Looking for something to do next week? Here are a few things going on in the area over the next ten days. Cinema Both Cinéma Capitole in Nyon and Cinéma Rex in Aubonne offer special English speaking screenings. The next English films you can go and see in these two cinemas are: Cinema Rex, Aubonne: - 3D Monday 28th October, 20:30 With Sandra Bullock, George Clooney You can watch the trailer here. Cinéma Capitole, Nyon Monday 21st October, 20:30 With Naomi Watts Watch the trailer Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, 18:00 With Cate Blanchett Watch the trailer Music From Schubert's Lieder in Gland on the 24 th to metal and pop rock this weekend at the Usine à Gaz with the 6 th edition of Nyon's On Fire , but also Fado in Bonmont abbey and the traditional Thursday night Jazz apéro under the Chateau in Nyon, the music offer in the area will please everyone's tastes. Thursday 24th October, 17:00, Théâtre de Grand Champ, Gland : Schubert's Lieder performed by the Atelier à Coeur Joie. Friday 25th, Saturday 26th, Usine à Gaz, Nyon : For the sixth year running Heimathome, an association which promotes alternative music from the area, is organising Nyon's On Fire at the Usine à Gaz. After the success of the last few years, and a 100% Swiss headline, they have decided to tackle larger game this year. Friday night will be aimed at metal and hardcore lovers, whilst Saturday night will see the venue resonate with the electro-pop tunes of We Have Band, as well as other rock and electro bands. This will be We Have Band's third time in Nyon, after a gig at Paléo Festival and another one in the Usine A Gaz. You can check out an interview Living In Nyon did with the band last time they came here. More info and line-up on the festival's websiteSunday 27th October, 17:00, Abbaye de Bonmont: Katia Guerriero will play Fado (traditional Portuguese music) in this 12 th century Cistercian abbey with wonderful acoustics. Tickets cost 40.- for adults, 30.- for students and pensioners, and 20.- for children (8-15 yrs). Book on www.bonmont.ch Thursday 31st October, 18:00, Chateau de Nyon: Provinyon's traditional jazz apéros. Come and enjoy a nice Swiss apéro with local wine whilst listening to the Entrance costs 5.-, please book on http://www.provinyon.ch/site/fr/contact Other The Swiss rugby championship will be held in Colovray on Sunday the 27th of October . Entrance is free. The ecological association “ Sol à Tous ” regularly organises walks in the area to clean up the nature and pick up rubbish. Their next expedition will be in Duiller on Saturday the 26th. The rendezvous is fixed at 14:30 at the "Duillier, centre communal" bus stop. (You can take the n° 820 bus to St-George in Nyon which leaves at 14:21). A new cookery school, “Les Papilles à la fete”, has opened in Nyon, and classes are available in English! Check out the website for more information, or read a more detailed account in English on knowitall.ch

A reminder to readers that the annual UNI Global Union debate is tonight the 3rd October from 18:00 until 21:00 at UNI Global Union 8-10 Avenue Reverdil in Nyon. These debates are open to the public and usually attract a big crowd. This year's debate is on "Liberty and Security". Find out more about it in this video here (in English) Present at the debate will be Stéphane Benoît-Godet – Chief Editor of Bilan magazine, the key note speaker will be Pierre Maudet – Conseiller d’Etat de la République et du Canton de Genève, Martin Killias – from the institute of criminology in Zürich, Jean Zermatten – Institut International des Droits de l’Enfant, Olivier Guéniat – Commandant of la Police Jurassienne, Elisabeth Ruey-Ray, Municipal in charge of security. The debate will be moderated by Olivier Dominik, journalist from RTS. You can read more about this organisation in a previous Living in Nyon interview with its head- Philip Jennings.More info here on the debate

The Ciné Club Nyon opens its new season tonight Monday 7th October with its first film of the season, "La Vie D'Adele" ("Blue is the Warmest Colour" in English). This film won the Palme D'or in Cannes in 2013 so kicks off the season in style. The Ciné Club has selected a wide range of interesting films for its new season. The films shown below are scheduled up until the end of 2013. For the full programme through until March 2014, see here The Ciné Club offers special extra screenings for members. It costs 90 CHF for membership. This entitles members to view 10 Ciné Club films, a reduction of 2 CHF on the regular films at the Capitole Cinema in Nyon, one free film of your choice at the cinema and an invitation for three other special screenings. You can also watch a film without becoming a member, the cost of entry is the normal Monday tariff of CHF 12 4th November "Sur mes lèvres" "The Straight Story" by David Lynch on the 18th November "Machuca" by Andrés Wood on the 2nd of December 2013 "Mermaid" by Anna Melikyan on the 16th December 2013

Although the summer is coming to an end, it doesn't mean the end of rock music festivals as there is another festival just round the corner to look forward to. The Jval festival is a small three day rock music festival taking place on the 29, 30 and 31 August. The festival is set amongst the lovely Vaud vineyards in the terrain of "Le domaine de Serreaux-Dessus" (near Begnins) overlooking the lake. Acts include: Dead Bunny, Evellin Trouble, Poni Hoax, Rootwords and the Block Notes, Oy, Féfé, Billie Bird, Kassette, Girls in Hawaii, and there will be a DJ at the end of each night's concerts. Fully details of all the bands, access, parking, free navette bus and how to purchase ticket prices see here

The St Prex Classics, the prestigious music, dance and opera festival which for the last eight years has been held in the pretty lake side town of St Prex (just past Allaman and before Morges), is now moving to Nyon! Nyon already proudly carries the slogan " Ville de Festivals" with its "Les Hivernales" - the winter rock and beat festival in February, "Visions du Réel" - the documentary film festival held every April/ May, "Caribana" - the lake side pop and rock festival in June, "Paléo" - one of the biggest rock festivals in Europe in July, F.A.R - the festival of living arts in August and it can now add The St Prex Classics to its list. The festival will now be renamed "Luna Classics ". The festival has grown from strength to strength since it first began, but has now outgrown its original venue in the old town of St Prex. The 13 day festival will now take place at the Place du Château in Nyon, under a big tent called the "Luna tent". Last year, violinist Nigel Kennedy performed at the festival along with many other musicians. The actor John Malkovich came to St Prex to play the part of a serial killer in a theatrical piece mixed with opera see here. See documentary (in English) about the festival as described by festival founder , Hazeline Van Swaay. The full programme will be revealed next week.

After a warm, sunny day on Thursday, the grounds of Caribana more or less dried out and the crowds that turned up in the early evening were treated to a magnificent view of the lake and Mont Blanc in all its glory. The crowds also got a great night of music with bands "Kodaline" and "Queens of the Stone Age" performing on the main stage. However, Living in Nyon's favourite of the night was definitely the performance of George Barnett on the Scène du Lac stage. This musician, born in Warwickshire in the UK in just 1993, is an extraordinarily talented singer/ song writer and despite his young age he is already a consummate performer. Crowds quickly gathered round to listen to and watch this charismatic, lanky, energetic and engaging artist give a stunning performance on the second night of the festival. Bravo to the Caribana music programmers for inviting both him and his accompanying musicians to the festival. George Barnett - A name to watch out for. See more photos below of "George Barnett", "Kodaline" and "Miles Kane". You can read reviews of the "Kodaline" and "Miles Kane" concerts on the Caribana site here. On the line up tonight at Caribana: "Youssoupha", "Jessie J", "IAM", "Ska Nerfs", "Rootwords", and "Naughty Boy". Lots of DJs on the DJ stage tonight too. Wine Cellars Open this weekend Away from the music stages. This weekend the 7th and 8th June, it's "Cave Ouvertes Vaudoises". Over 100 wine cellars are going to be open for the public to visit from 10:00 - 18:00. There will be free shuttle buses operating between the pretty wine villages in this region. Buses depart from Gland, Rolle and Morges. All you need to do is purchase a wine passport (just 15 chf!) which can be bought either at the first winery you visit, or at Rolle and Morges train stations. There's a competition too. Take a picture of yourself during the weekend at any of the "Open Cellars", post it on their Facebook page and you stand a chance of winning 12 bottles of the best wine from la Côte area. If you can't make it out to the wine villages there will wine tastings of all the wines named "Nyon" in the château of Nyon this weekend. Full details here Finally - a reminder that because Monday is a holiday here most of the local shops will be closed. Photos above - George Barnett concert Photos above - Kodaline concert Photo above - Mile Kane Caribana Thursday night - All photos on this page C.Nelson-Pollard/ Living in Nyon

Throughout the year Living in Nyon receives many local retail questions and particularly in December on where to by a turkey for Christmas. Most large supermarkets and the Manor supermarket in Chavanne centre sell turkeys (turkey/une dinde in French), however, Living in Nyon's favourite place to shop is the Marc Deblue butcher in the centre of Nyon. Their meats and products are always of excellent locally sourced quality, they sell lard grillé too, (smoked bacon) which is always a hit with its British customers. Plus, the staff in this shop and the owner of course are very friendly! See a review here on Yelp by a customer from Austin, Texas. The shop itself has been hidden away somewhat recently whilst there has been construction of the new Mcdonalds extension next door, but they have always been open for business, so give them a try! If you want to buy a turkey, you need to order it in advance, just decide how many kilos you want , leave your name and it should be ready to pick up on the day you want. Address: Rue de la Gare 22, 1260 Nyon. Téléphone :0 22 361 28 04 Friendly Pierre in the Deblue butcher Late night shopping in Nyon and Sunday opening There will be two late night (nocturnes) shopping days in Nyon over the Christmas period, on Friday 20th and Monday 23rd December, the shops will be open on those days until 22:00. On Sunday 22nd December, local family run shops will be open in Nyon from 10:00 to 18:00

Photo above - Daniel Rossellat at Paléo 2102 Living in Nyon has begun a new series of interviews entitled "Afternoon Tea with..." in which we interview local personalities from the Nyon and la Côte region. We find out a little bit more about the professional and personal lives of each individual over afternoon tea. Photo above and below, courtesy - La Boîte à Thé This first interview was held in La Boite à Thé in Rolle. This lovely gem of a place has been previously featured on this site see here. The tea room has two quiet rooms to sit and sip teas from around the world. It also has a good selection of gifts idea for those last minute Christmas presents! For this first interview, we caught up with Mr Rossellat the day before he was due to take a flight to Côte d'Ivoire. Read on to find out why he was making the trip to West Africa, and how he divides his time between his two roles; mayor of Nyon and President of Paléo festival. We also find out which musician he hopes to hear play in Paléo one day, his vision for the future of Nyon and what he will be cooking for Christmas dinner in 2012! Photo above - courtesy Daniel Rossellat Mr Rossellat, you are en route to Abidjan, what are you expecting to find or hear there? I’m going to Côte d’Ivoire for the meeting of the Association of Francophone Mayors. I haven’t had the chance to attend for the past couple of years, and this year the meeting is being held in Abidjan. The Mayor of Quebec asked me to be a member of this association, but I wasn't sure about it. I thought that perhaps Nyon was too small a town and that joining the Assocation didn't seem to be a logical step to take. However, after I spoke to the president, the Mayor of Paris, he repeated that he wanted Nyon to be a member. He pointed out that Nyon was well known in the French-speaking world and has a good reputation due to its festivals. I think it’s an interesting platform for exchange and dialogue, especially for the Canadian/European francophone mayors to meet and listen to the African francophone communities. How many times a year do you travel to hear new music in your role as President of Paléo? In the last twelve months, I’ve been to Nashville to the Bonnaroo Festival, to the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Quebec Summer Festival, as well as visiting Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine to hear music for the Village du Monde area of Paléo for 2012. This autumn I have been to Madagascar, Mozambique, and South Africa, and soon I'll be going to Zanzibar, to do some research for next year’s festival. Have your tastes in music changed over the years? When I was 15 or 16 I was already listening to an eclectic mix of music, but I didn’t have such an extensive knowledge of music as I do now. Over the years I have discovered a lot more about classical music too, and I continue to listen to classic rock, folk, pop and world music. I’ve also got to know a lot of styles from Asia, Africa and Latin America, where there are some music fusions that are still not that known over here. The first time I went to China, I thought that the same song was playing over and over again all day, but I've learned since that is obviously not the case, it's just that our ears have to get accustomed to new sounds. Have you come across any real surprises when visiting countries? I’m always very moved by countries that are full of history. For example, when I went to Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, no matter how much you read up or look at pictures before you go, you can’t imagine what it feels like to be in a place with such ancient and recent history. It’s the same in the Far East, where there is such an incredible heritage of different civilizations. There is also plenty to discover in places with more modern history. What is the idea behind the Village du Monde? The goal is to look for a wealth of different music and culture. We want to show cultural wealth of places that not everyone knows. This year it was the Middle East, next year it will be the Indian Ocean, and the year after that it will be the Andes Cordillera. We then look for artists that correspond to the different styles of music, find the cuisine and artisanal goods, and then think about décor and the staging. We want people that have already been to the region to recognise their surroundings, and people that haven’t, to be transported somewhere new. Photo above - A volunteer painting the scene for the Village du Monde area. The rumour is that you have a vision board of artists you want at Paleo, including Sting. Who else is on the list? When we first started the festival there was a certain list of artists that we dreamed of hosting: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Sting. So far we are still missing Eric Clapton, Leonard Cohen and Paul McCartney. We ask Clapton ever year and hope that one year he will make it. What do you personally think the secret to Paléo's success? I think the secret to Paleo’s success is the values that we have stood by since the beginning of the festival: the respect for the public, the volunteers, the artists and the environment. Being open-minded and tolerant towards other cultures is important to us. I don’t think that it has been difficult to uphold these values, but there is certainly always a risk of arrogance that comes with success. I believe that we should never forget those fundamental elements. How do you divide your time during the week between Paleo and Nyon? On Monday morning, I have a finance meeting at Paléo and then a meeting with the director of Opus One (an events company) until 09:00. I then have a meeting with the sustainability team of Nyon, followed by a meeting with the different heads of department of the town. At 11:00 sharp I play tennis, and then it's on to a municipality meeting. On Tuesdays I spent the entire day at Paléo, and Wednesday and Thursday in Nyon. On Friday mornings I’m at Paleo, and the afternoon is flexible. On Saturdays I go through my messages and emails from the week, and on Sundays I prepare for the week ahead. As Mayor of Nyon, do you have a personal vision for how you would like to see Nyon in 10-20 years time? The ideal would be to have kept the soul and the character of the town along with creating new infrastructure that has met the needs of a growing population. Combining these two needs is a constant challenge. Photo above - view from the roof of Nyon high school We are trying right now to ensure the town isn't simply a museum where time stands still, but somewhere that is vibrant and interesting to live and visit. We are keen for it not to turn into simply a dormitory town for commuters who work elsewhere. With all the new construction in Nyon we also are trying to ensure that each new area has a soul and a centre to it with a social life. We also don't want to end up with areas that end up with different classes of areas ie: one is business class and the other "economy class". What programmes or support is there to facilitate integration between the incomers and the local populace? There is no specific programme such but we are working on this. To be honest I think the amount of expatriates that have recently arrived here took us a bit by surprise. We weren't quite ready but we are addressing the issue now and trying to make the town and information on living here more accessible. Some expatriates are only here for a few years. How can these newcomers get the most out of their time in Nyon? Whether you are single, married, with or without children, I would say try to join a local club such as a sports club or some other kind: it's a good way of meeting locals. If you can't do that, then I would say keep things "local" as much as you can, go to a music concert or arts event in your area, and eat in local restaurants: it's a good way of discovering what's out there. I try to do the same when I am travelling, if I have a meeting say in a town in Brazil I don't then eat in a restaurant say in a Hilton hotel, I go out and eat in a local Brazilian place. If you know you have a fixed time here then I would suggest that you explore your local area. When the time comes to leave you will do so having got to know a little bit about this part of Switzerland. Finally as you are such a busy person with your two roles, how will you spend Christmas day? Are you able to totally “clock off”? And what will be on the menu for the day? Christmas day is a rare day when I truly do switch off. I don't look at emails at all and I look forward to being with my family and having some down time. As I like to cook, then that's the day I will be in the kitchen. I am not sure what I will be serving yet, it could be volaille, it could be something else. With out any doubt though the meal will be served with a good bottle of wine. I am very interested in wine, I like a good Swiss wine of course but I'm also fond of wines from the new world such as Argentina or Chile. ------------------- Keep checking out this site for more "Afternoon Tea with..." interviews coming up in 2013. If you want to find out more about the Paléo festival or local politics in the Nyon area, just type in "Paléo" or "Politics" in the search button at the top of this site to read previous articles.

Photo above - A "sitting room" alongside the lake, part of Nyon flea market. A selection of weekend events chosen by Jonas Parson - Living in Nyon guest writer Night-Time Skiing and Fondue in St-Cergue Enjoy skiing down St-Cergue's two slopes lit up after dark, with unlimited access to both ski-lifts. Once you're done with the snow, treat yourself to a fondue in one of the restaurants associated with the offer. Special offer costs 33 CHF per person for skiing and the fondue. Available Tuesday to Saturday, from 18:00 to 21:30 . Booking a table at the restaurant is advised. Telephone numbers of all the restaurants and more information on the St-Cergue tourism office website: Click here Photo above - Fleamarket stall in the old town of Nyon, courtesy Jonas Parson Flea Market in Nyon on Sunday 24th February Every last Sunday of the month, there is a traditional flea market that takes place along Nyon lakeside. Walk along the lakeside, stroll by stalls full of (sometimes intriguing artifacts it's and fun for everyone, even if you're not looking for anything in particular. From 08:00 to 18:00 " Sons of Noel and Adrian" at La Parenthèse British band "Sons of Noel and Adrian" will be playing at La Parenthèse this Saturday night. Critically acclaimed for their second album, this new-folk band based in Brighton are know for their epic live performances, sometimes bringing on stage a number of their musician friends. Their music is powerful and light at the same time, with haunting vocals similar to alternative band Beirut. Check their website for a video of the band.Click here and read an interview here. Click here The concert is free.

As part of Nyon's new energy saving scheme, “Nyon-Energie”, the town council is reaching out to locals to help them reduce the energy they use. Conscious of how complicated some of these issues can be, the town is organising a campaign to raise public awareness called “Eco-Contact”. “Energy Ambassadors” will make home visits to those Nyon residents who accept the offer in order to give them a few handy tips on how to start saving energy. They will be proposing a series of simple and effective measures which should not interfere with comfort. They will change your old light-bulbs, install power strips and even give you a new electric kettle! And all of this for free, with no hidden commercial catches.Are you interested? Then sign up before the 31 st of January by sending an email to gaelle.keim@nyon.ch or by calling this number: 022 363 82 04 (Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) If you sign up via email, give your phone number and state when you can be reached to fix a date and time for the visit. The “energy ambassadors” will be making their visits between 25th of February and 9th March, Monday to Saturday, from 9:00 to 12:30 and from 14:00 to 19:00. Count about an hour for the visit. On top of all the useful tips and information leaflets, you will also get to keep various freebies (ecological light-bulbs, power strips, electric kettle and more). This offer is free and directed at all home owners and tenants living in the town of Nyon.

A Very Merry Christmas to all readers!