Fête du Bois, Lausanne school parade
Geneva, Lausanne and Montreux, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva and most international schools in the area finished the 2008-09 school year 26 June, last Friday, but canton Vaud children are still braving hot days for their last week of school, which finishes Friday 3 July.
Lausanne’s primary schools Wednesday 1 July celebrated the end of the year with their traditional Fête du Bois parade through the city, to the cheers of parents.
Images: reproduced with permission, celestialpilgrim (see his complete parade collection on flickr). Click to view larger.
Summer music festivals begin
Summer now begins in earnest, by popular acclamation, in the Lake Geneva region with city music and arts festivals.
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival opens Friday 3 July. Expect long lines at the A9 autoroute entrances to Montreux, and if you’re going to the festival from another town, seriously consider taking the train. The festival’s new magazine is out, with day by day highlights. The free music in the streets pulls in crowds so prepare to mingle! [Ed. note: GenevaLunch articles on the Montreux Jazz festival are here. We'll be reviewing the festival for you, starting next week]
Lausanne’s Festival de la Cité
The colourful and lively Festival de la Cité brings artists and artisans onto the streets from 3-13 July and pulls in a crowd of 120,000. Note that there is no parking in the Cité (old town) district in the evenings and traffic is already difficult in the area due to unloading and construction for the performances. The train plus new M2 metro is the easiest way to get around. Friday night kicks off with Rocky Jo Altitude, a concert featuring hot vocals and 50 electric guitars. And if you have electric pink anywhere in your wardrobe, be sure to wear it for the special lighting on the Rue de l’Académie, where everything will be black and white except hot pink clothes!
Geneva’s Lake Parade
Friday and Saturday the Lake Parade in Geneva is on and police have issued the following traffic notice:
Starting at 13:00
Avenue de France, quai Wilson, quai du Mont-Blanc to the rue des Alpes: closed.
The autoroute will remain open, direction Geneva (Vengeron).
From 17:30
Quai Gustave-Ador closed between the place des Marronniers and the place du Traînant. Transit traffic (Geneva – Hermance / Anières – Geneva) will be diverted to the route de Frontenex – rte de Vandoeuvres, as well as along the route de Jussy.
From 18:00 – 21h00
Closed completely along the parade route: av. de France – quai Wilson – quai du Mt-Blanc – pont du Mt-Blanc – quai G.-Ador.
The quai G.-Ador, between the place des Marronniers and the place du Traînant, will remain closed until Sunday 13 July around noon.
Suggested alternate routes
Canton Vaud, to and from and transits: take the autoroute.
Crossing between the two sides of the lake: use ring roads – either the autoroute or the pont Butin road
To reach the city centre, take the following streets:
From the right bank: Rue Voltaire / Rte de Chancy / Rte des Jeunes / Rte des Acacias
From the left bank: Rte de Frontenex / Rte de Malagnou / Rte des Acacias
Geneva: Rue de la Croix Rouge closed, nights in July
Geneva’s Rue de la Croix Rouge will be closed from the Place Neuve to the rue des Casemates junction, 20:30-23:30 for the celebrations of Calvin’s 500th birthday, every evening except Mondays, to 26 July.
News story, GenevaLunch, 2 July 2009.
Filed under: Society
Tags: celestialpilgrim, festival de la cite, Fete du bois, flickr, Geneva, Lake Parade, Lausanne, Montreux, Montreux Jazz Festival, parade, primary schools, traffic, travel
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One Response to “Lake Geneva region: school’s out, summer music festivals”
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:19 am
[...] holidays Friday afternoon, and North-South traffic through Switzerland picking up. Check out our traffic suggestions for this weekend’s festivals in Lausanne and Geneva, as well as for trips through and outside [...]