Update 20:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Monday, a retired woman in Excenevex, near Yvoire on Lake Geneva in Haute Savoie, France, found the mummified body of a newborn in a backpack that had been left on the property of her second home, under stairs protected by a balcony.
The Lyon resident found the backpack in mid-July, reports Le Dauphine Libéré, but assumed it belonged to someone in her family and she didn’t immediately check the contents. When she and her daughter looked 26 July, they found a newborn wrapped in a towel, several days old and mummified by the heat. Police have opened an investigation.
The discovery of the newborn was eclipsed somewhat by the spectacular unearthing of newborns’ bones in northern France.
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
Direct to France, less than half an hour away
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The fast boat service that connects Lausanne with Thonon, Haute Savoie in neighbouring France is one year old. The Compagnie Generale de Navigation (CGN) says that traffic increased 19 percent in 2009, more than 125,000 more passengers, compared to 2008.
The company offers 18-24 crossings a day, depending on the season, on the Lausanne-Thonon route. It has up to 70 daily crossings that connect the four French towns of Chens, Yvoire, Thonon and Evian, with Nyon and Lausanne in Switzerland.
It takes 27 minutes to cross the lake in the Navibus, compared to a 90-minute car ride. A full-price roundtrip ticket costs CHF12.70. The CGN estimates that the same trip by car costs CHF110.
Busy Lake Geneva!
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Lake Geneva’s paddlesteamers and swimmers are not a good mix, a point that the police and CGN boat company would like to put across strongly as summer begins. “This year, we’ll be stricter,” says Claude-Alain Bart of the Vaud Brigade du Lac. New legislation went into effect in January 2009 and police say they will be tougher this summer with lawbreakers who swim in areas where the large boats dock or who go closer than 100 metres to the large craft, either swimming or in smaller boats.
Police and the Compagnie Générale de Navigation (CGN) are starting a public awareness campaign to educate lake-goers on the new safety rules, which are designed to reduce incidents involving swimmers, especially young swimmers, who approach CGN boats near landing docks and potentially put their lives at risk.
