Israeli Arab filmmaker was murdered 4 April
Visions du Réel runs 7-13 April in Nyon
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -The Nyon documentary film festival opens Thursday on a somber note, with a tribute to Juliano Mer Khamis, an Israeli Arab filmmaker and actor who was murdered 4 April in the West Bank. His film “Arna’s Children” was awarded the prize of the Jury du Jeune Public of Visions du Réel in 2004.
This is a year of change for the Nyon festival, with Luciano Barisone, its new director, taking charge for the first time. On a more practical level for festival-goers, a new electronic ticketing system is in place.
The festival opens Thursday 7 April, with some 50 films making their world or European debuts at this festival that has grown in scope and importance to the film industry in recent years. Films fall into three categories: long, medium-long and short.
Mad rush for tickets: Tuesday 13 April
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s largest open-air music festival promises another 5 days of hot music 19-24 July 2011, as it has done every summer for the past 35 years,
The lineup has now been announced and includes: Jack Johnson, James Blunt, The Chemical Brothers, The Strokes, Robert Plant, Portishead, PJ Harvey, Eddy Mitchell, Jamel, Jean-Louis Aubert, Cali, Katerine, Patrice and The National.
The guest of honour this year is the Caribbean for the Village du Monde, so expect some warm beats, with a range of flavours from the region.
The detailed music lineup is now on the Paleo site. Tickets can be purchased online or at outlets listed on the site, but plan ahead to queue for the tickets, which disappear very rapidly every year.
The 2011 poster competition was wone by Kyoungmi Kim, a graphic artist and third-year student at the Geneva High School for Art and Design (Head).
The competition is organized jointly by Paléo and the University of Applied Science of Western Switzerland (HES-SO).
Kim said of her winning design, “I didn’t want to go the way of over-serious abstract graphics. It seemed important to highlight the festive dimension of the event.”
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.
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A man in his mid-20s was found dead at Evam, the Nyon Welcome Centre for Migrants Tuesday morning 8 March. Canton Vaud police and a medical examiner were called. Police say that foul play is not suspected, but an investigation into the man’s death has been opened. Police say they do not, for now, know his nationality or country of origin.
He was found about 11:30, lifeless, in his bed, by his roommate. The centre’s staff were immediately alerted but could do nothing more than confirm his death. The body was taken to the Legal Medicine Centre for French-speaking Switzerland, in Lausanne, for an autopsy.
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Some CHF7,000 in cash, 1.5kg of marijuana and 93 packets (85 grams) of cocaine were seized by authorities in canton Vaud Tuesday 22 February when they accompanied staff from the Nyon refugee centre, Établissement vaudois d’accueil des migrants (EVAM), on a search of the premises.
Forty-seven of the 101 single men who live in the centre were checked during the search, which EVAM is allowed to carry out, without advance warning, under Swiss law.
Police note in a statement issued after the 14:00 search that it was undertaken after complaints from people in the area and following several incidents at the centre earlier this year. Violence has broken out on occasion, including one incident where 90 residents of the centre were involved in a fight, apparently over money, in early January. One man was knifed during the brawl.
The calm streets of Nyon
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Almost 90 asylum seekers at Nyon’s migrants’ reception centre EVAM became involved in a heated dispute concerning the disappearance of a sum of money, according to Vaud Cantonal Police.
The dispute pitted some 40 residents against another they accused of having taken money from a locker late 4 January. The centre’s administrator tried to calm things down and separate the groups but the alleged thief was stabbed in the thigh several times.
When 15 police patrol cars arrived, police had to face down the resolute opposition of the residents who threw stones and fire extinguishers at them. Police resorted to pepper spray in order to arrest the person accused of the knifing. Three policemen were wounded. The victim was taken to hospital and is not in danger.
This is the second time in less than two months that violence has erupted in one of the country’s refugee centres. In November 2010, seven people were sent to hospital following a violent dispute in Onex.
Background: GenevaLunch
Wave of break-ins where thieves remove lock cylinders
Thieves are particularly fond of removing locks in Nyon, perferably around dawn in winter
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Nyon has been a particularly popular target for thieves who break into homes by removing the door lock cylinders, say Vaud police, who warn residents of an increase in the number of burglaries since October.
Close to 100 burglaries have been recorded in most weeks, nearly double the figures for earlier in the year.
The Greater Lausanne area has seen a significant rise in break-ins, say police, with thieves striking mainly at dawn, forcing their way in through windows and glass doors but also by lifting door lock cylinders. Nyon is the real centre for the latter, with 28 of the 30 reported cases recently occurring in or around the town.
Police suggest taking the following protective measures:
- simulate a presence in your home by using timed lighting
- install outside lighting that automatically detects bodies
- add a tamper-proof cover to the visible part of the lock cylinder
- keep all building entrances locked
- empty and lock all vehicles
- hide away any valuables and don’t leave anything of value in the entryway, or in jacket and coat pockets.
International sports, European Champions League football
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The draw for the first knockout round of the European Champions League took place in Nyon from 12:00 Friday 17 December. Highlights include a re-match of last season’s final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich, while the crowd pleaser is likely to be Arsenal against Barcelona, another rematch from last season. AC Milan play Spurs while Chelsea travel to Copenhagen for their first match. Manchester United meet Marseille. The full fixture list is:
Roma v Shakhtar Donetsk
Milan v Tottenham
Valencia v Schalke
Internazionale v Bayern Munich
Lyon v Real Madrid
Arsenal v Barcelona
Marseille v Manchester United
FC Copenhagen v Chelsea
In the Europa League FC Basel meet Spartak Moscow while Young Boys meet St Petersburg.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss Tell awards for North American companies operating in Switzerland will go to four US companies with offices in four cantons, to recognize what Switzerland considers significant inward investment projects by North American companies in 2009. The Switzerland Trade and Investment Promotion office in New York says the awards, named after Swiss hero William Tell, will be given 8 November in New York by Switzerland’s newly arrived Ambassador to the US Manuel Sager.
The winners:
Match abandoned Tuesday night after six minutes, but violence continued
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Uefa, the European football body, says it is opening an investigation into the violence Tuesday night 12 October in Genoa, Italy, that prompted officials to call off the Euro 2012 qualifying match between Italy and Serbia after six minutes.
The start of the match was delayed by 35 minutes due to flares thrown by Serbian fans and “disturbances”, says Uefa. Seventeen people were arrested, with nearly 140 identified as taking part in the disturbances, according to Italian media reports, with some reports that the instigator was among those arrested.
The hearing into the case will be held 28 October after referee and delegates reports are filed with Uefa. Disciplinary action, says the organization, could “range from a reprimand or fine, up to a stadium closure or ‘disqualification from competitions in progress and/or exclusion from future competitions’, based on Uefa regulations.
Serbia lost its home match to Etonia, 3-1, Friday 8 October. Italy is currently in first place in the Group C rankings for qualifying rounds, with Serbia in fifth place out of the six.
Riots inside the stadium
Hip Hop and Jazz in one eve of fun at the Usine in Nyon.
Location: Nyon, Vaud
Link out: https://www.petzitickets.ch/detail_evenement.ph…
Date: 15 Oct 2010
Title: Castle hopping/hike
Location: Nyon, Prangins and more
Link out: Click here
Description: Spend the day seeing the castles in beautiful Vaud. An 8-km hike and tour that takes approximately 4.5 hours.
Date: 2010-07-31
A day for kids in Nyon.
Location: Nyon, Vaud
Link out: http://www.sic-nyon.ch
Date: 21 Aug 2010
RSR public radio and Couleur 3 provide podcasts and downloads of several of the concerts
Crosby Stills & Nash were among the big hits at Paleo (photo: © 2010 Paléo / Boris Soula)
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – And the bands played on! The Paleo Festival closed Sunday, yet again, on a happy note for its organizers, a sold-out event, no major crises, and generally happy concert-goers. The only damp notes were problems with parking lot closures when heavy rains fell at the end of last week, just as the five-day event reached its peak, but given the encouragement the green festival gives to using trains and buses to reach it, this might have a positive result, prompting more people to reconsider driving in 2011.
Many of the concerts are available online from RSR and Couleur 3, depending on rights negotiations with the performing artists.
Big hits for 2010 were old favourites, starting with Crosby Stills & Nash, Johnny Clegg and Iggy Pop, but the Tribune de Geneve argues that hip-hop was the real star this year, performing in every corner of the festival.
The mix of music pulled in 230,000 fans, according to Paleo.
Paleo in 2011: mark your calendars now, 19-24 July.
Another type of spill
Update 3 July 08:00 Nyon company takes on former rogue trader
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A top oil trader who was fined £72,000 and banned from trading in the UK for five years by Britain’s markets watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has been hired by Starsupply Renewables SA in Nyon. Steve Perkins, from Essex in the UK, was 1 July reported by the UK’s Daily Telegraph to be talking to the company, and the newspaper raised the question of how Switzerland could allow him to trade, if he’s banned in the UK. Perkins’s new company told the Tribune de Geneve that it has hired Perkins, who will not be trading, but will be training new staff.
The former trader, who could not be named in Switzerland before he was hired, personally moved the price of oil $1.50 by bidding it up early one morning a year ago in an alcohol-fuelled trading frenzy worth $520 million. His former employer lost $10m covering the trades hours later. Starsupply Renewables, a subsidiary of SGB Group, told the Geneva newspaper that he had an alcoholism problem, but has been in treatment and he has been sober for a year. The chairman of SGB Group, world leader in biofuels trading, Kevin McGeeney, is quoted as saying that the company and Perkins have both agreed to respect the FSA ruling.
An FSA spokesman told the Telegraph that Swiss market authorities would normally be aware of the 34 year-old trader beginning his career again in Switzerland, 24 hours after being banned in Britain but that they were powerless to do anything about it.
Wild winds on Lake Geneva Thursday afternoon created beautiful streaks of colour (photo: obwoodman on flickr, reproduced with permission)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The weather will get a bit warmer every day and there are so many things to do you’ll have a tough time deciding. Welcome to early summer, that season when the pools are open but the kids are still in school, the big music festivals haven’t yet kicked off, World Cup fever is still limited to speculation, and our friends haven’t dispersed to far corners of the world for vacation.
GenevaLunch tips to get the most out of the weekend
- be sure to check the weather forecast on our weather page, for Geneva and Zurich (maps for all of Switzerland)
- our events calendar is bursting at the seams, so look there to see what’s going on in the Lake Geneva region now, and to plan ahead, for example for a summer’s worth of fun in Lausanne
- head for a great cafe and do one of our new crosswords by local crossword designer Chalicea, whose other work is published internationally (you can do them online or print out and do them by hand)
- enjoy our blogs, which give you another view of life in the region, and note that we’re opening up our food blog, now called Savouring Switzerland, to a group of writers.
Title: Rive folies in Nyon
Location: Nyon, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: Music, food and lots of enterteainment in Nyon.
Start Date: 2010-06-17
End Date: 2010-06-19
Title: Exhibit: Rome and medicine in Nyon
Location: Nyon
Link out: Click here
Description: Medecine and health during Roman times.
Start Date: 2010-06-01
End Date: 2010-10-31
Title: Castle hopping/hike
Location: Nyon, Prangins and more
Link out: Click here
Description: Spend the day seeing the castles in beautiful Vaud. An 8-km hike and tour that takes approximately 4.5 hours.
Date: 2010-06-05
Update 13:15 Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A fire in the centre of Nyon, at Rue de la Gare number 24, has put two people in hospital, destroyed their studio apartment and caused extensive damage to neighbouring apartments, say Vaud police. The fire that began early in the morning was brought under control by 07:00 but a large emergency was brought in to deal with the blaze and possible injuries. Thirteen residents from numbers 22, 24 and 26 on the Rue de la Gare were evacuated. Firefighters used two long ladders to reach the occupents of the studio on at the top, after a neighbour phoned in the alarm at 03:00 Friday 21 May.
The mainly pedestrian street runs perpendicular to the Nyon train station.
Forty-three firefighters, 13 fire engines, four ambulances, six regular and traffic police patrols were called in, in addition to Nyon police on duty at the time of the blaze.
A new logo, fresh coat of paint and ID as a commuter boat on Lake Geneva
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The CGN (Compagnie Générale de la Navigation) has painted its commuter boats dark blue, given them their own logo with an identity that will be used for signs on quays and elsewhere, and created a web site that also works well on commuters’ iPhones.
The four cross-border lines have been colour-coded and given numbers, like other public transport bus, train and tram lines. Welcome aboard the new NaviMobilité system!
For the more than 1.22 million commuters in the Lake Geneva region who used the seven fast service boats in 2009, the clearer focus on their needs will be undoubtedly be welcome. The new website, navimobilite.ch, offers schedules, prices and practical information far more quickly and easily than in the past, for the four cross-border routes, with up to 92 runs a day between France and Switzerland:
Title: Flea markets in the Lake Geneva region
Location: Several towns: Nyon, Coppet, Morges, etc.
Description: Download this list of flea markets in the Lake Geneva region. It does not include Geneva.
Start Date: 2010-05-01
End Date: 2010-05-31
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ticket information update:
Paleo will feature Southern African artists in 2010, a nod to football’s World Cup, inlcuding Ubuhle Be Afrika.
Paleo Festival in June in Nyon, 20-25 July
Tickets were promptly sold out Wednesday noon 21 April, the first sales day, for everything but Tuesday night! Tickets for Sunday, the hottest night, went in 15 minutes and for the other nights within two hours. Paleo’s sale pitch for the remaining night: “The Tuesday night will swing between hip-hop and rock with, on one hand, the mythical French NTM and the inventive N*E*R*D and, on the other, the bruising rock of rock’n'roll legends Iggy and the Stooges and the Frenchman Saez, incisive and engaged.”
Paleo does a great job of fighting the ticket scalping problem with the Paleo bourse, starting 5 May, where you can buy or sell tickets at a fair price. This is also where you can get tickets for the Tuesday shows. And 1,500 tickets go on sale every morning at Paleo for shows that night, so there is always a last-minute chance to get tickets.
Geneva Servette Hockey Club versus SE Bern in the finals
Thursday 22 April in Geneva
Tickets sold out within two hours Wednesday morning to Thursday’s (22 April) sixth game in the best-of-seven series, so the ticket windows won’t be open at the Vernets ice rink.
Nyon, Swizerland (GenevaLunch) - The Visions du Réel documentary film festival association has named Luciano Barisone as its new director. He is currently the director of the Festival of Popoli in Florence, Italy and he will start his new job during the summer of 2010. as the new director of Visions du Réel. He replaces Jean Perret, who has headed the festival for several years. Perret is taking up a new post at the Haute Ecole d’art et de design in Geneva.
The film festival runs 15-21 April and includes an international competition.
Dizu Plaatjie, Paleo 2010 (photo: ©2010 Patrick Lee Thorp/Paleo)
Paleo goes back to its roots with Crosby, Stills & Nash
Festival beats the World Cup with its own Southern Africa lineup, headed by white Zulu Clegg
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Tickets go on sale for reduced prices starting at midday 21 April, online, for the next Paleo Festival.
And the lineup is now out, featuring some old favourites and hot new talent: Indochine, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jacques Dutronc, Iggy and the Stooges, M, Jamiroquai, NTM, Alain Souchon, N*E*R*D, Diam’s, Johnny Clegg.
Don’t forget to enter the competition for free tickets to the six-day festival, one of the liveliest events of the Lake Geneva region summer!
Spring open houses and wine courses good starting point
learning about wine
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Warmer weather will soon be upon us, and among the pleasures Spring brings to Switzerland is the start of the wine-tasting season, with individual cellars and villages holding open house days. These are a popular Swiss tradition that allow consumers to sample and compare wines, but alcohol abuse, a growing problem among young people, is starting to make an appearance. “With young people, we’re losing some of the understanding of the larger culture that has always been part of wine-drinking,” says Jean Hutin of Domaine Les Hutins in Dardagny, canton Geneva.
Versoix Chocolate Festival 2010, Switzerland (photo, ©2010 Mr Kio)
Versoix, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The urge to turn the town into a chocolate bazaar overcomes Versoix every March and the sixth year of the Versoix Chocolate Festival took place as happily as usual Saturday 20 March.
This year’s festival had an unusual feature: chocolate-makers participating in the festival spent Saturday working in relays to build a five-metre high chocolate bunny, only to let the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club break it into pieces Sunday at 16:00 and hand it out to the public (donations for a nibble or two go to Haiti for post-earthquake aid).
Versoix has had chocolate-makers since 1858 but on this one day every year the town of 13,000 has more visitors than residents and all roads (and rails for the chocotrains) end in chocolate.
Versoix Chocolate Festival 2010, Switzerland (photo, ©2010 Mr Kio)
But the less said the better, for chocolate is meant to be looked at, smelled, touched, nibbled.
Eaten.
GenevaLunch photos by Mr Kio. (Photo album with 44 images from the Versoix Chocolate Festival, mmmmmm)
Title: Castle hopping/hike
Location: Nyon, Prangins and more
Link out: Click here
Description: Spend the day seeing the castles in beautiful Vaud. An 8-km hike and tour that takes approximately 4.5 hours.
Date: 2010-04-03
Coffee at the Hotel Richmond, Geneva
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Uganda is starting a planting programme for wilt-free coffee strains. Wilt, a fungus, has killed half of the country’s robusta variety coffee plants in 20 years. Uganda is Africa’s second largest coffee producer, after Ethiopia, but the largest producer of robusta, which accounts for 85 percent of its coffee exports. The new disease-free strain was developed by Uganda’s Coffee Research Institute and gardens will be planted with the new strain this year, Uganda-based Emma Joynson-Hicks of Cafe Africa told Bloomberg.
Cafe Africa was started in Nyon in 2006 by John Schluter, a retired Ugandan coffee grower, to reduce poverty in Africa by helping the continent restore its coffee industry to 1975 levels, when it was a major player in the world coffee business.
Robusta is often mixed with Arabica, particularly in France and Italy, to add strength to coffee.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Commuters who take CGN boats between Nyon in Switzerland and Chens or Yvoire in France are out of luck Tuesday, with high winds on Lake Geneva forcing the boats to remain docked. The Thonon-Lausanne line is also not operating, although Evian-Lausanne is, with bus service between Thonon and Evian. The winds, gusting up to 100kph, are not the problem for the boats, but docking properly is, according to the company.
Weather forecast: high winds are expected to continue until Thursday, when they will die down to low to moderate. Cold temperatures will continue, with the high in Geneva expected to be -1C and -14C at 2,000 metres altitude. MeteoSwiss
To check for updates: CGN
