Prettiest French Village / Town

Not Yvoire. It's Taninges. So far, that is. Taninges may not be on the Lac, but it's prettier and it's a real place.

Mont Blanc

It's the highest cable car in the Alps. It cost over $60 a person but we had to do it. Here's why:

Chamonix quickly recedes into the Alpine skyline.

The Baroness poses in front of a true Alpine glacier.

At the top. One can view successive Alpine ridgelines from the summit.

No view like this anywhere, even from the top of Pikes Peak:

Chamonix from the top.

Then we bumped into another strange discovery, the kind of thing you can never expect. We met a young gentleman from "the Bay Area." After prompting he admited he's from Oakland and he's there to research Mont Blanc for a "rappelling ballet" production. And no, I'm really not making this up. He got his gear together and dangled for about an hour doing ballet poses. Now, he could have easily been pretending, you know, for attention. And he got plenty. But knowing the Bay Area, one must admit there is a strangely plausible absurdity to his explanation. We took this picture from the lower level after we descended a bit, because we weren't allowed to eat our sandwiches at the top.

Clearly, Jose has competition as der Dopeydangler. Notice he's doing ballet poses or something. On the side of an Alpine cliff. At about 14,500 feet. I'm thinking the ballet production would certainly be original. Or stupid. Or tragic. Or all three.

Chamonix

Our unnamed advisor insisted we visit Chamonix. Two reasons: The weather is perfect, hence it is comfortable and the views unobstructed. Also, it is off-season and there are no lines or crowds or traffic jams.

So Chamonix became the goal. Our first stop was the Office de Tourisme. Which was closed. Just like everything else in the Alps from noon to 1430 or 1500. Talk about a siesta! The stop was not a loss, however, as we discovered a beautiful French Alpine chapel, featuring a dude playing the organ and playing it very, very well:

Chamonix, unlike Morzine, is a real city with a tasteful city center. It reminds one of Aspen except for the fact that, well, it's a real city and The Alps are more dramatic than the Rockies. Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps, pictured in the background:

There was also an amazing t-shirt store with some of the coolest embroidered t-shirts I've ever seen. They were so cool my wife and I got a matching set (26 euro each). No, we didn't buy the posing bear in sunglasses. We were tempted, though. My Frau later decided to go back and get another t-shirt for Calvin. I even thought about Al's demand for. T-shirt. But I didn't buy him one.

Into the Alps...to Morzine

We have spent a day in the city of Geneve. Another day driving along the shore of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) to Chateau de Chillon. It was time to get up into the Alps. We had no specific destination, but had heard that Morzine was pretty. And famous. And nearby. So we headed out.

Now, I don't have any pictures of Morzine because it wasn't very interesting and it was kind of famous for being famous. There were, however, some picturesque Alpine villages along the way. It was probably a village like this where Regy's ancestors deveoped the French Alpine goat line.

More to the point, Morzine was also empty. We went to the Office de Tourisme and some guy basically walked in and said, "Hey! You're Americans! What are you doing here?!?" It was a strange and fortuitous encounter. He said Morzine is usually very crowded (it wasn't), that there were often a lot of Brits (there weren't) and virtually never Americans there (what were we, Moravian?). And he knew about this because he's lived in Morzine off and on for thirty years.

There was a lot more to this story, but let us focus on the fortuitous part. He gave us very specific advice about how to explore the Alps. It was advice we decided to take, leading us into pristine Alpine valleys and villages and to...

Chateau de Chillon

The visit to this magnificent castle was intended to be one of the highlights of our trip and it did not disappoint.

Devoted readers of this blog who may not have visited our home, aka Tanglewald im Fuchsberg, may not know that this castle is prominently displayed in a painting above our living room mantle. Others may know that this site was visited some years ago by our older son whilst he was engaged in physics research at nearby Cern. What matters most, however, is that we got to tour the castle and make several significant discoveries.

The first discovery was the meaning of Chillon, which visitors to our home frequently ask about. The tour explains that it is probably a reference to the rock island on which the castle is built. Apparently "chillond" or some such thing in French is a reference to rock, though I can not independently confirm this. But the tour said so! So there it is.

The second discovery is that the castle is even more cool from the inside than it looks from the outside. Like the dungeon, which has pillars and the amazing sight of light reflecting off the lake (lac), through the small battlement openings, onto the ceiling:

Other amazing discoveries are best shown in pictures. The view of Montreux:

Outer walls and inner walls and glacis and other castle stuff with Swiss symbols:

Upper courtyard with ornate window of the Lord of the Castle. He used this window to look out over his underlings. Barely visible on the right is his private stairway to the chapel and the keep. I told my Frau that we need something like this at Tanglewald. Frau, aka The Baroness, said No Way.

Happy Frau / Baroness standing in front of Chateau de Chillon:

As soon as we left there was, alas, one final discovery: a parking ticket. The Baroness, er, my Frau noticed that the ticket was a mistake. It said we had parked for more than three hours, but we had not. How un-Swiss. She spent two hours researching how to appeal a Swiss parking ticket on the internet and discovered--for all practical purposes--you can't! Vive la Suiss! So we'll add it to the cost of doing business or travel or vacances or somesing. C'est la guerre! C'est la vie! C'est stupide.

Yvoire

It claims to be the prettiest village in France. That's possible. It's situated on the shores of Lake Geneva and has its own little harbor and quaint streets. It retains its medieval wall and gate and has a castle on the water:

There are a couple things that make me hesitate. First off, France is a pretty big place and there are lots of villages. Now Yvoire does have scads and scads of pretty flowers, but these contribute to an overall feel that suggests as much Le Tourist Trap as Prettiest Village.

Then there is the Jardin des Cinq Sens. It is promoted as a feature of the village. And it's a really nice garden. It's just...a garden, though. With a theme. The theme is The Five Senses. Pretty edgy. My wife wanted to see, so we paid about thirty bucks and enjoyed quite an experience with our senses.

The first experience was in the Woody Garden, pictured below. This "garden" struck me as a couple trees with ferns and stuff growing underneath. Some other plants, too, with nameplates but I forgot about those when I noticed the mosquitoes. Apparently they were exploring the Woody Garden, too:

We then wandered to the "cloistered" Garden of Taste. This delightful area had edible plants except for two things: We were instructed to "feast with the eyes only", like that makes sense, and some of the plants were poisonous! Garden of Taste, indeed.

It was in the Garden of Smell, or Sight, or Something, that I began to notice the bees. My wife was wandering and reading the signs. I decided to patiently wait for her by sitting on the benches. The bees made their presence known. This continued through the rest of the garden. I found it annoying. The bees did too, apparently.

We also saw The Garden of Hearing. The brochure says, "An inaccessible and symbolic space that is open to the skies. Just close your eyes..." What on earth?!?!? I closed my eyes and heard the children from the Ecole and the bells from the church. I guess that makes it profound or something. But I could close my eyes and hear those things from anyplace, even if I decide it's "symbolic". Duh.

So eventually we left. The tour took us through a room which explained how important the bees are to the garden. Also, it explained how our "contributions" helped continue the vision of the founder of the garden, Baron Francois Bouvier d'Yvoire (1834-1918). All of this was supposed to be inspirational, I guess. I was just glad to escape the bees.

Back to France

One may wonder how you can know it's France. Well, it's kind of obvious. Note the inscription under the clock of city hall in nearby Douvaine:

Geneve Redux

Having slept late and enjoyed a lazy breakfast, we prepared to trek back to the city:

Successfully navigating our way to the center of town, we set out to retrace our steps from 2009. One of our first stops: The Reformation Monument along the wall of the old city:

Then, a hike up the hill and past the oldest bookstore in Geneva, said to be over 500 years old:

To the Reformation Museo, which not only had a bust of John Calvin but also sold (yes, really) Calvinus beer:

Then through the Museo (no pictures allowed) and back into the old city:

And on the the second Museo of the day, the St. Pierre Cathedral archeological museo. Now this was far more interesting than it may sound for two very important reasons. The first reason is that during renovations to the Cathedral in the 1990's, structures from the late middle ages were discovered immediately underneath. Further excavation revealed structures underneath those from early medieval times. Further excavation revealed structures underneath those from Roman times. And further excavation revealed the tomb of an aristocrat from the pre-Roman tribes in the area. All of this proved so cool they made a museo and, yes, it really is cool.

The second reason of importance is that another Calvin, who shall remain nameless, absolutely refused to go to this museo in 2009. But we came back and did it without him. Oh, yes we did. His loss.

After two museos we still had time to wander the beautiful city of Geneva, with weather that is too wonderful to describe. Here is a picture of my Frau with a statue to J.J. Rousseau. It's on Rousseau Island. In the middle of the Rhone River. In Geneva.

Geneve Redux

Having slept late and enjoyed a lazy breakfast, we prepared to trek back to the city:

Successfully navigating our way to the center of town, we set out to retrace our steps from 2009. One of our first stops: The Reformation Monument along the wall of the old city:

Then, a hike up the hill and past the oldest bookstore in Geneva, said to be over 500 years old:

To the Reformation Museo, which not only had a bust of John Calvin but also sold (yes, really) Calvinus beer:

Then through the Museo (no pictures allowed) and back into the old city:

And on the the second Museo of the day, the St. Pierre Cathedral archeological museo. Now this was far more interesting than it may sound for two very important reasons. The first reason is that during renovations to the Cathedral in the 1990's, structures from the late middle ages were discovered immediately underneath. Further excavation revealed structures underneath those from early medieval times. Further excavation revealed structures underneath those from Roman times. And further excavation revealed the tomb of an aristocrat from the pre-Roman tribes in the area. All of this proved so cool they made a museo and, yes, it really is cool.

The second reason of importance is that another Calvin, who shall remain nameless, absolutely refused to go to this museo in 2009. But we came back and did it without him. Oh, yes we did. His loss.

After two museos we still had time to wander the beautiful city of Geneva, with weather that is too wonderful to describe. Here is a picture of my Frau with a statue to J.J. Rousseau. It's on Rousseau Island. In the middle of the Rhone River. In Geneva.

Sciez

We are now living in France in a little apartment in a house in the French countryside. The house appears to be a converted barn that is, perhaps, a hundred or two hundred years old. It sits in an old deteriorating apple orchard on Rte de Prailles, which is one of those roads in Europe that is not really two way but it's used for that anyway. Most importantly, we're in the countryside. Of France. In the foothills of the Alps. Near Lake Geneva but most definitely not in a city or even close to urbanity in any form. We left Geneva behind as we drove along the waterfront and went from city to country in an instant. Such like Europe: no suburbs.

Madame B. found a drawer full of maps in the apartment. It made her very, very happy. She says she intends to study them all. That might take more than a week, however, and there are things to do.

We went exploring. There were discoveries. One we will save for a future post, since the conditions for a picture were less than ideal and we'll be passing it every day this week. Sciez, however, we shall not pass on as it is a lovely little French town with its own harbor on the lake. The tourists are gone but the summer weather is hanging on and we are grateful.

And it's France, in every sense of the word. People often pretend not to speak English when you know they know it. Others are more kind, especially when they can see you need help. Ah, La France. 

We have been noticing things of interest, like the ancient dilapidated chateau below. What was more interesting, though, were the people outside the chateau who saw us taking a picture and yelled at us. Very friendly, these people.

And so we are in France. Tomorrow: Touring Geneva sans Calvin. Hence, there will be museos!

Heckling Protesters in Front of the UN

Okay, maybe the weren't protesters...and maybe there was no heckling at all. We weren't really sure what it was except there were big flags from Colombia. And it was in front of the famous Broken Chair statue. Which is so famous I'd never heard of it. I guess it's a memorial to victims of landmines. Like that makes sense. Anyway, back at the protest-whatever I engaged a friendly guy in Spanish and he told us it was a rally urging a Yes vote on the new peace treaty with FARC. I was wondering why everyone was so well behaved and happy. They're not really protesting anything. Then they all sat down. So there was that.

En Geneve

View from the hotel room.

My wife doing what she does best on vacation: Studying the tour guides.

City hiking along the Lake Geneva waterfront.

On The Way To Geneva, and Seborga, and...?

Near Gate K19, waiting for our Iberian Airlines flight to Madrid.