GstaadLife

The Hotel Arc-en-Ciel in Gstaad is celebrating its 50th anniversary this Saturday October 22 2011 from 11:00 till 17:00. You can have a look behind the scenes, there will be music, a lucky wheel, pony riding, face painting, a bouncy castle, the famous electric cars, and a special pizza oven for the kids.

Jörg Perreten from Lauenen. Those of you present for the GstaadAlive! talent shows on the Promenade over the past couple of years will be familiar. For the rest of you, best just click to watch the video of his performance on the Germany's 'Das Supertalent' show yourself. In the show, which aired this past Friday evening on RTL, he told of his rough childhood, the divorce of his parents, how he was taken away from his Brazilian mother, put into the care of foster parents where he felt like a slave. He also described his escape into the punk scene, alcohol and drug abuse, violence, and his attempted suicide... and how he sees appearing on the show and his talent for music as a chance to get off the street and start anew. We can only wish him the very best for the next round which airs on Saturday September 24 2011 at 20:15 on RTL.

It is Country time again. Trace Adkins, Dailey and Vincent and Laura Bell Bundy (see video above) and Sister Morales are the big names this year. For the detailed program click here. Some tickets are still available, and there is a major side-program that is open to the public. 

Everybody talks about it - here is a movie about it - the planned cultural center known as Les Arts Gstaad. After the jump you can read a translated article about the first planning phase which appeared in our sister publication, the Anzeiger von Saanen.

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.

Looking for some action this coming weekend? Here are some possibilities: all weekend the Curling Swiss Championships are taking place at the Sportzentrum in Gstaad (see picture below); Friday February 25 2011 sees Snow Night Gstaad at 19h30 at the Gstaad skischool area (see video of last year's event above); on Saturday February 26 2011 we have the 25 heures freeride Dominique Perret on the Wispile from 11h00 to 17h00 (due to the snow conditions it's not actually 25 hours this year, but who's counting); and Sunday February 27 2011 we can offer up the wooden sledge race in Saanenmöser at 12h30 from the middle station of the Saanersloch gondola (see picture bottom).

We have to admit that we had not heard of them before, but this seems to be a big faux pas in Switzerland - the actors Isabelle von Siebenthal and Hans Schenker are national celebrities as a result of Swiss soap Lüthi und Blanc which ran on SF1 every week, 288 episodes in total. We found quite an amusing video in Swiss German (above) and post it with the hope that they will be as good hosts as they are actors.

Do not panic when you here the sirens on Wednesday, Ferbruary 2 2011. Along with all towns and Gemeinden across Switzerland, they are just doing the annual tests of the 'general alarm' and afterwards of the 'water alarm'. So be ready between 13h30 and 15h00 - it's going to be loud. Above the official TV trailer.

On Friday August 20 2010, the Saanen bypass was officially inaugurated. Since Monday August 30, it is no longer possible to drive through Saanen, making the drive from Gstaad to Rougemont about one or two minutes longer depending on traffic. As for the village, it already feels a tad too quiet -- those of you with kids who are Lightning McQueen fans will understand what we mean when we say the whole place feels a bit "Radiator Springs". But it's what the people wanted, and hopefully things will liven up when they get around to turning the main street into a proper Promenade.