LOCAL NEWS
Friday 14 December 2012 Page 13
If not now, when? Pictures: zvg
BY JANUARIA PIROMALLO to learn pirouettes with Gunther. Peter has been a friend to the last to Gunther: he visited him often in his chalet in Gstaad, playing Bingo and remembering the good times gone by. Peter by birth right was always a protagonist of the glamor system. He was born from a well to do family, his father was the largest producer of steel in Switzerland.
Peter Notz with his children Cedric, Clarina and Justine. He is as much a part of Gstaad as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris and Francois Pinault is to contemporary art. Peter Notz, after having spent a quarter of his lifetime “dribbling” me like a football player, finally lends himself to an interview with me to write his memoir.
Horneggli is already open, Peter’s tracks have long been imprinted into its snowy slopes. He has the same enthusiasm as a boy, a joie de vivre that even the darkest moments of his frantic existence has shone through. Four wives, almost five, well perhaps almost six and five children.
ters such as Gunther Sachs. Peter was best man at the wedding of the last century of Gunther and Brigitte Bardot.
Brigitta Notz, wife number three, has now become his best friend. Clarina, his daughter has given him two grandchildren, one Giselle, a tribute to Rudolf Nureyev, who is Clarina’s godfather. Another chapter of Peter ‘s life, Nureyev, a ballet star that Peter helped to flee from the then Communist Russia.
He conquered her heart with a shower of roses from a helicopter onto her villa in Saint Tropez. He then showed up in his tuxedo, and whisked her away on a speedboat called “Dracula”. Ahi, but la divina Brigitte was capricious. A year into the marriage, she made enduring excuses such as “I can not go because I have a fever and I must stay home”. Once Gunther found her instead at the coiffeur ready to go out for another party. That was the end of their love affair.
His skis are already prepared and waxed. Adrien, his guardian angel, loads them into the car and off they go.
To say Peter is an icon of the jet set would be an understatement. He invented the jet set, with charac-
There are a few who still remember Brigitte on the skating rink at the Grand Hotel Park, stubbornly trying
Clarina Notz with her husband.
Cedric and Brigitta Notz.
Brigitta and Peter Notz.
Even now he has little time, but not because at 87 years old he feels close to the last round of the hourglass. Instead he says ‘look outside, it’s snowing’, it’s the first virgin snow of the season and we must not let it go un-missed.
He undertook his education with the commitment of a first class student and cultivated this commitment through to his graduation with honors at MIT. When he began to get bored, he then became a bon viveur. Embraced by the nature of the mountains of Gstaad, he feels in a state of grace just like falling in love. Peter is one who falls in love often. Perhaps too often. Even now at 87 years, he continues to feel as if 35. “Theory passes by, the power is ridiculous: only the passion in life gives meaning to existence.” The maddest thing that you have done for love. A madness that conquered a womans heart? “Ouh-lala! Let me think. They were not very original. Let’s say: I’m still waiting to be surprised by a woman.”
Peter Notz.