Le Matin. The international hot air balloon festival starts at Chateau d’Oex this Saturday, 21 January 2017. 70 pilots and their teams will converge on the pre-Alpine town in Vaud for the 39th edition of the festival. For nine days pilotes from 15 countries will take to the mountain sky. Special displays will be staged […]
Archives for 2017
Swiss fact: Switzerland’s president has no Twitter account
Political Twitter habits vary enormously across cultures and personalities. The US is at one end of the spectrum and Switzerland at the other. A look at some other European nations throws up a few surprises. US President elect Donald Trump seems to have decided he can govern in 140 characters. He currently has more than […]
Why was China’s president not served Chinese fondue rather than a cheese one?
A few days ago, RTS showed Chinese president Xi Jinping in Bern eating cheese fondue, a food quite alien to the Chinese palate, although local cheeses can be found in parts of China and it is being eaten increasingly in western foods such as pizza and burgers. From the look on his face in the video it […]
Chinese president visits Lausanne
On his way from Davos to Geneva, Chinese President Xi Jinping, stopped in Lausanne where he visited the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters and its president Thomas Bach. It is the first time a Chinese leader has visited the Olympic city. He arrived yesterday evening and visited the IOC today. The two leaders chatted about […]
Squeezed and angry: how to fix the middle class crisis – a look at Switzerland
One of the topics at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos is: Squeezed and angry: how to fix the middle class crisis. As a precursor, the WEF published the 135 page Inclusive Growth and Development Report 2017, which ranks Switzerland 3rd behind Norway and Luxembourg on inclusion, out of a group of 30 advanced economies. In […]
Winds of over 140 km/h hit Vaud today
High winds whistled past the Dôle today. At 1,677 m above sea level, the Dôle is the second highest peak in the Jura. Winds there today went as high as 142 km/h. Down by Lake Geneva, winds got up above 90 km/h in Saint-Prex and Nyon, according to MeteoNews. Maximum wind speeds in other places today […]
Switzerland ranked number one at attracting and keeping talent, says study
This year’s 2017 Global Talent Competitiveness Index places Switzerland at the top. In addition, the study by the business school INSEAD, with input from the Adecco Group and the human capital leadership institute, puts Switzerland at or near the top on all six measures that make up the overall ranking of 118 nations. Switzerland excels […]
A Swiss experiment begins with ski pass discounts for bad weather
Over the Swiss January school holidays we planned a one day ski trip. Snow conditions were poor so we planned our day around lunch. The plan was to start in Zermatt on the Swiss side of the Alps, then head over to Italy for lunch at a particular restaurant. We arrived in Zermatt at around 10am, bought […]
Freezing Bise wind to sweep across Switzerland
The cold, dry wind known as the Bise, which blows across the Swiss plateau, occurs when the air pressure in eastern Switzerland exceeds that in the west. As the wind reaches Lake Geneva it gains intensity as it is channeled through the narrow gap between the pre Alpine mountains and those of the Jura to the […]
Swiss franc less overvalued according to latest Big Mac index
On 12 January 2017, the Economist came out with its latest Big Mac index. Also known as the burger benchmark, the index compares the price of a Big Mac around the world. This catchy, if highly incomplete means of comparing the relative purchasing power of different currencies, uses the United States and the US$ as its […]
