Do return for our Christmas and New Year’s series of holiday features for the next two weeks, starting with a blog post on what to serve out of town guests as an aperitif, and a feature story: our profile of Patrick Chappatte, GL’s cartoonist, later today – our Christmas present to you!

Meanwhile, a brief look at top stories in the local, regional and Swiss French language media today:

La Côte – If you think your accounting problems are a burden, imagine those of the doubly-named Hôtel Franco-Suisse (in Switzerland) and the Hôtel Arbez (in France), whose length runs along the Swiss-French border, with the actual legal line running right through the kitchen.

l’Hebdo, Fre, published on Tuesdays – Quietly, steadily, our retirement benefits are falling, the weekly news magazine points out, so that starting in 2015 if your capital is CHF100,000 you’ll receive only CHF6,400 rather than the CHF7,200 due today.

RSR and TSR, Fre – French investor Thierry de La Villehuchet becomes the first apparent suicide victim of the Madoff investment scandal.

Le Temps, Fre – The saga of Bernard Madoff’s impact on local banks continues to be explored, with a lengthy article on how his system functioned. A separate article looks at Luxalpha, a UBS Luxembourg fund that served as the bank’s door to Madoff’s empire, the newspaper says. Editor’s note: a Le Temps interview, part of the recent series, is quoted in a front page IHT article that appears to focus on the impact of the Madoff scandal on Swiss banks, despite their relatively low exposure compared to other European banks and US banks.

Tribune de Geneve and 24 Heures – Geneva lawyer Charles Poncet has been defending Libya’s interests in discussions with Switzerland over the Qadaffi affair that dates back several months. Lausanne is the shopping capital of canton Vaud this week, with sales not showing any slowdown, and Manor, for example, selling double what it predicted for Monday.

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