Agenda

Switzerland has no tradition of royalty. Still, or maybe just for that reason, the otherwise democracy-driven Swiss love to hear stories about royal families and houses.

The list of royals who have visited Switzerland since the 18th century is long. It includes, among others, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, Tsar Alexander I, Emperor Napoleon III, Queen Victoria, Ludwig II of Bavaria, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Emperor William II, Queen Astrid of Belgium, the queens Emma, Wilhelmina and Beatrix of the Netherlands, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Queen Elisabeth II, King Hussain I, and King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia.

The exhibition (Die Royals kommen) recounts stories of the royals in Switzerland and presents rare and precious memorabilia from their travels, for instance, watercolours by Queen Victoria, Empress Sisi’s evening dress and poetic diary, as well as a tuft of lion’s hair that once adorned Emperor Selassie’s hat.

The exposition is a graphic-novel style retrospective of village life in the 19th century.

As you stroll up the village street, you will relive the past through the eyes of Gustin, a fictitious Champérolain who leaves his village as a young lad to become a mercenary in Napoleon’s army. In 1863, after a 50-year absence, Gustin’s homesickness brings him back to a village that has changed dramatically.

The storyboards are on display at strategic points along the main street and provide an engaging way to explore the village and its past. Each panel is divided into two parts:

– In the first part, the illustrations show Gustin rediscovering his village half a century after his departure.

– The second part of the panel depicts scenes from everyday life, concentrating of different aspects of the (pre- and medieval) history and the lifestyle, politics, revolutions, habitations, the mountains, domestic life, local industry, mercenary soldiering, emigration, tourism, the train station and modern transport and other issues.

The town of La Tour-de-Peilz (canton of Vaud) is devoting an open-air exhibition to the painter and sculptor Gustave Courbet (1819-1877).

The route through the old town and along the shores of Lake Geneva shows, among other things, the painter’s last years from 1874 until his death in 1877 in La Tour-de-Peilz.

This open-air museum of the master of realism shows his works and life story and his special bond with Switzerland in the last phase of his life.