we are an expat family living in canton Zurich since several years.
Within the next months, we will be moving to Canton Aargau for professional reasons. We have 2 boys, 14 and 10 years old, and are considering moving to Baden or alternatively Aarau.
If there are any expat family people here living in Aarau or Baden: could you let me know how you like it? Is it easy to make friends? Are "foreigners" integrated or will it take a while judging from your experience?
Baden scores over Aarau....especially in terms of international (as international it can be in Kanton AG)...Aarau is super pretty but not very international
I've been expatted out of Basel for Aarau for the past 18 months for the sake of lurv.. It's a great little town but.. my ears prick up if I ever hear English on the street. I don't really know Baden so can't give a fair comparison but would say Aarau only if you want the 'real (germanic) Swiss' experience
I love Baden. As a teenager I once lived with a Swiss family partway between Baden and Aarau. The children of the family both went to gymnasium in Baden for two reasons: they much preferred the town, and they were that much closer to Zurich.
The daughter joked with me that the only thing that made her consider doing gymnase in Aarau would be that she could would get to go to school where Einstein failed in math.
First time I was at the Turkish shop in Buchs, I was greeted in Turkish.
Around here, I've had the chance to learn enough Italian to learn enough Italian to enjoy a vacation in IT speaking places. There's also a lot of people from Turkey, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Portugal. And of course, lots of people from Germany. Maybe they're not "international because the don't rely on English for socializing
There's a cowboy clothing shop next to Braui in Buchs, so there's people that like it around here
Back to OP's question, I'd say that neither Baden nor Aarau are "cities". If you're looking for urban environment, both lose. What Aargau canton has to offer is boring suburban life at low cost (relative to CH average).
Thank you for this input, logo 123. We have only visited both cities and we like both cities, but will pick the one that's more international since we will phase in easier (judging from expierience living on other continents/other countries)
Is it international in Lenzburg? We currently live in a 10K people village in Canton Zurich and it's super quiet, but at least it has a good amount of Californians, Dutch, Swedish, etc. which makes life a bit easier. The Swiss people are also all very nice and friendly, but they are not necessarily waiting expand their network with foreigners to join their circle of friends and family, which I understand. Was the same in other countries, too.
Lenzburg feels quite Swiss, but there's more Italian-speakers here than in most places I've visited. I've been told anecdotally from the gemeinde person that 20% are Italian or of Italian descent.
Baden has a lot of "foreigners" - and being at the bar in the evening you'll heard English quite often...
It is not possible to tell to whom you are replying in many of your recent messages. If you click the "Quote" button on a message you wish to reply to, it will include the text of the message (and some extra code to format it nicely).
Just type below the text and it helps clarify the context.