GstaadLife

Thirty-four professionals, three trucks, four cameras, 30 microphones, 10 loudspeakers, 20 spotlights, and 10 kilometers of cabling…and all of this so that Switzerland can experience Gstaad on prime time television. Monday night saw the live broadcast in the Gstaadplatz of bsuech in, a rather quirky (to the Anglo Saxon mind) travel show showcasing the customs and traditions of various places around Switzerland. This year’s season opener was in Gstaad, which gave the village the chance to portray itself in a different light from all the recent negative headlines about mislabeled cheese, tax exiles, etc. In the run-up to the event, organizers had been fretting about the weather, which has been absolutely diabolical over the past six weeks with rain every single day, bar three. Fortunately despite raining all day, the clouds parted for two hours to cast an evening sun onto the Promenade and Saanenlanders were out in force to put on a good show.

In each location they visit, producers pick a local person to help showcase the area they hail from, and for Gstaad that person was GstaadLife.com’s Andrea von Siebenthal (click video below to watch her introductory conversation with host Heinz Margot):

The rest of the program bounced back-and-forth from conversation between Margot and local personalities, to musical performances from country to yodeling, to video vignettes featuring everything from a mass-Scherenschnitt challenge for the people of Gstaad (which we successfully achieved), to a discussion with Marcel Bach about property in Gstaad. One of the more engaging segments was a piece by SF1’s Nick Hartmann, who had been filmed wandering around the village asking people what they do not like about Gstaad (watch video below and see The (few) things we don’t like about Gstaad):

Ok, maybe just one field. This year's prize for innovation in local advertising goes to...HSBC Guyerzeller. In case you didn't know, Gstaad is hosting a polo tournament this August. We're guessing with the way the weather's been this summer, if you're a farmer there's probably more money in turning your field into a giant billboard than waiting for the second haymaking cut (see A tourist's eyesore is a cow's feast).

Above: the giant in-field billboard for August's HSBC Guyerzeller Gold Cup Gstaad polo tournament, located on the main thoroughfare between Gstaad and Saanen (click photo to enlarge).

By the GstadLife Editorial Board

This Friday sees the first edition of this summer's GstaadLife print edition. For summer 2007, we are sporting an all-new look, with the changes designed to give GstaadLife a bolder and more consistent feel from issue to issue (click photo to enlarge). There will be greater emphasis on the visual imagery that makes our region so special, the newspaper (or is it a magazine?) has been color-coded for quick reference, and there will be more "in brief" coverage of stories that appear in the Anzeiger von Saanen.   We have also expanded our writing team this season. Returning from last summer are Tim Kilchenmann and Greg Zwygart, who will be responsible for adapting stories from the Anzeiger. Alison Chabloz joins the team as a writer and copy-editor, working with Diana Oehrli as part of GstaadLife's reporting team. We have also expanded our network of contributors, so you'll hear more from different voices in our community. But for all these developments, rest assured that the mission of GstaadLife remains the same: to bring you the latest news of life in and around Gstaad in English.

Back during the last week of Wimbledon, London’s Daily Telegraph reported that the cow presented to Roger Federer’s as a homecoming gift after his 2003 Wimbledon triumph had been slaughtered. This story was picked up by a few other websites (including this one), and has been the topic of much online debate over the past few days in the comments areas of such websites as TENNIS.com. These discussions have taken on a life of their own, with some concerned about animal cruelty and other seeking to concoct (admittedly quite funny) conspiracy theories like this one:

Tennis.com: posted by Snoo Foo  07/12/2007 @ 11:32 PM 
Dude. Dude, that is a freaking insane way to make sure the champs come back to defend at gstaad! If you don't come back we'll kill your pets! Man I had it in my head the Swiss were a... I dunno, less vengeful people. Has someone been watching Nanner's copy of Il Padrino? Or another movie? "Gstaad won't be ignored, Roger!"

However the story is actually an old one, reported back in July 2005 by Sonntags Blick among others. So to set the record straight, GstaadLife.com caught up with Juliette’s original owner, Ruedi Wehren, a prominent dairy farmer here in Gstaad.

Why brave the wind and rain of the glacier when you can experience the Alpine Coaster right here for yourself. Click the video below to start the ride. Click here for more information on the Alpine Coaster and all the other summer happenings on the glacier.

Here at GstaadLife.com we've a couple of questions from international residents asking about those giant hay bales that are left lying around in farmers' fields. To many they are a blight on the visual serenity our landscape, and they don't understand why farmers can't take into account the aesthetics of their actions. New GstaadLife correspondent, Valerie Walthert, explains the tough time farmers are having this year with their haymaking.

By Valerie Walthert

We've all noticed those giant marshmallows dotted across the Saanenland alpscape.  But there is more to these wrapped bales than meets the eye.  In times like these, when the weather is downright awful and it rains literally every day, it's impossible for farmers to make enough dried hay to feed their animals.  The ability to make these wrapped bales is a saving grace. To make quality hay it takes about three days of nice weather; that is sunshine, warmth and preferably a light breeze. And to prepare a good supply of hay for the winter each field needs to be cut two or three times during the summer.  Here in Saanenland and in other parts of Switerland the first cutting of hay is still standing. In a good year, early July should see farmers looking at their second cutting growing nicely in their fields. Instead many are still contemplating their first cut.

The latest fallout from the Gstaad cheese affair is the announcement that two regional buyers for Migros (Aare and Basel) are shifting some of their purchasing from the Molkerei in Gstaad to Schoenried. Speaking through Thomas Bornhauser, the spokeperson for the Migros Aare location that first caught whiff of that fact that normal Mountain Cheese was being mislabeled as more expensive AOC Alpine Cheese, Migros cites the need to win back consumer trust. Of course this is all quite political they have merely changed their purchasing from one Saanenland cooperative to another, and both Migros locations will still continue to buy other products from the Molkerei in Gstaad. But the move is still significant because it will represent a SFr 100,000 shortfall in Molkerei Gstaad revenue this year, and is indicative of the publicly stated Migros position that the Molkerei Gstaad intentionally mislabelled products for illicit financial gain. For a layman's guide as to why this whole cheese scandal is such a big deal, check out tomorrow's GstaadLife print edition which has a good wrap-up piece by Diana Oehrli on how it all came about.

Previously:

• Police raid Gstaad Molkerei locations
• Gstaad's archbishop of cheese abdicates
• Mountain cheese law protects local farmers

It was supposed to be our week of fun in the sun. But alas the rain has put paid to a few days of tootling around Saanenland mountain roads in an open-top Jeep. Costing less than the sales tax on the kind of vehicles we normally drive around here, this week in the GstaadLife garage we have something quite different for you. The all-new 4-door Jeep Wrangler Unlimited is perhaps not the most sophisticated 4WD to hit the streets. Neither is it the fastest, smoothest, toughest, or most capable. But despite the fact that it hasn't stopped raining since it arrived at our offices, it's nonetheless been a blast. Weighing in at around SFr 50,000 even with all the options, you might consider it in two situations: (1) a weekend run-around for the chalet, the kind of car that will make you appreciate the refinement of your Range Rover on a Monday morning (2) a second car to run the kids back and forth with a sure foot and a touch of fun.

Right around now many of our UK readers are preparing for their summer pilgramage to Gstaad. Many will come by car, using the trip as an opportunity to flex the muscles on those cars they can't ever drive properly on British roads for all the speed cameras. Most will come through France, either via Paris or down the eastern part of the country through Champagne and on to Besancon. May we suggest something different for your trip down this summer? Luxembourg. Yes it looks like a slight detour on the map, but since it's all motorway you won't lose any time compared to the twisting and turning around the French/Swiss border at Pontarlier. More importantly, it's a great little Franco-German bicultural haven (in fact it's the European Capital of Culture for 2007); quiet yet sophisticated, amazingly green, good boutique shopping, more banks than you ever thought necessary, and all in a compact historic city center (ie all the things you like about Gstaad). With more Michelin stars per head of population than anywhere else in the world you can even make a gourmet treat of it, and there are also a number of surprisingly good brasseries if you're not up to going posh after a day's driving (try Brasserie Guillaume on the Place Guillaume II, +352.26 20 20 20, open till late and serving the best carpaccio in the city).

It has long been said that there's more powder in St Moritz than in Gstaad. Well, now it's official. A new study, whose findings are published in the UN's 2007 World Drug Report, has analysed cocaine abuse around the world, placing four Swiss cities in the top 20 -- Zurich, Basel, Bern, and St Moritz. Tests on wastewater carried out by a German institute show that an estimated 22 lines of cocaine are consumed daily per 1,000 inhabitants over the age of 15 in St Moritz. The mountain resort, which ranks sixth behind global leader New York (134 lines), outstrips London, Madrid and Paris – plus the other three Swiss cities. Gstaad is nowhere to be found on the list. Swiss police officials in Graubunden have denied that the resort has a cocaine problem and claim the situation is no worse than in other places, pointing to the fact that last season they arrested three dealers and 40 users. Drop...ocean...