We first lived in Peron in the Pays de Gex for a year and moved to Messery (Haute Savoie) 1.5 years ago. I much prefer the "rive gauche" to the Pays de Gex.  I can highly recommend Messery or Nernier. Very international; loads of people like us. Beautiful village and close to the lake.  Only downside is lack of public transport. 

Regards

Patrick

Hi,

I agree that the rive gauche side is lovely, and we've looked at Nernier and Messery too - I'm just not sure sure about the commute in - I work above the train station, and driving in along the lake in the morning is supposed to be a nightmare?  aah - the decisions one needs to make!

Still, it's definitely not ruled out!

Hi Natti,

We're looking for a house with garden - in no specifc place right now. We saw one house in Challex, which we liked, and are now seeking some feedback on the village and area...

I work around the train station as well.  You either take the car and leave it at Geneve Plage parking (20 min. from Messery) and take the bus or boat (!) from there. Or you cycle from there (very healthy).  Myself I am usually on the scooter, which takes me 30 minutes door to door from Messery to Cornavin.

Yes driving along the lake in the morning in a nightmare but that is the same on both sides.  

Annecy is very nice and very close to Geneva now that you have the new highway... If you are looking for a little village, then you can search around the exit of "Allonzier-la-Caille" : a lot of little places like "St Martin Bellevue", "Cuvat", ... but houses are quite expensive though... 

We moved out of Geneva last August and now live in Cercier which is about a 10 minute drive from the new Annecy motorway but the exit Cruseilles which is actually the one before the "Allonzier-la-Caille" as mentioned above. The village is lovely and all our neighbours have been very welcoming. Where you look depends on where you are going to be commuting into Geneva. My husband works in Petit Lancy so the drive in the morning takes him about 20 - 25 minutes. So where would you be commuting to? We also got a lot more for our money then we would have in Challex as i looked there too.

My suggestion is to try St Julien en Genevois which is literally 2 minutes or rather 3 /4 Km from Carouge

It s a small centre but there is everything you need. Big and small shops. Banks and Post office. There s even an amusement park and the casino with apparently the largest disco ( Makumba)

Altough you might not be interested to the above, the amusement park include a big sport centre with spa and leisure pools

St Julien is well connected both by bus and by train to Geneva and prices are much much lower

I d suggest to take a tour and you can take a look at the windows of the many real estate agencies to have an idea of properties and accomodations

good luck

stefano

Yes, Saint Julien en Genevois is great. So are Collonges sous Salève, Archamps, Neyden and some other small places around... I prefer Collonges sous Salève.

Good luck!

Coming back about Annecy: the big advantage of Annecy area is that you are very close from its lake which is wondefull for swimming during all the summer: there are a lot of little beaches around it, lake enclosed between several mountains...

Then, during the winter, you are very close from all types of ski resorts like La Clusaz, Le Gran Bornand for alpine ski, and a lot of others resorts for Cross Country skying/skating...

Annecy is a wonderfull old little town, very nice for shoping.

One disadvantage of leaving right inside Annecy is its overcrowded cars traffic... The good solution is to leave a little outside, close from the highway to be able to reach Geneva's P+Rs in less than 20 min.

Hope that helps !

> They had mixed views about people there. Its quite a 'closed' group.

If by that you mean the people from the Pays de Gex are 'inbred' you are spot on :-).

St Julien en Genevois is overdeveloped the infrastructure hasn't followed the development. They are supposed to by builing another 1000 appts in the area, I've no idea where they will stick them. It's ok... well apart from the occasional murder but I think Collonges is better. Archamps is as dead as a dodo like Peron, Challex although the Challex bus service is not a bad idea if you work at Cornavin or somewhere else on the line (Ikea :-).

I fully agree with David G.  For us anyway, having lived in both Peron in the Pays de Gex and now in Messery in the Haute Savoie, we are very glad we are no longer living in what we found rather charmless villages-dortoirs overlooked by the Jura.  Even if it takes you longer to commute to Geneva, driving next to the lake is a very different experience than going through the industrial and rather depressing Meyrin area.  But it all depends where your work is.

I would recommend the following places: Vetraz-Monthoux, Collonges-sous-Salève, Cranves Salles and Lossy.

Thanks all, for sharing your experiences. It's been very helpful! I think we've decided for now that Challex is not quite for us... and will keep looking. I wish Messery and Nernier had some public transport links, that would make the decision so much easier...

If you work at Cornavin I wouldn't discount it that quickly. The rail link is very convenient. The bus takes about 5 minutes then it must be about 20-25 minutes into GVA (the CFF train from Bellegarde takes about 40 minutes from memory).

It is probably devoid of shops as the big commercial center down the road drains a lot of trade. A lot of the Gex has domitory villages.