Electrifying Playtime

This isolated playground near Ornex is best visited on foot, by bicycle or by scooter as part of a pushchair friendly easy round walk. The small playground has table and chairs perfect for a picnic. It is situated on the Cycletrack of Tattes on which  there is also a  nearby open BMX track and series of geocaches.

Mussels at Playtime

There's a recently refurbished Leon de Bruxelles in Thoiry/St Genis. The restaurant has a small separate room is view of tables. The room has free table football and a few books. This place is so new we were the very first people to test the playroom and also the restaurant itself.  Location is adjacent to the Holiday Inn.

The Secret Playground in Sergy

Two years ago I commented on Sergy's playground with some harsh comments. It seems Sergy was listening and they have updated. A big climbing frame with a wooden chip floor. There are some swings and some springy things.

It's  a large green space and very quiet. It also has an excellent two lane 100m athletics circle for scooter races.

Top tip is to go on Thursday when there is also a take away pizza van on the opposite side of the road.

The playground is located behind Sergy's school.

Pizza on the Terrace in St Genis

In St Genis Casanova is a pizzeria where you can eat on a terrace overlooking some grass and a climbing frame.

Update 24th September 2012: The previously broken playground has been replaced by a brand new area with a bouncy rubber floor. This is huge improvement allowing you to ignore your children.

Climbing at a Campsite near Seleve

This is a playground on a campsite in Neydens that we used while visiting the restaurant for a coffee. There was also a collection of rabbits to pet and a bouncy castle on the day we visited. Of course the real reason to visit this village is to buy beer from the Brasserie du Mont Saleve.

The Tram at Confort

Confort is a pretty village just outside of the Pay de Gex region. It has a lovely surprise in its centre - a smart little play ground with an adjacent Tapas restaurant, the tram bar. Partially housed in an old railway carriage. This is a great and unfortunately rare combination: a restaurant with great reasonably priced food with good fenced in play structures which are easily visible from the restaurant terrace. This is good location to start many waymarked paths into the Jura.

La Plage de Saint Jorioz, Annecy

The municipal beach at Saint-Jorioz on Lake Annecy has some good sand in particular. I imagine this place is hugely busy in the summer months. There's a well fenced playground but the main attraction is paddling of course.

The Woods in Argentière

Argentière is 9km from Chamonix. The Petit Balcon Nord is a woodland walk between the two and has a picturesque playground. There's a river beach for paddling in. An unusual thing about this playground is that is impossible to drive to which makes a change.

McLHCb Near Ferney

The new well-known Scottish restaurant is now open just inside France over the Mategnin border. The restaurant and outdoor playground are situated close to LHCb which is one of the four LHC experiments at CERN. You can eat your burger and watch them play while the big bang is recreated under your feet.

View Mt Blanc while climbing on Salève

The Salève is the 1400m mountain right next to Geneva. It's easy to reach with public transport and then can be scaled with the cable car or alternatively you can just drive up. Apart from the obvious walking and view-taking to do there is a small see-saw at the kiosk at the top of the cable car. The Auberge des Montagnards in Croisette has a terrace and small climbing frame (which is reassuringly close to the restaurant's tables) looking out to Mt Blanc, they also have chickens and rabbit as a useful diversion.

Secret Aeroplane Park in Ferney

This park is uniquely located right up against Geneva Airport's runway. From the climbing frame you can view private jets and huge boeings roar in right next to you. The park is a nature reserve and there are often plane spotters sitting on the many benches overlooking the runway.
I particularly like the merry-go-round and its ability to make you feel quite sick while you attempt to demonstrate conservation of angular momentum.
To find these swings park by Lidl supermarket and head through the gate in the fence past the large ponds.

Rope Tower of Thoiry

The rope tower in Thoiry is the newest addition to the area after being opened just yesterday for the first time.
It's clearly popular already and was almost invisible yesterday for the swarm of children covering it.
I hope in time more will added to this area. Currently this tower stands alone in a large field.

Rope Pyramid at St. Genis

The rope pyramid in St Genis is challenging enough to keep older children interested while underneath small ones can enjoy the large sandpit.

A football pitch and skate park are also on hand.

The park is a short walk from St. Genis centre. It's also just a pleasant ten minute walk along to the river bank to the Castle at St. Genis.

Story Train at Crozet

A visit to the train at Crozet normally brings great excitement.

Drive the train, walk along its length, climb on the roof,...

Park at St. Jean

St. Jean de Gonville has a really tranquil park of trees and shrubs. Aswell as the swings in the middle there are some good rockeries and hiding places to play on and in.

The ground floor of the climbing  frame is great, it has a table and chairs for a child scale picnic.

St. Jean park is a great venue for a lazy afternoon.

Castle at St. Genis

The castle playground in St Genis is usually a fairly quiet place with some picnic tables. There is a fence around the swings and in fact the whole park is surrounded by a robust fence (punctuated by gates, of course). A track around the large grassy area of the park allows children to do circuits on their bikes, scooters or tricycles.

For the adults there is also an exercise playground with rowing and climbing machines. The climbing machine seams, to me at least, to be particularly hard to use.

Octagon at Peron

Climbing Trees at Peron

There are some climbing frames in the middle of Peron right next to the Marie. Some leafy trees give shade to some benches and some very low branching trees are good for climbing.

There's a tiny train as well, it's a log with a chimney on top but it does the job.

About 20m away there is a small cafe which is sometimes open.

Peron octagon and a tiny train.

Panoramic Climbing at Challex

Challex has one of the best locations for a playground I know. Located at the top of Challex by the football stadium you get good views of both the Saléve and the Jura.

It's grass for a change in between the swings and there's a good picnic table for your lunch.

Challex seems to be pretty quiet,  the only thing I could hear today was church bells and the genuine sound of Pétanque balls clacking.

The particular attraction with the climbing frame here is the little room on top of the climbing frame where children all go and hide out. Challex is a relaxing playground for the parents too.

Get Interactive at Flunch

Flunch Interactive

Play table  coming away from the wall.

Flunch is the recently rebranded cafeteria at Carrefour in Segny. It has a toddler's area which is basically a pretty small copy of an Ikea cafeteria play area with interactive panels and those beads on wire things. It also has a tiny telly so far away you can't see it.  I noticed also that one of shelves was coming away from the wall which, given this is a new place, seems bad. The ball pit that used to be here in Cafe Cresendo has now long gone.

Table Football and Skateboard Park at Moëns

Concrete table football, just bring your own ball.

On  the outskirts of Prévessin-Moëns by the football pitch there are various sports facilities including some swings. The climbing frame is good. The round-a-bout looks good but pushing it far too hard and it squeaks, it just needs a good oiling.

There's also concrete table tennis and table football there to use, just bring a bat and ball.

And of course there is skateboard park with half pipe, a basketball court and what I thought was a massive sandpit but was, of course, a vollyball court.

Genrally this place feels a bit on the edge of nowhere and most people probably drive here but it's a nice enough place if you are passing.