No.11692
I've always had the idea in the back of my mind of visiting Swiss communes as if they were entities in themselves, and carefully documenting the visit.
I recently found some friends crazy enough to come along! I didn't want to flood the existing IWO thread, so I decided to make my own containment thread.
The rules :
-at each outing, the commune of the day will be drawn from this wikipedia list using a random number generator ->
https://fr.wikipedia.org/[...]ommunes_du_canton_de_Vaud-the designated commune cannot be refused under ANY circumstances
-during the visit, it is forbidden to leave the boundaries of the commune, otherwise the visit will stop
-you can't decide to continue visiting neighboring communes after the fact without having rerolled for a new and completely random commune
-if possible, only consume goods purchased within the commune during the visit
-draw up an exploration report when the commune is drawn, and complete it with photos and anecdotes at the end of the visit.
-Most of the visit are going to be made in the canton of Vaud
-Each time ther's a 20 percent chance that we're going to visit another entirely diffrent welsch canton randomely chosen: Geneva, Neuvchâtel, Fribourg, Valais, Jura or Bern.
-After the random canton have been selectionned, the commune will be chosen randomly using the same rules.
We're going to have a lot of fun!
No.11694
The first commune will be... ARNEX-SUR-ORBE
Located next to the Jura mountains in the southern part of the Jura-Nord Vaudois district. With 691 inhabitants in 2022, the canton's only urban mass is a village at its center. The commune is mainly agricultural and wine-growing.
Farming village bequeathed by Grandson to the priory of Rômainmotier in the 11th century, then transferred to the Bernese bailiwick of the same priory during the 16th-century Bernese invasion of Savoy. Several Neolithic and medieval archaeological sites.
As for activities, a local wine cellar will be open during my visit. I've come across this restaurant once in my life, but it doesn't look very appetizing, even though it's on my mind. Finally, an intriguing place called le collectif des carottes courbes seems worth a look.
Period photos:
https://swiss.nailizakon.[...]-orbe/arnex-sur-orbe.htmlHistorical sources:
https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr[...]ticles/002527/2014-04-10/The visit will take place on Saturday morning and afternoon. I'll uptdate the thread with pictures of the visit and the stories that go with them.
No.11698
I'm not quite sure whether this will turn out surprisingly entertaining or super broing after a while, but nice idea.
No.11699 KONTRA
>>11698Your post strongly implies that I will have the willpower to explore more than three of these without giving up on this idea. You are a hopeful person!
No.11700
>>11694Sounds cool.
Links don't work ;_;
No.13754
>>11694The first visit was kind of ruined by a strong hangover. I missed the hour of meeting after having drunk my weight in wine and beer and being constantly menaced by the Irish father of a friend.
He told me he knew where I lived. Insulted me each time we crossed paths, made me sing a ridiculous karaoke, told me he had two bodies buried in his yard as I came to their home to sleep since there was no train anymore to go home. I think he likes meMy friends made their own commune exploration. More or less only took pictures of the ground and walls and left. I came barely being able to walk about 3 hours late. I ate at the only restaurant in the commune, "le toucan", waiters were rude, the dish I ordered was microwaved and had a very bad taste. Oddly enough the restaurant was full and lively. After that, being alone I decided to head back home, a cat missing an ear came to me and I petted it, I never seen an animal enjoying so much being petted. At the station, I saw I had to wait 30minutes before my train arrived. And felt I needed to shit, it was bad. I really needed to shit, all my body was in pain and the time was going so slowly. No public toilets at the station and by the looks of it none in this god awful deserted village. I ended taking the biggest shit ever behind a tractor. I’ll never come back : 2/10
No.13785
Today fate has decided for me to visit Chevroux.
It’s one of the three lake Neuchâtel littoral regions in Vaud. In this kind of weird enclave exclave region that’s called “La Broye” north of the canton, is quite small with only ~500 inhabitants. And is close to the small city of Payerne, well known for its big military camp and airport. I have friends serving in Payerne.
Besides being absolutely historically unremarkable as a commune (name of the place more or less translates to Goatoo and the inhabitants are surnamed “perchettes” (small perches)), it has a UNESCO heritage site of Neolithic lake settlements.
Here’s the communal website opened at the historic page :
https://www.chevroux.ch/net/Net_Chevroux.asp?sty=&NoOFS=5813&NumStr=15.10 No.14122
>>13785This visit was quit infernal. I didn’t bring enough to eat and didn’t dress warm enough.
As if I never went out of my man cave.
Anyway the commune was absolutely quiet, not a soul in sight. There was maybe the biggest shipyard I’ve ever seen in Switzerland really impressive, it layed a kilometer far in the lake. A few restaurants and shops (2 or 3) were in the ship yard, all closed. The lake wasn’t very accessible either, a large march was preventing anyone to think of bathing anywhere else than in the shipyard. Quite beautiful, for some reason though I didn’t take any pictures of this two places and instead took pictures of walls.
Pic 1: public school looked especially depressing to Swiss standards, it had what looked like shot holes in one of its walls.
Pic 2: the water reservoir looks like a medieval tower
Pic 3: Strange countryside tradition (especially agrarian). Write the name of your newborn son with a cringey painting of something child-related and his birthday
Pic4: The village from afar
I ended up coming back to the city by foot because the buses were once every ages : 5/10 cute but not much to do.
No.14123 KONTRA
Why are half the pics upside down >:0
No.14125 KONTRA
Next commune is Rossenges. 92 inhabitants, no services and their traditional surname is the nut eaters. May be the worst one yet
Their website is cute :
https://rossenges.ch/ No.14161 KONTRA
>>14154I have absolutely no knowledge of how taking good pictures. I’m really bad at it. But I hope I’ll get better with time. May watch a Video or two!
No.14204
>>14154The chain link fence are important to stop trespassers. If there isn't a chain-link, how do you tell private property from public property? Someone might just walk in and claim me he didn't know that he's in your yard because there was no fence. With all the scum/foreigners/tourists around (particularly swanians), the fences are barely even enough.
No.14206 KONTRA
>>14204You know there are other types of fences, right?
No.14208
>>14206In Germany, there is only type of fence, the "Bundeszaunverbandsstandardkettengliedzaun", as specified in the "Bundeskettengliedstandardzaunverordnung".
No.14210 KONTRA
>>14206Faggot little picket-fences are never going to work.
No.14213
>>14206Each fence has its own symbolical power and violence. The shitty wooden fence more or less means “I am a patrician, I’ve been here for long, this is heimat”. It’s mostly symbolic, keeping the neighborhood “open” people already living there and closed for people who are outside the heimat. Glad I could help.
No.14214 KONTRA
>>14213Thank you for the reply. But I'm specifically curious about the chain-link fences. What is the symbolic meaning of those? And why are they so popular?
No.14215
>>14214I’d say communal infrastructures 60s-70s. I’ll be weary of fences for next trip
No.14228 KONTRA
>>14215Now I'm interested why it became the go-to fence during those times. The rabbit hole deepens, but not sure if anyone has the answers I seek. Thanks.
No.14236 KONTRA
>>14228Once again I dwell in pure supposition but from prior experience it’s about which material was
en vogue. Urban planning is a bit my cup of tea, there’s economico-aesthetic paradigms in Swiss urban planning history, which in itself is very decentralized and thus rely on ideology.
Please keep in mind there’s 75% chance I’m making this up
No.14238
>>14228>>14236https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain-link_fencingThe patent for this fencing stopped in 1969. It's a cheap kind of fencing and is not blocking sunlight. All those these might explain why they are so popular since the 1970s. You can see them in Germany a lot as well. Even as border for family home properties.
t. research pro
No.14245 KONTRA
>>14238It’s actually nostalgic to me and I feel a deep connection with this fencing
No.14298
>>14268That feel when no Strandkorb gf.
No.14300
>>14298Which number is your Strandkorb, though?
No.14332
My phone went out the exact moment I was going to press the button for the first pic of my visit
No.14373 KONTRA
The next commmune is actually the second Urban center of Vaud. The capital of the north, Yverdon. I may do multiple visits
No.14407 KONTRA
German film maker Dieter Wieland did a 45 minute documentary on fences. It's on youtube. But the subtitles suck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gd-UBymK-A No.14410
>>14407>WielandI watched the one where he cries about bavarian/southern German architecture getting rekt in postwar Germany of his time many years ago. He was right about those ugly aluminum doors of the 1970s or so, though.
That said, good to watch nonetheless. I might get into the fence one later this evening for bed time.
No.14412 KONTRA
>>14410I think he did many of those, over a span of about 30 years. There have to be 60 episodes out there, at least.
No.14449 KONTRA
>>14407Holy shit, I love it. Thanks.
No.14585 KONTRA
The next commune is going to be the second largest city in Vaud (but the third urban area). With a bit less than 30'000 inhabitants. As the capital it's a lakeside city, just another lake.
Yverdon is one if not the oldest settled space in Switzerland. People have been living more or less non stop in the area of the city for 6000 years. Neolithic lakehouses traces, gallo-roman thermal baths and comercial town, burgundian dominion, Duchy of Savoy fortified border-town (there's a Savoyard castle in the dead center of town), Bernese regional bailiwick's capital, to independence and narcocapital of Welsch-Switzerland ant its shittiest dealer riggled train station. It's population has more than tripled since the 1940s, event though urban expension is recent, the city is in majority densly populated with big appartment complexes.
Yverdon is a cool place that I like to go to. It's home to the institution of the "maison d'Ailleurs", dedicated to science-fiction, utopias and extraordinary travels. It regroups one of the best museum of romandie, the biggest Sci-fi library collection in Switzerland and the Numerik Games festival, the best geek related festival in Switzerland. Foccused on real local game making and creative expression and avoiding most of the vices associated with those kind of conventions : more space dedicated to independents than corporation advertisment, open spaces (non bad smell!), family oriented, local creations and artists in the spotlight.
No.14586
>>14585didn't mean to kontra my masterpiece
No.16728
Boulens is yet another little village in the center of the canton with around 400 inhabitans. I went to visit it with my brother this time.
We arrived at 11:30, did a small tour of the village, we then went to eat at the only only restaurant the village had. I was a little worried we were going to be the only customers at that place and that the patrons would thus have more time to look at us weird, but to my surprise, we must have been around 10 and 15 filling up all the tables in the entry room. From retired folks to contruction workers, the server still looked at us weird but she at least had other things to do. The place was called café de l'union (Boulens2 is its exterior), more of a cantina than a restaurant, we could see by the diffrent souvenirs hanging on the wall that the place was a cultural center for people living here and has been here for while, from sky pictures of the village to diffrent and numerous football cups. As for the food it was cheap and enjoyable.
After that we went wandered the streets, its the type of village without house rows on the main street so old and new building were shuffled. One of the intresting facts about this place is that it has a 15th century wooden barn we miserably failed to locate it though. Children were playing in the streets, some houses' doors were left wide open. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading under the shade of tree on a deserted playgroud on the outskirts. If Switzerland hadn't had so much hills and mountains, it would've felt like ther was nothing coming after this playgroud, but it wasn't the case, we counted around 6 visible villages. Hills don't make you feel alone.
No.16731
>>14585Opened map of Switzerland to see where is Vaud. In my head there were two beliefs:
1) Zurich is the capital of Switzerland
2) Geneva is the capital of Switzerland
But after looking at the map I realized that these two cities exist simultaneously. Moreover, I opened Google and read that capital of Sw is some "Bern". My guess is that Zurich is German, Geneva is French and Bern is some compromise town in a center of the country.
Haven't read rest of the post :D
No.16732 KONTRA
But if I thought about Geneva without context of Switzerland, I supposed that it is somewhere in Benilux. "Geneva, Hague, Brussels" - places for VIP Europeans
No.16735 KONTRA
>>16731> But after looking at the map I realized that these two cities exist simultaneously. Had you expected them to exist alternatingly? On even-numbered days, there is Zurich, on odd-numbered days, there is Geneva?
No.16736 KONTRA
>>16732The Geneva in Belgium is called Gent.
No.16739
>>16735> On even-numbered days, there is Zurich, on odd-numbered days, there is Geneva?Yes, something like that. For example, I hear about Google's office and think "it's in Zurich? oh, that the capital of Switzerland". And at that moment I don't remember about existence of Geneva. Then I hear about some diplomatic affairs and at that moment Geneva exists in my mind, while Zurich does not.
I live far away, so it all takes place in periphery on my mind.
Then I see the map, and a connection between neurons fires. Oh, they both exists in one country.
No.16744
>>16739Never say that again.
No.16745
>>16739Wait, wait, wait, wait... are you telling me that Switzerland is a country? Like, a REAL one, where you can actually go? I always thought it was invented by fantasy authors, like Middle-Earth, Narnia or Austria, because they needed some lore to sell more Toblerone and Ovomaltine to Germans.
No.16747
>>16744Why buttmad? You mean that French part and German part are two different countries?
No.16748 KONTRA
>>16747Everyone has to exactly know what Switzerland is and how it works
No.16749
>>16748What is it and how does it work? It's some place behind the Bodensee and its flag has a weird shape. Anything else?
And hills. There are some hills.
No.16752 KONTRA
>>16749I will become hulk and crush Germany
No.16755 KONTRA
The Jura is rightful Bernese clay.
No.16758
>>16748Our most famous libertarian has the same point. Since Switzerland is the most successful, free and prosperous countries, everyone should learn from them. Children at history lessons should be told about Switzerland first of all.
No.16762
>>16758Such lessons will teach not allegiance to Rodina to children Russian, but allegiance to the Switzerland!
No.16774
>>16752That's not very neutral of you
No.16813
>>16775On the contrary, it is the historic destiny of Switzerland to gather all alemannic clay. This includes Alsace, Badenia, the southern 2/3 of Württemberg, the Swabian part of Bavaria, Vorarlberg, and very minor parts of Tyrol. To then create a balance between Romance Switzerland and Germanic Switzerland, the french Departements Savoie, Haute Savoie, Jura and Ain would also need to join. Maybe throw in Rhone as well as Aosta, Como and Bozen, just to round it all up.
The most populous cities of this super-Switzerland would be Stuttgart and Lyon, the distance between its extreme north-east (Nördlingen) and South-West (Grenoble) would be 600km.
No.16832 KONTRA
>>16813It would actually be a net benefit for all of us to simply be put under Swiss tutelage. Tributary cantons where once a Union of nations existed.
No.16890 KONTRA
>>16889> Have rejected themWrong. The county of Constance was not ready to hand over Büssingen to the Suisse.
No.16898
>>16890Supposedly in 1945 the Swiss refused to take over it due to being
nazi German sympathizers.