GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Having just hopped off a bicycle after riding for two hours along the Rhone River, I can offer this factual information: the weather is perfect for cycling, hiking or doing just about anything else that requires your limbs to move.
Weekend weather forecast
Sunny with occasionally overcast skies for the weekend, temperature range 11-26C throughout the region, slightly warmer as you move east to canton Valais. Expect slightly cooler weather in the mountains: Zermatt will have lows of 6C, so take along sweaters or light jackets for the evenings.
What’s on
Last weekend it snowed in the Swiss Alps, down to 1,500 metres, but this weekend promises to be sunny and warmer!!
Check out the GenevaLunch events page for suggestions for the next few days. Some additional highlights:
Lausanne, Nordic Walking, city-sponsored annual group event with several distances, Sunday 9 September starting in Vidy at the Stade Pierre de Courbetin. While you’re there – and why not take the train? – check out the neighbourhood festival in the Sous-Gare (under the station) quartier.
Avenches: The Military Tatoo is a huge gathering of marching bands and other military musicians and dancers. You can only have a Tatoo with bagpipers and drummers, so they are out in force. They’ve been at it since Wednesday in the old Roman crossroads of Avenches, and they wind up in a loud and lively manner there Saturday. Bands come from throughout the world, and include Great Britain’s Band of the Prince of Wales’s Division, the Royal Netherlands Army Band ‘Johan Willem Friso,’ as well as a Russian marching band. Note: online tickets for the Saturday night show in the Roman arena don’t appear to be working, so best to just telephone.
Sierre and Salgesch/Salquenen: The friendly, small and cheerful Tohu Bohu music festival will fill the air in Miege and Muraz, just above Sierre, for the weekend.
When you’re not on a blanket listening to music you might consider the wonderful 09:00-18:00 Saturday hike from the Salgesch wine museum to the museum in Sierre, 6km with stops for wine tasting and explanations about local geography, botany, the spectacular wine culture in the region (fun even if your French isn’t perfect, and someone always speaks enough English to give you the basics). One of a series of walks organized by Marche des Cepages. Online tickets: CHF25 includes guide, raclette lunch, wines for tasting sessions, souvenir glass and entry to the museum. Note: the grapes are full and very ripe and juicy, a great time to learn about Switzerland’s 150 grape varieties, just before the harvest.
Eclepens, Vaud: If you don’t know this bucolic corner of canton Vaud, the open house at the Chateau d’Eclepens winery, with a terroir (local products) market Saturday 8 September is the perfect time to discover it. This award-winning winery has some of Switzerland’s oldest vines, and if you visit the home page you’ll see GenevaLunch editor Ellen Wallace reviewing one of the chateau’s wines!
Geneva, start of the week: The weather is expected to remain good in the next few days, so you might want to take advantage of the new autumn calendar 2012 at Fraiche Air, our newest GenevaLunch resource. The next hike is Tuesday 11 September.
