Last sunday was a nice sunny day. I wanted to walk a in the snow. Then I decided to go to Brenet Lake.
Just put your car near the Train Station of Le Pont. You have a path all around the lake. You can count 1 hour as it is 5 km. An easy and pleasant walk.
At the northern tip of Lac de Joux, a yellow sign indicates the tour of Lac Brenet. Departure from the Pont station for a 4 km loop (1 hour, no difference in altitude). The itinerary is punctuated by a dozen panels on the history of the glaciers and the region.
Ici Brenet Lake in winter
200 m northeast of Lac de Joux, Lac Brenet is a small jewel, with its 1.5 km length, 500 m wide. We go around in about an hour, ideal for a Sunday walk! Its small shaded beaches are also appreciated by swimmers.
Like its vast neighbor, Lac Brenet completely freezes in winter, it is forbidden to walk or skate on this lake on the contrary of Lac de Joux which allows both activities. Its ice has had various uses in the past, as shown by one of the 16th explanatory panels installed on its shores, tracing the human activities around Lac Brenet.
The famous natural ice of the Lac Brenet was in fact exploited by ice makers during sixty years. Since 1879, the horses’ chariots have transported the blocks of ice to Croy station, where the large ice cubes are loaded on trains destined for the large Swiss cities, but especially for Paris. Finally, the line of railway came into being between Le Pont and Vallorbe, in order to facilitate transportation.
In Switzerland it is forbidden to ask for money even when you are hungry. Beggars can be fined … and you will be fined.
A person who asks for money logically has no money. How to pay a fine when you have no money. By begging? This law should limit begging except that to pay the fine it encourages it, otherwise it is prison.
In 2011 Ms Lăcătuş, who was unable to find work, began asking for charity in Geneva. On 22 July 2011 she was ordered to pay an initial fine of CHF 100 (approximately EUR 93) under section 11A of the Geneva Criminal Law Act, which makes it an offence to beg in public places. A sum of CHF 16.75 (approximately EUR 15.50) was confiscated from her on that occasion after a body search by the police. Over the next two years Ms Lăcătuşwas issued with summary penalty orders requiring her to pay eight further fines of the same amount, and was twice taken into police custody for three hours.Each of the fines could be replaced by a one-day custodial sentence in the event of non-payment.
Ms Lăcătuş appealed against the penalty orders. In a judgment of 14 January 2014 the Police Court of the Canton of Geneva found her guilty of begging. The court ordered her to pay a fine of CHF 500, to be replaced by a five-day custodial sentence in the event of non-payment, and upheld the confiscation of CHF 16.75. An appeal lodged by the applicant with the Criminal Appeals and Review Division of the 2 Court of Justice of the Canton of Geneva was dismissed on 4 April 2014. Ms Lăcătuşappealed to the Federal Court against that decision, but her appeal was dismissed on 10 September 2014.
From 24 to 28 March 2015 Ms Lăcătuşwas detained in Champ-Dollon Remand Prison for failure to pay the fine.
Relying on Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence), theapplicant alleged that the prohibition on begging in public places constituted unacceptable interference with her private life as it had deprived her of her means of subsistence. Under Article 10 (freedom of expression), she maintained that the prohibition on begging had prevented her from conveying her plight by asking for charity. Relying on Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) read in conjunction with Article 8, the applicant alleged that she had been the victim of discrimination on account of her social and financial situation and her origins.
The Court observed that the applicant came from an extremely poor family, was illiterate, had no work and was not in receipt of social benefits. Begging constituted a means of survival for her. The Court considered that, being in a clearly vulnerable situation, the applicant had had the right, inherent in human dignity, to be able to convey her plight and attempt to meet her basic needs by begging.Regarding the nature and severity of the penalty, the Court observed that the applicant had been ordered to pay a fine of CHF 500, to be replaced by a five-day custodial sentence in the event of non-payment. As she had been incapable of paying this sum, the applicant had in fact served a custodial 3sentence in prison. The Court observed that this was a severe sanction. A measure of this kind had to be justified by sound reasons in the public interest, which had not been present in this case.As to whether less stringent measures could have achieved a comparable result, the Court noted that in its judgment of 9 May 2008 the Federal Court had found that less restrictive legislation would beineffective, referring to the findings of law made in its previous judgments.A comparative-law survey of legislation on begging showed that the majority of Council of Europe member States imposed more nuanced restrictions than the blanket ban under section 11A of theGeneva Criminal Law Act. Even though the State had some margin of appreciation in that regard, compliance with Article 8 required the domestic courts to examine thoroughly the particular situation in the case before them. Accordingly, the Court could not subscribe to the Federal Court’s argument that less restrictive measures would not have achieved a comparable result.The Court considered that the penalty imposed on the applicant had not been proportionate either to the aim of combating organised crime or to the aim of protecting the rights of passers-by, residents and shopkeepers. The applicant was an extremely vulnerable person who had been punished for her actions in a situation in which she had in all likelihood had no choice other than to beg in order to survive. In the Court’s view, the penalty imposed had infringed the applicant’s human dignity and impaired the very essence of the rights protected by Article 8, and the State had thus overstepped its margin of appreciation in the present case.
The Court held that Switzerland was to pay the applicant 922 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage.
Set in the Parc de L’independence, just behind the beautiful Château in Morges, the annual Fête de la Tulipe starts this weekend and runs from 1st April to the 14th May. This leaves ample time for the different species of tulips (approximately 300 in total) to bloom (very much weather permitting, as cold weather can often delay this). In addition to 120,000 tulips on display, other spring bulbs such as daffodils and hyacinths can also be seen at this beautiful lakeside setting.
The sun is going down, the darkness is coming near the CHUV (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lausanne)… This area is a big building area with lot of crane.
Spectacle of color in the sky without cloud. Agora building looks more like an exibition center or art gallery than a research against cancer building.
The first of August is the national day of Switzerland. I was at Gruyere a medieval and picturesque town. Maybe you know the cheese gruyere. It comes form that village and that region.
One event of that day is traditionaly playing Alphorn and playing with swiss flag.
The typic food of Gruyere is meringue with cream of Gruyère. It was really good sweet. Cow eat green grass of the Alp product quality milk and cream. Such dessert cost 9.90 Fr (10 USD or 8.50 €).
The village of Gruyere has really interesting building and architecture.
Yverdon is the second most important town in the Canton of Vaud. It is famous for its thermal springs and is an important regional centre for commerce and tourism.
The imposing main walls and their four towers were erected within a few years. The design of the castle followed the geometric characteristics used for castles set in plains
Walking in the center we can see very old house. This house was build in 1675 more than 300 years old
Saint-Aubin-Sauges is a village of La Grande-Béroche and a former Swiss commune in the canton of Neuchâtel, located in. Go down to the lake at the harbour. You can have a nice view toward the east side of the lake.
On 10th June 2018 Switzerland will be the first country in the world to have a national referendum on the introduction of Sovereign Money.
The sovereing money is a reform to the banking system that would remove the ability of banks to create money, in the form of bank deposits, when they make loans. It would transfer the ability to create new money exclusively to the state, creating what we have termed a ‘sovereign money’ system.
Sovereign money is issued by a state authority, in Europe a national bank, or the European Central Bank (ECB). Today, sovereign money exists in the form of cash (coins and banknotes) and non-cash central-bank money, called reserves. Such reserves, however, circulate on bank accounts with the central bank only, not on customer current accounts with banks.
Supporters of the initiative, known as the « Vollgeld » or the Sovereign Money Initiative (SMI), say approving the measure would make the financial system safer by preventing bankers from recklessly lending and putting people’s savings at risk — again.
That’s because the change would make it much harder for commercial banks to extend credit, effectively creating cash. Instead, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) would become the monopoly provider of Swiss francs.
However, opinion polls indicate SMI will not receive enough votes to pass. Around two-thirds of the Swiss electorate is expected to vote against the plan, which SNB Governor Thomas Jordan has described as a « dangerous cocktail. »
In Switzerland half of the employee earn more than 6500 Fr and half less.
The gross salary of CHF6,502 is what a full-time employee in Switzerland would earn on the assumption that half of his or her colleagues earn more, and the other half earn less. That represents a CHF313 pay rise relative to 2014, when the last statistical office survey was conducted.
However, this median value masks significant disparities between different economic sectors and the various regions of the country.
Remuneration levels are significantly higher than the median salary in high value-added activities such as the pharmaceutical industry (CHF9,835) or financial services (CHF9,742). At the bottom of the pay scale are retail trade (CHF4,798), hotels and restaurants (CHF4,337), and personal services (CHF4,076).
To claim a larger fortune at the end of the month, it would appear better to live in canton Zurich (CHF6,869) than in Ticino (CHF5,563). But this doesn’t factor in cost of living: much higher, for example, on Zurich’s « Gold Coast » than south of the Alps.
Morges is situated in the western part of Switzerland between Lausanne and Geneva. The city was build by Louis de Savoie in 1286.
The castle in the south of the town square was built with a square floor plan and four round corner towers. It resembles the castle of Yverdon, which may have served as a model for Morges Castle.
On of the beautiful place to walk is the lake promenade. You can see the Mont Blanc
The city’s annual Tulip Festival celebrates the return of spring with 100,000 tulips in beds remarkable for their colour, in the 30,000m2 of the Parc de l’Indépendance.
