This year Geneva’s music festival turns 25. Every year the event is reinvented, and 2016 is no exception. It runs from Friday 17 June to Sunday 19 June 2016. The festival has five elements: classical music; contemporary music; interactive family fun; dance; cinema. The CHF 1.5 million festival lasts three days (17, 18, 19 June 2016), involves […]
Inside Geneva’s Jet d’eau – the people and machines that keep 7 tonnes of water in the air
Ahead of the opening on 25 June 2016, of a sleek new walkway out to Geneva’s iconic 140 metre high jet of water, known as the Jet d’eau, Bill Harby met the team and got a look at the machinery that makes it all happen. Viewing Geneva’s famous landmark, the Jet d’eau, up close will soon be […]
It’s strawberry season in Switzerland – time to get picking!
If you are looking for a fun activity over the next few weeks, a family trip to a nearby pick-your-own strawberry farm is well worth considering. And there are many to choose from. Two great ones near Zurich are Sunnehof farm and Jucker Farm. Sunnehof farm is in Mettmenstetten, between Zurich and Zug. Their strawberry season typically runs from the end […]
Geneva museum night: magic descends on the city on 21 May 2016
21 – 22 May 2016 One Saturday evening a year, Geneva opens its museums, workshops, and gardens until midnight. This year, the event starts on the evening of Saturday 21 May 2016, runs all night, and continues on Sunday the 22nd. The event is spread over 26 locations, together offering 170 activities. Not to be missed, […]
Paleo 2016 music festival tickets soon on sale
The Paléo Festival in Nyon, Switzerland boasts an amazing variety of artists every year. Held in fields just above Nyon, it is the annual rock festival of the region. What started as a small and eclectic get-together by the lake in 1976, has become one of Europe’s leading open-air music festivals. Over 230,000 music lovers attended last […]
Is there life beyond earth? Geneva’s natural history museum offers clues and tours in English.
Could other life exist in the universe? Switzerland’s largest natural history museum currently houses an exhibition on exoplanets looking at this question. Spread over 1,000 m2 on four floors, it is the largest exhibition of its kind. The museum also offers guided tours in English at 15:30 on Sunday 6 and 20 December 2015 and […]
Wine festivals this weekend
If the first day of autumn has left you feeling glum then these wine festivals might bring some weekend cheer. Lutry fête des vendanges – Friday 25 to Sunday 27 September 2015 Every year during September Lutry old town is transformed to celebrate the end of the annual grape harvest. Wine cellars are opened, Swiss […]
4 unmissable upcoming désalpes in French-speaking Switzerland
What exactly is the alpine descent or désalpe? It is the seasonal droving of grazing livestock from high mountain summer pastures to the low valley regions before winter sets in. In German it is known as Alpwirtschaft and in French Désalpage or Désalpe. It is a traditional farming practice thought to date back as far as […]
Combine Swiss ingenuity with an alpine cave, and you get this.
Geneva-based writer, Renu Chahil-Graf, hikes around some stunning mountain parts of eastern Switzerland, revealing surprises and extolling the charms of hiking in the rain. Real hikers don’t use umbrellas! So proclaimed Professor Dr. Jürg Hari, our guide on a recent hike. Few would have given up a weekend of confirmed sunshine in Geneva to head […]
The Swiss village that travels back to the middle ages every four years
Every four years the small hilltop village of Saillon in Valais, Switzerland travels back in time to its medieval roots. The next show runs for five days from 9 September 2015 until Sunday 13 September 2015. The entire town transforms into its medieval past. There are town’s folk dressed up as monks, maidens, knights, bishops […]
