GstaadLife

The summer season is truly underway with the arrival of the GstaadLife print edition on local news stands. Writers this season include the now-familiar Diana Oehrli, Tim Kilchenmann, and Greg Zwygart, with Andrea von Siebenthal now focusing her full attention to our rapidly-expanding online sister publication AnzeigervonSaanen.ch. GstaadLife print edition is available from local shops and kiosks as well as via mail. Click here for subscription information.

A 30 year-old man will appear in court charged with drug dealing. The man who was already held in custody in Bern earlier this year is accused with possession of cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana. An intensive police investigation including house searches, surveillance and questioning concluded that the man has been operating in Saanenland for several years. The style of his brisk trade was such that profits from his illegal activities ran into tens of thousands of Swiss francs. Buyers of the narcotics include residents of Saanenland, although the man claims he bought the drugs from different people in German Switzerland.

According to a reader´s letter in our sister publication by Niki Rommel, we should stop drinking bottled water. Agreed - here in the mountains the tap water is actually excellent and as Mr Rommel points out, drinking it would save energy and money. Indeed, for every bottle of mineral water a quarter of a liter of oil has to be used to make it, transport it, cool it and then dispose of it. So think twice next time you’re in standing in the bottled water aisle at the grocery store, and instead fill your empty Evian bottles with our very own mountain water.

Recently, Saanen has been stealing all the limelight concerning intensive construction. In Gstaad too, there's also quite a bit of that going on. Here at GstaadLife.com, we thought we'd bring you a few glimpses of work going on in Gstaad. Don't forget to have your say: we'd be delighted to receive your comments!

Above: Gstaad station.

Swiss photographer Anja Tanner has received a SFr 10,000 prize from canton Bern in recognition of her project, The Otherworld. Originally from Lauenen, Tanner now lives in Bern where she is currently taking photos at the Euro 2008 football championships. During the summer months, the 27 year-old returns to her roots and works, notably, at the Menuhin festival, as well as for local architects. She spoke to our sister publication, Anzeiger von Saanen, about her project.

With an ever-expanding offer of leisure activities for Gstaad-Saaneland, it takes a certain amount of imagination and daring to propose new ideas. Now, the electric tandem is available for rent, and a variety of tours have been concocted to ensure a fun day out for two, where you and your tandem partner can enjoy the scenery without having to do much pedaling. Fitted with electrically powered amplifiers, the Flyer-Bike is growing in popularity, and will be on offer in Gstaad for the second consecutive summer season. Eight routes have been mapped-out, which can be tackled by even the most unfit of cyclists thanks to a small battery on the bike frame. Plenty of battery charging stops on the different routes ensure that you have enough power to get home. Click here for more information.

Above: The Flyer-Bike is a novel and fun way to discover the Gstaad-Saanenland region.

Foreigners in Saanenland. Chances are if you are reading this, you may well be one of them. And you are not alone, numbering one of several hundred foreigners who are domiciled in the Gemeinde Saanen and who make up 27% of the population. Our sister publication, the Anzeiger von Saanen, has been running a series about foreigners in Saanenland, interviewing people about the current hot topic of migration and integration. One particular interview in this series caught our eye, so we had translated for you.

Ninetta Fix has lived in Gstaad for 25 years, and has been registered locally for the past seven. When Ninetta Fix was 32 she and her husband Karolos Fix left their home in Greece. “We decided to move away because of the lack of law and order,” she says. “Citizens had occupied our breweries in Athens; they wanted to replace them with parks. The police ignored the court’s ruling, and refused to do anything about the occupation in fear of conflict with mayor of Athens. In the wake of these circumstances we decided to leave Greece in 1982 with our two children.”

Above: Ninetta Fix, who is often to be seen on the hiking trails with her six dogs, enjoying nature’s tranquility. Swiss air, she says, is as delicate as champagne.

By Diana Oehrli

As part of GstaadLife’s ongoing focus on property in the region, we sat down with real estate expert Louis Martin, who for the past 17 years has been director and owner of local real estate agency CF Immobilier Compagnie Foncière SA. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, CF Immobilier was founded by Bertrand Coigny and has been located in Chalet Victoria in Rougemont since 1994. Under Martin’s leadership, the company has grown from two to nine employees and has trained six apprentices. CF Immobilier’s experience in handling properties covers a wide area that stretches from Rossinière to Lauenen. Last year, the company opened an office in Gruyère.

GstaadLife: What has changed over the past ten years in the regional marketplace?
Louis Martin: During the past two to five years, there has been a scarcity of properties for sale. There is simply more demand than supply - a trend which began in 1996. 15 years ago when there was less demand and more availability, prices were lower. Today, more people appreciate our region and tend to come increasingly during the summer.

Above: with land limited and prices rising in Gstaad, could Rougemont be a neighborhood of the future
for property development?

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.

Picking up on a theme he began here and here, Taki continues his wistful commentary on the bygone days of Gstaad society with an entry on this own website. Here is a choice passage:

We lived a simple life back then, as funny as it may sound. We got up early to ski, met at the Eagle club for lunch, skied some more and then went to the Palace where we played cards. At night we either went to a small local restaurant or had a more formal dinner at the Palace. That was it. There were no nightclubs and no drugs. We were young and could hold our liquor and start early the next day. But that was then, and this is now. The one thing that has remained constant is the lack of people on the slopes. There are times even today that I ski a slope and see perhaps ten people at the most. This is unique anywhere in Europe.

You can read the full article here.

Photo credit: www.takimag.com. Taki Theodoracopulos, better known as Taki, is a journalist and writer, living in Gstaad, London, and New York. His column ‘High Life’ has appeared in The Spectator for the past 25 years, and he has also written for National Review, the London Sunday Times, Esquire, Vanity Fair, the New York Press, and Quest Magazine, among others. In 2002 Taki founded The American Conservative magazine with Pat Buchanan and Scott McConnell. He is also publisher of the British magazine Right Now! and has been writing for GstaadLife since its first season in 2003/4.