WIN ENTRANCE TICKETS - READ BELOW
The inaugural event hosted by Lionel Gauthier, was held just outside the museum on 23 September 2021, facing the lake, with a sunset over the Mont Blanc as beautiful as can be. "It has taken the Musée du Léman nearly 2 and a half years to be able to host a vernissage. It is with much joy to see the museum full of life again."
He went on to say, "Tonight we are celebrating swans, these white birds, elegant and impressive, and we invite you to discover their history through our exhibit, but also through a book that we have published entitled, Le Lac du Cygne, Glénat Editions."
Alexandre Demetriadès, the cultural representative for the city of Nyon, talked about his early fear of these enormous white birds, beasts of some sort, that he always gave wide berth to during his younger years. Now he has a new respect for swans, and an admiration for their elegant and graceful nature.
Anne-Sophie Deville, scientific collaborator for the museum, spoke about how swans have adapted to living here, how they keep faithful mates, and how they use their long necks to reach to the bottom of the lakeshore to munch on algae.
Juliette Davenne, above, was thanked for all the work she has put into the three museums of Nyon. For this exhibit, she coordinated the content, including trips to Yvoire, Annecy, and even to Provence... she hung 580 origami swans, reconstructed a real swan's nest, made a mock wedding cake, abd even realized a short film.
When we found out that there was a new parkour sporting center opening in the Geneva area, we had to ask Jesse Peveril to tell us more about it. Parkours a training discipline where your aim is to get from one point to another in the fastest and most efficient way possible through of obstacle course of walls and ramps and ledges, without the use of extra equipment. Read on to find out about the terrific prize that Jesse is offering our readers.
Jesse admits that this has been a product of many many years of passion and commitment to a sport that he loves and practises for most of his life. Being able to build a dedicated gym to have people come in and experience and share the sport of parkour is a beautiful thing to him.
Parkour is for anyone who likes to jump, climb, move and have fun doing parkour, no minimum or maximum age! A version of parkours that can benefit the older generation through mobility workshops to help keep strength, balance and coordination is something you might never have thought existed!
Jesse, why did you start? What has been the inspiration?
I started parkour 16 years ago and spent a good amount of time as a professional athlete competing internationally; after stopping competitions it felt like the right next step in my career.
I also spent a lot of time visiting parkour gyms around the world, so a lot of the inspiration from our setup is based on those.
I am Swiss/Canadian, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My mom moved to Geneva with me and my little brother when I was 10, we both did public school for a couple months before my mom decided that she wasn't happy with the education given here so she home-schooled us for 3 years before we went back to public school, afterwards I tried a lot of different pathways such as ECG, apprentice chef, psychology but I would constantly skip school to go do parkour instead so none of those led to anything. In the end I've had quite a successful career in the sport so I guess it was the right thing to do! After about 10 years of competitions, appearances, events and workshops around the world I finally decided to settle down a bit more and that's when I got my Swiss citizenship and started the Parkour EXPO project.
After a start/stop year of theatrics due to the current pandemic, GEDS (aka Geneva English Drama Society) has come back swinging with a classic: Waiting for Godot. We chatted with John Ward, director of the play. Read down to enter the competition for a pair of tickets!
What has been the inspiration to put together Waiting for Godot?
Waiting for Godot was actually the first play I saw in a theatre apart from the odd musical or pantomime. I saw it in a theatre in Cork, Ireland, where I grew up. I had heard of Waiting for Godot before and of course, of Samuel Beckett, the author, though I didn’t know much about him either. I was really struck with how funny it was. Beckett had this reputation for being quite heavy, and indeed his novels and other works are not the easiest of reads but Waiting for Godot wasn’t like that.
It was a funny and touching play about two friends stuck in an impossible situation. It had a wit and charm about it that I wasn’t expecting. When I thought about proposing a play to direct for the Geneva English Drama Society, my first experience and great memories of Godot came back to me. Little did I know at the time that the world would be gripped by a pandemic and the themes of Waiting for Godot would become all the more relevant as the whole world waited to get through the upheaval of the pandemic!
A Tragicomedy in Two Acts
The play is described by the author as a Tragicomedy in two acts and it's basically about two men named Vladimir and Estragon who are waiting at the side of a road for someone named Godot. I don't think I’m giving anything away to say that Godot doesn’t arrive.
However, various other characters pass along the road. A rich landowner called Pozzo and his slave pass by and at the end of each act a boy arrives with a message from the mysterious Mr Godot. The play is essentially about these two characters waiting and how they converse and entertain themselves to stave off the boredom of their situation.
It's never quite clear who Godot is or what he had promised them. The play has been lauded as a profound statement on the human condition in that we are all waiting for something and often we aren’t quite sure what that is. This was the great trick that Beckett pulled off in this play. By stripping the story down to its bare essentials and even a fairly bare stage he produced from a simple story a commentary on the human condition that has made the play world famous.
Despite that, the play is essentially a comedy about two friends trying to cope with the absurd situation they have been cast into. It is also sharpy, energetic, and darkly funny!
We recently met up with a personality on the Geneva Tour circuit, Ariel Pierre Haemmerlé. He is quite well known in the area and has several books under his belt, as well as many years on various associations. One thing we noticed that you could talk about any subject and Ariel Pierre would be able to expand on it! He recently paired with VoiceMap and is offering 4 of our readers to try his tours for free.
Why did you start doing guided tours?
By coincidence: I’ve always been interested in the history of the place I live, so I already knew quite a lot. In 2001, I was working at the Geneva Cantonal Office of Heritage when a lady working at the Carouge City Administration informed me that she was preparing regular guided tours in Carouge and would I like to prepare a tour. I said yes and have never looked back. It turned out that I did this job rather well and it is a passion of mine to this day.
Later, she asked me to do guided tours for the city of Geneva where Geneva Tourism discovered me.
In 2008, there were exams organized by Geneva Tourism which I passed with very good results.
Currently, I give 200 tours a year on average. Only the Covid-19 pandemic brought it to a stand-still.
How did the APP idea come about?
The VoiceMap App is already established in over 250 cities around the world. The company was looking for someone to record Geneva-based tours via the Swiss Tourist Guide Association (of which I was vice-president for six years). I spoke to my colleagues at the Geneva Guide Association (of which I’m vice-president currently), but none of them was interested, but one of us had to do it before someone unqualified would. As the pandemic was fully installed at this point, and I had more time on my hands, I jumped at the chance to be the first to contribute.
I still do tours in person such as "Carouge en zigzag" and welcome locals and visitors to join me. This walking tour is part of the public tour program in Carouge, taking place every Saturday at 11h from June through October since 20 years. It can also be offered as private tour.
We were recently contacted by Moez Annabi about an event he is organizing entitled Firefly Festival. This first edition is taking place on the 17 and 18 September 2021 in Chambésy, Geneva.
We asked Moez a few questions to know more about this inclusif 2-day event made for people of all ages. He explained that his mission is to celebrate the city's diversity and to share this joyous occasion with everyone after the terrible year and a half we've all been through.
Why did you start? What has been the inspiration?
The festival was initiated by myself and 3 friends whilst we were on holiday in Egypt by the Red Sea. We were in the middle of a pandemic and the future appeared more and more uncertain. Despite our doubts, we felt inspired to do something positive for each other and for our community in Geneva.
Have you been working on this idea forever?
It came to us recently. We started working on the festival in April 2021.
What is the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome?
The pandemic was a new challenge, not only for us, but for the entire world. The festival industry is already a difficult business to succeed in and has now become even more challenging due to all the new restraints caused by the pandemic.
What are your plans for the future?
We already have our eye on next year's edition, and hopefully our association will be involved in other projects to come.
