The 48th annual Montreux Jazz Festival is set to start in a couple of weeks, from 4 to 19 July. Although it began as a pure Jazz Festival, other styles of music were quickly integrated. As it is the second largest jazz festival in the world, it needs a killer line-up, which it has once […]
Archives for 2014
Payot’s best sellers of the week
This week’s top seller is Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton. The book chronicles her four year stint as US Secretary of State in President Obama’s administration. Reviews to date are shamefully polemical and appear to be drawn solely along party political lines rather than on the merits or weaknesses of Mrs Clinton’s narrative.
Bergamo, Italy: Dolce vita around the corner
Need a dolce vita fix? Located 50km away from the hustle and bustle of Milan, Bergamo is a city full of old-world Italian charm. The city’s defining feature is the ancient hilltop Città Alta (Upper Town) surrounded by the Mura, over 5km of well-preserved Venetian walls. A wander through the cobblestone streets leads to several […]
Pet peeve – there is a lot of talk about pets in Robyn’s family this week
So we’re talking a lot about pets again, in our household. It seems the children are not content with four fat goldfish, three layabout guinea pigs, a geriatric cat and a Furby that will not shut up (I’d take the batteries out but what if it goes all Chucky on me and keeps talking?). No. […]
Lausannoises at the extremes of endeavour
While Switzerland is holding its breath for its national team playing in the world cup in Brazil, two Swiss women from Lausanne have made the country proud by establishing two new records – at the top of mountains. A few weeks ago we reported on Sophie Lavaud getting ready to climb the North face of […]
US listed terror group in Switzerland
GENEVA/LAUSANNE Local Muslims are concerned by stalls in Swiss streets promoting Ansar al-Sharia, a Salafist group on the US terrorist list. Distributing the Koran may seem harmless enough, but Arab speakers reported they were also attempting to recruit fighters for Syria. Early this month, one kiosk appeared in Geneva’s Place du Molard, and others were […]
Drivers beware of hefty fines when crossing Swiss borders
BERN A bizarre case has Swiss and foreigners alike scratching their heads. A hapless German pensioner recently visiting his daughter in Switzerland drove his son-in-law’s Swiss-registered car across the border to go to his daughter’s holiday home in Austria. Stopped at customs, and unable to provide appropriate documentation, Dieter Johann von der Heide was hit […]
Mountains, bees and books
As long as the Swiss and many expats have their teams (German, English, Spanish, Portuguese…) still in play, the World Cup is impossible to ignore. So it’s refreshing to have outdoor enthusiasts, such as the two Lausanne women, one who climbed Everest, the other who base-jumped off the Matterhorn, remind us about other things, notably […]
Le News edition 28
19 June 2014 Download the latest edition of Le News here: Le News 19.06.14 Edition 28 (Right click “save target as”)
EPFL’s cement discovery
LAUSANNE Ten per cent of the earth’s CO2 emissions are emitted by industrial processes related to the creation of cement. The widely used construction material negatively impacts on the environment at all stages of its production. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has now granted more than CHF 4 million to a project instigated […]
