Re: Hiking up the Saleve?
Post 5
I live in Ornex, France, by the border with Switzerland. There is no physical borders in the area with fields and woods just next to where we live. My daughter and I went for a short walk on the paths with our dog, within the prescribed 1 km radius.
The path we were using hugs the border and there are no markings. At one point, where the path turns to the right, in the direction of our home, there was a block where the path turns right, and I realized we were inadvertently just a meter or two into Switzerland. So we went around the block and were walking in the direction of home, inside French territory. Three Swiss uniformed agents who were hidding came up and asked for our IDs. At that point we were in fact inside France. But one took our IDs and grabbed me to their patrol car, 50 meters away and in Swiss territory, leaving my 10 year old daughter alone and in a panic, exposing me, since they had no masks or gloves, touched my phone, and gave me a 200 francs amende.
When I protested their behavior, their putting me at risk of contagion by not respecting the 2 meter rule, touching my IDs and phones, one of them told me that I could decontaminate myself when I got home, did not care about my daughter and told me I will never be able to work in Switzerland again and would be in for a surprise when I try to cross the border at the douane. I checked and indeed, the Covid-19 ordinance passed recently, authorizes them to refuse future entries into the country.
Given where we were, a man, a child and a small dog in the open fields, the direction we were walking in, and our address, there is no way to interpret our behavior as putting anyone at risk or trying to "enter" Switzerland. I was even carrying our masks, but had put them off as there were no people.
Lovely behavior in times of a pandemic.
And you are asking for hidden trails where you can deliberately cross the border, if there are indeed border controls?
"Are there border controls preventing you from doing so? If yes, do you have any tips for hidden trails where you could cross the border on foot and do some hikes in France?"