The posters and signs for the  Visions due Réel f ilm festival have now gone up around Nyon and the festival programme has now been revealed. Tickets to films are now available for purchase. The festival takes place  from the 25th April to the 3rd May. Printed programmes can be found around the town, in the tourist office etc. A festival for the public, not just for the professionals   If you have never been to this festival before, it is one of the major documentary film festivals in Europe and many film makers, programme buyers from TV stations  descend on Nyon for Visions du Réel.  It's one of the busiest times for the town's restaurateurs too! However, this festival is definitely for the general public as well and  it will also interest an Anglophone audience. Many films that are screened are subtitled in English and they are often shown twice throughout the festival.  Living in Nyon will be at the festival  (as in previous years) and we will reviewing some of the films on offer. This year, it's a special  20th anniversary year for the festival and there will be lots going on including the installation of shipping containers next to the Salle Communale! These will be used to create a welcome centre for film festival visitors. There will be entertainment in the street provided by the theatre team that entertain the crowds at Paléo, there will be live music concerts and lots more! Opening film of festival on 24th April The film that will be shown the night before the festival begins on the 24th April at 19:00 at the Thèatre de Marens will be "The Optimists". This is the story of a female Norwegian volley ball team, where the age of the team ranges from 60 -98!  Find out what happens when they play in a competition against a Swedish male volley ball team of a similar age! See  this you Tube video here of the trailer of the film,   This avant-première is offered free by the town of Nyon and is usually very popular, so get your tickets and your seat early! More information to come on this festival nearer the time, keep watching this space!

Around a hundred wine cellars between Nyon and Morges will be open this weekend, Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th of May. This is a great opportunity  to discover and taste the local wines of the region. For just CHF 20,  you can visit the local wine cellars, taste wine and also use the free shuttle buses that will be in operation between Morges, Rolle and Gland railway stations. There will also be winemakers at the château of Nyon during the weekend. For more details,   click link here.

Tomorrow the 8th November two new major photo exhibitions will open both under one roof at the Château de Prangins; Swiss Press Photo 2013 and World Press Photo 2103. In the Swiss Press Photo exhibition, over  175  photographers submitted 2, 825 images to the competition portraying momentous events from 2012. Swiss Photographer Laurent Gilliéron (who lives in a small village near Lausanne) won Swiss Press Photographer of the year 2012.  Laurent sent in a series of photographs documenting  the terrible bus crash that happened in the Valais on the 13th  March 2012. Living in Nyon spoke to Laurent about the life of a photographer, and about this photo below, taken of the tunnel following the bus crash which occurred around 21:00. Dozens of rescue workers, eight helicopters and a dozen road ambulances were involved in the rescue efforts. Swiss Press Photographer of the Year 2012  Photo © Laurent Gilliéron, Swiss Press Photo, Bus Crash, Sierre, Keystone, various newspapers. "The  Tuesday of the crash it was actually my day off, but I received an sms around 22:00 that night from the police to say a major accident had happened inside a tunnel in the Valais. The details were unclear, I had no idea  it was a bus that had crashed or how many casualties there were, but I went straight to the scene.  There were only three other photographers there that night, myself working for Keystone agency, a photographer from Le Nouvelliste  (the newspaper from the Valais), and another agency photographer.  We all know each other, the world of Swiss press photography is small. There is no doubt that what we all saw and experienced that night will probably never leave any of us. It was very moving.  However for me, as a father, it was the press conference that was held in a tiny room at 06:00 in the morning that was probably the most upsetting. When they announced that 22 children had died out of a total of  28 passengers, that of course was very, very sad and hard to take in. As to the photo itself, I took it standing on on a very small bridge. I knew that the images of the rescue helicopters would be better taken from inside the tunnel rather than from outside as it was still dark and you couldn't see much.   I started this photo reportage at 22.00 on Tuesday and I didn't get home until  the following Friday, there was obviously a lot of follow up work, more press conferences and the continuing  clear up after the accident. As to my daily life as a photographer, the work is extremely varied - one day I can be working from 10:00 - 16:00 on a job and the next from 07:00- 24:00.  I  do have one fixed day off a week at least. I am often home late after sports fixtures, particularly with football matches as they are played in the evening. Having said that, even though these make long days, I like sports and live events photography. It's completely unpredictable  and you get no second chance.  Portrait photography interests me too - but here you have time to set the scene in these kind of photos, and you can alter the lighting and the positions of the subjects. Photo above: Laurent Gilliéron -  Photo crédit Keystone/Valentin Flauraud Working as an agency photographer means I am more or less responsible for my own programme in my area. I find out what is happening in the news the following week and plan where I am going to be.  I think one of the good things about working as an agency photographer in Switzerland is that I am salaried, that means I don't get paid per photograph. Perhaps this is why you will  often find Swiss photographers working well together, there's a camaraderie. We are not battling each other for the best shot which can happen in other countries. We obviously keep any tip offs or future ideas to ourselves, but once we are all on the scene we are in it together". You can see more of Laurent's photos  in the exhibition which runs from the 8th November 2013 until the 2nd March 2014. Also, check out these photos by other photographers in the Swiss Press Photo 13 exhibition. These photos below shows a competitor in the " XSpeedSki"  race  ready to ski down the steep Mont Fort's slope meet at Verbier and another with Roger Federer trying to avoid a wasp during a practice session prior to a Davis Cup encounter between Switzerland and the U.S in Fribourg on February 9, 2012. . Note: this World Press Photo exhibition is a travelling exhibition and will only be in Prangins until the 1st December 2013. The Swiss Photo exhibition will remain until the 2nd March 2014.  The museum is open  from  Tuesday to Sunday,  10:00 to 17:00  Photo above  from the Sports category  © François Schaer, Swiss Press Photo, Xspeedski, La Cité  Photo above from the Sports Category © Michael Buholzer, Swiss Press Photo, Roger Federer and the wasp, Reuters, various newspapers.

Nyon pulled out all the stops on Thursday to welcome Guy Parmelin, the new elected member of the Federal Cabinet. Mr Parmelin (who lives in Bursins) arrived by train in Nyon in the afternoon.  There was a an official welcoming ceremony to greet him with a military parade and a fanfare band, there was even a military flypast to coincide with his arrival, however due to the heavy fog around, all the crowd heard was the sound of the jet engines and noise of the planes above! As Mr Parmelin walked through the town to the castle, members of the public  followed him through the streets to the Place du Château. There were "pain surprises" on offer and wine and snacks laid on for the waiting crowd. Mayor Daniel Rossellat explained that this event had been arranged with very little time for organisation, however as the town in now known as the "Town of Festivals" it had demonstrated that it could definitely organise a party at very short notice. Below - a photo essay of the event. All photos C. Nelson-Pollard

Nine men turned up to the Les Brasseurs pub on Tuesday night at the Living in Nyon organised event, all of them were male trailing spouses who have moved here to follow female partners who are working in Geneva or Vaud based companies and organisations. Michael Shevlin (right in photo), the author of the post on being a trailing spouse  , said that among the many subjects discussed (including the difficulties of learning French!), the issue of being a male trailing spouse was talked about, but mostly in a positive light.  “10 years ago many men in our position would have been considered unusual, but today most people don’t really blink an eye when you tell them about your situation and what you do, although we did comment on the fact that we feel it is harder for expat men to find social outlets to meet up, whereas there are a plethora of women's clubs in the region. Note: As last night was such a success there will be another event like this in approximately a month’s time - keep checking this site for details. A growing trend? After such a sucessful evening, Living in Nyon asked Diana Ritchie of the Spouse Career Centre  (based in Crassier), if she also has observed that there is a now a growing trend of the arrival of more male trailing spouses to this area. “Absolutely, 50% of the spouses we deal with now are male and this is for various reasons. One is that many companies have strong diversity employment policies so they are recruiting more women, secondly there are a lot of very talented women out there now in the employment pool and an international assignment moves them up the ladder. Also there are many men who are willing to consider being a trailing spouse, whereas a few years ago they wouldn’t have entertained the idea. There is another smaller factor that I have noticed in that some men are absolutely frazzled after many years of working in a stressful job and are quite happy to let their partner be the breadwinner while they take it slightly “easier”. However in my professional capacity, I find that it doesn’t matter what gender the employee is, there are still companies out there that don’t look at the family unit as a part of the whole relocation package. Some companies barely give second thought to the accompanying spouse and it is so important that their needs be addressed. Companies that provide spouse career support understand the importance of attracting and retaining the best talent. It’s an expensive business for any organisation having to repatriate unhappy families and to start the lengthy process of rehiring”.  Finding a job is a full time job in itself Photo above: Diana Ritchie of the Spouse Career Centre At SCC Diana helps accompanying spouses to find a job here in Switzerland and goes on to say: “Finding a job is a full time job in itself, whether you are a trailing spouse, have just lost your job or want to re-enter the workforce. If you are in your own country it takes time to research, draw up a CV, source out what companies and organisations are out there and work out the best person to approach. If you are in a new country where the system is slightly different, the rules of employment are not the same, and everything is in a different language it’s not easy to know how to go about it”. Diana (originally from Canada) addresses this issue by helping the spouses of employees to look and find work in the French speaking part of Switzerland and for some even before they have arrived here.  Multinationals moving into this area or those well established with a flow of expatriates or international hires engage Spouse Career Centre to work with the accompanying spouse to help them find employment, education or develop as an entrepreneur. They also work with individuals, whose organisation does not provide spouse career support, through Swiss Career Connections to coach them through the how, dos and don’ts of finding a job in this region of Switzerland. “There are occasions when an employee, (say for example in the U.S or U.K), has been offered a position here in Vaud but his wife or her partner doesn’t want to give up their own job without knowing they will be able to continue in their chosen career path. This is where we step in, with our contacts and knowledge of the job market we can advise them on their employability and we can work with them to look for employment. This has a twofold effect, it makes the decision to come over here much easier, and it helps enormously with the main employee and their family being able to settle in easily. When they finally arrive, they do so in the knowledge that both members of the family are able to work”. With her team of professional career advisors, Diana helps by analysing an employee’s skills and accomplishments, the options open to them, and she then develops a personal plan for each individual. “Each person has a designated coach who provides hands on, personalised service to ensure a 360° approach, we research target markets and introduce spouses to potential employers and prepare them for job interviews and we help support the hiring process until a contract is signed”. As there are many multinational companies moving into the Vaud area this service is obviously a very useful one to have and Diana says “helping the families settle into their new home, being available when they are ready to begin their job search and as a result for the partner to find a job is a tremendous gift for companies to provide, especially when budgets are tight.  Individuals understand the challenges faced in relocating their career, so much so that they are prepared to pay for our services themselves.” SCC HQ is   based in Crassier and they also have offices in Lausanne and Geneva.  For more information please contact vaud@spousecareercentre.com Spouse Career Support, outplacement services and Individual Career support. Self Assessment tests, Employability Assessments, Career Coaching, Entrepreneurial, Educational and settling in support via one to one sessions. A reminder of two events this weekend Les Hivernales the winter rock n' beat festival began last night in Nyon and continues over the weekend. Headline bands such as Ebony Bones from London and French band Yuksek will be performing tomorrow night in Nyon. See a previous post   about this festival. Also, the annual show of Elastique Citrique continues this weekend, a great place to take children. Juggling, monocycles, acrobatics in the air, it’s all in this show, the school always puts on a superb performance and the shows are very popular.  Fridays 20:30 Saturdays 19:00 and Sunday 17:00. Tickets can be bought at the door (the school is situated  to the Lausanne side of the main Place Perdstemps carpark in Nyon) See Elastique Citrique for more details.

The weather stayed fine on Saturday for the final night of the three day Jval Rock festival in Begnins. With the view of the lake and the rows of vines clinging to the slopes above and below, this has got to be one of the most spectacular local venues for a music festival. There is a family feel to the event with comfy chairs, cups of tea and home made cake for sale in the bar area. Yet despite the homely ambience, (after all this is in the grounds of someone's house) the event is professionally organised with car park attendants to help park along the vines and the festival has now become big enough to attract a major drinks sponsor. Saturday night opened (a little behind schedule) with the band Kassette, a lead female singer and guitarist singing in English and addressing the crowd in French. With her band consisting of another guitarist and a drummer this laid back rock was obviously a crowd pleaser. On this occasion I had to leave before the second band came on, however I will definitely put Jval in my diary for next year. The ticket prices aren't too prohibitive (25chf). It's a great place to go with a group of friends to soak up the sounds and that fabulous view.Back in Nyon, there's a small photography exhibition called "Métissage" going on until the 31st August. It is on in both the Focale Building in Place du Chateau and L'espace de la Grenette (this is in the corner of the Place du Marché). Each year supporters of the photography association FOCALE hold an exhibition of their own work and this is it. Don't let the rather graphic photo of the butcher on the promotional leaflets put you off, it's not all gory! There are some great photos in here, my favourites are the stylised pictures of hot air balloons but there's also some good photos too of local scenes, and travel photos such as those taken during a trip to Iran. This exhibition is free and open Tuesday to Sunday 14-00-18:00 Meanwhile, don't forget there lot's going each day with FAR , the big Arts festival in town. Check out the website for events which continue until 23rd August.

Nyon town centre was entertained on Saturday lunchtime by the street entertainers from Paléo. These "wasps" have been whizzing through the Paleo site all week and today were whizzing (buzzing?) through the Saturday market entertaining the public.< The TV "Monde" actors inside a TV set and in costumes, provided lots of fun too. They commented on and homed in variuos members of the crowd at Paléo and in town for their and the crowd's amusement! Living in Nyon has been a victim of their comments more than once this week! Snuck away behind the scenes the Paléo volunteers continue to work away. Below are the team sorting through the evironmentally friendly Ecocups Not only are these one of Paléo success storys in the festivals strive to be as environmentally friendly as possible but the cups (particularly with the Paléo logo on -not all of them have them) seem to becoming collectors items!

Living in Nyon is linking up with Nyon Tourism and Ecole-Club Migros for a fun fondue evening on the 7th February. This event has been organised for recently expatriates to the Nyon region. It's a great opportunity to learn how to make your own fondue and find out about the customs and traditions of fondue making. There's an opportunity for some wine tasting on the night and you can find out more about living in the Nyon area. It's also a great chance to meet new people at the same time!  The event will take place in the wine cellar of Nyon's castle at 19:30 and it is offered at a discounted price of 15 chf.  Full details below, please note, space is limited at this event so please register by sending an email to cnp at bluewin.ch before January 15th, first come, first served!

"Another successful Paléo", was the summing up of this year's festival at Sunday's press conference. Jacques Monnier the festival's programmer, announced that on the whole they were pleased with the quality of the music on offer and this year they found the sound was particularly good in the "Chapiteau".  Some bands proved to be very popular with the public, Two Door Cinema Club , Foals , Crosby Stills and Nash , My Heart belongs to Celia Winter , Filewile etc and they were pleased that the music of Hugues Dufray crossed generations (echoed by  Jonas's post from Thursday )  Meanwhile over in the Village du Monde the Mohatella Queens and Mozulart were also big hits.  Daniel Rossellat the festival director said that the festival had evolved over the years and now had a winning formula which worked. When talking about the Village du Monde-Afrique Australe area, Rossellat  recounted his experience of seeing Nelsons Mandela's cell on Robben Island in South Africa. "For the first 17 years (out of 27) when Mandela was incarcerated the cell was so dark and small he couldn0t see outside and he didn't even know what the seasons were." Rosselllat said; " to come out of  that and still forgive is an amazing and incredible thing"  and shows what a wonderful person he is and he went on to say how he met many similar people on his travels. "Here at Paléo we hope we have given a small glimpse of  the wonderful spirit that is in the African people". There were questions from the press on the implementation of the new smoking laws inside the tents and the fact that the laws were being flouted. Rossellat said they had decided to take a "softly softly" approach this year as many of the public were unaware of the rules at rock festivals. As to why at Paléo bags aren't checked at the  entry gates for bottles, cameras etc (as in other festivals ), Rossellat said "We like to think as Paléo as a small town " when you visit a town you aren't checked when you walk around the town so we don't do that here either, it keeps the atmosphere friendly. In fact our security people are there for security and welcome - the two things go hand in hand.  Below is Jonas's final report from Saturday's night at Paléo.  Photos throughout this post are from Saturday and Sunday's final day.  Dates for your diary: Paléo next year is on  The line up is announced on April and tickets go on sale at  and The theme for the Village du Monde will be music from the Caribbean. As the end of the festival approaches and that the lack of sleep builds up, we can be grateful for another wonderful evening. Thanks to the weather, which spared us rain, and to some really good musicians, Saturday night was another great success. As I’m involved a lot in the circus, it was normal for me to go and watch some of the shows at the Ruche, the area devoted to street performance and circus. I went to watch la cie les Arrosés. They’re three jugglers and acrobats, and they do quite a few impressive things. Their show was interesting, not so as such as as a means of getting to find out new tricks to do. The cie les Arrosés are typically street performers, with a rather “trash” repertoire, with jokes that made adults and children laugh alike, though not really for the same reasons… It’s interesting to see how adults react to hearing sometimes quite crude jokes in front of a show full of small children, sometimes not really knowing what to do. It was fast-paced and full of energy, and I had a good laugh watching them. I then watched the last five minutes of Mozuluart (a mix between Mozart and Zulu), a band whose idea was to mix Mozart’s music with Zulu music. It works, and quite well too, African rythms and singing giving Mozart a refreshing burst of energy. The layout of the band is three Africans, who sing, play percussions and dance, with a pianist (on a grand piano), and a string quartet. It was quite funny to see them playing again in one of the strange brown structures in the village du Monde a bit later on, reduced to the three singers and the pianist playing on a keyboard balanced on his knees… Mozuluart It was then off to the main stage for the best concert of the evening, John Butler and his wonderful mind-blowing guitar. The Australian guitar player is a genius, playing the guitar like a god. He made sounds come out of his guitar that you would never think was possible and playing beautiful but extremely complicated melodies. Switching between banjo, guitar and another strangely shaped guitar I don’t know the name of, he subjugated the whole crowd with his talent. Another memorable moment of the concert was when the drummer told everybody to turn round and face the Jura, then jump round and start dancing like mad. It was quite a sight to see a few thousand people showing their backside to the musicians, with their hands up in the air! Da silva, a French singer was playing under the chapiteau, so I went to have a look. Some of his songs were quite good, even thought his voice rather irritated me, and the violinist was excellent. It lacked (according to me) some accordion and some more wind instruments (saxophone, or more clarinet, we could barely hear the man playing the clarinet and the trumpet ), in a configuration which was too rock for that sort of music. Later on, it was time for Paolo Nutini to jazz up Paleo with his fresh pop-rock. The 23 year old singer was right up to the (sometimes) difficult and intimidating task of playing on the Grande Scène in front of about 30’000 people. But he managed extremely well, and delivered a concert where everybody danced to the sound of his highly energetic melodies. Even if Jacques Ductronc does not figure in my favourite singers, and that I rather dislike the man himself, I went to see a bit of his concert, listening to some of his now cult songs, sometimes even discovering that a song I knew was actually by him… His show was rather strange, involving at one point an extremely tall man and a dwarf lady, for some reason that I didn’t understand… As always, the evening finished by the fires, before a short visit to the Pl’Asse, the off festival, where a DJ was mixing gipsy and balkanic music with quite some success.

On Sunday there will be a guided tour of the Arboretum in Aubonne at 14:00 and the theme will be "Forests from the West coast of the U.S.A." The walk will be guided by M.Sylvain Meier (forester). Rendezvous at 13:45 at L'Arbe'space at the welcome centre of the Arboretum. Duration of walk two hours, wear sensible walking shoes! See website for more details. Also on Sunday at 17:00 there will be a classical concert at the Salle Cortot (Villa Thomas) at the Conservatoire on the lake side, performed by "Le Parnasse Francois". French classical music from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Whether you are just starting your Christmas shopping, or looking for last minute gifts, a reminder that there will be late night shopping in Nyon u ntil 22:00 on Wednesday 19th and Friday 21 December. There will be free local buses provided on these evenings for those who want to avoid driving into the town.

There's an English comedy night  tomorow Tuesday 22nd February at the Uptown Geneva,   with Funny Laundry presenting  a double-bill of world class comedy showcasing the bright young talent of Tom Deacon (who has just been announced as the presenter for a new UK BBC Radio 1 Sunday evening show starting soon), and Craig Hill the "camp comic" from Scotland. Seating is not numbered and the show starts at 20:30 - doors open at 19:30.  Plenty of tickets available on the door at 35 CHF (concessions 30 CHF). Uptown Geneva is on 2 Rue de la Servette, 1201 Geneva - a two minute walk from Cornavin Station. For further information visit Funny Laundry.