On Saturday 10th December 2016 there will be a free introduction to the Fox-trot, Swing, Waltz, Tango and Java dance from 16:00 - 18:00 at the L'Elastique Citrique (Nyon's acrobatic/ circus skills school- in the big red building near the Place Perdtemps car park) Later on in the evening there will be a dance at 21:00 (CHF 10 entry) with live music including music from accordionist Denis Croisonnier . Doors open 20:00.

There will be a Christmas market from the 30th November until the 4th December at the Château of Coppet. For more details click here There will also be a Christmas market in the Grand-Rue in Gland on Saturday 4th December from 08:00 -17:00

Living in the Know - December 2016 The Living in the Know December podcast is now out. Living in the Know is a collaboration between Catherine, the editor of Living in Nyon and Lisa, the editor of Know-it-all passport.  With Christmas just around the corner December’s podcast gives you some hints and tips on posting Christmas cards, including last delivery dates to send them to friends and family here and abroad. Lisa describes a creative way of making your own stamps which are valid for postage in Switzerland and shows you how to save money if you are sending a lot of cards. She also explains about the charity stamps you can buy in Switzerland. If you are busy at work and don’t have time to get to the post office, then find out what Catherine has to say about La Poste’s new 24-hour terminals where you can receive and send parcels at all times of day. Lisa rounds off the podcast by telling us about a festive reddish coloured drink that you will often see in bars and restaurants around the country. Lisa and Catherine wish Season’s Greetings to all their listeners. They will be back in 2017 with more hints, tips and French expressions.

There will be a "full moon" fondue by Nyon lake side organised by the bains3jetees on Saturday 10th December from 19:00. The price per person for the fondue is CHF 19 (16+) and CHF 12 (12-15 years) children under 12 are welcome to dip into the fondue of their parents for free! Reservations essential, these events are popular and sell out fast!  Click here

The poster for Paléo festival 2017 was revealed today the 30th November. The poster was designed by two young students, Catia Ferreira Barreiras and Nausicaa Planche who are in the second year of a visual communications degree at the Geneva School of Art and Design (HEAD – Genève) . The design has already been incorporated into the Paléo website and will be seen in many forms next year on T-shirts, on bags, on screens on the programme and in merchandising. Inspired by the lights of Paléo The students explain where the inspiration for their design came from “The idea of representing the Festival’s lighting in graphic form came to us quite spontaneously. By plunging into memories of our own experiences of the Festival, we realised that we had both been struck by the colours, the forms and the contrasts that emanated from the Festival’s stages, both by day and by night. We wanted to illustrate what for us represented the soul of Paléo: the concerts, the artists and the public. The lighting, spots, beams and projectors reflecting off the audience and playing on the artists inspired this visual universe, made of geometrical forms and flashy colours.” The 42nd edition of Paléo Festival Nyon will take place from 18th to 23rd July 2017 .The line-up will be revealed on Tuesday 28th March and tickets will go on sale at midday on Wednesday 5th April 2017.

A Welcome with Welsh cakes! Living in Nyon will be in the public area of Nyon tourist office from 15:00 -17:00 on Thursday 1st December for readers of this site to come and say "Hello" and ask the editor any questions they may have about living in the Nyon region. It's also a good opportunity to chat to the tourist team about current promotions and events etc. The tourist office is situated at Avenue Viollier 8 which is very near to the Place Perdtemps car park in the centre of town. There will a small apéro offered along with delicious Welsh cakes from local business Te Bach !

Music, Markets, Pantomime in English, A Christmas Carol and Snowden at the Cinema - Events coming up Music - Classical, Folk, Jazz, Rock, Metal The Temple in Nyon has been closed for over two years for restoration and renovation and this weekend, the 25th -27th November 2016 it will re-open in style with lots of activities planned to celebrate the occasion. On Friday at 20:45, 1,000 candles will light the Temple and the sound of Vivaldi will drift through the restored building, there will also be folk music with British singer Michael Chapman and jazz played by the Colin Vallon Trio on the Saturday night, organ music on the Sunday, guided tours and much more, For full details click here  There will be more classical music with a recital at the Conservatoire de l'Ouest Vaudois as part of the Sunday afternoon classical concerts at 17:00. Details here On Friday 25th November at 21:30 there will be music from Israeli Band "The Angelcy" at the Usine à Gaz. Tickets here On Saturday 26th there will be rock and metal music as part of the Nyon's on Fire festival. Details in poster below At the Parenthèse, Swiss band Al Pride will play on Saturday 26th November at 22:00 Details here   See video below Markets  Christmas Market in St-Cergue There will be a Christmas market in St-Cergue at the centre du Vallon on Saturday the 26th from 11:30 - 18:00 and Sunday the 27th from 10:00 -17:00. See poster below Art at the Château of Aubonne  There will be a bazaar at the château of Aubonne on Saturday 26th November from 10.00 - 20:00 and Sunday 27th from 10:00 -19:00. Art, ceramics, sculptures and more. See website here Flea Market in Nyon  It's the Monthly flea market by the lake side in Nyon on Sunday from 08.00 - 18:30 English Pantomime  There will be a traditional English pantomime (oh yes there will!) from the 2nd to 4th December at the Théatre du Léman in Geneva.   Details and tickets here Also, on December 1st there will be a performance in English of a Christmas Carol at 14:00 and 20:00. Tickets and more details here Cinema  The film Snowden is showing in English at Nyon cinema on Thursday 24th, Friday 26th Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th at  18:15

The Château of Prangins  has just officially opened two new exhibitions to the public: Best Swiss Press photographs 2016 and World Press Photo 2016.  This year as in previous years, there is a fascinating and interesting selection of photos, from the photo of a man holding up a bed sheet in front of the rear entrance to a hotel in Zurich (in an attempt to hide someone from the public gaze), to the photographic reportage on the inhabitants of a new town built close to the contaminated zone of Chernobyl. This latter photo won first prize in the Swiss Press Photo 16 for Geneva based photographer Niels Ackermann. For the World Press Photo 2016 almost 6,000 photographers sent in their work from over 128 countries and the jury selected the overall winning image "Hope for a new life" by Australian photographer Warren Richardson. Taken at night on 28 August 2015, this picture shows a refugee passing a child through a barbed wire fence between Serbia and Hungary. Sanne Schim van der Loeff, the project manager of the current touring exhibition explained that each year there is often a common theme that emerges when photographers send through their work, unsurprisingly refugee issues was the main topic that materialised in the press photos of the recent year. Amongst the other categories there are some stunning photos, check out the photo of the turquoise panther chameleon entered under the "Nature" category, this was taken by Christian Ziegler of Germany for National Geographic or the extraordinary night image of an erupting volcano in Mexico by Sergio Tapiro. Important note: the World Press photo exhibition will only be displayed in Prangins until the 11th December 2016, the Swiss Press photo exhibition will stay at the château until the 26th February 2017. Full details here

The Canton of Vaud has recently printed "Welcome to the Canton of Vaud " in 13 languages: French, German, English, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Serbo-Croat, Somali, Tamil, Tigrinya, Turkish and Albanian. This useful information booklet contains a map which divides the canton into zones (Nyon and Morges are in zone 2) this is done to help find the right info for each area. There is information on Swiss schooling, obtaining a residence permit, learning French, getting married in Switzerland, how to find accommodation and much more. See table of contents in illustration at the end of the post. Each brochure in each of the 13 languages is downloadable or can be read online. Just click the link here

Did you know that there is a webcam situated near the lake in Nyon enabling you to watch the sun rise (if it's a clear day!) and to see a great bird's eye view of the old town from your computer? These two screen shots were taken around 08:40 on the 16th November from the Nyon webcam. This webcam was put in place thanks to the support of l'Office de Tourisme Vaudois , La Ville de Nyon and  Régionyon . Morges also has a webcam situated near the harbour, this screen shot below was taken just a few minutes after the Nyon image. Much further afield, here is a shot from the webcam at the Top of Europe webcam at the Jungfraujoch Many other towns, ski resorts and villages have webcams, check to see if there is one in your area!

Balloons around the town for Museomix. What's it all about? There are pink, blue and yellow balloons hung around Nyon for a special three day event (from 11-13 November) called Museomi x. The slogan behind this event is "People make Museums" . Museomix began in France in 2011 and now takes place on the same week-end each year in 5 countries: France, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland and Mexico. The idea behind it is that volunteers from each country with various skills such as graphic design, photography, film etc form teams of six people on the Friday of the Museomix weekend and then over the next three days they come up with a new angle of promoting a collection in the museum to bring that collection "alive".  This collection may be in the archives, it may already be on display but it is felt it needs revitalising. On Sunday afternoon each team will present a prototype idea for each collection to the public which can be viewed from 16:00 onwards. On Friday afternoon the Nyon teams were very busy brainstorming (see photos below) it will be interesting to see the final results! All three Nyon museums are taking part in this event: the Château , the Roman Museum and the Léman Museum. One of the challenges for a team in the château is to come up with a new way of presenting the porcelain collection under the theme "A Vos Assiettes!" Nyon once had a thriving porcelain industry in the town and you can learn more about its history from the guides (many of the guides speak English). They will also be giving free tours of each museum departing from the château every 15 minutes (on Saturday from 14:00 -17:00 and on Sunday from 14:00 -18.00) Photo below - the prestigious Nyon porcelain collection in the château. Did you know that porcelain was once more expensive than silver? Photos below - the various teams brainstorming ideas as part of Museomix CH

"Relative Values" , a play by Noel Coward will be performed in English by The Geneva English Drama Society ( GEDS ) from 15th November to 19th November at the Théâtre de Terre-Sainte in Coppet. The play has been described "a superb comedy of manners, smart and very funny". Synopsis and ticket details below. Description : A satire of snobbery in all its guises, it deals with the clash of cultures between Hollywood stars and the English aristocracy Set in a stately home in 1950’s Kent, where a polished aristocratic matriarch, the Countess of Marshwood, plots to undermine the upcoming marriage of her ne’er-do-well son to a phony American actress, who unbeknownst to anyone, is in fact the English sister of Lady Marshwood’s longtime faithful housekeeper. John Lahr the prominent theatre critic summarizes it as "A satire of snobbery in all its guises, it deals with the clash of cultures between Hollywood stars and the English aristocracy, and with "the ancient and inaccurate assumption that, as we are equal in the eyes of God, we should be equal in the eyes of our fellow creatures. Tues 15th November  - Fri 18 Nov 20:00 Saturday 19th Nov 19:00 Directed by Charles Slovenski Prices: CHF 30 (seats numbered), students CHF 20 on presentation of student card (must be purchased at the theatre on the night of the show) For tickets click here