Numerous Swiss ski resorts have been obliged to raise their 2014/15 piste rates even further this winter by one to four francs, despite strong competition with cheaper lifts in neighbouring France, Italy, Germany and Austria. Based on a survey by German language newspaper Blick, the most expensive stations include Zermatt St. Moritz, Laax, Saas Fe […]
Archives for 2014
Organic food for thought
There was a time when only ‘tree huggers’ and hippies insisted on buying organic produce, but those days are long gone, especially in Switzerland. Today, the Swiss are among the biggest consumers of organic food in Europe, just behind Germans and Danes. Bio foods are no longer relegated to specialty shops and farmer’s markets. For […]
French out to tax Basel Airport
Unlike Geneva airport, which is located entirely on Swiss soil but still operates a French side, Switzerland’s third major airport – Basel-Mulhouse EuroAirport – is on French territory, but run by the Swiss. Paris now wants to run the show by taxing all revenue, plus imposing its own rights on both French employees and companies. […]
Book review + Payot’s best sellers of the week
This week’s book review: Us. A new entry into the Payot best seller list, Us by David Nicholls is a book about personal discovery in mid-life. The book has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014. Published by Hodder and Stoughton, it was launched in September. Rank Title Author Published By Genre […]
Language thermidor – Robyn Goss grapples with French
When they heard that I was moving to Switzerland, many of my South African friends assured me that I would be speaking French fluently “in no time”. Most of them do not speak French themselves, and were most likely confusing French the actual language with French the menu language. The latter usually has helpful English […]
Switzerland to silence whistle-blowers
Proposed law provides no protection for whistleblowers The proposed whistleblowing law adopted by the Swiss Conseil des Etats, the upper house of parliament, will effectively silence employees who are best placed to report wrongdoing and threats to the public interest. The law, which focuses on whistleblowing procedures rather than on the public interest value in […]
The Biennale of Moving Images Geneva
The Biennale of Moving Images (BIM) at the Centre of Contemporary Art is a great way to spend the day. This exhibition of time-based art features 22 new commissions and spans five floors within the Bâtiment d’Art Contemporain. Produced by the Centre’s director, Andrea Bellini, in collaboration with Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator and co-director of […]
Piemonte: Probably the best wine region in Italy
Switzerland lies at a wine-making crossroads in Europe. Not only is it home to a diversity of wonderful wines and stunning vineyards, but it also borders some of the richest and most varied wine regions in the world. In this third of a series on our wine-producing neighbours, we head to the Piemonte region of […]
Lake Geneva’s higher education card
A recent article in Le Temps suggests that Patrick Aebischer, president of Lausanne’s prestigious École Polytechnique Fédérale (EPFL), has gone too far with his ambitious plans to expand what is now referred to as the “MIT of Europe”. The 9 February referendum on immigration threatens not only EPFL’s European Union funding, but also access to […]
Aid workers: unsung and unarmed
Fighting the Ebola crisis in Liberia or delivering aid to the Ukraine is not for the faint of heart. Despite the risk of disease, kidnapping and death by beheading, humanitarian workers around the world continue to offer their services in danger zones far from their comfortable homelands. Are they braver than the rest of us, […]
