A Grand Tour of Switzerland, Reluctant Son in Tow
'Most Sunday mornings, throughout my childhood near Geneva, my father would drive me to a spot we had never been before. Switzerland occupies about 16,000 square miles. Squeezed between France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Austria and Germany, it is divided into 26 cantons, each influenced by the country it is closest to. All are both fiercely independent and utterly loyal to the Swiss confederation. We explored much of the region where we lived, and that forged a nomadic spirit that has stayed with me.
After high school, I moved to New York, where I’ve lived for the last 30 years. My father died in 2003; three weeks later, my son, Sébastien, was born. I began to long for the stunning Alpine landscapes of my youth. Whenever possible, we traveled back to my mother’s house in Genthod, near Geneva, but I yearned to share more with Sébastien as he grew.
A dual citizen who spoke French at home, Sébastien, now 12, was curious about Switzerland. (He had been switching to English in our conversations, perhaps out of a growing preteen defiance.) So before full-fledged adolescence claimed him, I decided to take him around the country last summer.'>>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/travel/switzerland-train-languages-family.html?