when people most of all believed in travelling by car.
> to give you a comparison, the ZVV serves places like Aarau+Brugg (Aargau), Zug, Schaffhausen, Rapperswil (Canton of St.Gallen), Frauenfeld (Thurgau), Ziegelbrücke (Glarus) plus Jestetten+Waldshut (Landkreis Waldshut, Baden-Württemberg). The ZVV is NOT a charity for the "province" but by these routes binds those areas to Zürich and Winterhur quite efficiently.

I find Swiss French people much more friendly.

I don't care what do people in St. Gallen complain about. Saint Gallen has 73,000 inhabitants whereas Geneva's the second city of the country due to its extraordinary growth and Basel's decline for decades. Lausanne's agglo alone is twice as big as St.Gallen's agglo and about to overtake the country's well-connected capital in about 4 years if the trends continue (Lausanne city has already overtaken Bern city), go wonder; and I don't see what does the fact that Olten was chosen as transport hub with ZH and BE being better connected than LSN and GE; it is also a transport hub for western CH going to eastern CH and BS and yet there are only two tracks from there and the line after Fribourg is pretty shitty.

I am not either mentioning ZVV. Zurich is a world apart, it is by far the most populated and economically powerful canton, therefore it has more resources, that's obvious. I am referring however to national infrastructures, not about the time it's taking to build the CEVA or the RER Vaudois as that does depend on the cantons.

And I hope you pointing out that the transport counselor being occupied by a german-speaker might have a real influence on the federal decisions on infrastructures was a joke. The minister is supposed to be representing the people from Sion, Neuchâtel, Yverdon-les-Bains, Genève or Vevey as much as people from Lucerne, Bâle or Chur. If that's not the case maybe Switzerland wouldn't make sense anymore as a single country.

Well you are very outdated in your beliefs, when was last time you came to Romandie? Both cantons have long been working (since 2007 with the creation of agglomération franco-valdo-genevoise) to set a common stance on infrastructures since an agreement in 2009 and present a united front in Bern.There even was last November a great fuzz about the creation of the organization Métropole Lémanique by Vaud and Genève: http://www.ge.ch/conseil_etat/2009-2...s/20111109.asp

I don't blame you, though, was there a single line about it in your local press?

Just some figures to put it into perspective:

Demographic growth 10 past years:
Vaud et Genève + 14% (+ 142’000 habitants)
Suisse + 9% (+ 653’000 habitants)

Exports growth 10 past years:
Vaud et Genève + 88%
Suisse + 47%

Jobs creation 10 past years:
Vaud et Genève + 16,2%
Suisse + 10,5%