Recently published Cartographica Helvetica is a great new atlas for children packed with fun and interesting information about this lovely country. With lovely illustrations and lots of content including: Swiss innovations and inventions, flora and fauna, "what we eat", with food facts about the different cantons. Who knew that Bern and Vaud produce over half the potatoes grown in Switzerland? or that a typical Swiss person eats around 10 kilos of chocolate per year?! Written by Diccon Bewes and illustrated by Dina Christ and Nicola Carpi, this large format book containing 20 illustrated maps would make a great Christmas gift for children ages 6 years and up (interesting for adults too!) Free shipping in Switzerland The English edition can be ordered direct from Bergli Books. The French edition can be ordered from Helvetiq.

The line-up for Paléo  will all be revealed in twenty days time, on the 23rd November! Tickets on sale 1st December. New to the area and not sure what Paléo is?  It is one of the biggest open air music festivals in Switzerland and one of the most important music festivals in Europe, and next year it will take place from the 19th - 24th July in grounds, just above Nyon! The crowd for Stromae at Paléo in 2014. Photo - courtesy Paléo festival. The festival began a small folk festival in 1976 down by the lake (it has since moved to the l'Asse grounds) and it is now a massive event. Over the years it has seen a host of stars perform on its stages from Robbie Williams to Oasis, James Brown, R.E.M the W.H.O, and many more big names. Stromae is one of the first artists officially confirmed to play at Paléo on Sunday 24th July 2022.  The last time this Belgian artist performed at Paléo (in 2014), he attracted a crowd of around 50,000. Tickets for his concert sold within minutes. Tickets for the festival itself also tend to sell out quickly so don't miss out! Details below. Each year the festival features a Village du Monde area with music dedicated to a geographical area of the world. Next year the area chosen will be West Africa. The festival also showcases Swiss music, it has an area for children, live street theatre, hundreds of food stands and bars and lots more. There is a campsite next to the grounds with all kind of camping possibilities from glamping to regular pitches. Photo below- The Paléo campsite seen from the air - Photo C. Nelson-Pollard Living in Nyon has been covering Paléo for many years and we will be there again next year reporting from the grounds. See video below from 2019 to get a flavour of the festival and check out some of the short videos we filmed at Paléo over on the Living in Nyon Facebook video page. Six day passes The traditional Christmas sale of six-day passes will take place from Wednesday 24 November at 10:00 to Monday 29 November, online only at paleo.ch . Single Tickets on sale on 1st December   (virtual queue from 11:45 ): Ticket office will open for Single tickets for every night Six-day passes Pitches for motorhomes Reservations for accommodation at Camping Pal’Asse Note - The availability of tickets and passes cannot be guaranteed. Previously purchased Flex tickets can be exchanged from Wednesday 24 November at 12 noon until Monday 29 November. Previously purchased passes are valid for next year’s Festival. COVID-19: Conditions of access to the Festival will be adapted according to the decisions of the authorities (not yet known) which will be in force next July.

GEDS (the Geneva English Drama Society) kept busy during the confinement with Zoom play readings, but now they are back with live productions! Their next production will be "Private Lives" which will performed at the Théâtre de Terre-Sainte in Coppet from the 23-27 November. Synopsis "A fiery, witty, hugely entertaining romp of a divorced couple who find that they aren't really done with each other, "PRIVATE LIVES" is one of Coward's most popular comedies. Elyot and Amanda, once married and now honeymooning with new spouses at the same hotel, meet by chance, reignite the old spark and impulsively elope. But only days after reuniting, their stormy history resurfaces as passions veer from love to anger." Tickets and more info here

On Weds 1st December at noon, single-day tickets will go on sale for Paléo festival which will be on 19th -24th July 2022. The line-up, revealed last week, includes a mixture of music genres including: hard rock on Tuesday with Kiss, Celtic punk on Tuesday with the Dropkick Murphys, solo artist Sting, soul/blues artist Rag'nBone man and electro pop Metronomy on Wednesday, reggae on Thursday with Third World and Queen Omega, legendary French musician Maxime le Forestier on Saturday, Cuban Funk on Sunday and much more. See full line up here. The joy of Paléo is that you can often discover new artists at this festival that you may have never have heard of before. It's one of Europe's biggest music festivals and there's always something for everyone. With hundreds of food stalls, temporary restaurants, light installations, street entertainment, it's worth getting a ticket just for the atmosphere alone! A reminder that tickets usually sell out very fast (the virtual queue starts at 11:45) so don't miss out !  Click here. In the meantime, here are two videos from two bands playing at Paléo next year - Cima Funk from Cuba and Metronomy from the UK, just to get you in the mood!

"One for the Boys" , a musical theatre show will be performed by the Geneva Amateur Operatic Society , in English in Nyon on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th March at 20:00, on Saturday 5th at 19:00 and on Sunday at 14:00 at the Théâtre de Marens. All profits from this show will be donated to help Ukrainian refugees. The Commune de Nyon has waived all costs of renting the theatre for this entire show. Tickets and more details - click here

It's great to see the banners and promotional publicity for Visions du Rée l going up around Nyon. This is a prestigious documentary film festival and is a key fixture in the international film festival circuit. There is often a preconception that this festival is just for the professionals and whilst it's true that over the course of the 10 days many filmmakers, directors and TV representatives land in town, the festival is definitely open to the general public. Many films are shown in English or are subtitled in English. The world truly comes to Nyon's doorstep through the medium of film. The festival takes place across venues across Nyon and in Gland, and there is usually a buzz around the festival hub at the Place du Réel (just behind the Place Perdtemps car park) where a temporary bar is set up. Over the years (this is Catherine writing here, the former editor!), I have seen some truly great documentaries, some funny, some moving, some thought-provoking and there have been some superb discussions with directors after the films. We have also written many reviews of the films on this site. Check this year's festival programme out here and we will be back later with more on Visions du Réel.

Two events coming up in Vaud this weekend. It's the Spring Market in Nyon on Saturday 4th from 08:00-18:00. Stalls, events, music, and even a chance to take a Zumba class (in Place Bel-Air) at 11:00! Over in the lovely vineyards, it's Caves Ouvertes on Saturday the 4th and Friday 5th June. It's a great chance to try local wines. You can buy your ticket online in advance. Free shuttle buses will be operating to take you from vineyard to vineyard. See Infos Pratique on the website.

Paléo starts in just five days! After a two-year break, the festival returns to the L'Asse grounds with the same good vibes and music and lots of new innovations. We will report on these over the next few days and during the festival.   One of the new innovations is a cashless Paléo. “No cash” payments will be possible at any of the Festival's points of sale (bars, stands, restaurants, etc.). You can pay for your purchases with the usual payment methods (bank cards, Maestro, Visa, Postcard, Twint, Apple/Google Pay, etc. If you don't have a bank card or don't want to pay by card or app, "No Cash" exchange banks are available on the ground to exchange your cash for a card loaded with the amount of your choice.

News stages, new areas, Paléo opens tomorrow! The weather may be far from cool right now, however, there are  many cool, new innovations for Paléo 2022. One of them is the big, new Véga stage (named after the brightest star in the constellation). Different genres of music will be played on this stage which is situated in the north of the site and replaces  Les Arches stage. There's also a viewing platform with a bar right in front. The reason for this shifting around of stages and venues is due to the construction of the new NStCM (Nyon-St. Cergue-La Cure train) depot next door to the Paléo grounds. At the Paléo press conference, founder and president of the festival, Daniel Rossellat, explained that there had been lots of planning with many ideas thrown around on how to arrange the stages and they hope festival goers will like the new look! Party on in Belleville Belleville is another new brand new area waiting to be discovered. This will be completely dedicated to electronic music. When this stage (photo below) is lit up at night, it's bound to be impressive. Music will play in between scheduled shows for a non-stop party! Photo above - Seema Sharma The Sphère Mobilère may look like a small tent from the outside, but once you enter, you will find deckchairs where you can escape the heat, sit back and relax and enjoy a short digital show and where you can ascend the Matterhorn without leaving your seat! Check out a sneak short preview in the video below. Photo above - Seema Sharma We will be reporting back soon on what to expect in this year's Village du Monde. Don't forget we have stories and lots more photos on Instagram and Facebook. Not got tickets yet? 1500 tickets will be on sale every morning of the Festival at 09:00 (virtual waiting line opening at 08:45 ), for the same evening: Tuesday morning sale for Tuesday tickets, Wednesday morning sale for Wednesday tickets and so on! Please note: Sale only on paleo.ch. No tickets will be on sale at the Festival ticket offices.

While roving reporter Seema was checking out bands across the grounds on the first night of Paléo, Catherine went straight up to the Dôme tent in the Village du Monde to see Santrofi. This collective of young talented musicians from Ghana, arrived on stage, initially to a very small audience (many festival goers had gravitated towards the Kiss concert), but after the band struck up their first few notes, the vibe and the music began to attract folk to the tent. Not before long, people were moving to the band's funk and Afrobeats. Santrofi livened up the Dôme in style, and despite the ever-present heat, the dancing continued, see video below. The Dôme tent in the Village du Monde is always a good place to check out new bands from across the globe. It's a great opportunity to discover new styles of music. This year, the music comes from West Africa and the decor of this zone reflects this. Santrofi in the Dome tent from Catherine on Vimeo . Santrofi in concert.

Show in Nyon - Thursday 28th and Friday 29th November - 20:00 103 multi-talented young adults (from 15 different countries) are currently visiting Nyon and staying with 50+ host families. Along with doing roughly  1,000 hours of volunteer work, they will also be  providing leadership workshops to students in various schools in the area. "Up with People" will be performing a professionally produced show on 28th and 29th of November at Théâtre de Marens at 20:00. "Up with People" is an unique non-profit, educational and cultural programme. It's aim is to encourage an understanding among people of all nations and empower the youth to make a world be a better place. Tickets, link here   - tickets are also available at Manor and at the Post Office.

Day out to Annecy or Evian-les-Bains, by train from Coppet! The New Léman Express is due to launch on the 15th December 2019. This is a massive new rail network (work began over 8 years ago!) and it will extend across Geneva and Vaud and into neighbouring France. Léman Express trains are timed to coordinate with TGV Lyria trains, TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes trains and the main Swiss railway lines.This new initiative was *created to ease cross border travel.  The new service will offer lots of connections to Geneva Airport, with five trains per hour from Geneva's Cornavin train station (a seven-minute train ride from the airport). The website is in English and the timetables are available to download.Check out the Coppet-Annecy or the Coppet-Evian-les-Bains timetables.  No need to take the car! See map and video below for more information. 25 stations on the network will be celebrating on the 14th and 15th December *Only 16% of the 550,000 daily cross-border trips in 2015 were made by public transport due to the lack of an efficient service on both sides of the border. * source Wikipedia There will be 230 km  of track linking France and Switzerland 45 train stations  across the region 6 trains lines  to and from Coppet, Bellegarde, Evian-les-Bains, Annecy and St-Gervais-les-Bains-Le Fayet 40 trains  running under the Léman Express brand