GstaadLife

Wondering around Gstaad this Easter Saturday, we bumped into a surprising number of chalet owners, most of them hanging out with Claudio at Scheufele's wine shop. Between them and the day-trippers, there was a surprising amount of life on the Promenade. Seems like with the good weather, some are choosing the mountains over the beach this Easter. Also might have something to do with the rather bizarre holiday schedule at the JFK School in Saanen, where classes for the spring term began on last Monday April 18.

In any event, when you do venture into town over the coming days, you'll find the parking lot across from the cinema closed for three weeks from Tuesday April 26 2011. The trash depository is being moved to the Carparkplatz Tschieneli, which is normally the bus parking lot next to the river when you turn into Gstaad on the Oberbort side. Oddly the note from the Gemeinde didn't mention alternative parking, so we'd recommend the same bus parking lot, the Litzi parking garage across the street, or for the exercise-challenged amongst you, just use the more expensive Bahnhof railway station parking.

The Gstaad tennis tournament has a new title sponsor. Crédit Agricole will take the place of Allianz and so the tournament is called Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad - at least for the next three years.

 
The winter season is now basically over - just the Glacier hangs on as even Saanenmöser had to close before its scheduled date. But already we have the sight of the first spring gondolas running up the mountains for the summer season. Eggli - yes Eggli! is open between April 21 and June 26, Thursday thru Sunday between 9h00 and 16h30. The restaurant will also be open so you can once again enjoy Oberson's cuisine in summer. Gstaad Mountain Rides is also planning to open Eggli in the autumn from October 13 to November 13. The other mountain which is opening for the summer season is the Rellerli (did they even have a winter season?). Between April 23 until May 25 they'll keep a light schedule from Saturday thru Wednesday between 9h00 and 16h30. From May 25 on, the gondola will run daily until October 12.

 
Fantastic kids program at earlybeck - last Wednesday April 6 kids were able to decorate an Easter bunny and make their own out of chocolate at the factory between Saanen and Rougemont. They only advertised this great idea with flyers in their shops but we hear there are still a few places left for the same thing in Le Grand Café in Château-d'Oex on Saturday April 16 2011. It is SFr 15 per participant, takes about an hour and a half, and is really a ton of fun. They even learn quite a bit. For reservations call 033 748 70 48. Kids should be 5 years-old but we saw younger ones doing it with the help of an adult. More pics after the jump.

This Easter, the Easter Bunny is bringing some musical eggs to Saanenland. On April 23 20h00 a Swiss folklore show is taking place at the Landhaus in Saanen. Oesch's die Dritten and the band Enzian from Appenzell perform. Tickets can be obtained at the Raiffeisenbank Saanenland in Gstaad. For the more classically-oriented amongst you, there are the Easter concerts in Saanen church on Friday April 22 at 17h00 and on Saturday April 23 at the same time. Joseph Haydn and Antonin Dvorák are being performed led by Roland Neuhaus and Michael Bach. Tickets can be obtained at the tourist offices Gstaad and Saanen.

 
As you may have noticed, Michel Wichman, the popular former director of the Grand Hotel Bellevue is not in Château d'Oex after all. Instead he has upped sticks for Zurich where he will be the new manager of the restaurant and conference center on the top floor of the Prime Tower in Zürich - called 'Clouds'. Sounds very chic and cool and with the two chefs Antonio Colaianni (16 Gault Millau points and 1 Michelin star) and David Martinez (16 Gault Millau Points) the cuisine promises to be, well, heavenly. The grand opening is planned for mid-November 2011 so let's hope that this time everything goes to plan. His wife and son remain at their home in Saanenland, so we can expect to see plenty of him around these parts into the future.

 
The commune of Saanen and the fire brigade recently took out a rather curious ad in our sister publication, the Anzeiger von Saanen. They are asking homeowners to take down their Christmas/winter decoration - they call it the 'Grünzeug' which literally translated means that green stuff - because it can cause fires and is not safe to have on your chalet after it is dry. Well, it doesn't look nice either so please take that green stuff down and turn your roof lights off... Yes mommy!

If you understand German this sounds quite interesting. Journalist Sarah Fasolin has made this movie - The Cheese Makers - as the final work of her studies in contemporary history and social anthropology. It is a movie about the foreign workers on the alps in Switzerland, filmed in the Bernese Oberland. Apparently 30 to 50 % of the workers on our alps are foreigners, so there's some eye-opening stuff in there. She won the first prize at the Science-et-Cité-Festival in Bern. Check out the trailer above. Kino Gstaad is showing the film on April 12 and 13 2011.