GstaadLife

How exactly does a California girl make it up to the Berner Oberland? Via Gstaadstrasse, of course! When I arrived in Zürich in 2003, a fresh-faced writer and opera singer with a hankering for adventure, I rented a room in an old home on Gstaadstrasse.  Who knew that a decade later I’d be coming up and slowing down in the village of Gstaad itself?

Last Thursday March 18 a fire broke out in the kitchen of the Bernerhof in Gstaad. Thanks to the quick reactions of staff and the fire brigade the flames were quickly doused and the danger averted. The main restaurant and its sun-drenched terrace is currently serving a light menu while the kitchen is brought back online, and it's business-as-usual in the Blun-Chi Chinese restaurant as well as the Basta Italian restaurant.

 
Unfortunately every winter we have to report about fires in chalets. This year's edition took place on January 1 2011 at the chalet of Gert-Rudolf Flick on the Oberbort. The chalet, which was being used by guests, was completely destroyed, and although damage runs into the millions, thankfully no-one was hurt. The investigation of the cause is ongoing. 

Last Thursday afternoon August 26 a single-engine airplane crashed while taking off from Saanen airfield. The plane came down next to the Saanenland dog training center near the Fernwärme installation, breaking up on impact with the large pile of wood and debris that has been piled up there from the Saanen-Rüblidorf floods. Three people died. The cause is under investigation.

It’s not been a good year or so for Chalberhöni: back in Christmas 2008 there was the total destruction of a chalet due to fire, and now the flash floods of July 10 have left the village completely cut off from the rest of Saanenland (see pictures below and for more click here). For the Restaurant Waldmatte in Chalberhöni the suffering is only just beginning, though. No damage was caused due to the flooding but now that the road up to Chalberhöni is completely impassable there is only a footpath to bring customers... and those are, well, scarce. So make the effort and take the Rübeldorf-Belmunt trail up from Saanen or come down from the Eggli and pay them a visit.

Just a few weeks ago the national team of the Ivory Coast trained for the FIFA 2010 World Cup on this field. At the beginning of July it was a pre-season warm-up game between FC Zurich and FC Basel. Now, as yet another end-result of the devastating flooding in Saanen, the field is completely destroyed and the FC Sarina is looking at damage of around SFr 0.5 million.

What a storm! Saturday afternoon July 11 around 16h a huge storm of seemingly apocalyptic proportions struck Saanenland causing serious flooding and damage throughout the region. By far the worst hit was Rüblidorf just above Saanen, where the Chalberhönibach (the normally small river coming down from Chalberhöni) unleashed a wave of destruction, bringing down from the high alps trees, containers, and even a car or two as it paid a visit to many of the homes around the school in Saanen. Anything with a cellar was left awash in a foot of mud, the road to Chalberhöni was washed away in some sections, and the recently completed football field in Saanen was very badly damaged. Thankfully nobody was injured but see the destruction for yourself by clicking here. 

Back on June 11-13, Dona Bertarelli, owner of Gstaad's under-construction Grand Hotel Park, won the 72nd edition of the Bol d’Or on Lake Geneva with her katamaran Ladycat. Congratulations!

 
Well, the rumors have been going around for a while but now they were confirmed. Didier Drogba, captain of the Ivory Coast and central talisman for Chelsea, the recently-crowned champions of the English Premier League, will be coming to Saanenland. The Ivory Coast team, managed by fomer England and Manchester City trainer Sven Goran Eriksson, has selected Saanenland as their pre-training base for this summer's World Cup in South Africa which starts on June 11. Footballing business will take place at FC Sarina's impressive new facilities in Saanen from May 24 through June 8. Drogba's and co's first game in South Africa will be on June 15 against Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal.

The above picture is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The federation of trade unions of canton Bern has launched an initiative for fair taxes for families. The center piece of their initiative: the abolition of the flat-rate tax, or Pauschalsteuer, which is paid by wealthy foreigners who reside in Switzerland. They are collecting signatures and hope for a vote in 2011.

Here in Saanenland this has caused an uproar, since it is here that most of the people who are eligible for this tax live. But it's not just the rich who are up in arms. Across the community in Saanenland, many are against the abolition of this rather unusual tax structure (at least when compared to other European countries). Simply put, it allows wealthy foreigners to pay a fixed rate of tax irrespective of often considerable income which is loosely based on the rental value of owned property (and the quality of your negotiation skills with the local authorities).

But despite seeming regressive and unfair, ordinary folks in Saanen are largely against the abolition of the tax as they fear an outflow of chalet owners and a halt in the inflow of those considering to move here. Indeed local businesses fear the loss of up to SFr 20 million from the local economy as well as the disappearance of 1,500 jobs. There was even a delegation from Saanenland in Bern the other day protesting to the powers that be not to endorse the abolition of the tax (photo album here).

It was also the topic of hot debate at a local town hall meeting in Saanen last week, where various ideas and compromises were discussed by community members, including the possibility of changing the formula for calculating the tax from today's level of five times the rental value of the owned property to 7 times. We'll keep you posted on this hottest of local topics. If your read German, check out some of the comments made by the people of Saanenland on our sister website Anzeiger von Saanen.