Welcome

Welcome to my blog. First of all, a quick summary: I live in Weil, Germany’s most south-westerly town situated on the border with Switzerland and the city of Basle. Weil am Rhein – to give the town its full name – is known primarily for its chairs and its design museum. Chairs, because the German chair-making company Vitra has its headquarters here. Museum, because the Vitra Design Museum is based here. The museum building was designed by Frank O. Gehry, supposedly the same bloke who designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Weil (pronounced “vile”) has been my home for almost six and a half years, and I’ve grown curiously fond of the place in that time. It’s hard to put my finger on it, though maybe it’s a combination of living on the doorstep of Basle, where I work, but living away from it all in a different country altogether. With 30,000 inhabitants, Weil is neither small nor big. However, it seems a lot more bustling than other towns of that size, probably because of the influx of foreign visitors who come here to purchase their weekly groceries. Walk into the town centre on a Saturday morning and the roads are chocker with Swiss and also French-registered cars. Thanks to this additional clientele, Weil's retailers are in a privileged position compared with their counterparts from most other German towns.

Are your eyes are glazing over? Sorry!

Watch this space for more cutting-edge insight from Weil am Rhein.