Nyon link to the America's Cup and what it is like to live in Bassins

The America's Cup race has officially started and all interest is on Valencia in Spain right now. However there is a local interest too as Mr Bertrand Bertorelli the owner of Alinghi the Swiss catamaran in the race, lives in Gland, the town just a few miles from Nyon. Mr Bertorelli is not the only celebrity resident in this area, as Michael Schumacher the Formula One racing driver also lives in Gland and Alain Prost has a house in Nyon.

Alinghi made its debut on the lake last summer on August 1st (Swiss National day) and it sailed into Nyon and up the lake with a flotilla of boats accompanying it, with Mont Blanc in full show. A truly magnificent sight. 

Living in Bassins

What is it like to live in the village of Bassins? Below is the first in a series of reports written by readers of this column, it's their personal view of where they live. This particular view comes from Linda Revkin and you will see it also comes from 750 metres high, the elevation of the village! Read on to find out about an unusual industry that operates out the village.

If you live in a village or town near Nyon  and would like to write about it then email me cnp at bluewin.ch. I welcome suggestions. Now over to Linda.

"It was probably summer when Jeff Lynns from E.L.O. wrote “Mr. Blue Sky” in Bassins (see previous post here about this). But, blue skies can be found year round in Bassins. Right now in the snowy months of winter, when fog and cloudy weather engulf the Nyon area, the sun shines brightly up here. The Alpine peaks are crystal clear above a rumpled bed of clouds covering the normal view of Lake Geneva.

Yes, snow can stay on the ground from November until March up here at 750 metres. It is not a climate for the fainthearted. The temperatures can drop to minus seventeen. Icicles decorate the fountains.

Bassins is basically a farming village where, in years gone by, the cows probably outnumbered the population. Today that population, which had risen to six hundred souls in 1987, the date of my arrival on the scene, has now swelled to over one thousand.

What attracts people to this rural village? I can only say for myself that it was my first view of the village that captivated me. Driving up from La Cezille, I rounded the last bend in the road, a a series of many, and there was the village spread out like a snowy Christmas scene on a shallow oval dish. Above the village the vast Jura forest, a favorite place for hikers, campers, and cross-country skiers.

At the highest point, far to the left, was the Church: from there clusters of houses stretched out in a straight line to the right where a huge barn anchored the far end. Bassins is situated on a plateau. If one turns around slowly in a 360 degree rotation, a spectacular panorama of lake, Alps and Jura unfolds. On a clear day, as the song says, one can see nearly forever; the Geneva Jet d’eau , the Mont Blanc, the Dents de Midi and the “Grand Lac” by Lausanne.

So perhaps it is this spectacular view and bucolic surroundings that attracts a lot of people. The village does not have, access to a shopping centre, or international schools, it is low key. Its image is far from glossy but it does have a prerequisite Aubèrge for good dining, a fantastic bakery, a Pottery Shop, a Hair Dresser, a Bookshop, and a Well Being Saloon.. The village’s biggest new attraction is the beautiful indoor Pool situated near the Primary School on the road to Le Vaud.

One interesting industry here is a distillery for natural oils. In the summer, the fields, not cultivated with corn and wheat, are covered with bright yellow, mauve, blue and white flowers. When the distilling starts in late summer the scent of chamomile, lavender, and celery can tickle your nose.

I have loved living in Bassins these past twenty five years not only because of its setting but because of the wonderful Swiss people and the many musical opportunities that have come my way. I directed the local mixed Choir and children’s Choirs for over ten years; sang in vocal Quartet founded here, and enjoyed having access to a wonderful organ. Last fall I took part as the village celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Organ’s Installation. Back in 1984, only six hundred villagers managed to raise enough money to build this new organ.

Being a bi-national I have, like others, a foot in both camps so to speak. I also play the organ at the Scots Church in Geneva located in the Auditoire de Calvin. I am a member of an Association trying to raise funds for a new organ for that church. Somehow it seems a more daunting task to focus a multi national congregation living in Geneva, France and Vaud on the task of raising funds. Will we meet with the same success as this small village? If anyone out there has ideas or is interested in our project, take a look at our website.

Meanwhile, if you love swimming, walking, cross country skiing and beautiful views, don’t hesitate to visit Bassins."

Photos of Bassins and text by Linda Kyle Revkin

From Costa Rica to La Côte- Interview with Braulio Mora plus news.

Quick round up on a couple of pieces of recent news taken from La Côte plus an interview with Braulio Mora, local resident and one of the youngest members of Nyon town council. 

Pool for Chéserex: The citizens of Chéserex (a village near Nyon)  voted on the 31st January to go ahead with the construction of an indoor swimming pool in the village. Here is the PDF plan showing where it is planned to be situated. The popular vote brought in 383 votes for the plan, to 270 against (653 residents voted out of a possible 852).

New superstore for Nyon: Secondly, news that are plans are afoot for the Migros Home store at the top of Nyon to be demolished and a brand new building put in its place, with a food supermarket, an M-Electronics store, a new Home Store and possibly other non-Migros commercial stores within the same complex. These plans are subject to an inquiry but if they are approved, work will begin before summer and will finish before the end of 2011.

Braulio Mora - Passionate about local issues

New Centre for La Redoute

There is now a brand new centre called Maison de la Redoute for the people who live in La Redoute area of Nyon. La Redoute is a block of flats which has a resident population of around 1000 people. This new centre is seperated into two parts. One part is open for children's activities, birthday parties and also for the use of residents when they want to hold events. The other part of the centre is a "youth centre-espace jeunesse" and is reserved for  young people from 15 onwards.

The opening of this centre is the culmination of a long campaign  by Braulio Mora to get it up and running.

At 28 years old Braulio Mora is one of the fourth youngest elected members of the conseil communal and is passionate about local issues, particularly those involving the youth of Nyon.  Originally from Costa Rica (his family moved here when he was just one year old), he lives in Nyon and studies in Lausanne on an internship studying clinical pathology.

Says Braulio “ I have a degree in medicine and I could have chosen the career path of going on to be a general doctor or surgeon, but I knew that would mean extra long hours at work, all necessary to succeed in the profession. I chose pathology as it would enable me to have a life outside a normal 8-5 work routine.”

Not only is he curious about the human body and diagnosing human diseases, he is also very interested in the human mind too as he enjoys meeting people, discovering more about them and where he can, helping them. “I know that if you want to get involved in any kind of volunteering whether it is local issues or political work, you have to time to devote to it. I was an active member of the student council when I was at university and now in Nyon I sit on various committees and commissions. “

Photo below: Table tennis in play at the new centre

"Because I’m one of the younger members of the council, young people can approach me as they know I may be able to relate to some of the issues that concern them. One of the main subjects that often comes up here in Nyon time and time again is the lack of suitable affordable housing for young people which is a subject we are addressing. We don’t want people to feel they have to go elsewhere to live, we would like them to stay in the town".

The town itself of course is a great place to be and I love living here. When I’m not studying or sitting in council meetings I like to travel and I am a keen amateur photographer too. I represent the Spanish Language Catholic society here in Nyon too. There are quite a few of us that live here in the area that originate from Spain or Central and South America. There are many different nationalities that sit on the conseil communal representing Nyon’s own rich mix of citizens. We all have different viewpoints of course but we all come together for the common good".

La Redoute has its own website (note, so does La Levratte, another area of apartment buildings to the north side of Nyon)

Children celebrating at the opening party.

Braulio (right in photo) at the signing of the opening of the centre last week, with member of the Muncipalité Mr Olivier Mayor. Back row. Vanessa Gardel-Maouche.

Future articles on this site and a big thankyou.

It's February and there's lots planned for Living in Nyon this month, including articles from residents on what it's like to live in the villages of Duillier and Bassins, and in the neighbouring town of Rolle. We also have an interview coming up with Braulio Mora, one of the youngest councillors on Nyon council. He was hoping to be with us last Thursday night at the "Swiss Politics for Dummies" night but unfortunately couldn't make it due to unforeseen circumstances. 

Thankyou very much indeed to everyone who sent emails saying how much you enjoyed the evening*,which is very good to hear. I will reply to you all individually very soon.  Some of you are keen to know more about the local societies that you can get involved with, so I will endeavour to feature some of them here. As I understand it there are over 86 clubs and societies in Nyon alone, so there will be plenty to write about.  

There is obviously a demand for this kind of event in Nyon for Anglophones, so I will work on the next one (after taking a bit of a breather!) and keep you all posted.

Catherine Nelson-Pollard - Founder - Living in Nyon.

* summary of the evening will be on this site soon written by a member of the audience.

Swiss Politics evening a success

A big thankyou to all 100 of you (plus Jordan and the four councillors and the member of the Municipalité) who came last night to the "Swiss Politics" for Dummies evening. The evening turned out to be so popular, there was even a waiting list for it. So, for those of you who were on this list I have asked a member of the audience to write a brief summary of what Jordan Davis and the councillors said, and this will be on this site in the next couple of days.

As there obviously is a demand for these kind of evenings then Living in Nyon will organise another event on a similar theme in the future, so watch this space! 

Politics Evening and Wine Tasting in English

Response to the "Swiss Politics for Dummies" talk in English taking place on the 28th, has been incredible, so much so, a waiting list for the event has now been established. If you would still like to come, send an email to cnp at bluewin.ch and I will put you on the list and let you know if there are any cancellations nearer the time.

The venue of the talk is at La Ferme du Manor in Place du Château 2, Nyon.  This is the council chamber building. The building is in the photo below. The principal entry is in the second photo. The council chamber is on the 1st floor. 

You will see that this building is near to the château, so there are various places you could park nearby. Either in the main "place Perdtemps" car park in the centre of Nyon and then it will be a five minute walk through the town heading towards the château. Alternatively, you could park in La Duche underground car park on the lake road and then take the glass lift/ elevator up to the higher elevation. This brings you to a path near the chateau. Here is a list of all the public and private parking areas in Nyon.

If you are coming by train then it is a short walk through the town to the château. If you head for the castle you cannot go wrong! Here is a map link and a link to CFF to check train times.

"Introduction to Wine Tasting" ( in English)

Did you know that above Nyon in Changins there is the Ecole D'ingénieurs de Changins? Set in beautiful grounds this is in an important and prestigious "Haute Ecole", a centre of education (and university education), research and development for students and professionals involved in viticulture, oenology and arbiculture.

News for 2010 is that their wine school will be running a course an "Introduction to Wine Tasting" in English. The course begins in April and also in November and runs over 16 hours. For further details see programme

Smoke on the Water in Nyon. Deep Purple comes to Caribana!

This year Caribana celebrate its 20th year and it is kicking off the anniversary in style. Last night the announcement was made that the opening act on Weds (9 June) will be the British rock group Deep Purple.

The festival, set on the water's edge down at Crans près Celigny (just outside Nyon) is one of the first of the summer festivals in the area and this year takes place from 9-13 June. There are new additions planned for the festival such as an enlargement of the beach area, more places to sit down, the removal of the "Rock the Block" bar to create more space and careful planning to ensure that one sound from stage doesn't encroach on the others.  When more announcements are made as to the rest of the line up, they will be posted here. If you have never been to Caribana, read about previous concerts on the right hand side bar.  

Ex Swissair pilot, now head of Nyon local council - Interview with Eric Bieler

Flying above Kilimanjaro, looking down at the spectacular Andes from a cockpit or landing at Kai Tak (the old Hong Kong airport) are among the favourite memories and routes of retired *Swissair pilot Eric Bieler, now president of the Conseil Communal here in Nyon. Surprisingly after a career taking him across the world, he no longer has the great desire to travel long distances and now has his feet firmly on the ground. “There is so much to see in Nyon,Vaud and across Switzerland, I don’t need to travel far to see beautiful places, they are all on our doorstop.”

Photo above: Mr Bieler on the chateau terrace in Nyon (in slightly warmer weather!)

Like many people who have retired, he finds his schedule busier than ever. “Even more so than I when I was pilot. Once you have landed and pulled on the parking brake of the plane you can pretty much relax and enjoy the city you have arrived in. The only person you have to worry about is yourself, whereas here, as president of the conseil communal, I preside over meetings of 100 elected members and because of this I’m very aware of many of the latest issues.”

“I cannot walk around the town without noticing things or making a mental note on issues which council members are concerned about. There are common subjects that we often discuss in meetings: namely traffic problems, urbanism and taxes, but whatever is discussed, like in many meetings all over the world, sometimes we can pass a motion in five minutes that authorises the spending of 1 million Swiss francs, but we can spend hours discussing the authorisation of a small figure such as 5,000 Swiss francs!”

“Despite some of meetings which can be long (and which I try to keep as short as possible) we still have a dedicated group of individuals who are willing to be council members and come out on cold winter nights to attend meetings and to vote on and discuss local issues. These members come from all walks of life and nationalities and are representative all political parties. There are members from the U.S, Britain, Kosovo, etc. We have one Swiss lady, Madame Gabrielle Ethenoz- Damond who who has been serving on the council committee for 50 years!”

The president of the conseil communal is an annual position (Eric was previously vice president) and along with heading council meetings he also supervises the votations in the local elections.

“I do this job happily as I get great satisfaction by putting back something into the community I live in, and I enjoy meeting people. I have been here since I moved from Lausanne in 1981 and although I know Nyon very well I’m always learning something new about the town. “ Even when I was travelling for work I always took an interest in the social side of Nyon life and became a member of various social sporting and philanthropic associations.

Eric is married with two grown up children and when not sat in council meetings, he is also president of the local tennis club and president of the Conservatoire. Any free time he has, he enjoys snowshoeing in the mountains in the winter or taking his motorboat for a spin on the lake in the summer.

* Swiss International airlines used to be called Swissair

** There is an opportunity to hear more about Swiss national politics and meet some Nyon council members on January 28th, see Swiss Politics for Dummies event on right hand side bar.