Ideas to brighten your summer
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Resources that have caught our attention:
Food
One of the best places around for regional products is the Halle Romande in Lausanne, with good quality products from cantons in French-speaking Switzerland. Closed Sunday and Monday but otherwise open from 08:00-19:00 (18:00 Saturday) – slightly shorter hours for the summer.
Oh yum! Smoothies from Swiss Milk, a collection of summer recipes, quick, easy and good for you, mmmmm. In French, but relatively easy to follow if your French is basic.
Music
New jazz buses: Montreux is getting easier and you can now plan to leave your car at home. This from the Montreux Jazz Festival’s transport page, new NelvéCie night buses heading for Geneva and Sion, with stops en route. “In addition to the night trains available on week-ends, HelvéCie bus company will be providing two new bus lines departing from Montreux Sunday through Thursday.
- Direction Sion (serving the train stations in Aigle, Monthey, Martigny, and Sion)
- Direction Geneva (serving the train stations in Lausanne, Morges, Nyon, and Geneva)
Service dates: 7-11 July and 14-18 July Schedules here
A reservation is required: please visit www.helvecie.ch up until 2pm the day before your evening in Montreux. A few last-minute seats may be sold on-site.
Local reading
Laura Spinney’s profile of Lausanne through interviews with its residents, Rue Centrale, came out first in French, for Christmas 2012, and the English version was recently published. Spinney is an accomplished journalist and writer for several UK and US publications, and the book brings the city to life. For Americans missing hometown Fourth of July celebrations, consider this: Spinney says “Studs Terkel’s Division Street: America was a major inspiration.”
Available from the publisher online and in bookstores. Spinney will be appearing in September at Le Livre sur les Quais in Morges.
Travel
If you have relatives coming to town or you’re fairly new to Switzerland, an iPhone travel app, Switzerland Traveler, provides a good run-down of some 200 basic tourist sites and resources, with offline maps. Sally O’Brien, an experienced travel writer from Morges, is the author of the app, one in a series of travel apps published by Sutromedia. Plans are to expand beyond the basics in future updates. Note: it’s free if you download it today, 3 July, and $2.99 after today.
The CGN boat company is offering a two for one deal: buy a ticket for a Lake Geneva boat ride and you’ll get a second ticket free on your next boat trip. Deadline for purchase: 31 July.