LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Yet another armed robbery attempt, the sixth in seven days in canton Vaud, took place Friday night at 18:50 at the Pam grocery store on the rue des Moulins in Yverdon-les-Bains. The masked thief was frightened off without getting anything after the cashier screamed repeatedly and loudly when he pointed a black gun at her and demanded the contents of the cash register.
A manhunt with several police patrols has not turned up the man, who is described by Vaud police as 170cm tall, thin, wearing dark clothes and knitted dark cagoule (mask) with three holes.
Police ask that anyone with information phone them at +41 21 644 4444.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A man with a gun held up two people in their 40s as they were closing their business Thursday evening 26 January at 18:30 on the rue de Margencel in Aigle. They gave him an undisclosed sum of money when they were threatened at gunpoint. He then fled and although police were alerted and immediately set up a manhunt, the man has not been found.
His description: he spoke French with an accent “from the East”; 170-175cm tall, thin, dressed in a white shirt with a hood and dark pants; tanned skin.
This is the fifth armed robbery in canton Vaud in one week, with the suspects on the loose in four cases. Police in Lausanne Thursday nabbed thieves who had broken into a Place ST Francois jewelry store at 12:30. A call from outside the store alerted police who arrived quickly and were able to force to the ground and handcuff “several persons” trying to flee. One client inside the shop was slightly injured by a knife.
Drunk driver left scene of Montreux-Vevey accident; 78-year-old woman killed
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A 78-year-old woman died in hospital Saturday night 21 January shortly after an accident at 22:00 on the A9 autoroute between Vevey and Montreux, in the direction of Vileneuve. The lake side of the road was closed to traffic until 07:15 Sunday for the investigation.
The driver of the second car noticed the car ahead of him too late and despite braking hard he rear-ended the car violently, say canton Vaud police. The two cars ended up crosswise on the highway.
The victim, who lived in north Vaud, was driving a gray Toyota wagon, and police are looking for witnesses or anyone with information, in particular drivers who may have passed her car. She was taken to the Chuv university hospitals, where she died.
The man who crashed into her car is 26 years old, Portuguese and his driver’s license was already suspended. He fled the scene of the accident but turned himself in later. His alcohol level was measured at 1.08.
Anyone with information is asked to go to the nearest police station or to phone +41 21 644 4444.
Gland child rape suspect, police sketch
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Canton Vaud police have dropped their extradition request for a French man held by police in Annemasse, over the border from Geneva, on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old in Gland 14 April 2011.
French police arrested the man 30 November, and he is still being held by them, but further investigations in Switzerland have failed to back up initial suspicions he could be the perpetrator of the sexual assault.
The man who accosted the girl inside her apartment building is still being sought by Vaud police, who say that a number of leads are being pursued actively.
The police drawing has been updated, but 1 December police said it is possible he has shaved his beard and made other changes to his appearance.
The man was European in look, with light-coloured eyes, white-blond hair and spoke French, possibly with a slight, indistinguishable accent. He was wearing wireframed glasses. Height 170-180cm, weight average although with a slight belly.
He was seen driving away from the scene of the crime in a turquoise (green or blue) car with Geneva plates.
A week later they issued samples of the colour of his car. These can be viewed on the web page devoted to the crime, which is a Vaud police priority case, along with that of missing six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia.
The public has responded strongly to the police request for help, the cantonal office says. Anyone with information is asked to contact the nearest police station or phone +41 21 644 4444.
More cycling paths are on the way in Vaud
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Canton Vaud’s governing council has earmarked CHF425 million for improvements to the transport system over the next seven years, it said Thursday 12 January. The bulk will go to public transport and road improvements, the rest to improved and increased use of renewable energy.
The money comes from unspent funds that are the result of federal and cantonal redistribution of tax monies and is in addition to some CHF300m from the regular budget.
The projects that will receive financial support earlier than planned include: the Vaud RER (regional public transport) system, top-quality bus service for the Lausanne-Morges area and several regional trains: Lausanne-Echallens-Bercher, BièreApples-Morges, Nyon-St Cergue, Yverdon-Ste Croix. The road improvement monies will go to park and ride (P+R) areas, cycling paths and a number of upgrades.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 14-year-old is in serious condition, but his life is not in danger, following an accident at the train station in Gland, canton Vaud, Thursday evening 22 December. Vaud police say that a goods train, going 100 kph, pulled the youth was pulled onto the tracks from the platform about 19:00. He and a group of friends, who were meeting up at the station, were standing on the platform and talking, according to local media.
Vaud police have not confirmed the details but say that the youth and one other friend, also 14, were both injured. The second boy sustained only light injuries and was treated and released from the Nyon hospital.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Jetman does it again: astonishes, with his latest feat, flying 28 November with two Breitling Jet Team jets from Dijon, France, in formation over the Alps. We’re nearly speechless, so just watch the video (other feats by Vaud’s famous pilot Yves Rossy, formerly known as Fusion Man):
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Some 350 students unexpectedly had a free hour, but out in the chilly November air Wednesday morning after an industrial vacuum cleaner caught fire at a school in Payerne, canton Vaud.
The machine filled the Derrière la Tour secondary school with smoke at 08:30 and students were ordered to leave. An hour later the building had been aired and they were allowed back in, but investigators are checking to see what caused the fire.
Canton Vaud started a new service called La Chaise Rouge (red chair) in October 2011 to provide handicapped persons with a trained volunteer assistant who can help them get out to concerts, exhibits or activities. The service is opened to handicapped people who live at home. It’s a project developed by Pro Infirmis Vaud and the Swiss Red Cross, which trains the volunteers. The web site is in French only.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Jean-Claude Mermoz’s sudden death Tuesday 6 September, four days after emergency heart surgery, has shocked the political world in canton Vaud. The cantonal councilor who was minister for the economy, and his death is the first of a member of the cantonal council while in office.
The 59-year-old Mermoz, a UDC party member who had been on the council for 13 years, had a reputation for being a diplomat, the cantonal government president, Pascal Broulis, said Tuesday, and he would be sorely missed.
Mermoz’s condition was reported late Monday to be stable, and his death just hours later caught everyone by surprise. He was known for his healthy lifestyle – a daily runner, he enjoyed a healthy diet, one politician told TSR television, and he had taken part in the grueling Glacier Patrol race. A month ago he ran the difficult Sierre-Zinal mountain race. Two weeks ago he sent an SMS to one of his regular climbing buddies, from the top of Mont Blanc.
His family lives in Eclagnens, Gros-de-Vaud.
Cantonal vote also rejects education initiative
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A low turnout of voters in canton Vaud, 40 percent, Sunday 4 September rejected a proposal to give long-term foreign residents the right to vote, with 69 percent saying no to the initiative that was supported by the political left. If the measure had passed Vaud would have been the first canton to extend voting in communes to the cantonal level.
Voters rejected some changes to the education system in favour of a counter-proposal that will stream weaker students in with general courses starting in 2013 and that will notably require all students to study English and German, starting earlier than they currently do.
Voting linked to citizenship duties
The proposal would have allowed foreigners resident in Switzerland for at least 10 years, with three of those in the canton, to elect officials and vote on issues at the cantonal level.
Swissinfo cites Philippe Leuba, head of the Vaud cantonal interior office, as saying “the vote could not be interpreted as a rejection of foreigners”.
The government, encouraging long-term foreigners to become Swiss, had recommended before the vote that citizens oppose it, saying it is wrong for foreigners to separate the right to vote from the broader responsibilities that go with citizenship.
Secondary students to be grouped by ability for mathematics, languages
Voters also rejected an initiative called “School 2010: save the schools” but accepted a counter-initiative called Leo, proposed by cantonal authorities. Leo calls for a much-debated part of the secondary system to disappear, the options programme for weaker students starting in year 7, who will be streamed in with general classes starting in 2013.
Leo will also require all students to study German and English, starting at an earlier age. They will be grouped by ability for mathematics, French and German.
The man who burned two police officers before escaping remains at large late Tuesday night, but TSR reports police as saying his car has been found, deserted by the 25-year-old near Clées, just off the A9 autoroute southwest of Yverdon, not far from the Swiss-French border.
Update 23:20 LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Two canton Vaud police officers were seriously injured when a man threw boiling hot oil at them as he tried to escape after police were called to a domestic violence incident near Orbe at 10:00 Tuesday morning 23 August. The 25-year-old Swiss man, who was known to police for drug abuse but not for domestic violence, had taken his wife hostage.
Police convinced the man, who appeared very aggressive, to let his 23-year-old wife, who is Algerian, escape at 10:50, but he then retreated further into his apartment and locked himself in. He refused to cooperate with police and threatened to kill them, so the team called for reinforcements and blocked off the premises. The man’s wife was taken in by social services and given counseling.
The specialist team took up positions around the building, with some of them in the elevator at 12:30 when the man suddenly burst out of the apartment and threw the boiling oil on them. One police officer has serious burns to a shoulder, arm and thigh and another has burns to one arm.
The man took advantage of the confusion to flee out a dormer window onto the roof, from where he climbed onto the roof of a neighbouring building and down to the street and his car, a black BMW 330 i with Vaud plates. A police office from Orbe tried to stop him and he nearly ran over the policeman as he tried to reverse into him. He drove off, in the direction of Montcherand.
By late afternoon a large manhunt was underway in the Orbe, Ste Croix and Vallorbe area for the man, who remains at large: 25 police patrols, an army helicopter with two air search specialist police officers, border guards, French gendarmes and police from Neuchatel, Fribourg and Geneva are also involved.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Vaud Police have issued a missing persons alert for 13-year-old Fadumo, who disappeared from her father’s house in Moudon Sunday 26 June.
Description: 140cm tall, slender, brown eyes and long brown hair. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, with an African-style cap, the day she disappeared.
Investigators say she may be in Moudon, Lausanne or Villeneuve.
Anyone with information about the girl or who has seen her is asked to phone the juveniles section of Vaud Police: +41 21 644 4444, or to contact the nearest police station.
Click on image to view larger
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A 57-year-old Fribourg man who lived in Le Broye died during the night at the Chuv hospitals in Lausanne, following a road accident Thursday afternoon 30 June at 17:30 near Moudon. The man was on a scooter on the Bern road between Moudon and Lucens when a French trailer-truck passed him, heading in the direction of Lucens. The man lost his balance when the trailer was level with him and he fall against the trailer, which was to his left, then hit the ground.
He was critically injured in the fall. The truck, driven by a French woman, stopped immediately. The man was attended to by emergency teams then airlifted by Rega to the hospital in Lausanne.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Three motorcyclists are in serious condition after separate accidents over the weekend, in Vaud and Valais.
Friday night 24 June at 21:45, a 20-year-old motorcyclist was passing a truck on the Chavornay-Orbe road, heading towards Orbe, when he was surprised by a car coming in the opposite direction. He managed to avoid the car but lost control of his bike and is in hospital with serious injuries after being thrown onto nearby rail tracks. The highway and railroad were closed for an hour while the accident was investigated.
A 25-year old man from the Lausanne area is in critical condition after sustaining serious leg injuries Saturday 25 June at 17:30 when he lost control of his motorcycle while passing a car on the Lausanne autoroute ring road, near the Malley exit.
The circumstances of the second accident are not yet clear and canton Vaud police are seeking witnesses or anyone with information about both accidents as well as one, below, that occurred Sunday: telephone +41 21 644 4444 or go to the nearest police station.
Sunday at 13:00, on the road between Chesières and Aigle, a Geneva car heading towards Chesières crossed the median line and hit a motorcycle coming in the opposite direction, near les Combes. The 19-year-old motorcyclist was seriously injured and taken by ambulance to the Monthey hospital, but his 23-year-old passenger, who was flown to the Chuv in Lausanne, is in critical condition.
Stephanie Delarze of Domaine de la Baudeliere in Aigle is one of Vaud's up and coming women winemakers
Update 10:00 (link to blog with tips for visiting) LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Wine-lovers will be spoiled three times over after this weekend, with canton Vaud holding what promises to be a major new annual event on the wine calendar.
Saturday and Sunday 11-12 June are open days for wineries in Vaud, with 70 percent of them participating and a host of new features, starting with a CHF15 “passport”.
The CFF rail company is joining in the transport offers for the first time, there are prizes and hotel deals: in short, a combination the organizers hope will pull in the crowds.
The two Open Days, organized by the Vaud Wine Office with the wineries, retailers and several other partners, follows Geneva’s hugely popular wine Open day two weeks ago and canton Valais’s long weekend of wine tasting that ended last Sunday. Vaud has held open days in the past, but until this year, the event has not had widespread and strong backing from the wineries, which tended to do their own thing.
“People in Vaud have a reputation for getting up early, but waking up late”, one Vaud winemaker said this week, with a little laugh. He conceded that this is the year when changes, after substantial planning and testing, are ready. When Vaud wakes up, it moves.
What tourists, consumers, wine-lovers can expect from Vaud’s wineries
The Open Days target a mixed crowd, from wine connoisseurs to those who just like to drink the stuff to people who are new to wine or new to the region and wonder about those beautiful vineyards that stretch from Lake Geneva up to the lower slopes of the Jura range.
Background, Vaud as a wine region: The canton is Switzerland’s second largest for wine production, with 3,818 hectares, nearly three times the size of Geneva’s wine production area (3,213 hectares). It has four wine regions, which are distinctly different:
- La Côte with 2,000 hectares, the stretch roughly from Nyons to Morges
- the steep and ancient slopes of Lavaux, which is home to the Unesco World Heritage site vineyards
- Chablais, the stretch between Lake Geneva and canton Valais
- Côtes de l’Orbe/Bonvillars where red wines reign supreme.
Vaud is home to Chasselas, the white grape that is behind Switzerland’s long reputation for crisp white aperitif wines. The same grape gives Valais its fendant wines. But the grape variety originated in Vaud, Jose Vouillamoz, a renowned international grape variety researcher has shown, and this is where it is happiest. Vaud produces many beautiful Chasselas wines in the hands of top producers: some very mineral, others floral and yet others fruity.
Solange and Lucie Perey are two young sisters whose Domaine des Abbesses wines are quickly making a mark
This is the varietal (single grape) wine you will see over and over during the Open Days. Try it in different locations and you’ll have one of the best possible lessons in what the wine term “terroir” means, for Chasselas is particularly sensitive to its growing environment: soil, air, climate, sun exposure and altitude. Chasselas from Begnins is nothing like the ones from Dezaley, and both can be elegant wines.
The red wines, although accounting for only one-third of production (in most parts of Switzerland red grapes are in the majority) in Vaud, are very often award-winning wines, so don’t overlook them. Gamay, Gamaret, Garanoir and Pinot Noir are some of the most popular grapes.
Details of the Open Days
Your best starting point is the Caves Ouvertes web site, if you read French or German.
Basics: for CHF15 you can buy your “passport” in any of the 250 participating wineries. It comes in the form of a glass which you can take home as a souvenir, but be sure not to lose it during the day, as this also gives you free tastings in any of the cellars, and access to the shuttle buses that leave from the following stations:
- Bonvillars : Yverdon
- Chablais : Aigle, Villeneuve, Ollon
- Côtes de l’Orbe : Yverdon
- La Côte : Morges, Allaman, Gland, Nyon, Rolle
- Lavaux : Cully, Chexbres, Vevey, Lutry.
The CFF Railaway offer gives you 20 percent off on roundtrip train fares to Aigle, Allaman, Bex, Chexbres-village, Cully, Gland, Lutry, Morges, Nyon, Ollon, Rolle, Vevey, Villeneuve and Yverdon-les-Bains plus 20 percent off on the regional Mobilis public transport system and 20 percent off the cost of the Open Days passport.
The wineries are open from 10:00 to 19:00 Saturday and Sunday and there are ample opportunities to discover regional foods. Several hotels have special offers.
Ed. note: GenevaLunch will publish a few suggestions and notes from the pre-Open Days press conference, early Saturday morning. If you have a smart phone you might want to consider the new Caves Ouvertes app.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The four-day Swiss Ascension weekend led to a number of accidents in the Lake Geneva region, police report. A 19-year-old Vaud woman lost her life in the early hours of Saturday when the car she was driving hit the pillar of a bridge on the road between Daillens and Eclépens, near Morges. The accident occurred at 01:20 in the morning.
The car rolled down a slope after hitting the bridge, and landed on the CFF railway tracks. Emergency services were alerted immediately but the woman died at the scene of the accident.
The CFF stopped rail service until 06:30, sending out a team to repair the tracks.
Seriously injured cyclist hit by man pulling out of driveway
A cyclist in canton Valais was seriously injured, but his life is not in danger, with several vertebrae broken during an accident Saturday about 15:30. He was cycling on the road from Lourtier towards Champsec. A 37-year-old man pulled out of his driveway, not seeing the cyclist who was coming along the road from his left. The 36-year-old bike rider hit the front left of the car and was thrown 15 metres onto a bank. Both are from the area.
Spate of carelessness fires in Valais
Canton Valais saw two fires over the holiday weekend. One was in a tile-making plant. The other was in Saxon at a home for adults in difficultly, where a cigarette butt was responsible for causing serious damage but no injuries. The fires came just days after a another blaze in Sierre where a woman left candles burning in her bathroom and the curtains caught fire. The fires caused buildings to be evacuated, but there were no injuries.
The A9 autoroute heading towards Valais suddenly opens up after Villeneuve, wide and flat and straight and - oops, now there are radars from Aigle to Bex, so watch that gas pedal!
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Some motorists’ favourite A9 autoroute spot for speeding up has just become more treacherous, in terms of being caught, thanks to the installation of new radars.
Two boxes appeared Friday on the stretch of road between Aigle and Bex, in canton Vaud just before Valais, heading in the direction of Valais. The radars went into effect Monday morning 30 May. They don’t flash a driver for speeding at a fixed point but take the average speed over the stretch.
Speeders will be flashed, but no fines handed out on the basis of what the radar clocks, for the first month, to allow the system to be tested.
The ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) radars have proven effective in other countries, says the Federal Highway Department. They improve the flow of traffic and reduce the number of speeders, and in some countries, the number of fatalities and serious accidents have been reduced by half.
The 8-km radar intalled this week is a portable system, but by 2012 a fixed system will be in place.
Switzerland’s first ANPR radars were set up in the A2′s Arisdorf tunnel stretch of road near Basel in January 2011.
Vaud offers new notary service: advice on marriage, buying real estate, setting up a business and more
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Fifteen minutes of advice from a qualified on-duty notary, 16:00 to 19:00 on Thursdays, for CHF30: the Vaud Notaries Association has decided to open an easy-to-use shared consulting service in Lausanne, as part of its public outreach effort.
The new service offers people 15 minute appointments on a first-come, first-served basis, for advice on subjects ranging from the legal aspects of marriage to setting up a company, estate planning and inheritance and buying real estate.
The permanence office is at the Maison du Notariat, Avenue Ruchonnet 38 in Lausanne.
Switzerland remains the world’s top bottle recycling nation
St Prex fetes 100 years of glass-making, music and beautiful lakeside floral displays
Saint Prex, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – More than one glass is being raised this weekend in Saint Prex, canton Vaud, as the village celebrates one hundred years of glass-making 14-15 May. The Vetropack Group’s “verrerie“, or glass-making factory, was set up in 1911 by Henri Cornaz to work with the local wine and beer industries. By 1959 the company had become Switzerland’s largest glass manufacturer, with Swiss glass factories replacing imports from Communist bloc countries. In 1986 Vetropak, the group created 20 years earlier, began to expand into Austria and, over the next 15 years, further east.
Today the St Prex factory’s main business is wine bottles, made from recycled glass.
42.6kg per person recycled every year
The Swiss are world leaders in glass recycling, with nearly 95 percent of all glass containers, 42.6kg per person, collected, melted down and turned into new glass. Swiss residents annually use about 120 glass containers each.
Saint Prex’s factory reflects the development of 20th century corporate Switzerland and the impact Swiss firms have had on the towns around them. The group had a 2009 turnover of CHF104 million and it recycles about one-third of the country’s glass. It operates in three locations in Switzerland, as well as in Austria, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.
Photo: Verrerie brass band in 1911 (Photo: Vetrobrass)
Sandy soil was perfect for glass
The bucolic lakeside village had been, for two centuries, a summer resort for wealthy people from Morges, 6km away, at the start of the 20th century. It was built near sandy soil that Cornaz saw as the perfect raw material for his glass business, which grew rapidly as the summer home role of Saint Prex faded away.
St Prex's history chart, part of the village's marked walks
Cornaz built a factory, and, typical for the time, he also built a small new town for his workers on the north side of the railroad tracks.
Local clubs created for immigrants
He provided several local clubs for the “immigrants”, who at the time came mainly from canton Fribourg. Later waves of immigrants came from Italy, then Spain and Portugal, and their descendents continue to make up a significant part of St Prex’s population of 5,000. The Fanfare de la Verrerie 14-15 May is also celebrating its centennial as the brass band set up for workers shortly after the factory opened (videos, St Prex Fanfare).
A football field was built and the local football club created in 1912, and in 1913 a local gymanstics society was set up.
Swiss sports, for children and adults, today retain this tradition of local commune clubs rather than schools as the centres for learning and practicing many sports. Scores of local clubs, often set up under the patronage of local companies, continue to play an important role in the lives of Swiss towns.
Dionys line of traditional canton Vaud wine bottles (source: Vetropak)
Local events were in the early days held in the factory’s hall, which today houses a small but rich local glass history museum.
Group works closely with Swiss winemakers
The St Prex verrerie works closely with wine and other beverage producers to create packaging that includes specialty bottles. It unveiled a new line of traditional Vaud bottles, called Dionys, that are 5 percent lighter, reducing shipping and delivery costs for winemakers’s standard lines.
The Clos Domaine & Chateaux group of 12 top wineries in canton Vaud in April unveiled an elegant, heavier new 75cl bottle that its members will be able to use for their haute gamme products, designed with Vetropak.
Related links: St Prex tourism, Ellen Wallace’s flickr collection of St Prex images
First floor tenant, “under the influence”, may have caused the fire through negligence
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A fire in Lucens that killed one young woman and injured three others may have been caused by negligence on the part of a tenant on the first floor, police in canton Vaud say.
The victim of the fire in the old town of Lucens, near Moudon, 29 April has been identified as the 22-year-old tenant of one of four apartments that caught fire in the early hours. The young woman was Swiss.
Three other people were injured, including two taken to hospital. The tenant of the first floor apartment, a 25-year-old Romanian, appeared to hospital staff to be under the influence of alcohol, according to police. An investigation into the cause of the blaze has been opened.
Police seek information and witnesses on man seen in area
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Canton Vaud Police are seeking witnesses and information on a man who was seen driving a small turquoise car with Geneva plates, suspected of sexually abusing a pre-teen in her apartment building Thursday evening 14 April. He was reported by neighbours to have been seen loitering in the area in the afternoon and possibly also a week earlier, as if he were waiting for someone.
The girl was confronted by the man in front of her building on the Rue des Alpes at 17:30 Thursday and, on a pretext, he took her to a room in the building, where he sexually abused her. He was seen running out of the building and fleeing in the small model turquoise car at 18:00. The car appeared to have Geneva plates.
Police describe him as European in appearance, speaking French, age 50-60, height 175-180cm, average weight and build, blue eyes, short blond/white/gray hair with a beard the same colour. He was wearing glasses with wire-rim or other light frames. He wore black pants and a pink/red striped shirt or pullover.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the police at +41 21 644 4444 or to go to the nearest police station.
Update 13:00 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud, with 140 people involved directly, are conducting a new search for six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, between Morges and Saint Prex. The search is focusing on the Boiron area, a wooded stretch with a small river that feeds into Lake Geneva.
The search is being undertaken after a new witness came forward 6 April to say a man was seen in the area, carrying a suitcase, Sunday 30 January around 16:00. The information, combined with other elements in the investigation, has prompted police to carry out the search.
The Boiron stretch of beach is about a 20-minute drive from the home of the girls’ father, in St Sulpice, where the girls were last seen by people who knew them, earlier that Sunday afternoon. The beach was until recently popular with nudists, but since nudism was banned in the area, which can be reached only on foot, it has been less frequented.
Police spokesperson Jean-Christophe Sauterel says that the new search involves 11 sniffer dogs from several cantons, trained to search for bodies. A two-day search has been scheduled; when pressed by journalists as to whether or not this means police are now looking for a body, Sauterel said that they remain open to all possibilities.
Missing: Gilles Cavin, Montreux, age 26
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in Vaud are asking for the public to help locate a 26-year-old man who has been missing since 5 April from his home in Montreux.
He is 172 cm tall, of average build, with short blond hair and blue eyes.
Anyone who has seen him or who has information is asked to contact the police by telephone at 021 644 4444 or go to the nearest police station.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud have arrested two men in their early 20s on suspicion of robbing several gas stations and businesses at gunpoint, in Vaud and Fribourg, in recent months.
One, a Portuguese man, has been on the run from a Vaud detention centre for several months. The other man is from Cap Verde. Neither of them has a fixed address.
The two are being questioned over a series of armed robberies where two men escaped using a stolen motorbike. Police in the West Lausanne district found the bike and set up surveillance to catch the first, then the second man.
Geneva, Lausanne and Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A French man in his 30s died Friday morning when he lost control of his car on a bend on the St Cergues road, Vaud police say. He was travelling from La Cure to St Cergue when he missed a left bend at Cheseaux, about 10:15. The car hit a rocky bank and rolled over, landing on its roof.
The driver was unconscious when emergency services arrived and he died shortly afterwards.
The victim was a resident of France.
The St Cergue road was closed from 10:30 to 14:00 for the police investigation.
Geneva youth’s scooter was hit by truck
A 20-year-old on a scooter died Thursday evening after he was hit by a truck near 7, Route des Jeunes in Geneva. He died at the scene of the accident. He was heading towards Jonction, after the Etoile junction, when the truck, which was using the delivery quai at number 7, hit the scooter.
Chateau de Chillon, near Montreux, Switzerland (photo, ©2011 Chateau de Chillon)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Chateau de Chillon, one of Switzerland’s most popular tourist attractions and its most visited national historical monument, has trademarked its name and two graphic representations.
Approval for the trademarks should allow the chateau to protect its image, limiting use of the name and graphic illustrations to items that reflect its commitment to quality, tradition and prestige, the president of its foundation, Jean-Pierre Pastori told Swiss news agency ATS 9 March.
It is the first historical monument in Switzerland to benefit from a trademark, although some well-known places, such as the Matterhorn in Zermatt and the resort of St Moritz, have trademarked their names and some graphic representations.
The chateau, receives CHF250,000 a year from canton Vaud, according to ATS, but its annual budget is CHF4.8 million.
Nearly 331,000 visitors, 70 percent of them from outside Switzerland, visited the site in 2010.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – An eight-year-old boy died New Year’s Eve, Vaud police announced Monday, from injuries he sustained when his sled crashed into a barn that afternoon in Gryon, near Villars. The child lost control of his plastic sled on a steep (15 percent gradient) snowy road that had been closed to traffic, and he went into the barn at full speed. He was in an area called La Poreyre, heading towards the Alpe des Chaux road.
It was the
View Larger Map“>second sledding fatality in Switzerland in three days. A 21-year-old woman died earlier in the week in Grindelwald, canton Bern.
View Larger Map
Autumn colours near Lussy, canton Vaud, farmers's fields
Classic cars in Morges, October 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The latest additions to the GenevaLunch photos albums are autumn colours near Morges, canton Vaud, in the fields and forests around the village of Lussy, by editor Ellen Wallace, and, from Mr Kio on flickr, an additional 14 spectacular photos of the classic cars meet-up in Morges in October that pulled in thousands of fans of beautiful automobiles, bringing to 61 the number of images from the event (Jared Bloch is the photographer of the first batch).
GenevaLunch now has 91 photo albums with images by some 20 photographers that show many views of life in the Lake Geneva region.
Open days at wineries give consumers a chance to discover some of Switzerland's unusual wines, such as this rare Roussanne, a cousin of the Marsanne grape made famous by France's Hermitage wines (Christian Crittin, La Pleine Lune, St-Pierre-de-Clages, Valais)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s new wines season kicked off seriously last weekend with the fourth annual Valais wine Open Days 12-15 May, which pulled in 22,000 people to 179 cellars, say the organizers, Vins du Valais.
The crowds came despite cold, wet weather that put a damper on villages’ plans for outdoor entertainment and wines served under sunny skies.
This weekend it is the turn of canton Vaud, which has more than 300 wineries participating in its Open Days 21-22 May.
Maps of the region with details and lists of cellars are a good starting point for anyone planning to visit. Vaud’s cellars, more spread out than those in Geneva, have offered limited transport options in the past, but several groups of wine villages are organizing shuttle buses (check out regional sub-menus on the “transport” tab) this year.
Swiss Germans are expected en masse, since the bulk of wines from Vaud end up in German-speaking areas. Geneva, the third largest wine producing canton, holds its Open Days the following Saturday 29 May.
