Mies, Switzerland

It is thought that the name Mies comes from its location of half way ("mi-") between Geneva and Nyon, or maybe because it is halfway between Versoix and Coppet. Remains of settlements have been found all the way back to the Bronze Age, but the first documentary reference to Mies was in 1345 under the name Miez. Later on, additional ways of writing the village appeared: Miez, Mier, Myez, Myer, Myes and only in 1912 Mies. With the conquest of the Canton de Vaud (Waadt, in German) by Bern in the year 1536, the village came under the administration of the district of Nyon. Mies thus became Switzerland's border village - with France - from 1536 until the creation of the Canton of Geneva in 1815. ==Recreation==

The playing fields of Mies include a full size football field, basketball pitch, boules (pétanque), running track, tennis courts, and children's playground with swings, climbing frames and other children's games. The clubhouse has showers and toilets, as well as a snack bar, but these facilities are generally only open when football matches are being played on the sports field. There is a polo field, Polo de Veytay, where several polo matches are played every year, such as the Geneva Polo Masters. This is part of the large agricultural and forest area known as Domaine de Veytay, in the North-West of the commune and which takes up about 40% of the area of the commune or some 150 hectares. Photos Right on the border of the commune, but on the Versoix side is the Versoix Sports Centre, which includes a swimming pool. Mies has a public beach on Lake Geneva. This is popular in the summer months and several bar-b-Qs have been set up. Photos ==Nature reserves==

The Domaine de Veytay contains a nature reserve known as la Gouille Marion covering 7 hectares. Although private land, there are no restrictions on walking through the forest, visiting a large pond, and viewing the birds from some watch-sheds in the forest. Originally la Gouille Marion was boggy marshland which became flooded in the winter. However, in 1972 l'Association pour la Protection des Bois de la Rive Droit du Lac (Society for the protection of woodlands on the north side of the lake), carried out work which gave birth to the large pond in which two small islands were built. A ditch was also constructed in order to control the level of water. A bird observatory was built to allow ornithologists to watch the birds without disturbing them. In 1973 la Gouille Marion was classified as a nature reserve and it is forbidden to leave the paths during the nesting season from 1 March to 1 August. Hunting is also forbidden and dogs must be kept on their leads. The forest and pond hold many species of birds, insects, amphibians including various frogs and toads, and mammals such as deer, wild boar and foxes which drink from the pond. Photos Mies has a second nature reserve, Les Crénées, on the lakeshore, which is also private property, but not accessible to the public. ==Geography==

Mies has an area, , of . Of this area, or 33.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 32.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 34.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.3% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 26.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.1%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.2% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.7%. Out of the forested land, 31.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 18.3% is used for growing crops and 11.9% is pastures, while 3.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. The municipality is located on a terrace above Lake Geneva. ==Transportation==

Rail Mies lies on the main railway line between Geneva and Lausanne, built in 1858. The train station at Mies is served by local trains, the Leman Express, running north to Coppet or south to Versoix and Geneva and onwards to Annemasse and neighbouring France. Services run every 15 minutes throughout the day and evening and hourly at night. Bus The nearest public buses are TPG lines 50 and 54 which run from just outside Mies at the "Centre Sportif la Bécassière" (otherwise known as the Versoix Swimming Pool) towards the airport. It is a very pleasant walk along mainly pedestrian and cycle tracks from La Bécassière to Mies village. Both routes cross through small villages on the way to the airport. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Or and Azure, from a Hill Sable lined Argent rising three Pine-trees Vert. ==Demographics==

Mies has a population () of . , 40.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 18.9%. It has changed at a rate of 17.8% due to migration and at a rate of 1.2% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (1,095 or 73.0%), with English being second most common (152 or 10.1%) and German being third (98 or 6.5%). There are 42 people who speak Italian and 1 person who speaks Romansh. , there were 633 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 699 married individuals, 84 widows or widowers and 83 individuals who are divorced. , there were 528 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. , a total of 509 apartments (83.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 64 apartments (10.5%) were seasonally occupied and 34 apartments (5.6%) were empty. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1080 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1633 from:start till:64 bar:1633 at:74 fontsize:S text: "16 Hearths" shift:(8,5) bar:1803 from:start till:143 text:"143" bar:1850 from:start till:162 text:"162" bar:1860 from:start till:332 text:"332" bar:1870 from:start till:181 text:"181" bar:1880 from:start till:189 text:"189" bar:1888 from:start till:208 text:"208" bar:1900 from:start till:223 text:"223" bar:1910 from:start till:243 text:"243" bar:1920 from:start till:237 text:"237" bar:1930 from:start till:300 text:"300" bar:1941 from:start till:454 text:"454" bar:1950 from:start till:491 text:"491" bar:1960 from:start till:640 text:"640" bar:1970 from:start till:751 text:"751" bar:1980 from:start till:908 text:"908" bar:1990 from:start till:1227 text:"1,227" bar:2000 from:start till:1499 text:"1,499" ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 24.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party (21.25%), the SP (13.09%) and the Green Party (12.63%). In the federal election, a total of 347 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 42.9%. ==Economy==

, Mies had an unemployment rate of 4.4%. , there were 15 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 124 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 16 businesses in this sector. 528 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 72 businesses in this sector. , there were 427 workers who commuted into the municipality and 609 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 15.2% of the workforce coming into Mies are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 14.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 69.2% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 500 or 33.4% were Roman Catholic, while 476 or 31.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 15 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.00% of the population), there were 4 individuals (or about 0.27% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 59 individuals (or about 3.94% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 18 individuals (or about 1.20% of the population) who were Jewish, and 26 (or about 1.73% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 3 individuals who were Buddhist, 6 individuals who were Hindu and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 256 (or about 17.08% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 161 individuals (or about 10.74% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Mies about 393 or (26.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 439 or (29.3%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 439 who completed tertiary schooling, 36.7% were Swiss men, 26.7% were Swiss women, 19.8% were non-Swiss men and 16.9% were non-Swiss women. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 1,249 children of which 563 children (45.1%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 83 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 49 students in those schools. There was also 1 student who was home schooled or attended another non-traditional school. , there were 50 students in Mies who came from another municipality, while 238 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==Sports==

Mies is home to the headquarters of FIBA, the international governing body of basketball and the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), the international governing body of motorcycle racing. == Notable residents ==

• Simone de Montmollin (born 1968), Swiss politician and oenologist, grew up in Mies ==Image gallery==

File:raiffeisen.jpg|Picture of the village centre File:miesschoolbus.jpg|School bus stop in front of the Town Hall (Old School) File:miesschool.jpg|Primary School, "Les Sorbiers" File:miescoast.jpg|The edge of Lake Geneva (The Public Beach) File:veytay.jpg|Veytay, Countryside walks File:miessign.jpg|Entering Mies File:miesforest.jpg|Forest path File:miesbigstone.jpg|Pierre à Penys File:miescornfield.jpg|Cornfield File:versoixsports.jpg|Versoix: Sports centre File:Mies1.JPG|Route Suisse, Mies File:Mies2.JPG|Centre médico-social File:Mies3.JPG|Administration Communale File:Mies4.JPG|La Violette, Mies File:Mies5.JPG|La Couronne File:Mies6.JPG|Chez Dominique File:Mies7.JPG|La Poste, Mies File:Mies8.JPG|Christmas in Mies File:Mies9.JPG|Mies village ==References==