CFF train, St Prex, Sunday 29 April: only partial service during the afternoon due to an accident
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Trains between Geneva and Lausanne have been operating only partially Sunday due to a “person accident” between Saint-Prex and Morges, the CFF says.
The partial service was put into effect at 11:00 and continues until 16:45.
Details are generally not provided in the case of “persons accident”, which can mean anything from attempted suicide to someone falling on the tracks to various other accidents.
100,000 tulips in Morges’s Independence Park
MORGES, SWITZERLAND – There are shows with larger collections of tulips but Morges is hard to beat for elegance when it comes to tulip festivals, and the 2012 month-long display is now at its finest, the last day of April.
Some of the early blooming varieties are fading, but new ones are starting to come out, and the multi-hued tulip beds woven among the 200 to 300-year-old trees provide one of the most elegant walking paths in the Lake Geneva region at the moment. New varieties and old favourites are on display in the park that is edged on one side by Lake Geneva and on another by a canal that is popular with local birds and ducks.
Go early in the day for magical light that filters through the trees and plays with the flowers. The crowds haven’t arrived yet and the park belongs to the birds and their songs and the tulips.
Video – short and sweet, but listen for the birds!
Editor’s special invitation to the best Swiss wine deal in town!
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Cloudiness Friday moving into rain by Saturday, with chilly temperatures: damp will dominate in all parts of Switzerland this weekend. Only the south side of the Alps is promised a glimmer of sunshine Saturday. Highs of 9C in the Lake Geneva region will slip to a high of only 6C Sunday. The snow line could fall to 1,000 metres late Saturday and Sunday in some areas.
Arvinis on your agenda
One of Switzerland’s biggest wine events, Arvinis, kicks off the tasting season for the new vintages, 18-23 April in Morges. The special guest this year is Swiss Wine Promotion, which works for the cantons’ groups of producers. They will be featuring 60 specialty wines from throughout the country, a great introduction for newcomers (and the rest of us!) to why Swiss wines have such an excellent reputation in the world of winemaking.
GenevaLunch will be provide its regular tips, suggestions and a how-to guide at the start of the fair, where 2,500 wines from around the world are presented at 150 stands. Ellen Wallace’s GenevaLunch wine blog, Among the vines, will feature a series of profiles of Swiss wine producers next week.
A very special offer is one of the best wine deals around: GenevaLunch editor Ellen Wallace, who is also a noted Swiss wine specialist and judge at international wine competitions, will be offering a fun and lively introduction to wine class, in English. The CHF30 entry fee to Arvinis is included in the CHF35 fee for the course, Friday 20 April at 18:00.
And to celebrate her new Facebook wine page that explores the world of Swiss wines, Ellen’s Wine World, your editor is offering a special bottle of Swiss wine to the 20th person to register for the hour-long class. It will leave you with the time and the skills to explore Arvinis Friday evening! Sign up now!
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – An 18-year-old drowned,and two friends who were with him on a small craft in Lake Geneva early Friday morning were hospitalized at the Chuv university hospitals. The three were spotted by a passerby at 06:15 who phoned the 117 emergency number after noticing that they were in trouble in the lake near the Bellerive swimming pool.
Police arrived quickly and took charge of the two who had managed to swim to shore but were suffering from hypothermia. They told police their friend was missing and a search, with the police lake brigade and police units from Lausanne and Morges, as well as a Rega helicopter, got underway.
His body was found soon after, in 2.8 metres of water just 30-40 metres from shore.
The three youths had stolen a small plastic rowboat and were headed towards Morges, on a calm lake, but with the water only 7C. For reasons police say are not yet clear, the boat overturned.
The three were from Neuchatel.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A 27-year-old French man who lives in Lausanne is in critical condition at the Chuv University hospitals after he was taken there early Thursday morning following a motorcycle accident. He was on the road from Morges, on a small bike (scooter in French) heading in the direction of Rolle when he was hit broadside by a car coming out of a service station on the lake road in Tolochenaz. The driver of the car, a 47-year-old man who lives in the area, was not injured.
The accident occurred at 06:40 Thursday 15 March and police are seeking witnesses or anyone who can provide information to help the investigation, inparticular about the driving of the motorcyclist shortly before the accident: +41 21 644 4444.
Penguins at the Basel zoo (©2012 Basel Zoo)
Morges rowing classes, t-shirts on the lake, ice on the shore
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The days are getting longer in Switzerland, with the sun now rising before 07:30 and setting after 18:00. The last day of the month, 29 February, will give us an additional 20 minutes of daylight compared to 23 February.
The vast quantities of snow in the mountains and continuing chilly winds in several areas may not yet have you thinking of spring, but the signs are multiplying throughout the country:
Temperatures are expected to reach 17C this weekend in Ticino, Switzerland’s hot spot.
Max the stork passed through Geneva Monday on her way north from her winter home in Spain and Wednesday 22 February she arrived in northern Switzerland. She arrived in Tuefingen, Germany, on the northern side of Lake Constance on the Swiss-German border, where she normally mates and builds a nest.
Wednesday afternoon, school's out! Lake Geneva, St Prex, Vaud
This will be the 11th year that the 13-year-old bird raises a family here. She is the longest-tracked banded bird in the world, followed by the Natural History Museum in Fribourg.
Lake Geneva’s shoreline remains laced with ice but Wednesday saw a number of rowing students from Morges out on the water in short-sleeved shirts.
Wednesday afternoon, with school out, the lake served as a magnet for families and small children, with grass beginning to green next to the ice sculptures that decorate the waterfront.
New monkey home at the Basel zoo (©2012 Basel Zoo)
In Basel, penguins at the zoo are enjoying daily walks. The zoo in its annual report issued 23 February says that 2011 saw a record number of visitors, 1.75 million, compared to just over a million in 1999. The zoo opened its doors in 1874 and in the 138 years of its existence more than 78 million visitors have come to see the animals.
The most popular areas to visit are the monkeys and snow leopards, with a rebuilt monkey area that opened in the summer of 2011 and three leopard cubs born during the year.
Click on photos to view larger
Major Swiss highway programme changes announced
Annual highway tax/sticker to jump from CHF40 to 100 by 2015
GENEVA / LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The roadworks weren’t welcome at the time, but the switch in Morges from two to three lanes during rush hour, using emergency lanes, has been such a success at reducing traffic jams that the Federal Highway Office plans to set up the same system in Geneva and Lausanne.
The measure is part of a series of highway improvements announced by Bern Wednesday 18 January, with the focus on shifting 378km of cantonal roads to the national highway system by 2014, to better needs today that are the result of a series of urban developments over the past five decades.
Morges again has special treatment, with the office adding a Morges bypass to the list of projects to be developed sooner rather than later, to ease the growing congestion in the Crissier area. The cost: CHF220 million. Details of a likely bypass, published in 2009, call for a larger loop from Morges Ouest (west) to Ecublens.
The A1 around Morges was given three lanes in 2009, for rush hours
The package includes traffic flow improvements for Coppet-Le Vengeron, at a cost of CHF175m.
The number of kilometres driven on Swiss autoroutes has doubled since 1990. Recent studies show a 34 percent increase in 2010 in the number of hours of traffic jams, to 15,910, compared to 2009 In the next 18 years, some 400km of autoroute will regularly suffered congestion.
The Morges area switch to three lanes during rush hours has improved traffic flow, the highway department says, lowered the accident rate by 15 percent in general and 80 percent locally, and it has also brought about a 20 percent reduction in pollution next to roads: CO, CO2 and NOx emissions.
Bern and Winterthur will see their emergency lanes changed in the near future, with Geneva and Lausanne, but also several other areas including stretches along Lake Zurich, scheduled for later.
Automatic signals to reduce speed for better traffic flow to go from 85km to 400km
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Police in the Swiss cantons around the Lake Geneva region have been kept busy over the holidays with road and mountain accidents, bank and post office robberies, and in one happy instance finding suspects and two stolen locomotives from the train park at Le Bouveret in canton Vaud.
Chavannes-de-Bogis, Grosse-Pierre / Morges post offices, hit by armed robbers
Two men held up the post office in Chavannes-de-Bogis Tuesday morning 27 December at 07:00, grabbing the manager as he arrived for work. Despite his cries and efforts to fight them off the two men knocked him to the ground and were able to force him, at gunpoint, inside where he gave them the cash on hand.
The two fled in a blue metallic BMW that was stolen a few weeks ago. The car was found shortly afterwards, completely burned, on a forest path next to the Route des Coudres, in the direction of Bogis-Bossey. Police say a relay car was undoubtedly waiting to pick them up there.
A manhunt was set up immediately. Vaud police say they are looking for two men, both 180cm tall with athletic builds, who speak French without accents. One was wearing a lightweight black cagoule (balaklava), black clothes, glove and carrying a pistol.
The other man, European in appearance, had long hair, to his shoulders, which was very dark and straight. He was also dressed in black and was carrying a knife.
The post office manager was in a state of shock following the robbery, but otherwise unharmed.
The hold-up follows an attempted robbery early last Friday, 23 December, at the Grosse-Pierre post office in Morges. A 47-year-old woman arriving for work was surprised by two men, reportedly 170 cm tall, dressed in dark clothes, one carrying a knife. Her cries frightened them off and a witness called 117 to alert police.
Anyone with information about either crime is asked to phone Vaud police at 021 644 4444.
Verbier avalanche slightly injures 2 in family of 4
An avalanche caught a family of four skiing off piste near Verbier Monday 26 December at 12:15. The group managed to get out from under the avalanche, which was 10 metres wide and 150m long. The 16-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy both suffered minor injuries and were taken to the hospital in Sion to be checked.
The avalanche was triggered at Mont Gelé, at about 2,900 m.
Icy roads behind crashes
A 25-year-old woman from the Avenches region whose car skidded on the road near Salavaux and Avenches at 10:25 Tuesday morning is in serious condition after her car crossed the line and hit another car head on. The 41-year-old man driving the other car sustained lighter injuries and was hospitalized in Fribourg.
A crash caused by ice on the road was responsible for closing the Col de Pillon near Gsteig Tuesday morning, a main route to the Gstaad area from Lake Geneva.
Fires in Geneva and Morges send several to hospital
Thirteen people, including a year-old child, were injured, four of them seriously, after a fire broke out on the ground floor of a three-storey centre for asylum seekers in Geneva, Tattes, 1 chemin de Poussy in Vernier. Four are in serious condition, two from injuries sustained after they jumped out of second-floor windows and two others for burns and smoke inhalation, say Geneva police.
Sixty people were evacuated from the building.
The fire department received scores of calls Monday afternoon at 15:22 and the fire, which spread to the first floor, was brought under control by 16:15.
In Morges, canton Vaud, cigarettes thrown into the garbage are suspected of being the cause of a fire in a third-storey apartment in an 11-storey building at chemin de la Grosse-Pierre 9 early Friday morning 23 December. Two tenants ages 20 and 21 were hospitalized, as well as their neighbour, an 85-year-old woman, for smoke inhalation. The fire was brought under control by 03:15.
Swiss soldiers travel on Swiss trains for free when on duty (photo: Morges station, November 2011)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The 2012 train schedule that goes into effect 11 December will offer travellers better connections for trips abroad. Some parts of the Lake Geneva region will also see improvements. But the best news for many working travellers is that mobile connections are being improved, as is the online sales service.
The CFF rail company presented highlights of the new schedule to the press Thursday 17 November.
You’ll be able to plug in and connect better in 2012
All the new trains will have electric plugs and existing intercity trains will also get them. “All the new Duplex trains on the intercity trains will be equipped with WLAN,” says Jeannine Pilloud.
A major improvement could be the installation of equipment that amplifies signals received inside and outside the train cars, giving better access to the cell phone and Internet network.
1.8 million cell phone tickets ordered and number growing
The CFF app for ordering online tickets via cell phone is proving popular, with 1.8 million users since it was introduced in 2010, and the number is growing steadily, says the rail company.
Users of the small pocket timetables will find that some of the international ones are disappearing, in favour of online information, and that smaller stations’ stops are no longer listed, but are incorporated into regional listings. All details will be available online, however.
French-speaking Switzerland, especially commuters, to see significant improvements
A host of changes for trains in the Lake Geneva region will have a significant impact:
More double-decker trains will be used on the Geneva airport/Lucerne line, offering more seats
An additional InterRegio train will run between Neuchatel and Lausanne at 07:53 and the Neuchatel/La Chaux-de-Fonds/Le Locle line will have additional service during rush hour and a pair of trains is being added to the Neuchatel to Bienne line
Canton Vaud: the S4 line is being extended from Morges to Allaman, stopping in Saint Prex and Etoy, which will now have trains every 30 minutes instead of once an hour, Monday to Friday.
Geneva: La Plaine/Geneva, more trains will run during rush hour. Coppet–Geneva–Lancy-Pont-Rouge trains, the 30-minute schedule is being extended for weekend night and trains will run every half hour on Fridays and Saturdays until the end of the day.
New international connections, travel time cut on major links
UBS real estate risk map Q3 2011 (click on image to view larger)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Real Estate Bubble Index, published quarterly by bank UBS, shows the housing market continuing to boom but not at risk of a housing price bubble, nationwide.
Morges is one of two new regions that have been added to the “at risk” of reaching the bubble stage, however, along with the Oberengadin region and new regions have been added for monitoring for risk.
The third quarter 2011 risk level is 0.58 on the scale that tracks slump, balance, boom, risk and bubble. “A value of 0.58 corresponds to the boom level and implies no elevated risk of a Switzerland-wide correction,” UBS notes.
“Only when the index surpasses a value of 1 is the market considered risky. The index reached its peak in the early 1990s at a level of 2.5 at the height of the last Swiss real estate bubble.”
The quarterly report shows some cooling of house prices but no change in trend foreseen for home mortgage debt.
Lake Geneva region remains expensive, Morges shifts to “at risk”
MORGES, SWITZERLAND – A 66-year-old local woman slipped and fell between the quai at the Morges train station and the train tracks at 09:30 Wednesday, say Vaud police.
She is in critical condition.
The woman was trying to board a train as it pulled out of the station and she lost her balance. The police and CFF have opened an investigation into the incident.
Meet the teachers, see the refurbished premises, participate in a workshop and learn a lot more about the Lake Leman International School. “Come and see how much fun learning can be!”
Location: Avenue de la Gottaz 34-36, 1110 Morges
Link out: http://www.llis.ch
Date: 24 Sep 2011
Start time: 11:00
End time: 15:00
Chateau de Chillon is one of Switzerland's most visited landmarks, but canton Vaud's other 11 major chateaus are also part of rich historical tapestry
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Canton Vaud’s 12 historic chateaus, open to the public, are joining together to offer a special deal at the end of September to encourage people to learn more about this aspect of local history. A single ticket will open the door to all 12 the weekend of 24-25 September, for CHF15 for adults and CHF10 for children or CHF35 for a family.
The 12 “monuments” are: Prangins, Ollon, Chillon, Oron, Coppet, Nyon, Morges, Moudon, La Sarraz, Yverdon, Grandson and Avenches. Some are privately owned, others publicly and while most are medieval, two are 18th century.
They are part of the canton’s landscape of about 200 chateaus, towers, fortified residences and lords’ seats.
They are regularly open to the public but the shared ticket has been offered only once before in the 17 years of the Vaud Chateaus Association.
Will also create more secondary school places
ISLL, new international school, opens in Morges, September 2011
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two schools, one new and one expanding, will significantly ease the pressure on the local English language and bilingual primary school offer starting in September. The continually growing international population in the Lake Geneva region has resulted in a worsening of what was already a shortage of places in schools where English is one of the teaching languages.
Morges school finds a home, thanks to regional development agency and town of Morges
The LLIS (Lake Leman International School) opens at La Gottaz in Morges 12 September, with kindergarten starting at age 3 to grade 5 (ages 9-11) opening during the first year, as well as a multi-lingual crèche or daycare centre for children from age 3 months. The school is planning to open a secondary school for the 2012-2013 academic year, with International Baccalaureate (IB) preparation.
It can take several years for a school to receive IB accreditation, but the new school, opening in its first year with seven classes, is basing its education programme on the IB, particularly for language learning, it says.
Finding a location for the school, especially given high rents in the Lake Geneva region, was not easy, but the Vaud Economic Development Agency and the town of Morges worked with the school, which is in a commercial complex next to the BAM regional train line and the A1 autoroute exit for Morges Ouest.
Anna Kaeser, who has several years experience in education in the UK and Switzerland, is the director of the school and a group of investors is working with management to ensure the financial viability of the school.
International schools also attract local Swiss famililes in part because they often offer a full-day programme, unlike Swiss state schools. The new LLIS will be open from 08:00 to 17:00, including the lunch hour, with a lunch service. The Cap Canaille crèche is located in the same building and is open from 06:30 to 18:30, five days a week, year round.
La Chataigneraie, part of the Int’l School of Geneva, adds 500 new students this September
New primary school at La Chataignerai, Founex
The oldest international schools in the world and a founding school of the IB programme, the International School of Geneva, has had waiting lists for several years.
This September it increases its intake dramatically at La Chataigneraie, its canton Vaud campus in Founex, thanks to a major construction programme. The school, with four campuses, had more than 4,000 students in September 2010.
Atrium in the centre of the new primary school creates light and airy space
The La Chataigneraie campus has built a new primary school that will house 642 students, and it added another storey to the old primary school, which is being turned over to the secondary school. Seven new classes are currently planned in the primary school and three in the secondary school, “but more classes may be added in the primary school if demand warrants it,” Catherine Merigay of the development office told GenevaLunch.
Total additional capacity is 500 students, potentially bringing the campus’s population to about 1,700 students.
La Chat, as it is popularly known, has been able to get rid of a number of portacabins and it is offering a “reception”, or kindergarten class for the first time, for children age 4 and up, starting in September.
Portacabins are disappearing thanks to an additional storey on La Chat's old primary school, now handed over to the secondary school
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Traffic heading in the direction of Lausanne from Geneva came to a standstill Tuesday morning 7 June when a hefty 14-ton construction drilling machine on treads fell off the truck that was carrying it, and onto the highway. Both lanes of the autoroute were closed for two hours to allow an emergency crew to lift the machine out of the way and to repair the considerable damage done to the road itself.
The accident did not cause any injuries.
Vaud police say the tractor-trailer pulling the heavy load burst a tire shortly before the Morges exit, then began to sway back and forth, with the machine pulling loose from its moorings before tipping over into the other lane.
Traffic was backed up for nearly three autoroute stops during the morning and the lake road was packed with vehicles taking it as a detour.
Lausanne at dusk, viewed from Lake Geneva: growing number of foreigners live in the city, its suburbs
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva, with its international organizations and United Nations European seat is not likely to lose its reputation as Switzerland’s international city, but Lausanne has been creeping up on it as an international centre. From 2008 to 2010 the resident foreigners’ share of the total population in the capital of Vaud was higher than that in Geneva, and growing faster.
Figures published Monday 30 May by Badac, the Swiss cantons and cities database, show that Lausanne has had a larger percentage of foreigners than Geneva in recent years, although the two are close: Lausanne’s population in 2010 was 39.24 percent foreigners while Geneva’s was 38.58 percent, but while the increase in the foreign population in Geneva was .95 percent, Lausanne’s was 1.22 percent.
The figures take into account only the cities themselves, not their larger urban areas. Geneva’s population in 2010 was 185,958 and Lausanne’s was 125,885.
Smaller cities in the Lake Geneva region, such as some suburbs of Lausanne and Geneva, have even higher percentages of foreigners, including some of the highest rates in Switzerland: Montreux, 44.33 percent foreigners, Meyrin 33.99, Carouge 36.97, Renens 50.85, Nyon 36.39, Vevey 43.38, Morges 33.17, Versoix 33.20, Grand-Saconnex 28.40, Ecublens 43.03, Chêne-Bougeries 29.68.
Spreitenbach (50.74 percent), northwest of Zurich, and Renens (50.85), west of Lausanne, have a majority of foreigners; they are the only two Swiss cities over 10,000 where resident foreigners make up more than 50 percent of the population.
Morges, a nice place to live - if you can find a home
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – This may come as a surprise to Geneva and Lausanne residents, used to bemoaning the severe housing shortage in their cities, but Morges has just been identified as the Swiss commune with a population of more than 10,000 that has the lowest figure for available housing in 2010: 0.06 percent.
Switzerland’s largest cities nevertheless continue to have a clear shortage of housing. In Zurich the rate of available housing was 0.1 percent, in Lausanne: 0.2 and in Geneva 0.25percent.
The figures are part of new data released by Badac, the Base de données des cantons et des villes suisses (Swiss cantons and cities database), from a study carried out by Idheap, the federal graduate school of public administration.
The latest Badac report, “Monitoring Swiss cities, 2000-2010″, shows that there is a growing disparity in incomes in Swiss cities, most marked in the Lake Geneva region. It also shows that taxes have fallen steadily for families with two children, making cities more attractive places to earn; at the same time social services have suffered, possibly as a result, in some cities.
Boiron beach, between St Prex and Tolochenaz, Switzerland: site of 2-day search for missing girls
Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud say a large-scale two-day search for missing twins Alessia and Livia is over, with nothing found. The search, using 11 dogs from three countries, specially trained to search for dead bodies, turned up no trace of the girls or their father. “The search did not provide any new material for the investigation,” noted police spokesperson Jean-Christophe Sauterel in a statement issued late Friday.
The search for the missing children will continue in Switzerland, France and Italy.
It was prompted by new information offered by a witness 6 April, who told police he saw a man dragging a suitcase Sunday 30 January about 16:00, in the Boiron area.
Some 100 potential witnesses in the area were interviewed over the two days, says Sauterel, people who live or work in the area, including employees at dumps, fishermen and people who use the shooting range near the Boiron beach, site of the dog-tracking search.
The search involved more than 200 people, including 150 from the area’s Civil Protection unit alone, with dog handlers and their animals covering an area approximately 2.3 kilometres long and 150-400 metres wide on land.
The lake search involved Lake Brigade police from Vaud and Geneva who carried out what police call “a minutieuse search around the mouth of the Boiron river and the lake zone, an area 300 metres wide and 700 metres long, starting from the mouth of the Boiron.” They used remote-controlled robots, or vehicles, and multibeam echo lasers, multibeam swath bathymetry, a sophisticated system for underwater searches.
The entire area was blocked off, with police stationed every 100 metres along the lake road between St Prex’s eastern edge and the Tolochenaz roundabout, and red and white tape keeping out the public to allow the investigators to work in peace. Police boats kept other boats away just off the shore.
Irina Lucidi with her daughters Livia and Alessia, from her Facebook page, Missing Alessia and Livia
Mother says family took walks in searched area
Irina Lucidi, the mother of missing six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, called a press conference Friday afternoon 15 April in Morges to thank police for undertaking a large-scale hunt for her daughters, who disappeared with their father from St Sulpice 30 January.
Matthias Schepp, the father of the girls, committed suicide five days after leaving with his daughters, driving to the south of France, Corsica and southern Italy. Police in Italy, France and Switzerland have been looking for the children since then; the father sent his wife a letter from Italy saying that he had killed them.
Irina Lucidi had told him a few days before he left with the children that their marriage was over and she wanted a divorce.
Her press conference was held at the tennis club on the west side of Morges, not far from the area where police have been carrying out an intensive dog-tracking search for the past two days, based on new information provided 6 April by a witness. Police searched the Boiron river mouth and beach area, where the witness says he saw a man dragging a suitcase Sunday 30 January, about 16:00.
Irina Lucidi told reporters Friday afternoon that she and her husband and the girls often walked in that area, just to the east of St Prex, near the lake road at Tolochenaz. The lakefront is not open to the public between St Prex and the beach, but from the beach it is possible to walk to Morges, about 3 kms.
Police say that concerning the possible death of the twins, investigators remain open to all possibilities.
Related articles: GenevaLunch
Search between Saint Prex and Morges will continue Friday
Police step up investigation into father’s presence in the area 30 January, seek new witnesses to black A6 Audi
Matthias Schepp was driving an Audi A6 Avant, similar to this one, the day the girls disappeared
Police are asking for witnesses who may have seen an Audi like this 30 January, with Matthias Schepp, near Morges
Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A massive new effort poured into the hunt for missing six-year-olds, Alessia and Livia Schepp, failed to turn up anything Thursday, despite high-tech equipment used to comb the search area and 13 specially trained dogs and their handlers from three countries, working with a team of 140 persons.
Vaud police organized the search, using 11 dogs that are trained particularly to hunt for bodies, after a man provided new, reliable information in early April that he had seen a man dragging a suitcase in the Boiron beach area about 16:00 Sunday 30 January. The information fit some of the “technical” aspects of the case already in police hands.
The beach, which straddles the boundary between Tolochenaz and Saint Prex, to the west of Morges, has long been a popular gay and nudist beach, but since police began to enforce a CHF500 fine ordinance for nudism the beach has become quieter, and in winter there are few people.
Boiron beach, roped off, with police guard: a lonely stretch of Lake Geneva shore (click on image to view larger)
The area was blocked off on land Thursday, as was the water around the beach, to allow the search to move ahead. Police used a a multibeam swath bathymetry system to sound the river and lake area where the river enters Lake Geneva, as well as an underwater remote-operated vehicle to check the area around the mouth of the river. Dog teams went over the beach area, carrying out a “ minutieuse” search after two St Hubert dogs from the Lausanne municipal police checked and failed to find any traces of Matthias Schepp, the father, in the area.
The Vaud police criminal investigation unit Thursday began new inquiries in the nearby area, looking for possible witnesses – at local dumps, professional fishermen, animal protection and fish protection authorities, rifle practice stands, etc. – who are often in the area or in areas close to the one being searched.
They are asking that anyone who might have information of interest contact the criminal investigation team at +41 21 644 8888. In particular, they would like to talk to anyone who might have seen the father of the twins and his car, a black Audi A6 Avant, in or near Morges, Sunday 30 January.
The police press release notes that:
“The team involved in roping off the area and in the search itself comprised: 55 men from the police in canton Vaud (gendarmes, inspectors and Lake Brigade specialists), 70 colleagues from the Vaud Civil Protection unit, 2 Canton Geneva Police Lake Brigade specialists, 11 dog handlers with 13 dogs from: the Austrian Police Dog unit with 6 men and 6 dogs (Diensthundewesen der Bundespolizei Oesterreich), the national dog tracking investigation unit from the French Gendarmerie in Gramat (2 men, 3 dogs), the Bern police (1 man with his dog) and Canton Zurich Police (1 man with his dog), as well as the Lausanne municipal police (1 man and 2 dogs), in addition to 2 police officers from the Morges commune police and 2 firefighters from the SPSL with a boat.”
Police boat guards the water near spot where Boiron empties into Lake Geneva, with Morges and west Lausanne in the background; St Sulpice, where the girls lived, is off to the right,further along the lake
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.
Scientific investigations rule out link to missing woman, sleeping tablets in home
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss police, in an update on the case of missing six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia Schepp Friday 25, say scientific investigations have now ruled out two possible trails.
The father taking the girls to Corsica remains the strongest hypothesis, but investigators are now also focusing on the father’s whereabouts and actions between the time he left Switzerland and the time he arrived in Marseille. They renewed their appeal Friday to anyone who was in Corsica the first week of February driving a dark station wagon with Swiss plates, to let them know. Witnesses on Corsica may have confused the two cars, they underscore, complicating inquiries there.
No link to Katia Iritano’s disappearance
Police in cantons Vaud and Fribourg say scientific investigations ordered by public prosecutor Eric Gilliéron show that there was never any telephone contact between father of the twins and Katia Iritano, who went missing from Montbovon in Fribourg 25 January, nor does there appear to have been any communication between the two. This possible thread in the case has now been thrown out.
Police research the disappearance from father’s house of suitcases, bags
Scientific examinations of objects taken from the father’s residence have not turned up any evidence of sleeping tables or other potentially toxic drugs, they say, reducing the likelihood that the girls may have been killed there, by their father.
Police are trying to determine what happened to suitcases and bags that are missing from the father’s house.
Police officer Jean-Christophe Sauterel reminds, in a press release, that a credible witness early in the case gave evidence that the father and his daughters were in his car on the beach at Préverenges, near Morges, Sunday 30 January about 15:30.
Préverenges sits between St Sulpice, where the family lived, and Morges.
Some 15 minutes later his car was located in Morges, thanks to his cell phone. There is no evidence one way or the other about the girls’ presence in the car at this point.
Paucity of information on father’s movements between Switzerland and Marseille, France
There remain large gaps in the information about where the father was and what he was doing between the time he left Switzerland and his arrival in Marseille, and police are pursuing this.
Sauterel notes that “Investigators continue to count on information provided by any possible witnesses, in Toulon, Marseille, Corsica and Switzerland. Anyone who can provide any information about the presence in Corsica of another dark vehicle with Swiss license plates is asked to contact the police commissariat or the nearest police station, or to telephone the Swiss hotline +41 21 644 8231 or the French numéro vert 08 05 01 0707.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Let is snow, let it snow, preferably on our turf! Frankfurt and Paris were snowed in, but the sad news for skiers in Switzerland 10 December is that the snow that fell last week in the Jura has turned to mud, and the Alpine ski resorts are still waiting for the big snowfalls to arrive. You have a few more days to continue your pre-season warmup exercises and to reflect on safety on the slopes.
Weather forecast
Sun today! The first village house to get warm rays, canton Vaud 9 December
Temperatures are expected to go no higher than 2C throughout the Lake Geneva region this weekend, with sunshine alternating with partly cloudy skies. Expect resorts in Valais to have the same weather, but if you are longing to get warm, head for Ticino, where temperatures will reach 15C.
Alpine and Jura resorts updates
Shirley Curran writes from the Jura resorts area that “sadly, after last Saturday’s memorable start to our ski season where we were skiing with feather-light powder up to our knees, not a cloud in the sky and no crowds, this week’s torrential downpours and high winds have blown or washed away most of the Jura snow. The lifts will not be operating this weekend. However, they will be running every day from 18 December. You can keep up to date with information and webcams at montsjura.com.”
Several resorts in the Alps are offering reduced fares and special family offers. Sierre-Anniviers, which groups together several medium-sized resorts above the lakeside town of Sierre, including family-friendly Zinal and Vercorin, has a new special deal for parents. It allows a couple to share one ski-pass, for parents who are alternating taking care of children. It’s valid only in low season, basically January and March, but offers a good practical solution for many couples with small children or babies.
Anzere has a very good deal for this weekend, 11-12 December: CHF10 for kids and CHF20 for adults for a day pass, or CHF15/20 for two days, well below the season day pass price of CHF47. Slopes open for the season 17 December. Children up to age six are free and families of four get a 10 percent discount.
Verbier has put together an information page on parking and public transport, with useful emergency numbers, part of the effort to encourage skiers to be a bit greener.
On the lakefront, Geneva remembers a glorious moment from its past, and eats chocolate
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.
An exhibit of ver 1,500 classic British vehicles (cars and motorcycles) in Morges.
Location: Morges
Link out: http://www.british-cars.ch/index.html
Date: 2 Oct 2010
Fiat 500 classic cars in Crans-Montana
US classic cars, Les Collons
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Fans of special cars had a good warm-up for the autumn car shows season last weekend, with an American vintage cars show in Les Collons, and a bevy of Fiat 500s toodling around Crans-Montana. The Fiat 500s had a series of events going, such as mini-races in ski lift parking lots, and the mountainside was covered with streams of small, brightly coloured cars.
GenevaLunch photographer Ceelurd took in the American V-8s, then headed for Crans-Montana for what he describes as the “cutie pie” cars. To see his collection of photos from the car shows, visit the “Vintage and classic cars 2010″ photo album.
One of the big car shows coming up is the Swiss British Classic Cars in Morges 2 October; keep an eye on our events pages for details. You’ll find details there of an Aston-Martin and Mercedes art (not the cars themselves) exhibit at the Kempinski in Geneva this weekend.
P. Chappatte, and 8 Kenyan illustrators’ drawings of Swiss President Doris Leuthard.
Location: Morges, Vaud
Link out: http://www.morges-sous-rire.ch/salon.php
Start date: 1 Aug 2010
End date: 29 Aug 2010
Night work on A1
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Continuing roadworks on the A1 between Morges and Ecublens, near Lausanne, will cause disruptions 25-31 July, while traffic signal systems are reinstalled.
Traffic will be reduced to one lane each direction during the nights of Sunday and Monday, with no traffic problems foreseen.
The highway will also be down to one lane each direction Monday afternoon and evening from 14:00-20:00, with delays of 10-15 minutes expected, according to the federal highway department.
Youth electrocuted in Morges, Pakistani woman dies on Interlaken luge
Three climbers die in Valais
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The hot, fun days of summer have been accompanied in the region by a series of fatal accidents.
A 20-year-old man died in the early hours of Saturday 17 July when he crossed the rails near a train parked in the station at Morges in canton Vaud was electrocuted. He had stepped onto a locomotive, putting him in the line of its electrical charge.
People near the station saw an electric flash at 02:40 and alerted CFF rail company staff. Emergency teams arrived quickly and found the body of the youth, a Swiss man from the Lausanne area, on the tracks, say Vaud police.
A Pakistani woman visiting Switzerland died Monday after she was thrown from her luge at the Heimwehfluh luge park near Interlaken, around 13:00, for reasons that are not yet clear. She was found several metres from the piste and was rushed to hospital, but she died later from her injuries.
Two climbers in Valais lost their lives Monday at 08:45 in a 900-metre fall on the north face of the Liskamm, near Zermatt. The two men, who were roped together, have not yet been identified.
They had left the Capanna Gnifetti to climbe the Liskamm and appear to have been at an altitude of 4,470 metres when they fell, for reasons that are not yet clear. They were at coordinates 630/000 – 086/130.
A third climber in Valais died near Arolla 18 July, Sunday, at 12:30 while climbing down from the Grande Dent de Veisivi. The 51-year-old Frenchman had climbed the peak alone but came down by another path and found himself in a couloir, where he fell 100 metres to his death.
Links to other sites: 20 Minutes, Tribune de Geneve
Click on images to view larger: split-second series showing gusting winds in Saint Prex, canton Vaud, Thursday evening, in less than one minute
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – After central Switzerland, the weather demons turned on western Switzerland’s Jura mountain range and La Côte, with windy storms late Monday afternoon 12 July. Winds gusted to well over 100 kph in several areas, according to MeteoSwiss, the national weather service.
Vaud police say they received 122 emergency calls between 17:00 and 19:00. Several people in pedalos near Ouchy/Lausanne and amateur sailors were rescued by lake emergency teams and staff from the Compagnie générale de navigation (CGN) when winds on the lake suddenly whipped up to 90 kph. Shortly after, emergency teams rescued others on Lake Neuchatel. Several pleasure craft on Lake Geneva were tossed from their moorings and police evacuated the VD 8 campground at Cheseaux-Noréaz after trees fell on some of the caravans and some 100 campers’ tents were threatened by other trees.
Campers at the Morges TCS campground on the shore of Lake Geneva held onto their wildly flapping tents. British campers Pat Stevens and her husband Bob said they repegged their tent when they saw red dust from the nearby tennis courts rising in one-storey high clouds.
The CFF trains were badly disrupted by a tree blowing over on the rail line at Rolle: between Gland and Allaman, on the heavily travelled Lausanne-Geneva tracks, rail service was halted from 17:55 to 18:55. Intercity and Inter-regio trains from Lucerne remained out of service for longer, with traffic limited to one track while the tree was removed and repairs were made.
Hot days with evening storms are expected to continue for the next week, a boon for swimming pools in the region, which suffered from under-attendance during the first cold month of the season, but which are now packing the crowds like sardines during the day.
The storms also swept other parts of Switzerland. News service ats reports that 24 people were rescued by boat and helicopter from the banks of the Kloentalersee when their cars were trapped between two mud and rock slides during a violent storm that began abruptly and caught them by surprise. Two passes, the Albula and Susten, were closed until Tuesday to clear up rock slides set off by heavy mountain storms.
Links to other sites: 20 Minutes, GenevaLunch weather forecasts from the national weather service
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The old A1 autoroute bottleneck around Lausanne, between Morges and Ecublens, is back for 11 days. Road repairs are reducing traffic to two lanes in each direction, limited to 80 kph, starting Monday 5 July. The roadworks are expected to cause 15-20 minute delays in either direction, according to the highway department.
Monday morning’s traffic lived up to expectations, with slow-moving traffic.
