As someone who uses a wheelchair, I’d like to say it’s very nice of you to mention potential accessibility issues. Travel can be complicated for people with disabilities and the lack of information can sometimes lead to embarrassing and disappointing surprises.
yes, my mother was in a wheelchair for the last 12 years of her life. Numerous times we made reservations and asked about wheelchair accessibility only to find that indeed, there was a wheelchair ramp and an elevator, but the doors were too narrow to allow a wheelchair to pass, making it rather impossible to get her into and out of buildings or rooms.
I was about to comment something similar, even though I'm not disabled myself; I appreciate Tim mentions stuff like this. It's a very small effort, but to those concerned of huge value.
@@jwenting it's so frustrating when people think that a ramp is the only requirement. It's really not very hard to just get hold of a standard wheelchair and just try and manoeuvre it around your establishment. I've done it! Takes ten minutes!
Me: Ah just a cute little hotel with a novelty location due to a treaty. Tim: It saved hundred of jews and resistance members during WWII, was personally thanked by Charles De Gaule and hosted the peace negotiations between France and Algiers.
I know this wasn't the intention, but the phrasing made me imagine a hand extending out from the hotel itself to shake Charles De Gaulle's, as though it were a part of the building itself.
As a carpenter in this modern age, the fact he build that in 3 months back then even if it was just the shell of the building that was finished is impressive as hell.
My grandmother told me some of our family member escaped France though this hotel before settling in geneva. Thank god those people were there without them I wouldn’t have been born.
As far as I understand, the business is taxed 1/3 by Switzerland and 2/3 by France, as that's how the territory is split, but I'm not sure about the finer details
5:47 notice that the old sign says 'Simplon', which appears to be somewhat unusual for this location. Back in the day, this was part of RN5, the main road from Paris to Italy, across the Simplon Pass. At that time there was no tunnel through the Mont Blanc.
You should come to Basel. As it is located on the tripoint CH-DE-FR we've got many interesting border stories. EG cross border trams or the longest single span pedestrian bridge in the world connecting FR and DE. The Airport is also trinational and we've got railway stations of three countries in one city. I d love to give you some more infos and ideas, if you're interessted!
I just finished trekking the Westweg through the Black Forest this week and it ends in the Basel Badischer Bahnhof. To my surprise it is run by the Deutsche Bahn.
@@Optidorf Yes it belongs to the german state. In WWII it made quite a fuss. As far as I know it was the only place in Switzerland where the swastika officialy was shown in a city and later it came out that the nazis dug a tunnel from there under the city to prepare a possible invasion.
@@schaulinnoam That would have been quite mad for the Nazis to try. Switzerland is heavily defended by mountains. If they went to war with Switzerland it would not end well for the Nazis. Even by accidentally invading! No wonder they metaphorically wet themselves at the thought of bringing down the might of the Swiss Army on them.
@@hairyairey Well Basel isn't in the Alps and the defence lines were built in the hills after Basel, so it wouldn't have been to hard. And honestly: the swiss army istn't/wasn't really strong and the reason for not invading switzerland was that it was neutral and still traded with the Nazis and stored "their" gold. Here's an article (in german but google translate helps) about the tunnels under Basel: www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bzbasel.ch/basel/basel-stadt/in-katakomben-unter-dem-badischen-bahnhof-trafen-sich-die-nazis-129807997
Reminds me of Derby Line Vermont/Stanstead Quebec where the US-Canada border goes directly through a library. The library was deliberately built on the border for both countries to use, although the only entrance for it is on the US side
Yes - that library, along with the buildings of Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau, is the reason I had to call this place "*almost* unique" :) I think Tom Scott did a video on it a while back
I literally laughed out loud -- yes, audibly -- when you said ""What better way to celebrate the 14th of July than to...." I have already watched and enjoyed a few of your other videos but that definitely earned a "Subscribe." I look forward to watching your future travels (and catching up on your past ones)!
I hope being able to travel again lifted your spirits, and that you're safe and well. It was an unexpected joy to see this pop up in my recommendations; I wasn't expecting you to be able to videos like this again so soon. I'm so glad though, your humour always puts me in a good mood, and you manage to make topics that I usually wouldn't be into so much more engaging. I've been reading about quirky places and unusual architecture lately, and I think you're one of the people I have to thank for developing my interest in that - so thank you! And, as always, thanks for the accessibility info. I will always appreciate it.
The lamppost line reminded me of the time I was fascinated by something that looked like some sort of modern art. Only to walk a few meters to find the same thing with a trash can under it. It was just a weird looking cover for public trash cans in that park.
I loved this, I laughed out loud several times. And I also love how you always talk about accessibility in the places you visit. That's not done nearly enough by anyone else, and I think it's great that you take the time to mention it.
I want to thank you for always mentioning accessibility in your videos - seriously, thank you so much. Kindness is inherent in your content, and that does not go unnoticed.
Hey! So glad you travelled by my workplace! I work in the maintenance for the small railway you travelled by. Lucky that you got the old carriages. Not the most reliable as they are from the 80's but the most picturesque indeed. The purple seats means we recently rebuilt the one you rode. I feel kinda proud you rode it and liked it. Good on You, Tim!
Ah cool! I was lucky enough to ride up in one of the modern trains, and back down again in an old one. They both seemed very well-maintained :) Btw, since you work there, do you know any interesting or quirky stories about the line? The only thing I've got at the moment is "it used to go to France, and now it doesn't"
@@TheTimTraveller Thanks for the comment! To put it simply, It was impossible to have an "international" company at that time. So the french part that went to Morez was operated by a sister company, called the "Chemin de fer électrique du Jura" (Jura electric railway) It owned his own carriages but contracted the maintenance and electricity to the NStCM. During WW2, as there was no maintenance infrastructure on the French side, trains continued to pass the border, with, as you can imagine, a LOT of smuggling happening, like cigarettes under the motor covers. The French infrastructure got nationalized in the 30's and became quite damaged with WW2 and lack of maintenance. It closed in 1958. I read somewhere that the Swiss company got the French rolling stock for free as a payment for overdue electricity bills! Speaking of electricity, this line is one of the oldest "electric from the start" railways. Another very quirky and misleading thing is the Bassins station, which is actually a good 35 minutes walk away from the actual village, being on the other side of the valley. Big trap for young players! Maybe you saw the underground Nyon terminal. It only dates from 2004. Before this the train went under the CFF railway and climbed on the street in front of the CFF station. The railway itself is gradually changing from mountain railway to commuter rail, as the region's demography changed from some farmers and many skiers to some hikers and skiers and many company workers. New accessibility laws, too. Old carriages may be replaced 2021/2022 and the 1916-built workshop in Les Plantaz will be replaced by a new one between L'Asse and Trélex. There are project going on all along the line, so there may be a lot of change in the 10 next years.
I was there last year, oblivious of this fact! I stayed in Les Rousses and went for a run to La Cure, hopping over the border and feasting my eyes on the border situation (I love borders) there. And never noticed the restaurant... Well, have to go back sometime then. Thanks for the great video. Stay safe👍🏻
I've been to La Cure, I didn't know about the hotel though sadly, my parents used to own a house in the Jura Mountains. I used to go skiing at Les rousses and Les Jouvencelles.
Three weeks later, cut to William in room 6, laptop poised and The Tim Traveller videos playing on repeat while he is rocking back and forth in bed with the sheets over his head.
At least it wouldn't set you back too much - I was super surprised to learn it's only 90€, not sure about the rest of Europe but in Finland, that's a quite standard hotel room price
@@64ankka I would argue it is kind of expensive. Last week I stayed in a 3* hotel in Prague, Budapest and Sofia for respectively 51, 48 and 29 euros for a three-person room including breakfast. (total prices, not per person) But I don't know if the prices are always so low. It might be because of Covid-19.
It's funny, I drive pretty often next to that hotel and I had always thought the name was only an indication that is was sitting next to the border, not literally on it.
I have stayed in that Hotel. I was on a cross country ski holiday and Inn Travel booked me into the hotel. Its an amazing place and I slept in switzerland and had breakfast in France. The family own a ski shop just down the road. Les Rousses up the road from the hotel is a lovely village and when we finally got snow the lake froze over and the cross country skiing was brill.
Wonderful video. I’ve shared link with a friend who works at AF museum in Amsterdam. Places and stories like these need to be kept alive forever. Thank you for helping to do that. Zoltán
In the village of Lucelle, the French-Swiss border separates the terrace of a café from the lobby. If you take your drink at the terrace, you pay in euros, but in the lobby, you pay in Swiss francs (maybe the other way round, I'm not sure). My hotel room, and the whole hotel, was in France, but the emergency exit leads to Switzerland.
This reminds me of the movie "The Law is Law" with Fernandel and Totò. I also appreciated the piano rendition of the Jeux Sans Frontieres theme song around 2:34 :D
Sheesh dude, I have to rewind the video after hearing the music at 1:25 b/c it was too distracting. All I could hear was "want you back, want you back, want you back for good" and I know how these territorial disputes are going to go anyway. Kudos. Lemme unpause real quick... Arrr, great video again. Nothing to nitpick over. You're a fan's worst nightmare. Also, you have to spend hours upon hours scouring obscure travelling websites to find all these gems. Otherwise I can't explain how engaging each and every one of your videos are, with legit interesting stories behind them. Lastly, your videos more and more get a certain /r/madlad -feel to them. Good stuff Tim :)
Haha sorry Lennart :D Btw, I've mentioned them before but I get a lot of my ideas from one website, atlasobscura.com - they save me a lot of time finding places like this. (That's not to say I don't spend any time on research... I do hours of research, but it's usually AFTER the trip, when I get home and want to fill out the story with more details. And fact-check. Etc.)
Je connais ce truc depuis toujours, je connais des arbez (j'en avais un dans ma classe) mais je connaissais pas vraiment l'histoire alors merci beaucoup !
At 5:25 this is a picture showing - on the left - the great late French actor Fernandel, very famous in the aftermath of WWII. He is most known for his Don Camillo movie series - one of them was seen by more than a quarter of the whole French population at the time!
LOL, just liked this for the music at the end, any brits of an age will know what it is from very smart addition all we need now is Judith Chalmers there next lol
I must imagine, the French resistance have a hillarious chase with the Nazis and Vichy France in this area, and they went hiding in the hotel just upstairs so that they both can't legally catch them, great intertaining video my friend! Love your humour! 😁
its a pretty useful site quite well optimized for searching (for a gov site). you can also access a ton of statistics of switzerland on bfs(dot)admin(dot)ch or very high quality and detailed maps (also for free)
@The Tim Traveller you got me at the end about sleeping with your body separated by them ! Love it and boom subscribed my man ! Tons of love from India.
Interesting story and I appreciate you noting the accessibility issue. That's too often ignored by travel articles and videos, but it's very important for us who have persons with disabilities in the family.
What a great fun story! Looks like a fun place to visit. Surviving head and legs in France and Switzerland while sleeping on a stationary bed, wouldé normally sound like a nightmare but here...
