Tonight is the first night of Caribana down by the lake at Crans sur Nyon. On the programme for tonight are the Baseballs at 19:00, Hell's Kitchen at 20:00, Kassidy at 21:00 and the headline act Deep Purple at 21:45. Tickets for tonight, tomorrow and Saturday are sold out but there are still some available for Friday. On that night the line up is Faithless, Oi va Voi, Micky Green,Yodelice and more. If you have never been to Caribana before, it's definitely worth a visit, the venue is in the most stunning lake side setting. If you want to go with young children, then Sunday is the day as its completely free on Caribakids day with lots of activities organised and music for the little ones from 12:00. You can read all about Caribana in previous posts on the right hand side bar under "Nyon's two rock festivals" and there is more information about the festival from a post from the press conference back in April. Meanwhile over in Nyon, just below the castle, check out these panels which are part of display called "Parcoura Alpha" as part of a collaboration betwen local museums, a science federation and the University of Lausanne.There is information and questions on the panels, such as, what is a girolle? If you want to know the answer go see the display!

This Saturday - International Pot luck Meal in Nyon This Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 June, it's the Interculturelle weekend in Nyon. Over two days all the different nationalities in Nyon will be getting together for various events. One of these events is a potluck meal at 18:30 where Nyon residents are invited to take a dish typical frrom their country down to the Salle Communale where there will be a big table with other international food for everyone to share. The editor of Living in Nyon will be there to share some food too (before dashing off to the final night of Caribana) so if you want to bring a dish to serve approx 4 people then come along! Also in the Salle Communale on the Saturday there will be an exhibition entitled "Nyon and Immigration" showing the history of all the different nationalities that have come to live in the town, and all the clubs that have sprung up through this immigration. There is a website for information on the weekend. Strawberry fields forever The strawberry picking season is a short one but it's a fun activity to do. If you fancy going along to pick some of these summer fruits, then here is a list of local places you can do this. The nearest to Nyon is Genolier. There is a website with picking times and a map of how to get to the strawberry fields. This list was taken from the Monday update of what's on around the Geneva, France and Vaud area in an email newsletter called "Lisa's Picks of the Week" compiled by the editor of Know it All Passport. More events are listed on the Know it all Passport website too under the "events calendar" section. It's free to subscribe to this Monday update see the site for details. Other strawberry picking farms below. . ** Stéphane Kläfiger 1136 BUSSY-CHARDONNAY (VD) 078 924 14 66 fraisesdebussy@gmail.com Monday to Saturday 8h30-19h00 ** Famille Borboën Route de Denges 1026 DENGES (VD) Wednesday to Saturday 9h-11h30 and 13h30-17h, Sunday 9h-11h30 ** Famille Wyss Chemin Es-Gogandé 1272 GENOLIER (VD) 022 366 04 04 www.ch-wyss.ch ** Denis et Samuel Pache Le Taulard, Chemin du Boulard 1 1032 ROMANEL-SUR-LAUSANNE (VD) 079 240 78 36 www.taulard.ch

A reminder to music lovers that Caribana starts next Wednesday with Deep Purple scheduled to play on the first night. Saturday night is already sold out but there are tickets still available for other nights. See the site for full details. Also in a couple of weeks at 17:00 on the 20 June there will be a classical music concert in Nyon performed by Theodor Küng on Violin and Matt Bilyard on Piano at the Salle de la Colombiere in Nyon. Details - see poster below.

Living in Nyon is delighted to publish this article below on the Jura Foothills. It was written by Janet Schiewe-Orchard who has been living in the area for many years. If you live in one of the surrounding towns or villages and want to write about it for this site then just contact the editor on cnp@bluewin.chThe Jura Foothills Looking in a northerly direction from Nyon (400m) lies the Jura. At around 1000m, slightly to the left lies St. Cergue and a touch to the right is St. George. The Jura foothills (Pied de Jura) start at about 600m altitude, just above the last of the vines. This region includes communes such as Arzier, Bassins, Burtigny, Le Vaud, Longirod, Marchissy, etc, an area of natural beauty and the subject of this brief article. These villages sit comfortably between the soft rolling hills and meadows that dominate the landscape. Beyond Begnins and Burtigny, you are captivated by the mass of colour, with the Jura looming over a patchwork of fertile farmlands and trickling streams. The hills are well-walked and the rich diversity of the nature trails, flora and fauna attracts the rambler, artist and photographer. From up here on a clear day, to the south you can see Mont Blanc which looks even more majestic than from the "plain", especially when it turns pink in the setting sun. To the north, the beginning of the Jura range with its ever-changing colours, to the west, the blue-black dash of the lake and in the distance, the plume of the Geneva Fountain, the Jet D’eau. The population of this area is well over 10’000 and growing, many villages having doubled their size in a short time. As land becomes more scarce and expensive on the "plain", many families are turning to these charming hills to build their houses and settle, where they get more for their Swiss Franc! All the communes above come under the Jurisdiction of Nyon - (District de Nyon) - which now comprises 47 communes. Life is less stressful up here and people are more relaxed and friendly, happy to give you the time of day, Farms dot the landscape, but will they become like those on the "plain", which have swapped cowsheds for concrete? Hopefully not, as they provide us with fresh and reasonably priced produce, chickens, eggs, beef, vegetables and fruits. The water is natural and in most cases comes from the Source. Several communes have village shops; the mini-supermarket in St-George is open 7/7, closing a few hours on Tuesdays. People come from far and wide to buy their fresh cream and home-made meringues. Marchissy has a good shop too, also open Sundays. Bassin has a nice Boulangerie. La Cézille, not technically a hill village, has an excellent butcher with customers coming from as far as Geneva to buy their highland beef. You can see the familiar long-horned, shaggy creatures, grazing on the hill behind the shop. Quite different from the standard Swiss cow! There are many good Auberges; the Auberge Communale de Lion d’Or in Burtigny with its friendly, English-speaking Patron (Robert Bubloz) being a favourite. Good food, non-stop cooking on Sundays, "Filets de Perches" on Mondays (as much as you can eat!) Look out for his Sing-Along evenings, Country and Western, Jazz etc. St. Cergue and Arzier have their cheerful little red-train whilst St.George and Longirod enjoy a good bus service to Nyon station. Marchissy has a peak-hour service to Gland station. Don’t forget the Postal Publicar Service - it picks you up from your door for only 3 CHF more than the normal bus fare. There is also an excellent network of schoolbuses serving the colleges in Nyon, Begnins and Genolier. As for the weather, it’s about 3° cooler up here than on the plain but we benefit from a lot more sunny days and less pollution. Lac Léman is so often shrouded by cloud in the winter months. Snow-clearing lorries and salters are out by 5:15 am. Local farmers clear your drive for you with their tractors. It’s worth noting that the high passes, on the St.Cergue side (La Cure) and on the St. George side (Marchairuz) bring in hoardes of workers from France. So, the roads must be kept in good shape. Useful websites: Switzerland Rando in English and Publicar French German and Italian Janet was born in London of Scottish and Welsh parents and has duel Nationality - British Swiss (naturalised). She studied in London, Lausanne and Cardiff University and speaks English, French, German and Spanish. She worked in various private Swiss companies in Geneva for 20 years as a translator English to French and on occasion as an in-house English teacher. She is currently semi-retired - but still teach English privately and is a councillor in the Conseil d'Administration de Longirod. She is a keen golfer.

To the sound of African drums and a little bit of last minute hammering on various stands, the Paléo conference revealed yesterday that all was ready for another great festival. Daniel Rossellat the president of the festival, showed the press round the various installations, the first being the OBOX. This is a giant water fountain, surrounded by pools and footbridges and with stepping stones to jump across the water. The structure, designed by the students of Hes-SO (University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland) will be a great place to cool off if these high temperatures continue. At night time, the installation will be lit up and luminous with various light projections, a place definitely to check out! Below- Mr Daniel Rossellat and a student demonstrate their agility on the stepping stones Hes-SO are involved in many other projects at Paléo including the designing of the Paléo poster, the video clips on the giants screens, the play park in the Mielmelo area for children (see last year's post about this area), a project called Have Fun in a responsible way this is an awareness campaign in the car park for festival goers to appoint a designated driver, an ice machine where you can order an ice lolly from the chemistry students prepared by a robot! As the spotlight on the music this year in the Village du Monde is on South Africa,the area is made up of "giant necklaces" in the form of huts and African stalls selling wares reflecting the sounds, flavours and colours of the region. Each year the festival has a social partner and this year it is the Neuchatel based IMBEWU Suisse. This charity works for the integration of youth through sport. Below - Finishing touches to the Village du Monde

Once again Nyon Tourisme has launched a summer competition for the public to vote for the prettiest café/restaurant terrace in Nyon. If you have a favourite place that you think fits the bill, then voting for one of them in this competition, gives you the chance to win gift vouchers from 250 up to 1,000 chf to be spent in local Nyon shops. The only place that is excluded from this competition is the Auberge du Château which won the competition last year. Look out for these leaflets below to vote. They can be found in Nyon tourist office and various outlets around town. Good Luck!

Nyon's agenda for June is jammed packed with many events happening around the area and music festivals big and small scheduled over the entire month Living in Nyon will be featuring a few of these but if you want the full agenda in its entirety then you can pick this up from Nyon, Rolle or Morges tourist offices. Note: Sometimes there are coipes of the agenda in the racks outside the Nyon cinema. Gardens Open From the 1-3 June the gardens of the Chateau de Vullieriens are open from 09:00 -18:00 with their famous collection of 400 varieties of irises, roses, other flowers and sculptures See the site for full details.Free Sunday lunchtime Music Concerts This weekend on the 5th June the free Sunday music concerts (from 11:00- 13:30) by the Roman columns in Nyon begin again and continue until the 5th September. See Association de la Place des MaronniersBook Fair Book fair on the 12th and 13th June from 09:00 to 18:30 it's the Book Fair down by the lake in Nyon, thousands of second hand books for sale. See Quartier de Rive Note to all readers, if you have emailed the Living in Nyon editor in the last few months with any questions or if you have sent articles, then please send them again to cnp at bluewin.ch (the pc of the editor has shortcircuited which has resulted in a loss of data)

The main event of course is Caribana down by the lake at Crans. Tickets are still available for tonight. The line up on the main stage is Oi va Voi at 19:45 Micky Green at 21:45, Faithless at 24:00. Over at the Scene du Lac is Yodelice at 20:45 and the Asterix Galaxy tour at 23:00. On the new small stage (for a quieter type of accoustic music) Lei Lu is due to perform at 19:15 followed by Thomas Dybdahl at 21:45. Caribana is one of the main music festivals to start the summer season here in Vaud and even if you are not sure who all the perfomers are, it's worth going along to check out the bands, have dinner from the many international food stands, browse the stalls and soak up the atmosphere. Also on Saturday and Sunday its the Interculturelle weekend (see previous post) with a pot luck supper and its also Biodiversity day, there is a description on the Nyon website about the activities around this day. For those who like Brocante sales there is a sale today and tomorrow over in Gex The Brocante Sale at L’Ancienne Ferme, 485 rue de l’Etraz, Gex, France Friday 11 June 09:00 to 7pm, Saturday 12 June 09:00 to 15:00 Furniture, pictures, mirrors, ceramics, collectables, decorative things for the house and garden. Phoenix greetings cards ; coffee, cake and chat. Invite a friend. For directions contact Sian Sibley on +33 6 81 36 67 23 or by email s.sibley@orange.fr

Although the Paléo music festival doesn't start until the 20th July, this year is a special year as it celebrates its 35th anniversary, so next Saturday 17th July the town will be treated to a special "free" Paléo day and several street theatre companies will be performing in the town centre on that day. The party begins at 18:00 in Place Perdtemps. Later in the evening, at 22:00 there will be a show from the Plasticiens Volants called “Perle”, at the Place du Chateau. The company will then wind its way through the streets of Nyon for a grand finale at the Place Perdtemps, followed by a night of DJ’s, bars and restaurants. Note the car park at Place Perdtemps will be exclusively reserved for pedestrians so will be closed from Friday at 18:00. All remaining car parks (Duche, Gare, Combe, Martinet, Clémenty, Rive) will be operating normally. World Cup Over After four weeks of football, the World Cup is over and for those interested in the beautiful game you might lie to know that Howard Webb, the English referee of the final match was featured in a documentary called "Les Arbitres" which was shown here in Nyon at the Visions du Réel film festival. It was reviewed by a Living in Nyon contributor and you can read it here. Please note, there will be no posts on this site now until Sat 17 July Coming up soon on Living in Nyon, the programme for next season's music concerts at the Usine a Gaz, an article on working for yourself as an independent consultant, an article on the Internet technology club of Nyon, the latest news on local politics and much more!

As soon as the final whistle blew in Durban after the Switzerland/ Spain game in the football World Cup on Wednesday, the streets of Nyon erupted into sheer joy with supporters driving and up and down the road outside the station. This is a fun, albeit noisy place to be in town during a football tournament, although if you don't want your car rocked by the over enthusiastic supporters you might want to take a detour after matches!

The beauty of going to rock and music festivals in Vaud, is not just to see the main big named acts and to soak up the atmosphere, but also to discover new bands. Sometimes these bands already have a following in their own country but are not as well known over here. Most Swiss audiences are open to new names and last night was no different at Caribana. Not only were Kassidy from Scotland new to the crowd, but they were also playing on a brand new, intimate stage called the Scène du Plage right on the lakeside. A drop dead gorgeous setting and not a bad place for a European debut (they announced it was their first gig outside the UK). Swiss audiences can take a while to warm up, and indeed it took two or three songs before they began to show their enjoyment last night. Kassidy themselves had obviously warmed up in more ways than one, as although it's a small stage, it's also a hot one and inside such a small tent it wasn't long before they began to peel off their outer layers - Caribana being possibly a tad hotter than Glasgow. By now the audience were really showing their appreciation and the tent began to fill up and the crowd were straining at the back to see who was attracting the attention. It's a testimony to their great sound and tight perfomance that when the time approached for Deep Purple to come on to the main stage nearby, the crowd remained. When Kassidy began to sing "You are everything I've always wanted" it seemed four bearded guys with a great sound was the only thing the audience wanted or needed at that moment. The band did try out a smattering of French words: "C'est magnifique, bonjour Caribana" etc, this was a tad better than previous British bands that have performed here who haven't attempted a word of French. Not that the crowd wouldn't have been able to understand if the band had kept to English - after all this is a country of polyglots, it's just that judging by past experience, the crowds really appreciate it if bands converse a little in French if they can with the audience. This was an excellent, if too short set and after all, it's not about conversation it's all about the music. On the Caribana festival's own website it says; "Go see them now in this intimate setting as it's unlikely you will get this chance again". I think they are right. I reckon Kassidy will be back one day. A wee chat with one of the band members afterwards revealed that they had been swimming in the lake just before the concert. There aren't too many rock festivals in the world where you can do that, so it should entice them to return. I reckon they will be either on the main stage at Caribana or who knows? Maybe even at Paléo one day - remember, you heard it here first.... Update to this post June 2011- Kassidy did indeed play at Caribana in 2011 - See latest post here

The Mahotella Queens shimmied and danced their way across the stage last night in the Dome tent, proving you are never too old to dance. In their beaded skirts, red hats, and "bafana bafana" (South African football team) T- shirts they got the crowd whooping and clapping and gave a great start to the festival. The Dome tent is in the Village du Monde area of Paléo and here you can find lots of interesting food from the "Afrique Australe" area such a fish barbecued on the spot and beer from Madagascar. In one of the round giant necklaces(huts) you can sit by one of the fires or outside amongst the long grass and listen to performers on a small stage in an intimate setting. The long grass is a clever idea and was obviously well though out in the planning stage on what is usually a farmers field. If you would rather sit at a table to eat with waiter service you can find the Espace Gourmand just outside the Village du Monde. Over on the main scene Iggy Pop and the stooges proved that you are never too old to rock either.. An eclectic mix for the first night of Paléo and as ever a great example of what's to come.