GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A warning to all French motorists, but also tourists traveling through France starting 1 July: you must have a self-check alcohol test in your car. The new French regulation, designed to cut down on alcohol-related road accidents, calls for every car to carry a valid breathalyzer, meaning the expiry date must be […]
Archives for June 2012
Census data shows 739,000 speak English at work in Switzerland
But the most startling language statistic is that English at work was measured clearly for the first time and 16.5 percent of people say they use English regularly at work: 739,000 people out of a working population of 6.52 million.
Israeli media react to Swiss Occupied Territories food labels change
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – A large Swiss private humanitarian aid group ran full page ads in Zurich’s NZZ last week to support a decision by Migros to clearly identify the provenance of products that come from the Palestinian Occupied Territories. The group, Heks (Swiss Protestant Interchurch Aid group), known as Eper in French, is calling on […]
The supremely vegetable-like tomato
Just as I was about to go out and plant my tomatoes, before realizing I should wait for evening, a friend sent me a NY Times article about the genetics of tomatoes. Nine years of genetic research were published this week in Nature, the journal. I burst out laughing when I came to this bit: […]
Oenovideo wine film festival in Aigle pulling in crowds
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – France’s itinerant wine film and photo festival, Oenovideo, is a hit at this year’s venue, Aigle, in canton Vaud. I spent Thursday evening at the festival and was enchanted by the “L’Esprit du vin, le réveil des terroirs”, a 1h32 minute film on biodynamic winemakers, mainly in France. I was startled by […]