For those with ‘total skiing’ in mind, steep slopes, etc., look in areas such as Zermatt (2200m; see www.zermatt.ch), Gstaad/St. Stephan (2050m; see gstaad.ch), Veysonnaz (1980m), Engleberg (1970m; engleberg.ch) or Verbier (1830m; verbier.ch)).

For those seeking large wide open spaces, concentrate your search on stations like Celerina near St. Moritz (70 green slopes, 245 blue slopes, 35 red slopes, and 40 black slopes), or Champéry – les Portes-du-Soleil, which has the largest skiable area in the world with 650km of slopes at all levels, more than 200 lifts and 7 snowparks (www.celerina.ch; www.champery.ch; www.valdilliez.ch;: www.chablais.ch).

For charming villages with family appeal, check out Gimentz (grimentz.ch), Chandolin (chandolin.ch), Bettmeralp (bettmeralp.ch), Les Marécottes (marecottes.ch), Zermatt, Chateau-d’Oex (chateau-doex.ch), Leysin (leysin.ch), Les Diablerets (diablerets.ch), or Saint-Luc (saint-luc.ch).

For the best prices, you need to take the time to compare the sifferent offers, which are very variable, and currently most certainly susceptible to the pressure of somewhat lower volume of tourism. Recently Diablerets was promoting 3-bedroom 4-bed chalets at CHF 680 – 980 according to the choice of week. At Verbier, offers are currently about CHF 1350/week for the same size chalet and CHF 820 at Arolla. (see also www.tourismesuisse.com and www.les-stations-de-ski.ch)

The Evolène region has about 100km of sumptuous ski slopes and also copious cross country ski paths, two natural skate rinks, and helicopter skiing. Situated in the heart of the Valais close to Haudères, Evolène is a handsome station ideal for families. It’s on the Sion-East exit of the A9 highway (see www.evolene-region.ch)

Another cute place is Adelboden in the canton of Bern, which has over 200 km of slopes. The 9th and 10th of January 2010, Adelboden will be hosting a World Cup competition on the legendary Chuenisbärgli, so if that’s where you want to be, a hasty reservation is probably in order. The village is full of boutiques, restaurants and bars. (See www.adelboden.ch)

There’s also the Scuol in Grisons, which is exceptionally sunny and has picture postcard landscapes. It’s a good area for beginners as well as pro skiers. One can take advantage of the thermal baths after skiing. (See www.scuol.ch)

Not far from Geneva in the canton of Vaud there is Les Mosses, which has about 40km of slopes and a couple of snow parks. The domain connects with Leysin for an additional 100km of slopes. Mosses also has skating and under-ice diving in Lake Lioson. (See www.lesmosses.ch)

The experienced tourist of Switzerland will have spent the past week in Geneva. And, despite the hot sunny weather beckoning him to a lakeside stroll, would have spent a few hours of each weekday attending at the courthouse, a spectator at the trial of the one of the most sordid crimes in Geneva’s illustrious history.

On February 28, 2005, one of the richest men of France (#38) was shot to death in his Geneva apartment. When word spread the following day, speculation ran rampant that the well-known financier, who had no shortage of enemies—was executed in a contract killing by Russian Mafiosi. An owner of numerous companies, a private jet, and several residences, investigators looked first for vengeful business associates.

Within a week however the news took quite a different direction. It turned out that the murdered financier – Edouard Stern – was a well-known libertine and had been seeing a particular mistress for several years. The mistress – Cécile Brossard—was one of seven people who had a key to the dead billionaire’s apartment. She was also seen on surveillance videotape leaving the building the night of the murder.

Interrogated two weeks after the crime, she confessed after 13 hours of questioning, and then all the sordid details began filtering out in drips through leaks to the press.

The two had been involved in a sadomasochistic relationship in which he dominated her intellectually and financially and she dominated him sexually. The victim was in fact shot four times by his mistress while on his knees in a latex suit.

Cécile Brossard grew up in a small town, the daughter of a depressive mother and hippie father who divorced when she was eight. The defense has been making much of this, as well as her abuse by a maternal uncle when she was 10 or 11. A poor and disinterested student, she spent most of her adult life living off of men, and the prosecution is making much of the financial aspect of her interest in Stern.

Central elements in the defense’s case are the contention that Miss Brossard lost her wits and shot him in a fit of passion, and that she was beside herself in love with him and not after his money. She claims to have ‘lost it’ when the two were arguing over a ‘symbolic’ million dollars which Stern apparently transferred to her account, with the understanding that she would return it (supposedly a proof of his love for her, since he had been continually luring her back to him with spurious promises of marriage) and when she didn’t, he had his lawyers block the money with a phony pretext –the kind of manoeuvre you have to rich and powerful to do. So the two were arguing over the money, Stern on his knees in latex S&M suit, and he says to her, ‘a million dollars is expensive for a whore.’ At which point she took his Smith & Wesson and shot him in the forehead. (He apparently managed to get up and she shot him two more times in the chest, then when he fell, a final time in the temple.) (Rather meticulous for a ‘passion’ killing.)

Miss Brossard had been living with her husband, a Vaudois chiropractor, who paid all her bills and with whom she hadn’t had sexual relations since 2000. Her husband is twenty-one years older and said to police interrogators, “I have never been one to be jealous.”
Stern, on the other hand, with whom she took up in 2001, turned out to be highly possessive and jealous. Tapes and testimony show him to have stalked Ms Brossard on numerous occasions each time she attempted or pretended to put an end to their relationship.

While Miss Brossard appears a woman with a less than savory history, Stern – (despite the apparent gentlemen’s agreement of the plaintiff’s and defendant’s lawyers to avoid open discussion of the deceased’s private life) presents a seediness of his own. Aside from the ruthlessness for which he was known in his professional life and the libertinage for which he was known in his personal life, it is the anecdotes –such as his trips to Africa in his private jet for safaris to shoot 60 or 70 animals, or his coercion of Ms. Brossard to procure other women for ménages-a-trois—which paint a less than sympathetic picture of a manipulative, cynical, and less than scrupulous character.

Since Ms. Brossard has already been in custody for 4 years, even if the prosecution obtains the 11 years prison sentence it is seeking, the defendant can be released (at 2/3 of sentence) shortly in semi-liberty.

Crime scene tourists can visit first the courthouse – Palais de Justicce- in the old town on the rue Chaudronniers and Bourg-du-Four, where criminal trials take place (there are only 150 seats for the public, so go early). To visit the murder scene, go to rue Adrian Lachenal number 17. There’s a door code, so you can’t go in and wander up to the top floor unless you send us an email and ask for the code.

To visit Switzerland like the celebrities do, the tourist should concentrate on one of five key resort areas during the Christmas season.

Verbier is very popular with the likes of James Blunt, who now brings his father along with him. His favorite haunt is apparently the Farinet. Verbier is also the favorite winter holiday resort of Richard Branson, Juliette Binoche, Hugh Grant, and the Duchesse of York. The New York Times designated Verbier the trendiest Swiss resort, but in fact it is rather the trendiest among a particularly young Anglo-Saxon crown. New Years at Verbier is mythic for its raucous festivity and lubricious nightlife.

Zermatt attracts a different group of celebrities, among them Robbie Williams.

At Crans Montana, the Grand Hotel fills up during Christmas with guests like Alain Delon and Celine Delon.

And then for the Decorous and Faded crowd there is Gstaad, where Johnny Halliday returns year after year, to find other habitués like Ernesto Bertarelli, Victor Emmanuel de Savoie and Ursula Andress.

Gstaad and Crans Montana are known for their discreet and calm festivities, and habitués – both stars and untelevised tourists – prefer quiet partying in their chalets. Celebrities who spend Christmas in Crans usually leave their body guards home. The residents of Crans Montana consider their aloof attitude to famous guests a matter of tradition.

Arguably the most exclusive is Saint Moritz, which the tourist office refers to as the Saint Topez of the snowbelt. But its exclusiveness is defined by its price tag, which makes it a viable place to winter only for the very wealthy. The past few years Russian billionaires were a major component of the Christmas crown, but this year there appear to be fewer high spending visitors.

The financial meltdown is hurting everyone but it’s certainly hurting some countries more than others.

In Switzerland, a country of relative financial conservatism, there have so far been few repercussions, with the exception of the capitulation of UBS in the largest bailout in Swiss history. UBS aside, the Swiss economy remains in strong shape, people are still spending, and many companies are still hiring.

In Switzerland, with a population of approximately 7.5 million, one in 39 people is a millionaire. In total, 192,000 taxpayers declared a private fortune of at least $ 1 million. The numbers and percentages are doubtless higher if one factors in undeclared assets.

In Geneva (population 450,000), there are approximately 10,000 millionaires and 600 with assets over $10 million. In Vaud there are approximately 16,000 millionaires and 500 taxpayers with cash assets over $10 million. In Berne, the numbers are higher: 22,000

taxpayers with more than $1 million and 700 with more than $10 million.

Basically, 4.15% of taxpayers are millionaires, and if you divide up the number of people reporting over $1 million, it comes to 1 in 39 persons in Switzerland (including babies and children, and elderly pensioners). A total of 7700 people in Switzerland declared more than $10 million on hand. The figures come from the Federal Statistics bureau (AFC).

The areas with the largest proportion of wealthy are those cantons with favorable taxation rates. In Switzerland, the cantons all compete for the wealthiest taxpayers with their own palette of tax advantages. The winners are Nidwald, Zug, and Schwytz. Nationally, there are roughly 0.17% of the taxpayers reporting more than $ 10 million in the bank but in the canton of Nidwald the proportion rises to 0.64%, in Schwytz .41% and in Zug 0.6%. The super-rich prefer Zug because besides having one of the most attractive tax rates, it is also close to Zurich so one doesn’t risk perishing from boredom.

Switzerland also has a bourgeoning list of billionaires, most of whom have also elected residence in one of Switzerland’s tax haven cantons.

Geneva – the ‘city of Calvin’ — is attracting more and more dug addicts who are visiting Switzerland for its vibrant drug market. Notably, the French, who come from as far as away as Grenoble or Lyon or even Paris — they are visiting Switzerland to purchase drugs in Geneva. The reason, according to Police, is that the prices are very attractive and the penalties if caught are not particularly dissuasive. Rather, Geneva is known for very lax drug laws.

While the market for cocaine, hashish and marijuanua is mainly ‘local,’ more than three-quarters of those arrested in Geneva for heroin possession are French, according to a police spokesman in Geneva. They are coming from the Jura, from Savoie, from Isère, and the Lyon region.

The price of 5 grams of heroin in Geneva is about 100 euros, while the same 5 grams in France sells for roughly 250 euros. In France the sanctions as well for being caught with heroin are much more severs. This striking imbalance in the economies and criminal justices of the

two neighboring countries has created arbitrage opportunities for many enterprising consumers.

In Switzerland, the recreational drug experiencing the biggest boom

is cocaine. In Geneva sales are skyrocketing. The Geneva public prosecutor was quoted as saying that ‘cocaine use has become democratized.’ Today, 10 francs (about $10) is enough to buy a small dose on the Geneva market. In neighboring France the prices are much much higher and the jail time for possession is orders of magnitude more severe. The result is a new sort of tourist visiting Switzerland for its underground retail pharmaceutical offerings, rather than for its more traditional mountain and lakeside retreats, hot baths, and discreet opportunities for private banking.

Even within Switzerland, there are substantial differences in the treatment of drug use. Switzerland is divided into 23 cantons, each with their own legal systems, much like the states of the United States. In the canton of Vaud (of which Lausanne is the capitol city), the penalties for cocaine use are much more severe than in Geneva : one risks 6 months of imprisonment for possession of one ball of coke.

In Geneva, the practice is a fine for intentional consumption (without prescription) which can go as high as about $300. Holding drug is punished by fines going up to about $500. Obviously, repeat offenders get higher fines.

Despite the heavy heritage of Calvin, Geneva – the California of Switzerland– remains a harbor of tolerance and progressive attitudes.

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For some time now in Switzerland, sex workers and prostitutes working in the streets or in massage parlors and salons have noticed that clients invariably haggle over the price of sexual services – and to an increasingly aggressive degree.

With the integration of Switzerland into the European Union through the bilateral accords and the influx of foreign sex workers, supply has outstripped demand and clients are discovering that commercial sex in Switzerland is becoming cheaper by the day.

In the French part of Switzerland – Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchatel, Yverdon, and parts of the Valais and Fribourg— the prices of sexual services are practically in free-fall.

The reason is simple: there’s more and more product on offer. It’s only natural that faced with so many choices, customers are bargaining down the prices. The fire-sale on sex services does not include luxury escorts. Luxury escorts have withstood the downward spiral in prices much as luxury real-estate has withstood the subprime property meltdown.

Some nasty wags have claimed that the ranks of prostitutes in Switzerland have been swelled by Norwegians and Swedes – Following Sweden, Norway has recently decided to jail the johns, criminalizing the purchase of sex in an excess of feminist righteousness.

Criminologists in Switzerland say that the Swiss market is now saturated with prostitutes. In Ticino hundreds of professional sex workers were interviewed in the context of a study done in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Center for Sex Research in Genoa. The big problem (for the prostitutes) is that sex workers can hold up their prices. Previously, one could more or less anything for roughly CHF 300. Now, girls will do anything for CHF 100. As one socio-economically conscious researcher put it, “When one can purchase a sodomy for less than CHF 100, it’s a serious problem.” His statement appeared to be not a moral judgment but rather a a pronouncement on the social justice of financial compensation.

Prostitutes in the parlors and on the street admin that already for quite some time working conditions have changed. They have become much harder, as they have in most other professions. Clients are more demanding and want everything at cheaper and cheaper prices.

According to one streetwalker interviewed at random, “If you’re unwilling to do some things, you don’t earn very much.” This particular young lady claims she charges CHF 100 for ‘full sex’ and CHF 200 for sodomy. She claims she refuses clients who want sex with out a condom.

According to recent studies and survey, 8 out of 10 clients of sex workers want unprotected sex. And 7 out of 10 accept if the price is right.

The explosion in the number of prostitutes working in Switzerand is partly a result of sex workers without working papers. The number of sex workers in Switzerland is estimated to be roughly 20,000, of which 50% are clandestine. For example in the canton of Vaud, police say out about 400 prostitutes 200 are illegal. But there is also a strong rise in the number of prostitutes working legally, a result of the bilateral agreements which allow the 300,000,000 citizens of the European Union to work in Switzerland, a tiny country with a population of only slightly more than 7,000,000 and now over-served in the area of sexual services. Many of the prostitutes in Geneva are French, Spanish, or Portuguese, but others are from the four corners of the world.

According to a young Senegalese woman who sells her charms in a massage parlor in Sion, “I thought I’d earn more here than elsewhere but it’s not true. There are days when there’s no work at all.”

Many people wonder, ‘how much does a prostitute earn?’

It’s difficult to know because they rarely file tax returns (even though in Switzerland prostitution is legal and prostitutes are required to pay taxes like everyone else) ands since prostitutes work in hotels, massage parlors, and in the street and each sex worker fixes her own price. In addition, their work is irregular. What is certain is that business is no longer as hot as it once was.

In a massage parlor in Prilly near Lausanne, Cecilia says “sometimes I make 2000 a month, sometimes a lot more – but there are days when there are no clients.” The young girl hands over 100 francs per day to the parlor boss and keeps all her earnings. In spite of that, she says that her financial situation is precarious. “2000 francs is not much – but luckily I’m married.”

In Geneva there are 600 registered prostitutes working in the street or in parlors or as ‘independents.’ ‘Registered’ means they file tax returns and the tax office reports that the majority declare between CHF 30,000 and CHF 60,000 of revenue. Taking as average CHF 45,000, one arrives at the estimate that prostitutes bring in about CHF 4 million in tax revenue out of the CHF 3.2 billion annually. (Registered prostitutes who do not file a declaration are automatically taxed as if they had earned CHF 45,000.)

In Lausanne, in the Sévelin neighborhood, just a few meters from the Docks, prostitutes of all shapes and nationalities work the streets. With all the competition, the price of a oral sex has dropped as low as CHF 30. The economy of sex work in Switzerland is following the general trend of bottoming prices for sex workers across Europe. It’s a far cry from the times of the Countess of Polignac, who in the 18th century obtained a chateau for herself in the Loire as recompense for a highly accomplished blowjob.

A favorite hot spot for superstars who visit Switzerland and those who are simply rich and off the papparazzi radar, Gstaad is legendary for its exclusivity. It’s one of those places that raises everyone’s eyebrows. If you fall into the category of the average tourist visiting Switzerland, you’ve probably thought of visiting Gstaad just out of curiosity, and so you should but be warned that as a regular tourist or ski lover, you’re better off spending just two or three days maximum unless you want to go bankrupt. Internationally known for its super-rich loyal visitors, luxurious services, first class hospitality and ofcourse the skiing because it is a ski resort after all, Gstaad is basically Monaco with snow.

For members of the high social-class, Gstaad is a great escape from city life due to its seclusion, which offers a bit of peace unlike other Club Med spots like St.Mortiz. Gstaad visitors are extremely diverse, but all have one thing in common, money to spend. Some of the regular visitors to Switzerland’s Gstaad include Naomi Campbell, Prince Charles, Queen Sofia of Spain, Paris Hilton, Michael Jackson

and Richard White. If you haven’t gotten the picture yet, Gstaad is a resort where price is of no concern and limitless credit cards rule.

Everyone has heard something about Gstaad, so then is the ultra-glamour and ultra luxe really true or is it just overrated? To the casual tourist visiting Switzerland, the verdict is that it is true. Life here is expensive and caters to the wealthy so there is hardly a place for the average citizen other than blue-collar work. Gstaad is beautiful but it’s not a rare jewel. What makes this mountain village of 2500 inhabitants special is not so much the skiing or resort facilities but the added value of the cosmopolitan chic lifestyle and of course the hype over A-list celebrities, wealthy families, millionaire club members and royalty who visit season after season.

Yes, it is calm and relaxed but it also has another side that contradicts the ‘come up-slow down’ brochure quote, which is an overpriced, and very self-conscious atmosphere. In a nutshell, it is worth visiting for the sake of ticking off places on your world tour list but to really enjoy Gstaad, you have to be loaded. So what should you expect upon arrival?

When you get to Gstaad, you immediately feel the difference from the real world and the materialistic one. It’s almost like the air is made out of money here. Top-end cars roam around casually and people really do spend a month’s salary in minutes on designer clothing (to be worn on one-night occasions). It sounds surreal hut its reality. Fashion and jewelry stores probably outnumber restaurants and the tiny ‘main’ street is lined up with Hermes, Chopard, Prada, Cartier, Girard Perregaux, Trois Pómmes and about 7 Lorenz Bach boutiques. Woman aged 16 to 60 stroll around in chinchilla coats without the slightest guilt. It’s a place where the rich visiting Switzerland rub shoulders with their kind and less than a handful of regular visitors actually come with the intention to soak up the Swiss culture or mingle with locals. The rich clan prefer spending their days with the same crowd they got on the jet with so do not expect to come and make newfound friends easily. Funnily enough, though it is situated in the Bern Alps, the German part of Switzerland, the Gstaad crowd usually speak in English or French and you often here Russian and Arabic spoken. No surprise there! Overall the scene is international. All the wealthy from the four corners of the globe gather here from Greek heirs, Russian billionaires, Asian and African political tycoons to the British and Arab Royals. The resort itself offers a customized calm but there is a stress factor that manifests itself from the overly self conscious guests who subtly eye each other up to see you is wealthier. Gstaad is decidedly for upscale very upscale vistors to Switzerland.

A days schedule in Gstaad consists of either skiing in the morning and shopping in the afternoon or visa versa. Walking down the ‘very’ small main street, don’t be shocked if you come across pure breed dogs or rare bastards imported from far away lands dressed in thousand dollar Prada sweaters. After the morning winter activities, (skiing, sledging, cross-country, winter-hiking, climbing, tobogganing, heliski, curling, paragliding, snow golf, husky tours) the crowd here dine from a choice of 14 high end gastronomic restaurants and food like everything else in Gstaad is also pricey. For a simple apple pie in Gstaad, expect to pay 16.50 CHF rather than the 3.60 CHF you would pay in other towns. Luckily, for the common tourist who doesn’t want to spend too much on dinning in 5 star restaurants, there are actually two local supermarkets that sell food at normal prices (Migros and Co-oop, nationwide supermarkets). There are other Gstaad residents like Bernie Ecclestone, Elizabeth Taylor and Johnny Holiday who own private chalets here and can choose between a 5 star restaurant or have their lunch served by the fly-in chef who whips up vogue recipes. As a matter of fact even the guests who stay in hotels here, prefer to travel with their private chef and personal trainer. The entourage explains their choice of traveling to Switzerland in private jets.

So lets say you are an average tourist visiting Switzerland and you’re looking to experience the full blown elegant Gstaad life. You could stay at the Palace Hotel, if you don’t mind paying around 700 a night (the cheapest price for a single standard room). The most expensive room is of course the Penthouse priced at 13,900 CHF (for a 3 night stay). The Palace Hotel is ofcourse the crème de la crème on the

hotel list in Gstaad. Others are Grand Hotel Bellevue and Grand Hotel Park. At the Palace, guests are pleasantly treated well-catered for with arts and entertainment; for car fanatics there is an auction every December of Ferraris and Maseratis. You should probably skip that event if you are here as a simple tourist. If you cannot afford a Palace room or the Maesarati you can still visit the nightclubs. The club scene of the Gstaad Palace is the GreenGo club where the preppy youth, dressed in blinding outfits usually go to on weekends. As Gstaad is all about the laid-back atmosphere, a lot of ‘minors’ have no problem getting into the club, so you can forget your ID card, it’s only the credit card you’ll be asked to hand over for Don Perrignon bottles. Over all, after dark, while the youth are busy dancing and consuming overpriced beverages, parents attend orchestral entertainments for the sake of being seen out in the newly bought fur coat and latest customized watches. There are of course other places to go to at night apart from the Palace Hotel such as the Chesery and Le Cristal, but don’t expect to escape the GreenGo attitude because everywhere you go in Gstaad, you meet the same rotating crowd and lifestyle standards are all high.

Surprisingly enough, Gstaad also has educational facilities for those planning to find a residence in Switzerland; The Gstaad International School (GIS) and the prominent Institute Le Rosey. The Gstaad International School accommodates the preppy youth for a shocking annual fee of 74,000 and Le Rosey, which is well known for famous alumni like Winston Churchill, King Fouad Farouk of Egypt, Rainier of Monaco and Shah of Iran has their annual fees at 63,000 CHF. Their schedule seems normal; students study the expected subjects in the morning but unlike other schools, each school day from 2 to 5 students go skiin. Le Rosey’s actual main campus is in Rolle but in the winter they move to the Gstaad campus to properly accommodate skiing needs.

If you really want the full Gstaad experience, avoid visiting between seasons because Gstaad turns into a ghost town; Le Rosey School closes after the winter season draining out all the youthful life and the Palace Hotel operate on a seasonal basis and also closes from March till July. Some shops also close and reopen for the summer rseason.

Once the winter season is over, Gstaad switches to summer mode filled with the usual high-society activities; tennis, polo. For the occasional tourist visiting Switzerland there are actually some summer events worth attending like the Allianz Suisse Open (5-13 July), the SWATCH FIVB Beach Vollyball World Tour and the Hublot Polo Gold Cup in August (in the neighbouring village of Saanen). If you are not the sporty spectator type there is the Menuhin Festival from July to September but you better like classical music because that’s all there is. Finally Gstaad would not be Gstaad without gourmet menus. Apart from the world-known Gruyère cheese export and the year round exqusite cuisine, there is also the Davidoff Saveurs in July, a Gourmetweek with world famous chef invites of course! So whether winter or summer, there is always a chance to spot a famous face in Gstaad when you visit Switzerland’s luxury resorts.

Gstaad is a paradise for those with money but what is so special about it? Well, it’s ideal for fancy shopping, exclusive skiing, pampering and privacy- at a price ofcourse! People come here to relax, spend money and be seen spending it. The reality is that the rich and famous spend money on the same pleasures as the average Joe; the only difference is their limitless budget. Taste is another thing, but if you have money you spend it, and in Gstaad the services sector have mastered this concept very well. Gstaad is chic and the ingredients that makes it seem so appealing is the clientele, exclusivity and of course the media attention which keeps the buzz of its luxe lifestyle going. So for the curious tourist and average layman, Gstaad is probably a place you ought to visit just to say ‘I’ve have been there’ but it’s also worth going to get a good laugh from seeing superficiality in the flesh!

The past few years has seen a growth in Switzerland of clubs, bars, and discos sporting attitude.

In Geneva it started with the SIP, at Plainpalais, in the abandoned complex where precision instruments were manufactured. A trendy discotheque with neither décor nor music to recommend it, the SIP was inaugurated by the same investors who cynically opened the Demi-Lune café-bar in the Old Town on rue Etienne Dumont, offering a pretentious after hours spot with mediocre food, uninspired décor and major attitude.

Geneva is a cosmopolitan village with numerous international organizations and corporate headquarters and tens of thousands of affluent professionals : the marketplace is not yet saturated with upscale venues sporting glitzy facades, red carpet entrances and burly bouncers at the door (preferably African).

The Bypass discotheque and club, which opened several years back,

remains a trendy spot, striving for a maximum of attitude. Located in an industrial corner at the edge of town, at the bottom of the route des Acacias where it empties into the concrete expanse of the route de Jeunes, the Bypass tries to pass itself as a select address. Their doormen have been trained in all the contemporary tricks for developing a (masochistic?) clientele striving for distinction, such as making customers wait unnecessarily, or refusing access arbitrarily.

Recently, the Bypass appeared in the local press because of complaints from a party who had reserved a table for a birthday celebration. When the group showed up at the door, the bouncer refused to allow in one of them – a Somali. Despite their reservation (for a private table!) the group ended up going elsewhere to celebrate because the doormen wouldn’t let the African in.

The director of the establishment, Pierre Thomas, when interviewed by phone by the Geneva tabloids responded that, yes the group had a reservation, but bragged that the Bypass ‘refuses 200-300 people entry each weekend.’

When in Geneva over a weekend, why not wait in line outside the Bypass and see if you’re one of the 200-300 refused entry or whether you get to go inside the club and experience their arrogant hospitality and overpriced drinks ?

As in the German speaking cantons of Switzerland, the French area known as ‘Romandy’ has witnessed substantial overcrowding in its prisons. The Champ-Dollon prison outside Geneva, which was an ‘academy’ style prison the 80’s heyday of flowing money and low crime, used to sport coiffure service and fitness and library facilities for its relatively small client population. Those days have long gone and Champ-Dollon, like other Swiss prisons, is overcrowded, with often a half dozen prisoners to a cell. It can take 2 months to see a prison dentist or doctor, and the prisons now house violent criminals from Eastern Europe or Africa. Where once upon a time, perhaps only 20 years ago, it was not unheard of for the poor or jobless to commit crimes with the sole objective of being put into prison—Swiss prisons are no longer the 5 star establishments they used to be.

Nonetheless, they do constitute an interesting stop on any tourist’s holiday circuit and Switzerland has just inaugurated a new one at La Brenaz, partly to take some of the pressure off Champ-Dollon, which is pushing 500 inmates for a prison designed for 250.

La Brenaz has been designed with painterly touches – the common areas are colored in yellow, the cells are white. The Brenaz prison gives an impression of cleanliness and light. Well, they haven’t put the prisoners in there yet….

As of next week, however, prisoners will be placed there. La Brenaz has been built to house up to 68 prisoners.

While visitors can tour the institution, in order to be admitted to La Brenaz, the would-be prisoner must have been sentenced to at most 3 years confinement. The department of sentencing (SAPEM – Service Application des Peines et Mesures) makes decisions based on their assessment of the dangerousness of the prisoner and the amount of time remaining to be served. So the La Brenaz will not accommodate the most serious cases. The prison contains no solitary confinement cells and is probably much less difficult to escape from than the maximum security prison at Orbe, or Brenaz’s sister prison Champ-Dollon. Prison officials were unwilling to comment on this last.

In any case, the prison lifestyle of Brenaz is certainly not attributed to a dangerous prisoner population. At Brenaz, during half a day, the prisoners will work in ateliers such as maintenance, bakery, bracelet assembly, etc. (Some of these bracelets, by the way, go on sale in the local department stores.)

In a wonderful poetic twist to psychology of incarceration, the prisoners at Brenaz are allowed to take the key to their cells and walk throughout the building. There are common areas and rooms where one can meet with a nurse, a social assistant, or a psychologist. There is also a sports center. Visits are allowed once per week and smoking is not allowed in the prison cells. Portable telephones are not allowed either. A public telephone is at the disposal of inmates.

Prison cells at La Brenaz are 12 square meters, the same as those at Champ Dollon – except that those at Brenaz are supposed to have one occupant, rather than the current habitual 5 or 6 guys dudes stuffed in the cells at Champ-Dollon. The cells have a bathroom, an dresser, a bed, a large wooden table under the window, a refridgerator and a flat screen TV.

Despite the relative luxury at La Brenaz, the cost of housing a prisoner there is CHF 200/day, versus CHF 260/day at Champ-Dollon, due to the fact that the personnel are much more numerous at the higher security Champ-Dollon (240) than at La Brenaz (27).

The new prison at La Brenaz took roughly one year to build and cost CHF 18,420,000
Further details on the facility or information on how to arrange a tour can be obtained from: M. Constantin Franziskakis, Prison Warden, DI, tél. +41 (79) 416 37 07; or M. Juan Boada, adjoint de direction, Building Manager, DCTI, tél. +41 (22) 327 48 21.