The 2011 Chasselas, near Chamoson, Valais, recently bottled and waiting for your this weekend during the wineries open house days
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Much of Switzerland, including the Lake Geneva area, will be taking a four-day Ascension weekend starting Thursday 17 May. Some areas, for example most of canton Valais, are open for business Friday.
The weather forecast is not a springtime ideal, with rain and sun and wind wrapped around chilly temperatures, highs of 20C Friday, 25C Sunday, then dropping back to a high of 17C Monday.
Early Thursday, snow line down to 1,000 metres altitude and danger of frost on the plains.
You’ll need to keep plenty of options handy for entertainent this weekend; be sure to check our popular events page.
Big events this weekend include the winery open house days, Thursday to Saturday, throughout canton Valais, the country’s largest wine-producing region.
The bulk of the vineyards are in the villages that fan out from the Rhone river, nestled below snowy Alpine peaks, so visiting the area is always a beautiful trip.
A couple other suggestions (check the events page for details) are roasted sausages at the Chillon castle, one of Switzerland’s top tourist attractions, Saturday evening, and a stroll along Geneva’s boardwalk to see the exhibit of international cartoons.
Valais wineries open house days, suggestions
- your first step should be to visit the Vins du Valais web site, in English; the practical information page is in French, however
- they published a brochure in 2010, including an English version, which provides very good background material on the canton’s vineyards, wineries, grape varieties and more – available in print in a lot of wineries, but also online, for advance reading
- the same group, which represents wineries in the canton, publishes a useful printed booklet for the Caves Ouvertes days; I picked up mine at a wonderful little boutique and wine bar, Fol’terre, at the western entrance to Fully
- if you have an iPhone, Vins du Valais has an app that will prove useful
- follow our wine tasting tips, for all the cantons, and please make an effort to use public transport rather than driving
Remember that you can always order the wine and have it shipped, a quick and easy solution that virtually all Swiss wineries offer.
Ed. note: I’m also a wine writer and I’ll be writing tasting notes from several of the wineries in Valais over the next three days. You can follow me on my GenevaLunch blog, Among the vines, and on my Swiss wines Facebook page, Ellen’s Wine World.
Is it possible to predict the future and chance? If yes, to what degree of certainty? Find out during this temporary exhibit.
Location: Geneva
Link out: http://www.ville-ge.ch/mhs/expo_2012_jeux.php
Start date: 1 Mar 2012
End date: 27 May 2012
Escalade runners, Geneva, 3 December 2011 (photo, ©2011 Mr Kio on flickr)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The pre-Christmas holiday season took off running in Geneva, as it does every year with the traditional Escalade races.
The city had relatively clement weather Saturday 3 December for the runs, compared to many years.
Snow and sleet were absent and the drizzle wasn’t a freezing one.
Ed. note: we’ve created a GenevaLunch album of photos from the races by Mr Kio on flickr.
Portuguese runner Clarisse Cruz, age 33, became the first non-African woman to win the women’s race since 1998.
She finished the 4.79km race in 15’36, 7″ ahead of Kenyan Jane Muia and 14” ahead of Kenyan Caroline Chepkwony, who won in 2010.
Kenyan Paul Kipkorir won the men’s race, repeating his 2010 victory and giving Kenya 10 of the last 12 Escalade races.
The distance runner placed first with 20’45 for the 7.25 km city run, coming in 5″ ahead of Geneva’s Tadesse Abraham and 6” ahead of Kenyan Milton Rotich.
Escalade runners, Geneva, 3 December 2011 (photo, ©2011 Mr Kio on flickr)
The Escalade is celebrated from the day of the race to the city centre festival a few days later that commemorates the 1602 failed invasion of Geneva by Savoyard troops.
Costumes, Mère Royaume’s piping hot soup served in the Old Town and marmites, little three-legged traditional soup pots made out of chocolate and filled with treats, will replace this Sunday’s runners, and snow is reported to be on the way. Expect the same cheerful holiday crowds. Details, Geneva Tourism
Tourists and cell phone cameras capture the jet d'eau in Geneva 22 November
Keeping the dog safe from the leaves, canton Vaud, lakefront, 3 November
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Expect rain this weekend around Lake Geneva, with gentle temperatures of 11-13C and autumn colours remaining unless the rainfall becomes too heavy.
Canton Valais will be spared much of the rain, with warm foehn winds blowing hard and raising temperatures to 18-19C.
The weekend kicks off the November-December pre-holidays boom in events in the region.
The Leman Expat Fair is a popular introduction to the area for newcomers with information about local services for old hands as well. Lausanne has an arts and crafts fair and its Scottish Church is holding its pre-Christmas bazaar. Schilliger Garden Centre is open extra hours with its magnificent Christmas displays.
Check out the complete editor’s selection of events in the region on the GenevaLunch events page!
It’s also the start of the glamorous charity events season, with the big Geneva Charity Ball kicking things off 18 November. The high-octane event is selling tickets to the public; this year’s recipients are Clair Bois, Paidos, SOS Children’s Villages and The World Youth Education Trust.
Swiss pumpkins
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Welcome to November weather a couple days early, with chilly days and nights forecast in the Lake Geneva region this weekend: highs of 11-14C and lows of 7-11C, with Sunday night slightly more clement than Friday and Saturday nights, according to Meteo Swiss.
The 12,000 people registered for the Lausanne Marathon will be keeping warm Sunday, so drivers should be aware that the lake road is closed from 07:30 to 17:00 Sunday, between Lausanne and La-Tour-de-Peilz while the race takes place. Public transport will continue to operate in the area.
Lausanne is also host to a pumpkin carving fair Sunday, or, if you’re getting fired up about Christmas, the notable Schilliger Garden Centre Christmas markets are open Saturday, two of the many events that are listed as a regular feature of GenevaLunch.
Saturday night reminder: turn your clocks back one hour as we move off summer time, also known as daylight savings time.
Vinea wine festival, Sierre
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Temperatures are inching back up this weekend, with highs of 28C expected, but the warmer weather will bring some thundershowers with it in French-speaking Switzerland.
Central Switzerland is more likely to be dry and sunny, so if you’re up or hiking, head for Interlaken or Lucerne.
GenevaLunch will be publishing some suggestions for Swiss mountain hiking tomorrow, Friday 2 September. We will also publish a guide to visiting Vinea (see below).
Be sure to check out the GenevaLunch events calendar for a good weekend selection.
Two top alternatives for the weekend are:
- the Vinea wine festival in Sierre, Switzerland’s largest outdoor wine fair, with 150 producers from throughout the country presenting 1,500 wines, at an event that turns the main street of Sierre into a stream of white tents with a congenial crowd of 10,000 wine-lovers. Complete programme and details, Vinea (in English)
- Saturday, 3 September the Chateau de Chillon is offering a special astronomy observation event for CHF10 with special entrance price for children: a teleconference at 20:15 with astrophysicist Sylvia Ekstrom from the University of Geneva, in French, will be followed by an observation of the skies, with access to special instruments, at the foot of the castle: info@chillon.ch or telephone 021 966 8910 to register.
The Lake Geneva region is good for weekend urban hikes: Geneva's Mont-Blanc bridge adorned with the UN and Geneva flags this week mark major world health and meteorology conferences
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Expect comfortable temperatures, with highs of 24-26C in western Switzerland over the weekend, but with sunshine mixed with thunderstorms, says MeteoSwiss.
Several events in the area should get you out of the house this weekend, including:
The Chateau de Chillon has on display 10 very special models of Lake Geneva’s historic paddle-wheel steamships, 1:50 scale models and some even 1:25: “La Suisse”, “Simplon”, “Helvétie”, “Rhône”, “Lausanne”, “Montreux”, “Savoie”, “Italie”, “Vevey” and the “Major-Davel”. The Lavaux vineyards that are a Unesco World Heritage site near the castle are now budding and green from the week’s rains, making it perfect for hiking.
Alpine and Jura mountain walks are never far away - cows out for a walk in Visperterminen, Valais
La Cote is learning a lesson from Geneva’s winemakers and this weekend’s winery open days in Mont-sur-Rolle will offer a shuttle bus to and from the Rolle train station and the 30 wineries that are participating. Pay CHF10 for a glass and you can sample the new wines in all the cellars for free (but don’t lose your glass!).
Nyon’s Gaos (Geneva Amateur Opera Society) offers good laughs with The Producer, which ends Saturday.
Your guide to a holiday-season weekend in Zurich, an easy train ride from Lake Geneva
Click on images to view larger
Zurich, December, view over the Limmat, universities above the Niederdorf
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The charm of Zurich is at its brightest in the lead-up to Christmas. Daytime offers plenty of activities for children and adults alike, but the real fun starts in the evening. The entire city appears to spill out of offices and shops to socialize in the snowy streets, tucking into cozy cafes and restaurants when the weather turns too brisk. It’s an easy two hours and 50 minute by train from Geneva, 30 minutes less from Lausanne, making it the perfect mini-vacation for people in the Lake Geneva area who want to leave home without the cost and fatigue of going abroad.
Swarovski crystals cover Zurich main station giant tree
The week before Christmas sees Zurich shoppers filling the stores and boutiques, as they do in any big city. Shops are open Sunday 19 December throughout the city and they are open later than usual in the evenings up to Christmas. The Bahnhof, or main train station, has what is arguably the best Christmas market in Switzerland, with a great selection of gifts, but there are also scores of small Christmas stands sprinkled around the city and small markets that are good fun.
Be sure to go back to the Bahnhof in the evening, when the locals invade it, sipping hot gluwein, the spicy scent of which fills the air. The giant Swarovski Christmas tree is an astonishing site, with over 5,000 crystal decorations. Given that these start at CHF130 in the Swarovski shop on the Bahnhofstrasse, the cost of the tree as well as its beauty are enough to make you pause. The tree itself is a 35-year-old Zurich pine from the forest above the city.
Your best starting point is at the main train station’s tourism office, where you can get excellent maps, brochures and the Zurich City Card (see below). The Bahnhof station can be confusing at the best of times, and renovations don’t make it easier to get your bearings. Do what the locals do and look up: the huge, colourful Guardian Angel (Schutzengel) by artist Niki de St Phalle serves as a good meeting point and reference.
Zurich Bahnhof, travellers' nana, "Guardian Angel"
The popular Nana figure weighs 1.2 tons and is 11 metres high. It was offered to the station in 1997 by Securitas to celebrate the 150th birthday of Swiss railways. The tourism office’s “i” is a few metres away.
Three very special treats during the holidays: extraordinary Picasso retrospective, ice skating, the Singing Tree
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
Moon rising over Sierre, Valais, Thursday 26 August, in time for a blues festival
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Outdoor festivals are playing out the last notes of summer, in Saint Prex (Negro spirituals and classical), Lausanne at the Chocolate music festival and further afield, blues under moonlit skies in Sierre. The weather promises a bit of everything this weekend, according to Meteo Swiss, with temperatures ranging from 8-23C, showers, thunderstorms and sunshine.
If you’re short on ideas for this weekend, check out our events calendar.
And whatever you decide to do, take something warm, an umbrella and, just in case, sunglasses. And don’t forget your camera, because changeable weather makes interesting scenery!
Swiss Alps 27 August 2010
One day to see the fittest, fastest, mightiest of all athletes, part of the new Diamond League events.
Location: Lausanne, Vaud
Link out: http://www.athletissima.ch/index_en.aspx
Date: 8 Jul 2010
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.
Swiss Alps: a fine day ahead
Swiss sheep, canton Valais, May 2009, before a summer on top of the mountain
Update 09:00 Saturday 10 October Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The warmest October day since 1910 was a treat earlier this week, with temperatures staying above 10C even at night and rising to 30C (Meteoswiss explains why, in French).
Good weather ahead in the Lake Geneva region
A day of rain in the Lake Geneva area Thursday cooled things down and the leaves have begun to fall, but the weekend promises a good dose of fine weather, mixed with occasional showers. At 09:00 Saturday morning it is raining everywhere in Switzerland, it appears, but the forecasters are still promising it will mostly disappear and we’ll have sunshine: have faith!
It’s relatively warm, with temperatures rising to 18C, perfect for outdoor markets, planting new wild grasses, just reading a suspenseful novel in a sunny spot, cooking up a storm with seasonal foods, or hiking through the vineyards.
What’s on in Geneva and Lausanne, the rest of the region
Sunday is Expat Expo in Geneva, the second of the region’s two big fairs with exhibitors and more, for the English-speaking population. Head out of town, under two hours from Geneva, to watch the sheep come down from the high alps, in Champéry Saturday morning. Head for the circus Saturday night: the famous Swiss Knie circus has started its 2009 programme on the lakefront in Lausanne.
Be sure to check the GenevaLunch events pages for what’s on throughout the region (click on a date on the calendar to see full display).
Title: “Fatal Emploi”, theatre
Location: Coppet
Link out: Click here
Description: Murder mystery theatre, in French, tickets CHF95-100
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 09 Oct 2009
