The ferries that criss cross the lake are now running on their full summer season schedule and there are many sailings that go over from Nyon to Yvoire in France (just a 20 minute ride away). So its perfectly possible to leave Nyon when the sun is setting, go over to Yvoire for dinner and then return for dessert or "digestif" in Nyon. Leaving Nyon as the sun goes down The ferry first makes a *stop at the tiny, but lovely village of Nernier. Then it approaches Yvoire If you haven't been to Yvoire it is well worth the trip as it is a very pretty mediaeval village. It has an abundance of flowers that decorate its streets, hanging baskets galore and is a member of the association "The most beautiful villages of France" . In the village you will find small individual shops, art galleries and plenty of restaurants. There is also the " Garden of Five Senses ", and there are guided tours of the village on certain days in July and August. The main pedestriansed road leading from the port to the centre of the village is steep, but it's worth the hike. Alternatively instead of going for dinner, you can go for a long leisurely lunch and then burn off some of the calories by walking to Nernier, the next village, and then take the return ferry back to Nyon. Returning to Nyon at night Please note. Yvoire gets very busy during the day, especially on summer weekends, so if you can, go midweek.Remember to take your passport when you board the ferry. Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) does have a recognised Swiss/French border in the middle of the lake ! *Not all boats stop in Nernier on every outbound or return trip, so check on the CGN website. There is an English language version but the timetable itself is a PDF file under "horaire été."

While the adults are having fun and the bands are rocking away on the main stages in Paléo, the children aren't forgotten over the six day fest. Not only is there is a dedicated area for them called "La Ruche" with performers and artistes, but next to this, an enclosed area called "Mielimelo". Although the area is for children, parents can stay if they want or leave their children* while they go and enjoy the music for a while. It's a no smoking and alcohol free zone, with games, seating areas, a mini theatre with daily performances and a dedicated group of volunteers who look after the children. "Volunteering at Paléo can often be a family affair" Isabelle Pirro - Supervising the MieliMelo area Supervising it all is Isabelle Pirro. She is in charge of organising the 8 adults and 32 adolescents (teenagers between the age of 14-18) who are there to entertain the children. Although she is head of it all, she stresses that it is the teenagers themselves who decide on the decor of the area, the games to be installed, and it's mainly the teenagers who play with the children too. The adults are there just to keep an eye on things. Like many volunteers in Paléo, Isabelle takes her holiday vacation throughout the Paléo week, (she works with children in a professional capacity) such is her dedication to the event, she has been volunteering at Mielimelo since 2001. "All the team meet in March and the volunteer teenagers make suggestions of what they would like to do for the area. We take their ideas on board and work with them. For example, some of them came up with the idea of using old oil drums to make into something for the area. So we got hold of some drums, we cut them in half, experimented a bit, styled them, painted them, found some plastic piping around Paléo for the inserts and we turned them into chairs!" "The teenagers decorated the area and introduced new games, we spend more or less a week getting the area ready. Some of the teenagers are children of adult volunteers working in a different area, working at Paléo can often be a family affair." "If parents want to leave their children here for a while, we take their mobile number and we give them a sticker with the name of their child on when they come to collect them, but ultimately its is the *parents who are responsible". "As the MieliMelo area is away from the main music stages, it is often a place that the parents appreciate too as it's quiet and is there is a comfortable seating area for the children to read or to "chill". "We can get busy though, particularly if there is a popular French band or singer on at the main scene and the parents want to see them! However we are not an all night childcare facility, we close at 22:00 during the week and 23:00 at the weekend and we don't expect parents to leave children here for hours and hours, we are volunteers after all! "When the children are here there is free "sirop" drinks and candy floss on offer. There's face painting and whole host of other activities, workshops and various theatre productions, such as a puppet production called " Cinderella and her Crocks", We have magicians too! If it rains, the theatre tent doubles up as shelter! Last night the area was full of happy children and over in the music area, happy adults too. A winning combination. Reviews of the first night's music coming up later. Shows for the children at Mielimelo this week Wednesday - Cinderella and her Crocks 18:30 - 19:15 Puppet show Thursday + Friday- David and Shane (magicians) 18:00 -18:30 Workshop 20:30 - 21:00 Show Saturday - Aurélien Donzé and Baobab Theatre 17:00 - 17:45 and 20:00 - 20:45 Sunday - David and Shane 16:45 -17:15 workshop 19:30 -20:00 show Note: one of the Magicians is English which might be useful for the workshop!

Nyon showed off the international diversity of its population on Sunday with the 5th annual "Interculturelle Day". This is a day dedicated to the immigrants who are very much a part of Swiss life but who also have a rich cultural heritage from their own country. So once a year they demonstrate some of this by dancing, preparing traditional food and offering it to the citizens of Nyon. Click on the "play" button for images of the event, they take just a few seconds to load. Make a Smilebox postcard Even though the weather was rather inclement, yesterday the marquee down by the Rive was full with locals and tourists who were clapping to the dancers from Kosovo, from Spanish speaking regions of the world, and other countries. They also got the chance to eat speciality food from around the globe too. Later on in the afternoon, over at the Conservatoire , there was a full house of adults and some children too who had come out to listen to Marie Hélène Piotet on piano and Francois Grin on Violoncello perform Sibelius, Grieg, Schumann with an encore of Rachmaninov. Under the gaze of the portrait of Alfred Cortot (Nyon's own famous pianist) and with the reflection of the lake in the salon's windows, it was a perfect way to end a day. Make a Smilebox postcard The audience appreciated the rich sounds drifting through the room and across the lake and the performers deserved the enthusiastic applause. Future concerts will be announced on this site. Once again Nyon has shown that this a town which is very rich in cultural diversity and a great place to live.

Fast following on Facebook of Nyon site! Just one week ago a new Facebook site (in French) sprang up called "T'es de Nyon si...." ("You are from Nyon if...") This site had a few hundred members in the first day,  seven days later it has over 4,800 members, many of these members are using the site to share their thoughts about living in the town, and in particular, posting their memories of Nyon in bygone days. From old school class photos, to photos of citizens dancing in the early days at Paléo (when the festival used to be held down  by the lake) these photos and comments are providing a fascinating glimpse of the history of the town and of life for its residents. From old shops to Hilary Clinton in Nyon Also on the site are members' memories of certain shops that are no longer around and photos of agricultural land near the centre of town which has now been built over with apartment buildings. There's even a post from one member saying they remember when Hilary Clinton came to Nyon in 1994! The site itself was created by a woman who lives in the town who goes by the name of Cy Din (a pseudonym of Cindy). The success of this site has now been featured in Tribune de Genève and other media publications. The photo above is an old postcard of Nyon from 1906 of the restaurant Café Nazarre (currently called the restaurant Maitre Jacques), as you will see, apart from the name, not much has changed from that date!

The Green Film Festival (Festival  du Film Vert) begins in Nyon this Thursday 12th March and continues until Sunday 15th March 2015. This festival features a variety of films focussing on "green" ie: environmental issues. There is an interesting selection from  Traders, a film investigating the world of  traders who deal in raw materials (to be shown Friday the 13th March at 18:30) to L'Afrique, le cuivre et les Vautours  a documentary that asks the question, "How much profit is fair?" investigating the world of Glencore and mining in Zambia (to be shown on Friday at 20:30), to Diesel, le Scandale Francais on the consequences of diesel fuel which was originally championed as good for the environment but now seen as causing health problems. The festival tours various towns and cities in Swiss Romande and it now in its 10th year. Most of the films to be shown in Nyon will be in French with the exception of one film - Chasing Ice - which will be shown on Sunday 15th March at 14:00 in English, with subtitles in French and German. Synopsis of Chasing Ice  - Acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog was once a skeptic about climate change and a cynic about the nature of academic research. But through his Extreme Ice Survey, he discovers undeniable evidence of our changing planet. In Chasing Ice, Balog deploys revolutionary time-lapse cameras to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers. All films will be screened in the Ferme du Manoir, in the Place du Château, (this building is on the corner of the square and Rue Maupertuis ).  All films will be followed by a 30 minute discussion.  For the full programme and timings of all films - see here Videos below - excerpts from Traders and L'Afrique, le cuivre et les Vautours

As the old local saying goes, “it's not Paléo if it doesn't rain”. This gives quite a good idea of the good-humoured enthusiasm of the crowd, who never see the rain as an obstacle for an evening of music and fun. Friday night was no exception to that, and after some rather heavy rain in the afternoon – just enough to get that authentic squelchy muddy feel when walking about – the rain visited the festival again a couple of times over the evening. Blonde and pretty, looking innocent in her flowery dress, Giedré started the evening with her oh so caustic songs set to gentle little tunes on the guitar. In stark contrast with her appearance and the music she plays (which seem to come straight out of some family music show), her texts explores just about every taboo possible, in a blend of lightheartedness and black humour. In times where the world around us seems like a very dark place, her completely off-beat songs are extremely therapeutic. She even manages to slip in a couple of slightly more politically charged songs along the way, albeit always in a very dark and absurd manner, like her song celebrating the fact that humans are the best at slaughtering the most animals. Next on were French moustachioed band Deluxe . Their combo of bright costumes  and electric mix of soul, groove and hip-hop were no match for the rain that started falling again during their concert. The crowd just kept on dancing, some donning colourful rain jackets, others just taking their t-shirts off (two quite radically different ways of keeping your clothes dry!), and encouraged by the high voltage performance of the sax player, who impressed by running and jumping all over the stage while playing rousing tunes, and the dance moves of the singer, bursting with energy and obviously having a lot of fun on stage. One of the effects that rain has on the concerts is a slight raise in audience for the concerts taking place under tents, namely the Club Tent and the Dôme. Some people who would have otherwise sat in the sun drinking beer seek refuge under one of the tents, and thanks to the rain discovering bands they probably wouldn't have heard of! Mik Clavet, announcer on the main stage (you can read an interview he did for Living in Nyon here), came on stage to announce British pop band Bastille with a parody of Martin Luther King's speech. “I have a dream, a dream of a Paléo where it wouldn't rain!” he exclaimed, before celebrating the resistance and determination of the crowd, “the rain preparing us and making us stronger to welcome the next band!”. The evening came to a close with a great discovery at the Détour, French band DBFC . They play a punchy mix of rock and electro, bringing together some heavy beats with guitar riffs and great drum action. The Détour and the Club tent are two stages that are always worth checking out, as they host smaller bands who often offer some very refreshing material, and they are places where you are sure of discovering a few unknown musical gems. With a large majority of bands playing at the festival for the first time, it is quite easy to completely renew your musical repertoire for the year to come. For people who don't have tickets to the Festival, or who wish to enjoy again one of the concerts that took place at Paléo, the festival has a partnership with Arte and they stream some of the concerts each day live online. So if you want to relax in the comfort of your arm-chair, you can enjoy Paléo live here. Don't forget that every morning at 9:00, Paléo releases 1500 tickets for that day! Get a last-minute ticket here.  There are still a few tickets left for Saturday night!

If you are wondering why there are lots of folk all with binoculars and all staring out at the lake this week, it's because there a sailing regatta on. Each evening until the 11th you can catch the beautiful sight of yachts sailing around Nyon on Lake Geneva. On Tuesday night there was a bit of wind and the sky had some superb cloud formations. What a perfect way to end a working day either by being on a boat itself or just watching from the port. Take your binoculars down there and enjoy (although watch out for the noise of the starting gun!) Boats leave the port at 19:00

After the great success of the "Fun Fondue" night for newly arrived expats back in February this year, another "Welcome to La Côte" event has been organised by Nyon tourism, Migros école- club Migros and Living in Nyon.  This second event on the 22nd May is in response to the survey that was carried out at the fondue evening. Please note, places are limited for this next event, please register by May 5 . Click on the flyer below to see full details in larger print.

On the day of the U.S presidential elections, American readers of this site might be interested to know that World Radio Switzerland will be broadcasting coverage of the elections on Wednesday 7th November from 02:00 a.m.  There have been many programmes on WRS throughout the past seven days which have covered  issues concerning Americans living in Switzerland. One of these programmes (called The Connectors), discussed American patriotism from afar, taxation, banking and the Foreign Accounting Tax Compliance Act (FACTA). If you are interested in hearing this programme again, just click on this link here . On a lighter note, Living in Nyon came across this busker yesterday playing guitar in the underpass under Nyon railway station. Brian from Charleston-South Carolina, is touring the world whilst playing flamenco to passers by. He was previously in Spain, but he moved on to Switzerland as he says "not only are  the people generous and friendly here, but as this country is in a better economic shape, I can earn more money (particularly in Geneva and Nyon) I can even "save a little!" Brian also predicted that the Barack Obama would win the U:S presidential elections.  This time tomorrow, we should know the answer and if Brian the Busker is right!

Here are some events coming up that may interest our male readers in particular: an action packed movie, an adventure movie and a Gentlemen's Ride event with vintage motorbikes in Nyon followed by a rock concert. Monday Movies in English in Nyon at the  Capitole Cinema Monday 21st September - 20:30 "Code Name U.N.C.L.E" Monday 28th September - 20:45 "Everest" -  see trailer below Music   On Saturday the 26th September at 15:00 there will be a Gentleman's Ride Party event at the Usine a Gaz followed by a vintage rock concert in the evening with bands Duck Duck Grey Duck and The Staches. During the day in the courtyard of the Usine, there will be vintage motorbikes on display and other events are planned. The Gentleman's Ride Party is a world wide event to raise funds for prostate cancer and awareness.  Click here for more info  For the family The Comptoir Suisse continues until the 21st September in Lausanne. This is a massive fair with a lot on the agenda and a ferris wheel! It makes for a good family day out too - there is a good description of what it is all about on the Lausanne Mom blog Circus in Town - A reminder that the Knie circus is in town so parking is restricted in Place Perdtemps car park in Nyon between the 18th and 20th September

New Arrivals and "Living in Nyon" on the TV and in the newspaper! Hot news! Although "Living in Nyon" has been around for a while, it is only recently that I have concentrated on its publicity, and what a few weeks it has been because of it! The site has been featured in the newspaper and on TV, so it's all good news, consequently visitor numbers have shot up. Firstly here's the TV coverage The section is called "Info Hebdo" which means daily info/news. The total length of the video link is 7 minutes 30. There are two features before me and "Living in Nyon" is at the end at 2 minutes 16, You can forward it to the exact point by sliding the bar at the bottom of the screen to 2.16. When you see a shot of the Nyon rooftops, that's the beginning of the piece. Here's the link. http://www.nr-tv.ch/flash_infoh/aaplay_h059.html Not so keen on seeing myself on camera mind you, the sun that was was very bright that day so I look quite pale, and I don't seem to smile a lot, which isn't really me, but.... the coverage of the site itself is just great! and the Yvan Mulone, the interviewer and cameraman from Nyon Region Television was very friendly, and is a nice guy. The interview was filmed on the terrace of the chateau and Mont Blanc was looking magnificent. I said that the view from where I was standing was was one of my favourite views in the world, and Mr Mulone said it was his too. The interview is in French by the way, my very poor French mixed up with a bit of Spanish..... Secondly Here is the newspaper article that was featured in La Cote Other News/ New Arrivals ! Very shortly there will be new categories added to this site including 1. Fitness/ jogging routes around Nyon 2. Places to stay (Bed and Breakfast) 3. More information on accommodation under the "frequently asked questions" 4. And a fun section on the familiar faces that you often see in the streets of Nyon. If you have any suggestions for new categories you also want to see on here, then let me know.

NOTE: Update Thursday 21 August. The Tourist Board have just informed me that they now have an English version of the voucher mentioned below. Also note, there are new events added for this weekend 23/24th August (under "Future Nyon" events on the sidebar).--------------------- As this is such a beautiful area it may not suprise you that when you move to Nyon, lots of people will want to come and visit you. Along with discovering the town, lake and mountains, they will also want to try the local gastronomic delights. So, to help your guests learn a little more about the different foods and wines that are available here, the tourist board have recently launched a voucher to encourage visitors to try out local food. Called the forfait "Découverte gourmande" this voucher costs 59 CHF per adulte and 33 CHF per child and entitles you to the following: 1. An aperitif at the Caveau des Vignerons in the Chateau of Nyon which entitles you to 2 X 1 dl of wine from the region and 150 grammes of charcuterie (cold meats). There's a children version of this offer which includes 100g of charcuterie plus a glass of apple juice. plus 2. Cheese from the cheese shop "Le Gite" of Nyon 300 grammes of Gruyère or 200 gramme of Gruyère plus 200 grammes of Vacherin or another "coupe" of cheese of your choice to the value of six francs plus 3. A meal, either in the Restaurant "Au Coeur de la Cote" in Vinzel which will give you three Malakoffs with a salad and "tarte a la creme" (for children 2 "baby" Malakoffs or chicken and chips with an ice cream) OR A meal in the Restaurant Le Léman in Nyon with Filets de Perches and a garniture of choice and a green salad (choice for children from the "enfant"menu) and finally 4. Dessert from the Confiserie Rapp in either Nyon, Prangins, or Gland. A selection of 6 pieces (chocolats and petits fours for around 60 grammes) with a drink. For more information and to buy the voucher, contact the Nyon tourist office, Avenue Viollier 8, 1260 Nyon. Tel 022 365 6600 Email info@nrt.ch Bon Appetit!