Lake Geneva Region News For Spring 2019

Visionary Gardens & Gastronomic Stars, Charlie Chaplin’s 130thBirthday and a Legendary Wine Festival

The Fête des Vignerons in 1999

The Fête des Vignerons (Winegrower’s Festival) July 18 to August 11, 2019 The Fête des Vignerons is an extraordinary theatrical spectacle that’s produced and performed once-a-generation by a cast of thousands in the Swiss lakeside city of Vevey. Recently named by UNESCO to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the festival features local actors and musicians. Organized by the Confrérie des Vignerons (the Brotherhood of Winegrowers), which has roots going back to the Middle Ages, it was first celebrated in 1797 and last held in 1999. There will be 20 open-air performances in a temporary lakeside arena built for 20,000 spectators. Beyond the show, the streets of Vevey will be taken over by live music, food stalls and open wine cellars featuring the revered local white, chasselas. Running from July 18 to August 11, 2019, this pageant was a prime reason that Vevey was singled out as “One of the 52 Places to Go in 2019” by The New York Times. Tickets for the 2019 performances are on sale and available at the website of the Lake Geneva Region while accommodation info can be found at the Montreux Riviera website. While the festival occurs only every 20 years or so, the wine culture that it celebrates can be experienced every day of the year, in vineyard walks and cellar tours and tastings. 

La grande Pimprenelle, a Lausanne Jardins exhibit to be located on Promenade Jean-Villard-Gilles

Lausanne Jardins June 15 to October 12, 2019 The 6th Lausanne Jardins festival will take place in the summer and fall of 2019. Running from June 15 to October 12, 2019, this is a citywide cultural event as much as a gardening exhibit. Lausanne Jardins, which started in 1997, combines inventive and artful landscaping with reflections on the concept of a city. This year’s exhibition is dedicated to the topic of open ground, so each exhibit looks at urban areas have never been paved over and have remained in contact with the earth below. The 20 featured projects, chosen in an international competition, will cover the city from west to east on a themed walk. Each will celebrate open ground as a cultural event, combining landscape architecture with urban planning. Exhibit gardens will be embedded in various urban spaces, from streets and squares to neglected plots, roofs and building facades. Underlying the exhibits are reflections on the challenge of reclaiming free space in city developments and notions of how gardens can be integrated into an urban environment. There will be free 24 hour access to all of the gardens from mid-June to mid-October.

Narcissi in Bloom in Montreux Riviera April to June, 2019 Wild narcissi bloom between April and June in the Lake Geneva Region, transforming the meadows above Montreux and Vevey into white, perfumed landscapes. The flowers appear as soon as the snow melts, and the white flowers of the narcissi (narcissus radiiflorus) are locally known as “May Snow.” On theMontreux Riviera website, there is information about designated paths for visitors, guided tours and a forecast for peak viewing. Tulip Festival in Morges March 31 to May 5, 2019 A true sign of spring is the Tulip Festival at Parc de l'Indépendance in Morges on the shores of Lake Geneva. This free display lasts six weeks and offers more than 120,000 tulips of 300 varieties that bloom in succession, one of the most beautiful spring events in Vaud.

Chef of the Year Marie Robert of Café Suisse in Bex. Credit Gault&Millau

The Stars of Swiss Gastronomy in Vaud The renowned French gastronomy guides Gault&Millau and Michelin award the best chefs for the quality and originality of their cuisine. In 2019, 101 Vaud restaurants with a total of 1423 points are listed in Gault&Millau while 14 restaurants with a total of 19 stars are in this year’s Guide Michelin. Among the highlights: Chef Marie Robert of Café Suisse in Bex was named “Chef of the year 2019ˮ by Gault&Millau and awarded two additional points (16/20). She was also awarded one star by Guide Michelin. Chef Cédric Bourassin, holder of the award Meilleur Ouvrier de France, also received a Michelin star for his restaurant Berceau des Sens. This is the training restaurant of the l’Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (Lausanne Hotel Management School).   At the restaurant Hôtel de Ville in Crissier near Lausanne, Chef Franck Giovannini is the fourth celebrity chef in a row to manage the restaurant’s excellent cuisine. For 2019, he received 19 Gault&Millau points and three Michelin stars. He continues in the footsteps of his predecessors Benoît Violier, Philippe Rochat, and Fredy Girardet. Stéphane and Stéphanie Décotterd took over the management of the Pont de Brent in 2011 and have dedicated themselves to serving 100% regional cuisine local products, with ingredients that are rarely found anywhere else in the region. For their efforts, they’ve earned 18 points in GaultMillau and two Michelin stars in 2019 at a restaurant that is also a member of Relais & Châteaux and Grandes Tables du Monde.

Chaplin's World

Charlie Chaplin’s 130th Birthday   A little more than two years after it opened, Chaplin’s World by Grévin won the award for the best museum in Europe 2018 by The European Museum Academy. To mark the great actor, director and composer’s 130th birthday, Chaplin’s World has organized a series of events. Chaplin Personal is a photo exhibition from February 20 to May 5 by photographer Yves Debraine of Chaplin family photographs, many of them never published before. In the fall of 2019, a new wax figure will be introduced in Chaplin’s World, an upright figure of Chaplin with his typical cane and costume. The Chaplin’s World Cinema will also be screening a documentary on Chaplin from 1966, when he was interviewed by LIFE magazine reporter Richard Meryman. The film by Peter Middleton and James Spinney highlights the life and work of the pioneer of the silver screen. Visit Chaplin’s World for more details.

A Tasting at Open Cellars overlooking Lake Geneva

Open Cellars June 8 & 9, 2019 Stretching from Bonvillars to Chablais, from La Côte to Vully, and including the Lavaux and Les Côtes de l’Orbe, Open Cellars offers six wine regions, six varied climates and more than 300 wine cellars that will welcome visitors. The Open Cellars Pass is CHF 30 ($30.25) and gives visitors access to two days of tastings in the cellars of the canton of Vaud, free use of public transportation and the opportunity to discover the vintages from the 2018 harvest at a preview. It’s a unique opportunity to explore this wine region that’s rich in tradition.  Lausanne à Table April to December 2019 Lausanne à Table  is a public celebration of traditional and cutting-edge gastronomy in this vibrant city overlooking Lake Geneva. The celebration is back for the eighth year, from April to December 2019, with fondue dinners, street food and gastronomic experiments. There will be hikes, brunches with sports activities, cooking workshops, tastings of regional products, and samplings of artisanal beers and wines.   MIAM Festival June 8-10, 2019 The MIAM Festival is a crowd-friendly culinary event in Lausanne that will take place for the third year and runs from June 8 to 10 at the Place de la Riponne in Lausanne. It will bring together the crème de la crème from the culinary field: restaurants, caterers, food trucks, craftspeople, producers and purveyors who have been carefully selected by the Lausanne à Table association.

The Lake Geneva Region (Canton of Vaud) is located in the French-speaking part of Western Switzerland, a timeless, picture-postcard destination of classic mountain beauty, refined cuisine and legendary hotels. Visitors come for wine tastings in the Lavaux vineyards, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They dine in celebrated Michelin-starred restaurants and local brasseries and visit lively farmers markets. Outdoor opportunities range from hiking and biking to sailing and swimming in Lake Geneva. Major ski resorts include Les Diablerets, Villars and Leysin. The region is famed for the Vallée de Joux, the center of Swiss watchmaking, and for such unforgettable museums as Chaplin’s World and The Olympic Museum. The Fête des Vignerons, an extraordinary spectacle that celebrates the region’s wine growing traditions, is performed once a generation by a cast of thousands in the city of Vevey and will run from July 18 to August 11, 2019. Visit the www.lake-geneva-region.ch for more information. @lakegenevaswiss