Well, it turns out that my little traveling crew have the opportunity to go to Switzerland in January for the annual hot air balloon festival (just east of Geneva and south of Bern), so we are going to make a vacation of it!
My friend has been offered the chance to fly HIS balloon at the festival, too!
So, as we plan this trip, we are kinda at a loss for what to do in Switzerland in late January, and what other areas nearby we can reasonably visit in the dead of winter. Dijon and Lyon are both close in France - although more spring/summer destinations - as well as all the usual northern Italian destinations like Milan or Venice.
But again ... winter.
We aren't skiers or mountain climbers or glacier climbers... we are more likely to sit in the lodge and sample fine meats, cheeses, and wines, honestly.
So, for those who know the area/region, what should we do in late January in the middle of the EU?
Geneve is a nice place, but pretty small, so you can get around it in a few day. Very international Lyon has (imho) the best cuisine from all the country. So you can go enjoy some restaurant there ("rue des marronniers" is a rare place with restaurant for tourist that the locals also go to) , and there are some museum. Lyon is direct from Geneve by train in ~2h. Trains in europa are cool (I heard this is not the case in america) Venice is great in winter with fewer tourist and still amazing church and rare painting to visit Without ski , or outdoors passion, I would go for food, musueum and city touring (the visa for Swiss is may be different for the rest of Europa, as Swiss is not in the EU)