June 1, 2003 With Protesters on the Move, Geneva Shops Board Up By ELAINE SCIOLINO
GENEVA, May 31 — The Rolex store on Rue du Rhône, Geneva's equivalent of Rodeo Drive, was not to be outdone by its neighbors.
It was not enough to board up the front door and the plate glass windows with knotty pine planks painted yellow and to disguise all identifying signs. Rolex also ringed its second story with garlands of barbed wire.
Downtown Geneva has the look of a city under siege — a place where most merchants have boarded up, locked up and retreated in anticipation of possible violence surrounding the Group of 8 summit meeting that is to open in Évian, on the French side of Lake Geneva, on Sunday.
The few people on the streets today were camera-carrying curiosity seekers, amazed that stores with names like Hermès, Celine, Cartier and Patek Philippe had simply disappeared.
A Peugeot dealership removed all the cars from its show window. The Velvet nightclub, famous for its Russian hostesses, painted its plywood cover a stylish black. The lower floors of the elegant Hôtel Beau Rivage were wrapped in reinforced white plastic, à la Christo.
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