Last week I came across a little pamphlet published by the Canton of Vaud called "Vaud in figures". It has some interesting statistics on it. Here are a few - In 2007 the population of Vaud was 668,581. 71% of those were Swiss and 28.7 % were foreigners (and out of that 28%, 69% were from the European Union). The population of the commune of Nyon was 17,501 and 35.7 % of those were foreigners. There's a chart on the births and deaths in Vaud since 1920 (there were a lot of deaths around 1910 due to Spanish flu) The graph called "Construction and Housing" shows that in the late 80's early 90s there was a lot of building of accommodation of "1-2 pieces" but in 2002 -2004 there was a surge of "4 piece" construction. The production of wine is even in there under the "usage of agricultural land". The Chasselas grape is produced considerably more than Pinot Noir or Gamay. Other info on this small pamphlet includes statistics on public health, public finance, and political party representation in Vaud's grand council. There's even the depth of Lac Leman (it's 310 metres at its deepest). This info came in a small pamphlet but its also available on line at Service Cantonal de Recherche at D'information Statistiques Check it out to see the population of your village, or how many children go onto further education after compulsory schooling has ended or even the average air temperature across the region, this includes days with sun, rain and ice!

The snow settled in Nyon on the last day of the 2008. The town was full of folk buying champagne and trudging though the snow to get last minute celebratory supplies. The DVD/video rental shop had a long queue of those planning to stay in and watch movies over the next few days and La Cote newspaper's end of year edition, featured the highs and lows of 2008. In the afternoon on the 31st there was a beautiful light across the lake viewed from the chateau. Living in Nyon will be back on the 12th January with more info, news and photos, although if the weather is good I might be tempted to go and take photos of the brave souls who will be swimming in the lake on Sunday 4th January at 12:00 (near the trois jetées) So keep checking in! Happy New Year to you all.

Competition launched by tourist office with prizes The warm weather is here and it's great to be able to sit outside on a terrace at a café or restaurant and soak up the sun. We all have our favourite place to do this, but which is yours? The tourist office in Nyon have just launched a competition for us all to vote for the "plus belle terrasse" (the most beautiful terrace) in Nyon. The votes will then go into a raffle to win gift vouchers ranging from 250 to 1,000 CHF to spend locally, and also for a three month subscription to La Côte newspaper. There will be prizes given to the two best terraces as voted by the general public and a jury. You can either vote online or cut out the coupon in today's La Côte and post it to the tourist office. Spring Market this Saturday This Saturday it's the Saturday Spring market in Nyon with stalls, music, drummers, in various areas of the town, stands with artisanal goods, bouncy castle etc and the market is scheduled to be there until 18:00! Parking in Place Perdstemps is free for the first hour. Events coming up next week Drinks evening for Living in Nyon readers Don't forget that on Thursday 4th June, there will be a drinks evening for readers of this site and also for readers of the Friday Living in Nyon column in La Côte newspaper. It's a great opportunity for Anglophones, newcomers to Nyon and area, to get together over a glass of wine and meet each other. If you would like to come it would really help if you could register by sending an email to cnp@bluewin.ch Next weekend Friday 5th June Dagobert will be playing mediaeval and celtic music on a variety of intruments. See 1306 Club site. The club is set in the oldest house in Nyon dating back to, you guessed it... 1306! Classical Music at the Conservatoire On Sunday 7th June at 17:00 there will be a classical concert at 17: 00 at the Conservatoire of Nyon. This building is in a lovely setting near the lakeside. A perfect opportunity to have a leisurely Sunday walk by the lakeside and then go to listen to classical music. Performing Schumann,Grieg and Sibelius will be "Duo Pia'cello" with Marie Hélène Piotet on Piano and Francois Grin on Vioncello in the Villa Thomas. Reservations 022 -994 2360 Monday to Friday 14:00-16:00 or email info.nyon@cov-vd.ch or see site Other events The Geneva English Drama Society production of "The Real Thing" by Tom Stoppard is on from 2 - 6 June. A witty and clever play about love and passion. When first produced in London and New York, "The Real Thing" won numerous awards including the Tony Award for Best Play. Tickets book here . Other events going on in the area including Caribana, the production of Shakespeares' Cymbeline at the Chateau of Prangins and the talk by Paddy Ashdown, see previous post .

Back in 2008 Living in Nyon met members of Prangins International and reported about networking and living in Prangins and wrote about it here.  At the beginning of October this year, we went back to the pretty village near Nyon to meet club members at  Prangins International's monthly coffee morning, and discovered that among other new activities the club now has an updated website.  This site has a dedicated area for club activities under the "Calendar" section, there is a list on the site of what the monthly book reading group is reading right now, and there is a section called "Stories from Prangins", written by club members. These stories range from taking a tour of Prangins own chocolate Rapp factory, to an account of wine tasting in the area. There is also an online club notice board on the site.   Prangins International  meets on the first Thursday of every month in the Café du Chateau at 10:00 a.m. They also have a Christmas drinks scheduled for December. There are over 20 different nationalities represented in the group - they are truly international! You can find out more by checking out their site here. Rasing Multilingual Children workshop - spaces left on November 2nd in Geneva. Know it All Passport has informed Living in Nyon that there are some spaces left for the  afternoon workshop entitled "Raising Multilingual Children - Foreign language Acquisition and Children" to be given by Tracey Tokuhuma Espinosa in Geneva on Wednesday November 2nd.   For full details of  this workshop and how to register click here  Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.is a world-renowned specialist in education and neuroscience. She is half Japanese-American, half Irish-Native American and is married to an Ecuadorian. Her 3 children aged 18, 16 and 14 speak fluent English, Spanish and German and some French.

Tomorrow it's Caribateens over at the Caribana grounds. This day is dedicated to teenagers, with music and activities laid on read all about them, ticket prices, etc here  Also on the grounds tomorrow, Patrick Müller and Pascal Zuberbühler, two former greats of  Swiss football, will be putting in an appearance. It's a unique opportunity to rub shoulders with great champions! On 9 June, the day after the Switzerland v Cyprus World Cup Qualifier, Patrick Müller and Pascal  Zuberbühler ("Zubi"), two major stars of Swiss football, will be at the Caribana Festival. This will be a unique opportunity for the public to meet them and to take part in training exercises prepared specially for the occasion by Patrick Müller, one of the most gifted Swiss footballers of his generation. The workshops will be open to budding footballers of all levels. "Zubi", the former Swiss national  goalkeeper and six-time Swiss champion with Grasshopper Club and FC Basel 1983, will be putting his gloves back on for the penalty shoot-out exercises. The girls of top Swiss women's league side FC Yverdon Féminin will also be at the festival, giving valuable tips on ball control and juggling. Patrick Müller was a classy defender with great finesse who won 81 caps for Switzerland. He  currently works in UEFA's commercial operations unit and has the pleasure of training the  organisation's women's team. He is a big supporter of the UEFA European Women's Under-17  Championship, which takes place on 25 and 28 June at Stade de Colovray in Nyon.  More information on the UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship is available on UEFA's website .

"Still Alice", the film in which Julianne Moore won the 2015 Oscar for "Actress in a Leading Role", will be shown at Nyon cinema on Monday 9th March at 20:30 . This is an Avant Premiere Monday movie in English. As Alice Howland, Julianne Moore plays a college professor who learns that she is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease. The second film which won an Oscar for "Best Picture 2015" is "Birdman" starring Michael Keaton and will be shown at Nyon cinema tonight, Wednesday 4th March at 20:30 and also on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and next Tuesday. The film is a satire of showbusiness and fame.    For full listings at Nyon cinema - see here

A reminder to music lovers that Caribana starts next Wednesday with Deep Purple scheduled to play on the first night. Saturday night is already sold out but there are tickets still available for other nights. See the site for full details. Also in a couple of weeks at 17:00 on the 20 June there will be a classical music concert in Nyon performed by Theodor Küng on Violin and Matt Bilyard on Piano at the Salle de la Colombiere in Nyon. Details - see poster below.

Although the Caribana festival finished last week, there is more music on the way as the first part of La Fete de la Musique will take part in Nyon on Saturday 15th June and on Sunday 16th in Prangins (part 2 will be next weekend). There's a full programme of music on the agenda, bands and solo artists will be play in different venues around Nyon in the Place du Chateau, Place St Martin, Place de Savoie, Jardin du Conservatoire, Usine a Gaz, Rive Est and in the Temple. There will be music ranging from jazz to blues, rock , classical music, African music, funk and more. Something for everyone. Click here for the full programme and timings.  There's a fantastic weather forecast for this week-end which is good news for those attending and for those playing in the festival! Great photo opportunities at the Bol d'Or The good weather is also good news for sailors who will be taking part in the 75th Bol d'Or. This famous sailing competition sets off at 10:00 from Geneva. Depending on the winds you can often see the boats sailing past Nyon around lunchtime on their way to Le Bouveret at the other end of the lake, it's an impressive sight! There is a good overview here of the race, the trajectory the boats take on the water, and links to other information about the race itself. If you are really keen to capture more of the atmosphere of the race itself, it's worth getting up very early and heading off to Geneva to be there at the start of it all (see photo below). There are excellent views to be had of the early part of the race from the port of Corsier on the French side of the lake. This Living in Nyon photo in the header above was taken a few years ago from Corsier (and was used on the Bol d' Or website).

Living in Nyon is delighted to publish this article written by Rachel Frei Bandieri. Rachel is a performance coach and sports trainer and and earlier this year she interviewed local resident and Swiss Olympic athlete Lea Sprunger. Lea lives in the pretty village of Gingins above Nyon and back  in 2012 she competed in the Summer Olympics in London in the women's 200 metres event and the 4 X 100 metres relay. Lea is also in the process of organising a new 21 k semi-marathon race on Sunday 14th September 2014. This race will start in Allaman and will partly follow the la Côte lake shore. This is an exciting new race for runners with an aim of 2,500 participants for the first edition. Read on to discover what it was like to perform in the London Olympics, how Lea stays focussed at such a big event, more details of the new la Côte semi-marathon and how you can volunteer (even if you are not a runner) and to find out a bit about the author of this article. Photo above -Lea Sprunger - courtesy of the athlete Lea Sprunger  - On the Right Track by Rachel Frei Bandieri 2014 promises to be an exciting year for the now famous track athlete and Gingins resident Lea Sprunger: with her participation in the European Championships in Zurich in August and the organisation of a brand new semi-marathon in September. Lea Sprunger, soon to turn 24, is on all fronts. After competing in the 2012 Olympics in London in the women’s 200 metres event and the 4x100m relay, she is now training for her 2014 objective: the European Championships that take place this year in Switzerland. And after her amazing 1 st rank in the Swiss Championship, she definitely is on the right track! One can feel her excitement about the event just mentioning it! When I met her, she had just returned from a three-week training course in South Africa and she looked really fresh and in fine form. “Training is now  quite different from what I was used to when I was still competing in heptathlon. In a way, it is a little “boring”. Hopefully, my coach understands that and he lets me vary, like putting the shot, from time to time” she explained. Those Summer 2012 Olympics  - "A Magic Experience!" Lea chose the 200m sprint over the heptathlon when she was in the selection for the Olympics. “I really wanted to be selected and I knew I had too many weak points in heptathlon to have a proper chance”. After the Olympic gold medal of the British athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill,  most readers probably know what heptathlon is made of…but just in case: Heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events, 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 metres, long jump, javelin throw and 800 metres. Unlike her elder sister Ellen, who is still competing in heptathlon, Lea is now concentrating on 200 metres and the 4x100m relay with the team made up of her sister Ellen, Maris Lavanchy and Mujinga Kambundji. When asked about the Olympics, she beams: “ ” She remembers when she went in the stadium for the first time to watch her sister, she nearly cried: “ ” Even if stadiums are impressive, she does not feel tooo much pressure when she is about to run. “ ”. Training in Nyon She also mentioned that having her sister around helps a lot; it is reassuring to know that a member of the family is there with her Lea who trained in Nyon for many years and is still a member of the COVA (Centre Ouest Vaudois Athlétissme), now mostly trains in Aigle and Macolin in winter and in Lausanne in summer. Things are not made easy for Swiss athletes as there is no place or centre entirely dedicated to athletics, like the INSEP in Paris/France; for instance, there are no recovery facilities where she trains, which means more time spent on the road than ideal. However Lea is not complaining. She is among the 10 athletes that are supported by the World Class Potentials program of the Swiss Athletics Federation, which means that all her expenses in relation to training are paid by the fund. It is more difficult she says when it comes to individual sponsorship, and most of her sponsors come from the athletics world. She also works 30% for an event company and this is where the link to “her” semi-marathon shows up: “ ”, she explains, “ .” This is how the Semi-Marathon de la Côte race was born. She admits not being an endurance runner herself but she truly admires people who run such events. “ . ” It was important to her that the arrival be in the Colovray stadium, where she trained for all these years. The departure will be in Allaman, at the Outlet centre, exactly 21.0975 km (13.1094 mi) away from Nyon. The route will mostly use the stunning “route du lac” with a special part in Rolle where it will follow the lake shore. So if you ever dreamt of running on the quays in Rolle, don’t miss out! Photo above  The Quayside in Rolle.  On the route of the new Semi-Marathon To competitors and personal best lovers: the race promises to be really fast  and taking place just five weeks before the Lausanne marathon, it makes it an ideal training race! The date is on Sunday 14 September 2014 , with departures from 10.30 am. There will also be a special running event for kids organised in Colovray with starting time around 09:00 Volunteers Needed A note to those interested: Lea and the organisation team are looking for some 120 volunteers to help during the event. So if you do not feel like running but would none the less like to be part of this joyful and festive event, do not hesitate and join the volunteers’ team! Lea also mentioned that sports clubs and associations who will volunteer will be paid for their contribution, a nice way to support local sports! Targeting some 2’500 runners for the 1 st edition, the Semi de La Côte wants to become a reference race by the next few years and aims at attracting 5’000 runners by 2017. Informations and registrations: On the Datasport website from April on, or on the Semi de la Côte website which will be launched in April. Link to follow. Good luck to Lea for this fantastic new event! The author Rachel Frei Bandieri

Here's a selection of local music events coming up in the next few days UK band "The Wharves" will be playing at the Parenthèse in Nyon on Friday 30th October at 22:00. See video below More info here  Last few days of the Street Light Orchestra (art/ music installation) in the Levratte area of Nyon - Music like you have never heard or seen before! Details on poster below. Classical Music at the Conservatoire on Sunday 1st November at 17:00 Plus, a "Soirée Bach" at the Théâtre de Marens on Friday 6th November at 20:30. This concert is a celebration of 40 years of the musical career of Anastase Demetriades, the current director of the Conservatoire. Reservations email - concert6novembre@gmail.com or visit Nyon tourist office for more details

Did you know that there is free music played every Sunday from the 1st June right through to the 7th September from 11:00 to 13:30 in the Place des Marronniers in Nyon? That's the area by the Roman columns in the old town. There's a buvette for food and drinks too. Last weekend a mixture of country and rock was being played, and a few local citizens decided to show off their line dancing skills in the dancing area next to the stage. Check out this years programme on the APMN site. And don't forget, this Saturday the 21 June is also "La Fete de La Musique in Nyon." Lot's of great stuff is scheduled and it's always good fun. You can see the full programme under the side bar under "Future Nyon" events here on this site.

Texas, la Traviata or a film about truth on the internet - Take your pick! "Dallas Buyers Club".   This Oscar winning film will be shown next week at both Nyon and Aubonne cinemas. In Aubonne it will be shown in English on Saturday 8th March at 17:30, Sunday at 20:30 and  Tuesday at 20:30.   See Aubonne cinema site here. Never been to the Aubonne cinema before? Read an article here about the cinema and its programme director and the cinema here in a Living in Nyon  article from July 2013. Also at the same cinema on Monday 10th March at 20:30, the documentary   "Forbidden Voices" will be shown . This film was shown at the Visions du Réel documentary film festival in 2012 and was r eviewed here on this site as a "must see" film .  The documentary follows three renowned female dissident bloggers from Cuba, Iran and China in their struggle to continue publishing the truth on the internet, despite state repression and persecution. Trailer above from "Forbidden Voices" Monday 10th March   Nyon Capitole cinema 20:30   "Dallas Buyers Club" as  part of the Monday Movie  season    Lead actor Matthew McConaughey won an Oscar last week for his role in the film as a rodeo-loving Texan who contracted AIDS and went on to help  gay patients and drug addicts desperate for treatment.  Jared Leto  also won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in this film. Also 10th March at 20:30 in same cinema (in 2nd screening room) in collaboration with *Visions du Réel, Nyon's upcoming documenta ry film festival, the film " Traviata et Nous" - "Becoming Traviata" in English/French. Documentary shot over two months in Spring 2011 about the making of a production of "La Traviata"   The film chronicles the rehearsals of the Verdi opera at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.  See trailer below.   *More details on the special anniversary edition of Visions du Réel coming up here on this site.   For more upcoming films at Nyon cinema see here