Dans quelques minutes, nous entamerons une nouvelle semaine ; dans quelques jours, un nouveau mois. « Tempus fugit » comme disaient les Romains. C’est inévitable ; peut-être que ce qui compte au final c’est d’avoir l’impression d’avoir bien utilisé son temps. J’ai l’impression que ce fut le cas aujourd’hui, dimanche 26 avril.
Je suis content d’avoir écrit ce billet car je pourrai ainsi demander à ma soeur de montrer les clips à mon neveu, histoire de lui offrir de « l’être » et non pas de « l’avoir », pour paraphraser Erich Fromm, pour son anniversaire en août (lui qui a un faible pour les chevaliers).
« Le nucléaire, c’est la galère », chanson militante d’Anne-Cécile Reimann
Oui, à plus de « 70 ans, Anne-Cécile Reimann manifeste toujours autant », pour reprendre cette belle expression d’un journaliste du « Minimag » de la RTS (4 mars 2014). Quelle noblesse d’âme et quelle verve !
Une photo « rafistolée » pour dénoncer une triste réalité, le rafistolage des centrales nucléaires en Europe ; Genève, devant le Monument National, 26 avril 2015
Un bien triste anniversaire que le 26 avril. C’était il y a presque 30 ans dans un pays actuellement en guerre (cela fait froid dans le dos d’imaginer ce qui pourrait se passer comme scénario catastrophe si les militaires venaient à faire n’importe quoi à Tchernobyl ou si, manque de bol, un autre accident venait à se produire, par exemple un obus perdu)…mais toujours cette obstination de la part de nos dirigeants de poursuivre dans cette voie. Pour ma part, je vois cela comme un véritable crime perpétré à l’encontre des générations futures.
Payot, Lausanne, 26 avril 2015
De retour dans la capitale du canton de Vaud, je décidai de rentrer à pied ; un crochet par la place Pépinet, histoire de contempler les devantures d’une librairie célèbre et de me rappeler de ne pas oublier d’assister aux commémorations d’un haut-lieu de la vie religieuse en Suisse et probablement aussi en Europe (vu que ce lieu abrite très certainement l’une des plus anciennes congrégations religieuses encore en activité dans cette partie du monde) pour ses 1’500 ans d’existence : l’abbaye de Saint-Maurice en Valais. Décidément, 2015 sera pour ce pays l’année de tous les anniversaires historiques.
Place de la Palud, Lausanne
Puis un petit détour par la vieille ville pour me rendre à la cathédrale Notre-Dame. Premièrement, pour y admirer la vue depuis le parvis.
Et ensuite des personnages bien pieux, d’autres moins.
Un peu plus loin, juste devant la Préfecture, une bien curieuse installation du Service de la ville qui gère l’eau afin de promouvoir la consommation d’eau du robinet.
Après cela un détour par le Signal de Sauvabelin et la partie basse du bois du même nom, histoire de me remémorer une partie du parcours que je suivais pour me rendre jusqu’à la Tour du temps où j’habitais en pleine ville. Je pus ainsi revivre de bien agréables souvenirs de coureur plus jeune, à la foulée bien plus fougueuse.
Puis une pente bien raide mais j’en vins à bout et je regagnai mon domicile l’esprit léger car ce fut effectivement une bien belle journée, bien remplie de surcroît.
Renaissance, not Middle Ages…this is because I do not have pictures showing a medieval event, so I had to make use of whatever soldiers in armour I had in my picture archive (Fête del‘Escalade, Geneva, 2011). [Please note that the words in dark red in the text below are hyperlinks.]
As I was doing some fact checking for a post I am writing on Switzerland’s largest museum on prehistory and archaeology (which I visited last week in Neuchâtel), I stumbled across some references to past editions of Swiss Celtic festivals which I had not heard about in due time. Held during weekends in August or September 2007, 2010 and 2012 in the region of the Three Lakes (Neuchâtel, Morat, Bienne), these events seem to have been as much about celebrating the revival of Celtic music in its present form as about recreating some aspects of Celtic life in Switzerland for the modern visitor:
This reminded me of a medieval festival at Estavayer-le-Lac I had missed almost two years ago:
During the process of checking the date of this medieval festival, held (as it should be) at a castle (that of Chenaux, Estavayer-le-Lac), to my surprise I found out that several similar events are organised either each year, every two years or even on a less frequent basis in Switzerland. So I thought it would be nice to share this list on the Internet so that anybody interested in such recreations of medieval history staged in Switzerland might have some kind of starting point from which to go further, especially since 2015 looks to be a vintage year for Swiss medieval festivals.
The first event on this year’s calendar is to be held at Avenches, the town which was the capital of the equivalent of Switzerland under the Romans. To mark its 2000th anniversary as a town/city, Avenches will be holding on 22 to 25 May 2015 probably the second largest gathering of reenacting associations in Switzerland this year and its medieval village is likely to stand out in this respect with no fewer than 250 participants in historical costumes — more information at http://www.aventicum2015.ch/ (in French).
On 20 and 21 June 2015, to celebrate St. John’s day (midsummer’s day) the Castle of Gruyères will be holding a ‘medieval’ fair presenting to the visitor some of the craftsmanship and forms of entertainment of the 16th century in what I consider to be one of Switzerland’s loveliest castles — more information on the web page of the tourism office of Gruyères dedicated to this event. Unofficial clip shot in 2007:
For its 10th edition (to be held on 10, 11 and 12 July 2015), the ‘médiévales’ of Saint-Ursanne in the canton of Jura has chosen the themes of ‘myths and fantasy’. The event, which is normally the largest of its kind in Switzerland (but this year it looks like it will have to vie for the second position with Aventicum MMXV because of Fêtes médiévales de Saillon), will have an Arthurian camp with some 50 participants and visitors will be able to listen to tales and stories from the Middle Ages. According to the web page of ‘lesmédiévales’, this three-day event will feature hundreds of participants, performers and actors as well as it will bring together dozens of craftsmen/craftswomen who will be displaying their skills — additional info on the FB page of ‘les médiévales’ of Saint-Ursanne. Clip by a local TV station (KBleu) with more clips available on the same famous web channel:
On 15 and 16 August 2015, the castle of Grandson (whose garrison was put to death by the forces of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, after they had surrendered on 28 February 1476) will hold its medieval weekend. In addition to providing food, craftsmanship and forms of entertainment typical of the Middle Ages in the castle’s courtyards, gardens and many halls, the festival offers visitors the opportunity to wear medieval costumes so as to be able to ‘soak up the atmosphere’. More info at http://www.chateau-grandson.ch/en/medieval_festival.html; some pictures of previous editions are available at http://www.amis-chateau-grandson.ch/albums-photos. Unofficial clip:
Fêtes Médiévales de Saillon, Switzerland’s oldest medieval festival (the first edition was held in 1987), takes place every four years at Saillon in the French-speaking part of the canton of Valais. Over five days, this festival offers various medieval workshops as well as all the other types of activities you would expect from such a festival: medieval falconry, knight tournaments, performances by jugglers, plays as well as music and dance performances. The highlight of this festival is probably the ‘grand cortège’ (street procession) of some 1,000 participants clad in full medieval attire and the 500 performers/artistes who will put up medieval performances on the closing Sunday. The festival attracts over 25,000 visitors, so be prepared to book your ticket(s) in advance. The programme for this year’s edition, which is to take place from 9 to 13 September 2015, is available here; the theme of Fêtes Médiévales de Saillon 2015 is the Orient, in keeping with 2015 being the year of light (UNESCO) and in recognition of the Orient’s contribution to the European Middle Ages. Official clip:
The medieval festival at the castle of Chenauxin the charming lakeside town of Estavayer-le-Lac, which has managed to preserve much of its medieval character, seems to be one of the latest joiners to the calendar of Swiss medieval festivals as the first edition was organised in 2013. The event will include demonstrations of medieval archery and fencing, combat reenactment, medieval storytelling, a mass in Latin, food tasting (including a medieval feast), medieval music and dances, etc. It will be held on the weekend of 26-27 September 2015. Photos and other information are available at http://www.estavayer1470.ch.
As part of the Christmas market held at Montreux, three ‘medieval magic’ weekends are organised in December at one of the most romantic castles in Switzerland, château de Chillon, with activities such as medieval music and dances, Christmas stories, workshops, etc. More info here.
Nous avons entamé la seconde moitié du mois d’avril, les jours sont bien plus longs qu’il y a seulement trois semaines et, surtout, la météo est vraiment meilleure. Voici donc venu le temps des balades. Ce n’est d’ailleurs pas pour rien que le premier dimanche à pied de la région genevoise a eu lieu hier. [« Les dimanches à pied 2015: 16 visites guidées urbaines pour le plaisir de marcher. »].
Pour les habitants-es de ce canton et des cantons voisins, il serait ainsi dommage de rester enfermé(es) chez soi durant les weekends de printemps, d’été ou même d’automne vu qu’il y a tant de magnifiques endroits à visiter dans la région lémanique. En plus, c’est bon pour la santé.
C’est pourquoi il ne faut pas hésiter à cliquer sur les liens présentés ici et à se réserver des dates de sorties en fonction des excursions proposées par les différentes associations.
Yesterday was my niece’s birthday, so I joined my parents in a town close to Geneva* and we paid a visit to my sister’s place. Unfortunately, the gifts that I had bought my niece the previous day at the archaeological museum of Neuchâtel were not really to her liking. As an ex-teacher of history, I had thought that the box of playcards to learn expressions in French derived from Greek mythology and the replica of a Celtic bracelet I had purchased at the gift shop of Laténium would make some nice presents with an educational slant. The problem as regards the mythological phrase playcards was that I had not been able to read the instructions beforehand as they were in the box and I was thus unable to convince my niece of the validity of the endeavour in the crucial first minutes after she had opened the box, even though she seems to be a little of the bookish type. Neither did the bracelet with a replica gemstone in a colour quite close to pink (which used to be her favourite colour) pass the test, really. This is because her favourite colours are now pale green and ‘apple’ green.
Somehow I cannot but help associate these colours with the doodle I had seen two days earlier on a famous search engine to mark the ‘start of the asparagus season 2015’.
Field of aspargus, Sugiez (Fribourg), 16 April 2015
As an aside, I saw a field with some asparagus on Thursday.
Wheat grass and lentils, grown in our kitchen – 15 April 2015
I also associate my niece’s new favourite colours with some of the new sorts of micro-greens my wife started to grow only three weeks ago, i.e. after I had retrieved a book on this subject from the ‘food bookshelf’ of my personal library and asked her whether she would be interested in seeing how difficult it would be to grow these other types. My wife is an aficionada of edible plants, flowers, greens etc, so she always seems to be interested in such ‘experiments’ and so far she has been quite successful at it.
Store selling health-organic food, Vevey, 12 April 2015
So I am wondering whether or not to buy a germination set for my niece so that she can grow some beautiful greens and thus find out that it can be fun to grow one’s own shoots or vegetables.
Otherwise I guess I shall have to think about a feminine version of a costume of the green man. 😉
By the way, any suggestions for other green gifts would be welcome…
POSTSCRIPT (19 April)
Blended with some orange juice, the lentil shoots were turned into a delicious ‘smoothie’. We still have to find out whether or not it can be described as a genuine ‘green power shot’. 😉
*As background reading to this article (i.e. in connection with Google’s recent asparagus doodle) and serendipity having played a role in this, I came across an article on the hacking of people’s personal computers: surprise, surprise, pc hacking is made easier through the sharing of information (such as personal photos, home email addresses and any other such information that will allow hackers to build up a profile of who we are) over the Internet. This is why I am not going to share any pictures of my niece or of my sister’s place (especially since there was an attempted break-into their place a couple of days ago – burglaries in French-speaking Switzerland are unfortunately extremely common nowadays, a significant number of which are committed by non-locals if I dare write so).
Last week, my wife managed to persuade me to leave the computer for an afternoon to visit an area supposed to display ‘carpets’ of daffodils somewhere in between Lausanne and Yverdon. As I had some work to do, we opted for a visit during the weekend. Unfortunately, the weather let us down on Saturday, so we decided to postpone our little daffodil hunting trip to Monday (13 April). As I had seen ‘carpets’ of narcissi (the daffodil’s cousin as it were – the daffodil’s Latin name is narcissus pseudonarcissus) in the mountains for the past two summers, I was quite keen to see what visual effect hundreds, if not thousands, of these yellow flowers would create against the pale green hues of spring.
As my wife had convinced some friends who live in the former Celtic lands of the region called the Three Lakes (canton of Fribourg for them) to join us, we were even able to enjoy a lift. Unfortunately for me, this meant that our friends were expecting me to guide them to the place even though I had never been there and I was relying on a picture I had taken of the Internet article my wife had found about the flowers (which are called jonquilles in French). Our sense of disorientation was compounded by the fact that the railway station of Eclepens, described as our starting point in the article, lies roughly a kilometre away from the village that bears the same name.
As most roads in the region pass by the gared’Eclepens (roughly a hundred metres before the cement factory, just after the bend), we eventually got there. However, I did not read the text on the picture properly and we ended up paying a visit to a 17th century canal which had been dug up to link Yverdon to Morges (even though it was never completed to its intended full length – no stretch from Eclepens to Morges was ever dug up). Then, again, we did not read the directions properly (‘from the canal, a few minutes’ walk will bring you to a forest carpeted with daffodils’) and we turned our heels only a few hundred metres from the start of the daffodil ‘carpets’ (although this time I was not to blame), fearing that we had come too late (daffodils are said to bloom from mid-March until early April).
Perseverance being one of my personality traits, I was determined not to leave without having seen some daffodils, so I decided to leave behind both my wife and our friends and run (or walk) until I would see some. Roughly some 10 to 12 minutes later (and having followed a kind of half circle), I saw my first daffodils. I even shot a picture just so as to prove that I had not been the subject of some hallucination. 😉
Soon we were all standing or squatting in front of the small ‘carpet’ of daffodils taking pictures… Even though the daffodils were no longer in full bloom and there were not many of them, we were happy to have seen some. From there, we decided to proceed along the same path, hoping that we would see more.
This proved to be the case a little further. Unfortunately, the daffodils we saw were nearly all past their prime.
But it was really nice to be able to admire ‘carpets’ of these yellow beauties.
A little further, almost hidden by some beehives, I came across a path that went through literally ‘carpets’ of narcissi pseudonarcissi: if only we had come a couple of days earlier what a pleasure it would have been to the eye.
Better late than not at all, I suppose. Anyhow, I still managed to catch sight of some daffodils in relatively good shape. What an elegant flower, what a colourful ode to spring!
Should this post have been enough to entice you, dear reader, to go to Eclepens next year, please note that it is forbidden to pick daffodils.
On 30 May, the city of Montreux will be again (i.e. after close to half a century) paying its respect to this true star of the Swiss Riviera by organising a ‘Fête des narcisses’ (do not miss my forthcoming post, ‘Resurrecting an old flower fest on the Riviera’).
I acknowledge that I have ranted about the weather on a couple of occasions on this blog, in particular on what I believe to be the causes and effects of the erratic weather patterns we have been witnessing for some years now. However, it is as if my worst fears are being proven true, but at a much faster pace than I had initially feared.
A case in point is Switzerland’s coming mid-April heatwave:
Newspapers with a local slant fulfil an important social mission if they keep the locals informed of developments that affect or will affect their daily lives. On Friday evening, I stumbled across such an article on the website of a local newspaper, filed under the tag ‘Vevey’, after I had decided to check whether 24heures had published anything in connection with the post I had written on the centenary of the IOC’s presence in Lausanne. Entitled ‘Buddhist flags for the old plane tree’, the article presents a somewhat heart-breaking account of an old man’s wish to say goodbye to a tree which is likely to have been cut down by the time this post is published.
A very sunny day for an old plane tree’s last day of life, Vevey, place du Marché 12 April
This ancient plane tree, estimated to be some 200 years old, was put on a list of trees to be felled by the service in charge of the parks in Vevey after a tragic accident that took place last year near the railway station: an ailanthus (ironically, the etymology, ailanto, means ‘tree of heaven’) unexpectedly collapsed on a Friday evening in June and its branches hit a group of teenage girls who were passing by the railway station. Apparently, a mushroom had devoured a good deal of the inside of the trunk. Unfortunately, one girl was seriously injured. This is why the public authorities of Vevey decided to review the state of health of the 2,570 trees growing on the commune and have some felled.
Buddhist decoration for an old plane tree poised to be axed today; the tree was partly hollow (see rectangle) and as such could have been dangerous.
The oldest tree on Vevey‘s market square was one of the unfortunate trees to have been included in this list. Some people feel a special connection to trees and an old man, a local who had had a shop nearby and who had been enjoying the presence of the plane tree since 1960, felt so sad about this decision that he decided to honour the tree’s last few days by decorating it with some Tibetan prayer flags (source: ‘Buddhist flags for the old plane tree’).
Enjoying the presence of a tree ‘condemned’ to be felled the next day on a beautiful spring afternoon.
Although I am not a tree-hugger (wait, I have nothing against people who are), I feel a sense of awe and almost veneration for very old trees (see my entry on an ‘old tree errand’ in the region). So after having read about this poor tree’s forthcoming fate, I decided to go and see it – especially as I also wanted to see the ‘narcissus exhibition’ along the promenade at Montreux (more about this in a future entry).
Even if I was a little disappointed in that I had expected the tree to be bigger (more like its cousin at Cully) and there did not seem to be many people interested in it (probably because of the sandwich eatery just next to it which looked like it was attracting only a set of rather young and trendy patrons prepared to pay what I consider to be rip-off prices, i.e. CHF18 for a veggie sandwich and a beer!), I enjoyed sitting near the tree so that when a table closer to the tree became free, I quickly moved there.
A presence which is likely to be missed – by some at least.
While I was sitting enjoying the tree’s presence, an old lady dressed very elegantly appeared in between the tables where young adults were seated and moved almost shyly towards the old tree plane. Finally, somebody with whom I felt some kinship. I do not know whether it was because I was looking at her (I even tried to snap a shot of her touching the tree with my smartphone as discreetly as I could) or because she felt intimidated by the young people or even self-conscious, but she did not stay long: she slowly moved around the tree, touching it twice or three times, looked upwards at the top branches and disappeared as shyly as she had come. Dear lady, I hope that I did not make you feel self-conscious by looking at you; if so, all my apologies! On the moment, I took solace in the thought that you might still be able to come again to see the tree this morning.
It is so sad to think that this tree must be gone by now, but this is part of life: living creatures do not live forever…
Today marks the centenary of Lausanne’s love affair with international sport federations as it was a hundred years ago (on 10 April 1915, i.e. during World War One) that the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin signed an agreement in the city’s town hall that would relocate the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee from Paris to the shores of Lac Léman in the canton of Vaud.
As part of the commemorations, the city of Lausanne released yesterday morning a press communiqué referring to a study commissioned together with the canton of Vaud and the International Olympic Committee which examines the financial impact of the many international sport federations headquartered in Switzerland on the economy of the host country.
Entitled ‘The Economic Impact of International Sports Organisations in Switzerland 2008 – 2013’, the report is to my knowledge the third of its kind in only a couple of years and, as such, it may well have been commissioned to help fend off some of the criticism that is increasingly being levelled against international sport federations such as the International Olympic Committee and the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association, based in Zurich), amongst others.
Based on my reading of the executive summary and on some keyword searches in the full version of the document, the report seems (surprise, surprise?*) to limit itself to presenting a rather glowing analysis of the impact of such international sport organisations on the financial health of Lausanne, of the canton as well as of the country as a whole – for example, very little is said about the fact that the international sport federations (some of which have been described as ‘cash machines’) are exempt from paying taxes as they fall under the category of non-profit organisations under Swiss law.
The press release issued yesterday by the public authorities here (the communiqué bears the name of the ‘ecologist’ mayor of Lausanne and, as such, the report can be deemed to represent the official view of the city of Lausanne) is in the same vein. In fact, it goes even further as it claims that Lausanne owes its international reputation to its sport organisations!
[…] Lausanne’s Olympic status confers upon the city not only notoriety but also credibility, both of which are indisputably recognised as such at the international level. This opportunity for visibility, which again comes with positive economic benefits, could in no way be possible for a city and a region of such sizes without the presence of the international sport federations — first and foremost, that of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This is strengthened further by the support the public authorities of Lausanne and of the canton of Vaud continue to reaffirm officially for the presence and development on their soil of the international sport federations. The centenary of the IOC’s relocation to Lausanne, which is being commemorated this year, offers a unique opportunity to highlight both the economic importance of this presence and the public authorities’ commitment in favour of international sport in our country. [my translation of the original text in French]
Even though according to the report there are some 630 people employed here in Lausanne by the international sport federations and although according to the same source these organisations generate some two hundred and fifty million Swiss francs in revenues for the city (which is a huge amount given that there is a substantial number of taxpayers in Lausanne who pay very little in the form of tax contributions), I cannot help but feel that this totally uncritical stance towards the international sport federations on the part of Lausanne’s authorities runs counter to the city’s commitment to the Aalborg Charter (Agenda 21), to which Lausanne is a signatory.
For instance, one could question whether the presence of such federations has had a positive impact or not on the management of scarce land resources and the current construction boom here (urban sprawl), the fiscal appropriateness of the tax exemption granted to such organisations, the ideology that underpins such organisations (given that institutionalised sport – as opposed to the practice of physical activity for mere, non-competitive enjoyment or even for health purposes – seems to be deeply associated with values such as competition, the cult of performance, a ‘winner(s) take(s) all’ ethos, etc.) and so forth. However, a reassessment of the city of Lausanne’s commitment to the international sport federations and to international competitive sport in the light of such criteria is unlikely to happen in the near future and in fact I doubt that it will ever be given that sport has come to be equated first and foremost with big money.
Architectural project for the IOC’s new headquarters in Lausanne from 3xn
*Interestingly, it was produced by an organisation (Académie Internationale des Sciences et Techniques du Sport) that has some strong links with the International Olympic Committee: ‘The not-for-profit AISTS was established by the International Olympic Committee […]’, as is acknowledged on the homepage of its website.
Links to other posts relating to this subject on this blog
Yesterday on my way to the train station before I would board a train to Montreux and then to Vevey, I got off at La Riponne to take a few pictures in connection with this entry on the CIO’s centennial presence in Lausanne.
Lausanne’s town hall (hôtel de ville), where the agreement between the city’s mayor and the CIO was signed on 10 April 2015.
Various outdoor visuals commemorating the centenary at the Casino de Montbenon, the first location of the IOC – by looking at the pictures of the first members of the Olympic movement which are shown on these ‘posters’, one gets the feeling that the origins of the Olympic movement were strongly tied to a particular social class; as an aside, I spotted a ‘huge’ typo on the first visual (rectangle in red)…
The near nakedness of the sport enthusiasts who practised the ‘open air exercises’ that took place near the Casino de Montbenon close to a hundred years ago seem to offer a sharp contrast to the formal attire of the founding members of the IOC shown on the posters above, no? One seems to have almost forgotten that Olympism in its early days had to compete with other movements promoting physical exercise, notably the far more holistic German Lebensreform — see for instance this summary of a course on this subject taught a Cambridge University, ‘Modern German Cultures of Performance’, especially ‘German sport in the interwar years’.