La Suisse, renovated steam paddleboat, Lake Geneva 17 May 2009
Lake Geneva (GenevaLunch) - La Suisse, the flagship of the Compagnie Générale de Navigation (CGN), was officially presented to an enthusiastic public Saturday and Sunday 16-17 May after 18 months being completely overhauled. La Suisse transported 3,500 passengers around the lake Saturday from Ouchy and Sunday from Geneva. The excellent weather contributed to the fun.
La Suisse originally entered service in May 1910, built by Sulzer Bros in Winterthur as a coal-fired paddle boat with 1,400 horse power engines.
It was converted to heavy fuel in 1960, and converted to light fuel in 1998/99. Fifteen thousand donors contributed CHF12 million to help pay for the latest overhaul, according to CGN.
People who missed the boat during this weekend’s festivities, can see La Suisse 24 May in Rolle, during CGN ‘s Naval Parade.
It re-enters commercial service 14 June with regular runs between Lausanne and St Gingolph, and 14 September-25 October between Lausanne and Geneva on weekends.
Related, for steamboat fans:
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 18 May 2009.
Filed under: Society
Tags: Arts and entertainment, CGN, Geneva, La Suisse, Lac Leman, Lake Geneva, Lausanne, Ouchy, paddle boat, steamboat
September 10th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
[...] Background:“La Suisse paddle steamer back in service on Lake Geneva“, 18 May 2009, GenevaLunch Posted by :: Sean Ecker on 10 September 2009 at 16:00 | permalink Post Comment [...]