Even though Nyon Capitole Cinema is currently closed due to the Coronavirus restrictions, members of the public can still watch a selection of latest movies as their "Monday Movies" series of films in English are now online. You don't have to wait until a Monday to watch these films either, they can be viewed at any time of day, or any day of the week!  Films are being presented on separate streaming platforms. This is a great way to help support your local cinema. Films range from "The Bookshop" starring Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy (click here) ,"The Rider" (click here) "Official Secrets" (more details below), to Ken Roach's fabulous "Angels Share" (trailer below). Click here for the full selectio n "Official Secrets" starring Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode and Ralph Fiennes is currently available to watch online for just  CHF 7.50  Click here In 2003, as politicians in Britain and the US angle to invade Iraq, GCHQ translator Katharine Gun leaks a classified e-mail that urges spying on members of the UN Security Council to force through the resolution to go to war. Charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act, and facing imprisonment, Katharine and her lawyers set out to defend her actions. Ken Loach's "Angel's Share" also available online  (click here).

The Musée du Léman in Nyon has an interesting *history. It was originally a Convent (built in 1298!), it then became a hospital and two buildings were built behind it as annexes to the hospital. These annexes, the Lazaret and disinfection pavilion were built in 1904. The disinfection pavilion was built to isolate the patients who had infectious diseases!  The buildings are still visible, see photos below. They are now a little run down but will be renovated/incorporated into the new extension plans of the museum. See pdf here with the new plans. *The Archives of Nyon are currently closed, preventing any further research at the moment! .

Happy Easter to all Readers! Easter 2020 is a bit of a strange year in Nyon as the town hasn't held its Easter market and there are no decorated fountains around the town. Every year, these fountains are decorated by local clubs and societies in all sorts of imaginative ways, and they are a delight to see. So, below are some photos of the fountains from previous years. We will be back on this site after the Easter holidays. Note: if you are looking for an English speaking church over this period. La Côte church in Gingins is currently giving online weekly services Don't forget we are also on Facebook , we occasionally post videos and photos on the Facebook page which don't always make to this main site. Currently the Swiss government has extended the anti-coronavirus restrictions in place until April 26. So stay safe and Restez Chez Vous!

Yesterday's announcement that the 45th edition of Paléo Festival , has had to be postponed until 2021, was sad news, but perhaps inevitable under the current circumstances. The official announcement can be read in full below. For readers who have already bought advance tickets to the festival, see the Frequently Asked Questions  at the end of this post. Also, at the end of this post, is a "best of the week" video from Paléo 2019. For those new to Nyon, it's a glimpse of Paléo (one of Europe's biggest music festivals) which is set in the grounds just above Nyon. More videos are on the Paléo site itself. Photo above -courtesy Paléo. Stromae who played in front of 50,000 spectators in 2014. The Living in Nyon editor and writer J onas Parsons  have been covering Paléo for over 10 years, but we will be back in 2021! The 45th Festival will now take place from 19 to 25 July 2021.  Photo above - C.Nelson-Pollard. Taking a rest from the music. Official Paléo announcement Festival-goers, volunteers, artists, sponsors, partners, suppliers and close friends, Dear all, Given the extraordinary situation in which we find ourselves and the uncertainty of the summer events being upheld, it is with a heavy heart, but convinced we are making the right decision, that we announce the postponement of the 45th Paléo Festival until next year. The 45th Festival will now take place from 19 to 25 July 2021. We are currently working with the artists scheduled for 2020, including Céline Dion, in order to offer as much as possible, the same programme in 2021. Purchased tickets and passes remain valid for 2021. Paléo has taken place every year since 1976. It is an incredible musical event, as well as a moment of celebration and togetherness, which has always been driven by strong values, a desire to rouse emotions and the energy and commitment of a team that includes 5000 volunteers, 65 permanent employees, a hundred or so suppliers, sponsors, stalls, service providers and friends. We prepared a superb 45th anniversary edition of 7 days that we were impatient and proud to celebrate with you. We worked with heart for many months and were looking forward to offering a crazy line-up on a beautifully redesigned site, with new decors and stages. Organising Paléo is a huge task. But undoing and postponing it will undoubtedly be an equally complex challenge. And a painful one. The Festival has lived through wonderful years as well as more difficult ones throughout its history but the health crisis relating to Covid-19 is clearly an unprecedented situation which has hit us all very hard. Our main priority is to guarantee the safety of our public, our teams, our artists as well as all the people involved in the organisation of Paléo. Our responsibility and values are at stake. This is the reason why we have taken the difficult decision to postpone the 45th edition of the Festival, which will now take place from 19 to 25 July 2021. Moreover, even if summer festivals are not formally forbidden yet and the health conditions were met to organise an event for several thousand people in Switzerland at the end of July – which is not certain -, we still couldn’t guarantee the smooth running of the event. Paléo is a temporary city that welcomes some 50,000 people every day. All conditions must be met to start the huge construction work which relies on a whole chain of service providers, suppliers, artists, sponsors and technical teams. It’s highly likely that artists will postpone their tours and that the delivery of key equipment for the Festival will be hampered due to the current climate. In view of these elements, maintaining the Festival in July 2020 is not possible. It's a tough break. This postponement will inevitably have heavy financial repercussions for the Festival. Indeed, as a non-profit organisation (non-subsidised), Paléo generates close to 80% of its revenue through the sale of tickets, food and beverage during the event. In this complex context, the organisation is working hard to mitigate the impact of this postponement. This sanitary crisis will undoubtedly also affect cultural stakeholders who find themselves with no concerts this summer, as well as our partners and suppliers and the hundreds of people, local associations and businesses with whom we have been collaborating faithfully for decades. All purchased tickets and passes remain valid for the 45th Festival which will take place from 19 to 25 July 2021. We are currently working with the artists scheduled for 2020, including Céline Dion, in order to offer as much as possible, the same programme in 2021. We warmly thank you in advance for your patience and your understanding in this highly exceptional situation. How can you help us? By keeping your tickets and passes on hand until July 2021! It is thanks to you and your fidelity that the continuity of Paléo can be assured. We understand, however, that postponing the festival to next year may not suit everyone. Therefore, for specific situations, we will do our best to set up a solution. This will take several weeks of work, but we will of course inform you as soon as possible. We would like to thank you all: public, volunteers, partners, artists, farmers, sponsors, suppliers and everyone close and far who is involved in the Festival. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your unwavering support and your invaluable trust. We hope that the general spirit of solidarity in the face of this health crisis will last for the long term and will help overcome the challenges that lie ahead. In the meantime, let’s help each other out, stay at home and thank the people who fight on the frontline every day so that we may put these trying times behind us and think about meeting up again as soon as possible! We will do everything in our power to organise an even better party in 2021 and celebrate a return to better days together. Take good care of yourselves and of your loved ones. Frequently Asked Questions

Although many local festivals have now been cancelled such as Paléo , the Montreux Jazz Festival  and Sion sous les Etoiles , there is one festival that is still able to go ahead and that is Visions du Réel, Nyon's prestigious documentary film festival. The entire programme will be online, free and open to the public and limited to available places. Look out for the printed programme which has been has been delivered to letterboxes around the town. In it, you will find the full list of films in all the different categories from International (medium length and short length available from the 17th April, long documentaries in this category from the 25th April), to the "Opening Scenes" category of documentaries, to Swiss films and more. One of the invited guests to the festival this year is film-maker Petra Costa .  She was nominated at this year's Oscars in the Best Documentary Feature Category for her latest film " The Edge of Democracy" . A selection of her films are online and she will also give a Masterclass, available online on the 30th April at 15:00 to share her approach to cinema and her work methods. Also invited this year, is Jean-Luc Godard. As soon as the château of Nyon re-opens, Visions du Réel will present  "S entiments, signes, passions – à propos du livre d'image",  an all-new exhibition conceived with the French/Swiss filmmaker himself. Note of interest, Jean-Luc Godard lives in Rolle. Full details of all the films, and the festival are available in English, or have English subtitles (just click on the CC button on the bottom right hand corner of the screen). Registering to watch the films is very simple, just enter your name and email address, create a password and, voila!

Coming up in the next few posts are three suggested short walks in the Nyon area. A Walk from Nyons to Prangins, a Walk to Nyon's Wine School, and a Walk to buy an Ice Cream from the Farm shop near Nyon. These walks are perfect if you want to get some exercise (between 8,000 - 10,000 steps) during the lockdown period, and fancy a change of scenery other than walking by the lakeside. All the routes assume a start point from Nyon railway station. A Walk from Nyons to Prangins. From the railway station, set off in the direction of Prangins, and walk on the path that takes you past the Generali building. Cross over the road and walk up the hill towards La Mobilière. Continue the path that follows along the railway. Note - this photo and the one below was taken on the return route ie: in the opposite direction Walk for about 10 minutes alongside the railway line and you will eventually come to a bridge. Turn right down Chemin de Trembley. At the end of this road is a lovely view of the vineyards and the lake. Continuing on this road you will then approach Prangins from the bottom end of the village near the Cafe des Alpes restaurant. From here you can wander through the streets and lovely old buildings. Move on to the parkland of the château (the castle itself and terrace are currently closed) and then down the hill in front of the castle, past the bee hives and on to the main road. Here, you can cross over the Route Nationale and head for the marina at Prangins or simply walk back to Nyon on the main lake road (currently quiet but it can be very busy, particularly at the weekend). Or turn around and return in the direction you came.

Latest situation on restrictions in Switzerland. Some Statistics. Tele-Working in the Mountains. A press conference held on the 29th April 2020, outlined the current situation on COVID-19 in Switzerland and the decisions taken by the Federal Council on the easing of measures (phase two of three) from 11th May. A useful simple graph has been produced to explain these measures. See below. For the full and more detailed report on these measures  click here Some Stats The Federal Office of Public Health has also published some interesting data on its website showing confirmed COVID-19 cases from week 9 through to week 17 on an interactive graphic. It has also published distribution of cases by canton, age and gender, development over time, and conducted tests. Click here for the main page which links to the different data.  Tele-Working in the Mountains As many of readers are now working from home, how easy is this to do for those living in the Alps and in remote mountains villages? Swiss Info published a report in October 2019 on whether people in Switzerland can really live and work wherever they want on account of the digital revolution?    Read it here This report has been short listed for a  Swiss Press Award .

According to Metéosuisse, the rain looks set to stay for the next three days here in Vaud, so it's a perfect time to catch up with Visions du Réel, Nyon's documentary film festival. This year, the festival's films are available online, although "places" to watch are restricted and time limited. One film that is available today the 30th April from 17:00 for 24 hours takes us thousands of miles away from the rain of Nyon and into the sunshine of Florida. "Some Kind of Heaven" focusses on "The Villages", nicknamed Disneyland for the retired, home to more than 130,000 elderly people. At the start of the film all seems well, residents sing its praises: " There is no place like this, this is Nirvana", "W hen we first got here it was like being on vacation every day, but it is not the real world, we live in a bubble", " When you move here, it's like going off to college. Everybody can be what they want to be here".  Director Lance Oppenheim has captured some wonderful scenes in the film, from the incongruous site of mature ladies belly dancing (to the music of "Let it Snow"), to the aged, bronzed lounge lizard (a non-resident) hanging around the pool looking for a wealthy woman to move in with. One resident says, "I'm called a frog, this means I am one of those who have moved into the village. I am here until I croak".  But not everybody's life on the villages is perfect and gradually we see life beyond the perfectly kept lawns and myth of the American dream. The film is not dissimilar from "Snowbirds", shown at the festival in 2018 ( reviewed here by Living in Nyon ) but this film looks more at the fringes of village life, where not everything is rosy. A fascinating and poignant film.

Two more local events have been cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak and recent decisions taken by the Federal Council on the banning of large scale events until the end of August 2020. The Triathlon of Nyon , one of the biggest sporting events in the region with more than 3,000 participants and 600 volunteers will not go ahead in 2020. The event is now scheduled for the 7 - 8 August 2021. Caribana , the annual music festival event that takes place alongside the lake in Crans près Céligny (near Nyon) will also not take place and has been rescheduled for 16 - 20 June 2021.

On Monday morning in Nyon, local businesses and council buildings were preparing for the 11th May when there will be a gradual easement of lockdown restrictions (see our previous article). The lights were being strung up in the trees down by the Plage restaurant, painters and decorators were refreshing the paintwork of the château, and many vans were delivering products to the shops and restaurants. There was lots of sun and sign of new life springing up around the town. See photos below. The Return of Ticks Although this new life and the sun is most welcome, the good weather also means the return of ticks. RTS reported on today's lunch time news that the tick season has begun. To avoid being bitten, avoid forest edges and undergrowth, wear light, closed clothing and apply repellent. Ticks are particularly active from March to November, with peaks in Spring and Autumn. Each year, an estimated 20,000 visits are made as a result of a tick bite. Ticks can cause two main diseases: borreliosis, also known as Lyme disease, and the more serious tick-borne encephalitis. There are between 100 and 250 cases per year in Switzerland. See this article written by Dr Michelle Wright, a British-trained General Practitioner and Executive Director of HealthFirst in Switzerland. Call of 4th May campaign Also around town today were a group of citizens alerting passers-by to the "Call of May 4" campaign. This campaign coincides with the reopening of the Swiss Parliament. The aim is "to make elected representatives hear a desire from concerned citizens to see a different, more humane and sustainable future emerge in the aftermath of COVID-19". You can read more and sign up for this petition here.

Did you know that just above Nyon, in Changins, there is a Wine School/Haut Ecole/Training Centre which offers degree courses, a Master of Science in viticulture and oenology, plus courses for wine-lovers and members of the public? The school is set in grounds surrounded by its own vineyards. It has a lovely old house in the grounds (closed to the public but you can walk in the parkland at the back), and it is easy to walk to from Nyon railway station. The old house has a small but lovely orangerie/conservatory attached. Here are two suggested walking routes to the wine school Both start from the railway station. Exit the back of the station and walk up the Rue de St-Cergue. There are mainly blocks of flats on this part of the route, but you do come across the occasional old house which has not been demolished! Cross over the Route D'Oulteret and continue walking up the St-Cergue road, eventually you will see Nyon Hostel on the right hand side. Continue straight on on and at the traffic lights, turn down Chemin du Groseiller, (look out for a sign that says Néo-Apolistique church, see photo above and below). Cross over the stream and onto the Chemin de Changins. This leads onto the Domaine de Changins. Here you have arrived at the entrance to the school. The modern building is next to the vineyards and the old house which is part of the school, is at the end of the path. Photo below - the parkland at the bottom of the old house. Photos below - research vineyards For an alternative walk, again walk up the Route de St Cergue . At the first roundabout turn left and then after 30m turn right up the Chemin de Bourgogne. You can walk up this to the top at which you turn right and follow the road/track past the houses out onto the Route de St Cergue. Here you turn left and after a few hundred metres cross over the road and take the road down through the trees and over the river L'Asse. This is Chemin de Calèves which brings you out onto the Chemin de Changins. Turn right and this will bring you to the top end of the school and provide beautiful views over the lake and Alps. Either direction will bring you to the school (marked "Agroscope" on Google Maps). For the return journey either come back in the same direction, or walk through the parkland at the back of the old house at the wine school towards Edwards Life Sciences. Walk down the Route de L'Etraz which brings you to the bottom of the Place Perdtemps car park and a short walk back to the railway station. Back in 2017 we interviewed a George Unc, a Masters student who was studying at the school. You can read the article here.

The three museums of Nyon: the Lake Museum, the Château of Nyon and the Roman Museum will reopen on Saturday 16 May. The number of visitors allowed in each museum is limited. The maximum number of people allowed in each room is displayed at the entrance. Hand gel is available to the public at the entrance to the museums. Surfaces and points of contact are cleaned and disinfected regularly. From 16 May to 7 June, admission is free for visitors. Château de Vullierens -Spacious grounds - easy to social distance! The Iris Gardens at the Château de Vullierens above Morges are now open, if you haven't been to these gardens before, they are set in spacious grounds, there are lots of interesting modern sculptures placed around the gardens and plenty of place for social distancing! Check out the Big Bang installation! The gardens are suitable for children. Some of the irises were in bloom last weekend and the majority should be out and looking lovely for this weekend (call in advance to check). There is also a lovely café in the gardens. For more info - click here. Photos below taken by the Living in Nyon editor on Saturday 9th May,