In the city of Geneva, the French-speaking part of Switzerland

 Like the swans that frolic on its Alpine lake (Europe's largest), Geneva is a rare bird.

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(in the French-speaking part of Switzerland) The city of Geneva, in the southwest of the country (where the Rhône River exits Lake Geneva), is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva -- one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. The Canton of Geneva (the city and its closest Swiss suburbs and exurbs) had a population of some 500,000 in early 2019, and together with the suburbs and exurbs in the canton of Vaud and in the French departments of Ain and Haute-Savoie, the (cross-border) Geneva metropolitan area had a population of more than a million.

+ Geneva is a global city, a financial center, and a center for diplomacy due to the presence of many international organizations, including the headquarters of many agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross. (Geneva hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world.) It is also where the Geneva Conventions were signed, which address the treatment of wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war. Together with, for example, New York City (global headquarters of the UN), Basel (Bank for International Settlements), and Strasbourg (Council of Europe), Geneva is a city serving as the headquarters of one of the most important international organizations -- without being the capital of a country.

+ In 2021, Geneva was ranked as the world's 9th most important financial center for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centers Index (fifth in Europe behind London, Zürich, Frankfurt, and Luxembourg). In 2019, Geneva was ranked among the ten most liveable cities in the world by Mercer, together with Zürich and Basel. The city has been referred to as the world's most compact metropolis and the "Peace Capital." In 2019, Mercer ranked Geneva as the 13th most expensive city in the world. In a UBS (Swiss Investment Bank) ranking of global cities in 2018, Geneva was ranked first for gross earnings, second most expensive, and fourth in purchasing power.

+ Switzerland's second city is slick and cosmopolitan, and its people chatter in almost every language among streets paved by gold. The headquarters of the World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, International Committee of the Red Cross, the second-largest branches of the United Nations and World Bank (among some 200 international organizations, including not-for-profits) are here, along with lots of upscale hotels, boutiques, jewelers, restaurants, and chocolatiers accompanying them.

+ Yet, beneath this seemingly flawless exterior, lies a fascinating rough-cut diamond, peopled by artists and activists (educated in international schools), drifters, and denizens. Geneva's counterculture dwells in Les Grottes, the Quartier des Pâquis, and along the post-industrial Rhône where neighborhood bars hum with attitude and energy. (This is the Geneva of the "real" Genevois [i.e., as close as you will get to it].)