Here are the details of the Christmas 2018 Services at La Côte church in Gingins (a village just a short drive from Nyon).

The Swimming school at the Centre de Santé la Lignière in Gland begins a new round of lessons in *small groups (no more than 5 children per group) from 7th January until June. Lessons last 45 minutes per week on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. The instructors always stay with the children in the warm water at 32 degrees, with the familiarisation classes and with the beginner swimmers. There’s also a jacuzzi : water at 34 degrees ! Individual classes for both children and adults are possible during all the year. Different levels of swimmers are catered from complete beginners to the more experienced. Contact Sarah Lailler (she speaks fluent English) Tél. : +41 (0)22 999 65 81 or email : natation@la-ligniere.ch

St-Cergue Tourist Office is currently offering a package for just CHF 25 per person for a fondue in a restaurant and chance to skate on the ice rink in the village. Take a look at St-Cergue's webcam. It's beautiful up there right now! (13th December 2018) Price includes rental of skates and fondue in a participating restaurant. For more details contact the Tourist Office in St-Cergue Telephone +41 22 360 13 14 Email : patinoire@st-cergue.ch See Facebook page Saint-Cergue: Col de la Givrine − La Trélasse − Jura vaudois Natural Regional Park

On Friday 14th December at 20:00 Mario Batkovic will perform in the Temple of Nyon. The music of this Bosnian/Swiss accordionist has been described by Rolling Stone magazine as “a stunning marvel of see-sawing melodies and warm wheezes.” and Mojo said, "he drags the humble accordion screaming into futurity.” This event is organised by the Usine à Gaz. Seated concert - Tickets here A reminder that the Usine is currently under construction (a new extension is being built), so current music events are being held in various venues across town. Also on the 14th December Eliza Shaddad from the UK will perform at the Parenthèse in Nyon. Concert at 22:00. On Saturday 15th December in the Temple of Nyon, there will be Jazz Carols organised by La Côte Anglican Church in Gingins. There will be an apéro from 19:00 with the performance starting at 19:30. Entry is free (with a retiring collection). Please reserve tickets - click here

Want to find out more about the digital teaching methods at Ecole Moser in the heart of Nyon? There will be two information evenings on Tuesdays 11th December at 18:30 and Tuesday 15th January at 20:30 School and Digital: A collaborative revolution This year Ecole Moser celebrates its 30th anniversary in the heart of Nyon. This school has been offering quality teaching to children of families in the area during that time and uses modern, teaching technologies including interactive whiteboards, tablets, and dynamic learning etc. The school offers a multi-lingual route with immersion from the age of eight to enable pupils to gain top-level linguistic skills. It offers three pre-gymnasium streams leading to the Swiss Maturité examination: the standard route; the French-German bilingual route; and French-English bilingual route. The school warmly invites families to discover its digital approach and all its other teaching programmes during these two information evenings. For more information contact Ecole Moser Nyon, 4-6, avenue Reverdil, 1260 Nyon Tel: 022 593 88 88

There will be a Christmas Market in Nyon from the 14th until the 23rd December with mini chalets in Place Bel Air, Place St-Martin and Rue de la Gare. There will also be late night shopping until 21:00 on the 19th, 20th and 21st December. On those dates, parking will be free in La Combe Shopping Centre from 18:00 - 21:00 and the local bus lines 801 and 805 will be free from 18:00 -24:00 during the Christmas Market. There will be music, a visit from Father Christmas, vin chaud and more at both the market and near the château. Give a gift to a local child New to Nyon this year is the "Sapin Solidaire" which is in Place du Château. This has been set up to help local families in financial difficulties and who cannot afford to give presents to their own children. There will be cards hanging from this tree with the first name of a child, their age and gender and the type of present they would like to receive. Members of the public can take away a card and buy a present (maximum CHF 40) for a child. There will be someone at the chalet to receive your gift on Friday from 16:30 - 20:00 on Saturday and Sunday from 09:00 to 18:30 and from the 14th to the 23rd December every day from 11:00 -22:00. The presents received will be distributed to the children on the 23rd and 24th.

The next "Women in Digital Lausanne" Meet-Up will be on "Social Media for Brand & Business Building in 2019" on Wednesday, 12 December from 18:30 - 20:30 at Rue Etraz 4, Lausanne.

Visions du Réel, Nyon's International Documentary Film Festival has unveiled the poster for its next edition, will be held from 5 -13 April 2019. It has also announced that it will pay tribute to Werner Herzog, one of the world’s major filmmakers during the festival's 50th edition. The filmmaker will be in Nyon and will be awarded the Sesterce d'Or Prix Raiffeisen Maître du Réel. In partnership with the Cinémathèque Suisse and ECAL, several events are being organised to give the audience the opportunity to meet the legendary film director: a Masterclass on 9 April and screenings of a selection of films as well as his latest feature-length film, (co-directed with André Singer), as a Swiss premiere.

Part of the line-up for Caribana 2019 has now been revealed. Bands and artists playing at this lakeside festival near Nyon, include Franz Ferdinand playing on Wednesday 5th June, Morcheeba on the 6th, and Caravan Palace on Friday 7th June. Tickets are now on sale - Caribana operates an early bird ticketing system, the earlier you buy the tickets the cheaper they are! Click here.

There will be a demonstration of 3D printing by FabLab La Côte at the next Nyon Business Forum lunch event in Nyon on Friday 7th December from 14:00 -16:00. This will take place at ATELIER 9 Rue du Vieux-Marché 9 1260 Nyon Cost CHF 40 to include lunch. Registration required - contact Bob Jenefsky on 079 202 50 14.

Catherine from Living in Nyon, and Lisa from Know-it-all Passport, are back with their "audio" Advent Calendar for 2018 with 24 gift ideas. Many of their suggestions can be bought locally. These range from subscription services for spas and body treatments, bouquets of flowers and socks (a "sockscription"!) yoga, snowshoe and wine weekends away, a gorgeous photographic book of local wildlife to beautiful Swiss stamps. All links below - tune in to the podcast to hear more of a detailed description of each suggestion. If you are still stuck for ideas - listen to last year’s podcast! Lisa is also currently running a Christmas pop-up shop in Geneva and she has chosen a selection of items from her shop such as spicy jams and paintings made from wine. 24 Gift Ideas discussed in the podcast 1. Ceramic Kettle that looks like a teapot - Manor 2. Door Hotel sign and 3. Reading Glasses Container - both from Angelika Chollet - Rue de Rive 30, 1260 Nyon Tel 022 361 6513. There is no website but this shop sells beautiful, stylish products! 4. Body Pass Card for a spa treatment 5. Voucher Patchwork in the Peaks - Quilting weekend in the Alps 6. Chandlery in Nyon for lovely marine products, 7. from deck shoes to 8. brass clocks 9. Socks! Noz shop in Saint-Genis-Pouilly For all sorts of fun cheap/discounted gifts and mismatched socks. Or, how about a "Socksubscription" with Blacksocks? 10. Design your own Car foot Mats 11. Baroque et Rococo for picture frames and Cactus Nespresso holder - shop in Nyon. 12. Photography course voucher 13. Yoga, snowshoe, and wine tasting weekend Live Breathe Hike! retreat 14.La Poste - stamps - plus Pro-Juventute charity stamps from La Poste 15. Advent Calendar idea - Fill a Toolbox with 24 gift ideas! 16. Flower Subscription via Miss Daisy bouquets of flowers delivered to your house Know-it-all Market Place - Lisa’s pop up shop 17. Paintings made from wine! 18. Savoury and Spicy jams - Spice Angel 19. Oh la Vache! 20. Leaf print silk scarves 21. Lanxel Candles with local names Catherine also suggests 22. A photography book by Jonathan Guillot - fabulous photos of local wildlife. Book available online and in Payot - Geneva. 23. Alexandre Chocolaterie in Nyon - Handmade artisanal chocolates. 24. Papeterie de la Côte - Pencils, Caran D’ache etc

The Château of Prangins is currently hosting two important photo exhibitions: World Press Photo 2018, which continues until the 9th December 2018 and Swiss Press Photo 2018, which runs until the 3rd March 2019. There is an extensive range of photos in both of these current exhibitions across many categories: portrait, environment, sports, nature, spot news and more. The photos are printed in very large format and spread across both levels of the château. In the Swiss Press Photo 2018 Exhibition - there is a superb photo series by Remo Naegeli of Michael Keller, a dentist who treats patients in remote mountain valleys in the Canton of Uri. Instead of treating people in his surgery, he brings the surgery to them in their homes. Keller below is seen having a cup of coffee and a slice of cake at his patient’s dining table after his work is done. Under the "Daily Life" category, a series of photos by Julie de Tribolet focusses on Ninoska Caro, a beautician from Geneva who swaps her high heels for a pair of military boots as a lieutenant in the Swiss army. Only 0.7% of members of the Swiss military are women. Guillaume Perret is the winner of the Photographer of the Year in the Swiss Press Photo awards. Perret photographed a 67-year-old woman from Neuchâtel who has breast cancer. After surgery and chemotherapy, she is determined to show off her body, with the simple message that it is possible to beat cancer. This photo is used in the posters and publicity of the current exhibition. In the World Press Photo 2018 - there is an extraordinary set of winning photos under the section "Environment". Photographer Kadir van Lohuizen travelled to several countries to report on how different societies manage (or mismanage), their waste. Check out the series of photos by Ami Vitale under "Nature" of orphaned and abandoned elephant calves. They are rehabilitated and returned to the wild, at the community-owned Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in northern Kenya. ©Amy Vitale/ National Geographic There are vivid and shocking photos in the Spot News category taken by David Becker on October 1, 2017. People run for cover as a gunman fires on concertgoers at the Route 91 country music festival in Las Vegas, USA.