Many churches across Switzerland hold special religious services on Whit Monday

Geneva, Switzerland - Geneva, Vaud, and a number of other Swiss Cantons are enjoying a three-day Pentecost weekend. Pentecost is one of the most ancient feasts of the Christian church, celebrated according to experts, early enough to be mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.

Whit Monday, Pentecost Monday, or Monday of the Holy Spirit  is a Christian holy day celebrated the day after Pentecost. The latter commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost, fifty days after Easter (pentecost or 50 in Greek), or ten days after Ascension Day.

Pentecost is a recognized federal holiday in Switzerland and one of several with religious connotations but unlike Ascension Day, it is not recognized nor celebrated by all cantons in the Confederation.

Canton Valais for example does not observe the holiday and instead commemorates the Fête-Dieu or Corpus Christi on 23 June.

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Geneva, Switzerland – Some solemn but colorful processions around Switzerland take place on Good Friday, here are two worth highlighting:

• The mourners of Romont (Les Pleureuses) in the small medieval town of Romont, located in canton Fribourg, about 1:30 from the Lake Geneva area. A cross bearer and 20 women, all veiled in black, pray at the fourteen stations of the cross placed throughout town. It begins at 15:00 with a Good Friday mass.
• Canton Ticino is well known because most towns host Good Friday processions, none bigger than the one in Mendrisio which involves over 600 hundred participants carrying lanterns, dressed in historic costumes, with small bands playing dirges. Thousands of people show up for the procession (hundreds come from the Lombardy region in Italy alone). After the procession attendees and participants remain in town for late dinners and impromptu get-togethers in the streets of the medieval town. The procession begins at 20:45. (Tip: most restaurants serve until past midnight so save your appetite).
• Lausanne holds one of the most traditional masses on Good Friday at 15:00. The choir of the Basilica majestically performs Bach’s “St. John’s Passion”.

Other resources:

• Geneva catholic churches (must call for Good Friday services)
• Neighboring France list of Good Friday services
• Vaud catholic churches

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The Russian Orthodox Church in Geneva

Geneva, Switzerland – I remember two years ago I found a quaint Catholic church near old Nendaz in the Valais where the Christmas Eve service included singing, a live nativity scene and hot mulled wine.

Not sure if something similar can be found in Geneva, but here’s a list of churches that offer services in English and in other languages besides French:

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This is the old glass half full or half empty trick: either we’re losing 17 minutes of daylight or we’re gaining 17 of night. Early November is when the combination of suddenly chilly weather, gray fog over Geneva, and having to move the clocks back makes me very aware the days are growing shorter.

But how much shorter and how fast, I always wonder. Here’s the answer, along with sunrise and moonrise and setting times for Geneva. Buckle your seatbelt, as we’re about to zoom into winter, losing 17 minutes of daylight in the next six days.

By the end of November our day will be one hour 10 minutes shorter than on the first of the month.

The good news is we have more time to have fun in the evenings, and Geneva has plenty to do.

Geneva, Switzerland – On Saturday 4 September the Geneva-based Society of Notaries Public is setting shop in a two-story London-like bus on the Rive roundabout to give free legal advice.

Once a year, notaries from around canton Geneva volunteer to answer your questions, free of charge.

In Switzerland notaries handle details concerning estate planning, bankruptcy, marriage law and matrimonial division of property, acquisition of real estate by foreigners and setting up small businesses. Notaries may be also able to refer you to other resources who can advise you on landlord-tenant and other issues as well as offering suggestions for finding accountants and other specialists.

The notaries welcome walk-ins from 08:30 to 16:30.

If you can’t attend but would like to benefit from free, or low-cost, legal advise read my earlier post: Where to find legal help in Geneva, Lausanne and canton Vaud.

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What’s free, where to park, where to stay, what to see, and how to get there!

Rock, jazz, R&B, hip-hop and more at Montreux

Montreux, Switzerland - English singer/songwriter and seven-time Grammy-award-winner Phil Collins sang Motown, and unofficially kicked off  the 44th Montreux Jazz Festival.

The MJF officially begins tonight 2 July with an array of performers and activities proper of one of the largest, best-known music festivals in the world.

Let’s just say that it is huge, and there’s so much to see and do, one might need a quick survival guide. Here’s mine.

Free at Montreux

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Website revamped, more information available

Lisa Cirieco-Ohlman's passport to knowing-it-all

Geneva, Switzerland – Being an expat who knows a lot about Geneva is one thing, being a know-it-all is a whole ‘nother one. For Lisa Cirieco-Ohlman, knowing it – almost – all and putting it in a book came serendipitously around 10pm one night in 1999 while trying to breastfeed her newborn baby.

“I was at home, when someone who I didn’t know called me. He got my phone number from someone else who I didn’t know, and was demanding an answer right there and then to his question . . . demanding me to help him! I hung up and knew I had to do something.”

While most people would simply change their phone number, this American-born, Geneva-raised expat decided to write a resource book instead. And with it, a new Geneva institution was born.

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Bread classes in Geneva

Geneva, Switzerland – Today’s Geneva tip will not burn a hole in your pocket but might leave your mouth watering. Learn how to bake your own Swiss-style bread. Once a month the Association des Amis du Four à Pain Saconnésien, loosely translated as Saconnex’s Bread Oven Friends Association, provides a 4-hour course on how to bake the perfect loaf.

The classes are taught in French by expert, local boulangers and help you to prepare, sponge, knead, rise and bake a perfect loaf. This month’s feature is cream and honey bread – also known as torsadé. In April, learn to make the bee’s nest, or Nid d’abeille.

Each class is CHF20, which is only CHF5/hour: now that’s a bargain. Register right away as courses fill up quickly! Other courses will include Neuchatel-style bread.

Find out what’s up in Geneva through my Twitter channel, which has additional tips about Geneva, or subscribe to this blog by using our RSS feed. You can also subscribe to get it by e-mail, it takes two seconds, and it’s just as easy to unsubscribe at any time!

Finding a doctor in a new city can be a daunting task to those searching for specific qualifications and language skills.

Psy and Psy, is a website that operates only in French and German and that is easy to understand and navigate; not knowing either language does not represent a problem. This web site offers a listing of all psychologists and psychiatrists not only in Canton Geneva but in the rest of Switzerland. The listing contains the names of doctors specializing in children´s needs as well.

You may sort the listing by zip code, language and other criteria. A great resource to pass on to others.

Happy therapy to all!

Thanks GL Editor: Madame Ellen Wallace for such a fancy title for my blog!

I am indeed new to Geneva. Or at least as “new” as I can be at two years and six months of having arrived at Cointrin Airport from JFK carrying three oversized suitcases, a roll-up mattress, a jet-lagged 8-year-old girl, and a 2.5 feet tall Sheppard-Hound dog who stood scared in her grander-than-life cage. -How is that for an introduction?-.

My "new" hometown

Tricky thing is, until recently, I kept a certain distance from “some of Geneva”. Freelancing when I wanted to (and I did not want to most of the time), and only taking on projects I cared about (and I did not care about that many either).

And so one day I realized I had started to discover things about Geneva that I should have found out a long time ago. Yes indeed a sad turn of events. Please, do not mistake me for someone who has “refused” to “integrate” -as my French teacher would say. Not at all.

An expat, who veni, vidi, vici Geneva for six months -before leaving again- said to me: “you’re a Genevan vet”. She did not mean vet as in animal doctor. She meant vet as in veteran. Moi, a veteran? In a revolving-door culture of expats in Geneva, a veteran could be anyone who stays more than one year. So… I might be after all a -reluctant- vet.

I guess I am discovering Geneva, sort of: backwards. I admit it is a rather peculiar way to discover Geneva. What I have found out is that I learn something new about my new home everyday. Mostly, through other expats, immigrants and the few Swiss I have met along the way.

Thus, this blog is a public exploration of Geneva done with “a little help from my friends.”