Tag: Cities

Visit Day 5: Montreux, Gruyères, Broc

We left two most action – packed days to the end of our friends’ visit. On Wednesday morning we took Ania and Wojtek to the airport (they flew to Poland) and we hit the road. First to Montreux where we saw beautiful Montreux riviera, castle of Chillon and of course statue of our favorite artist of all times Freddie Mercury. (You can see this statue on Made In Heaven album cover).

After Montreux we went to world famous village of Gruyères – home of Gruyères cheese and favorite place of artist Hans Rudolf Giger who is mostly recognized as a creator of Ksenomorfs for Aliens movies. In Gruyères you can visit museum of H.R Giger and drink something in bar that he designed.

After seeing Gruyères’ castle, Giger Bar and Museum we became hungry so we went to Maison Du Gruyères for some cheesy food.

For dessert that day we served ourselves a lot of chocolate in Cailler Chocolate factory in a nearby town of Broc.

Visit Day 4: Lausanne

It’s a nice coincidence that we got to see Lausanne – the city with presidency of Olympic Games – during winter Olympic Games in Sochi this year. We started the day by walking along the board of the lake in Ouchy district where also the museum of the Olympic Games is situated.

 

 

Afterwards, we drove to the city centre to have a look at Lausanne panorama from the cathedral hill and walk down the hilly old town full of fancy shops, narrow old streets and „ups and downs”.

Visit Day 3: Annecy

We started visit day 3 with a trip to Annecy – a place I have seen thousands of time because it’s so picturesque that every visitor needs to see it. For summer Annecy – check out this post. Winter Annecy is way different. Today it was a bit grim, with heavy clouds hanging above the lake. Fortunately, a general colourfullness of this place (houses, alleys, flowers etc.) made the whole town view more friendly.

We strolled around the village and then stopped at a restaurant to grab a bite and sip on coffee. We ordered traditional cheese omlette and cheese dish (with Reblochon – local cheese). Coffee was served in a pottery made in Savoy (this region). How quaint and lovely… On top of that, as we were sitting by the bank of river, enjoying local goodies, sky turned a bit brighter and we could see sun reflexes. We didn’t stay too long though because later that day we had CERN visit scheduled.

Visit Day 1: Yvoire, Thonon

We are having a longly awaited friends’ visit this week. With so many fantastic places around, we have an action packed 7 days ahead 🙂 We are starting mildly, not to tire Magda and Michał too much on their first day. Yvoire is a must for every tourist. We’ve been there with Radek a couple of times (see this post), not once in winter though. It was a real delight to stroll down the medieval allays without many tourists around. The old town is small but lovely and the coastal area with the castle… Real delight.

Since Yvoire is a 1-hour-walk town, we decided to pop by yet another coastal village on our way back to Geneva. We chose Thonon-les-Bains because we (Radek and I) haven’t seen it yet. Although those little places are similar to each other, Thonon has something that distinguishes it from the others… It’s le funiculaire – sort of a tram for lazy tourists who prefer to have a ride up and down the hill instead of walking. Yep – that’s us 🙂 Well, the truth is – we are not lazy – it’s just that the funiculaire is an attraction itself and we wanted to check it out. It took us to the lake and back. Would be hard to push a pram all the way up!

Short trip to Nyon

We had a short discussion with Radek concerning the destination of today’s trip and Radek won choosing Nyon. This lovely little place is situated on the north side of Lac Leman, just 20 minutes’ drive from our place. It has all constituents of a Lake Geneva village: nice boulevard close to the water, marina, castle and narrow streets with colourful facades. We had a nice walk around the village, covering all formerly mentioned elements in just 90 minutes.

 

There was a really nice panorama view from a castle terrace. It’s a pity that the sky wasn’t clear enough to see the other side of the shore well. Anyway, at the end of our trip the sun went below the clouds and we had a really nice yellow-orangish setting around. I mean, winter and cold is fun, but the sun is even funnier 🙂

 

Le fabuleux village d’Evian

We decided to go on a trip at the last day of 2013. Destination: the faboulous village of Flottins in Evian. This lovely city is situated right on the board of Lake Geneva. We chose it because of a festival that was going on between Christmas and New Year. I have no idea what/who Flottins are, but what I know is that the place was filled with the strangest wood sculptures one could imagine. 'Strangest’ is a gentle word to describe them, I think 'creepy’ is more accurate 🙂 Radek said that if he had found himself on a meadow with all these wooden creatures, he would have felt scared like hell. I agree. Nevertheless, spread across all over the town, they made for a very particular and absorbing view that we both really enjoyed.

 

We were both surprised by the multitude of the sculptures. Arranging them all over Evian must have already been quite an endeavor, not to mention actually crafting them!  We started our trip by walking along the lake shore, which was a good prelude to the rest of the visit, since the sculptures by the water were relatively less sumptuous than the rest. Then we headed to the old part of the city and walked through the alleys full of the weirdest installations…

We decided to leave the best part of the city – called 'le fabuleux village’ – to the end of our trip, so after a brief walk through the streets and stopping by for a cup of warm coffee, we set off to see Evian’s marina. Like every lake-side place here, Evian can pride oneself with a beautiful harbor for yachts and boats. We strolled down a calm and quiet boulevard by the water and enjoyed the sun and watching more sculptures scattered all over. 

Last but not least, we headed back to the town to see what was called „the fabulous village of Flottins” – a small passage filled with wooden goblins, gnomes, imps and who knows what else… Well there was even a huge hippo – kind of bizarre since hippos seem nice to me. But that one was huge and was opening its mouth every now and then like he wanted to devour the spectators, so in the end he suited well among other companions of this queer market.




Thun revisited

In 2010 when I was in Switzerland for one year we did the exact same trip: Bern first and then Thun – a small city located just a bit south and just a bit east to Bern – right at the foothill of the Alps. Thun is a pretty little place and we decided to treat it as a starter to even more beautiful mountain resorts that we want to see this winter. Also, since I didn’t feel that well health-wise, we decided to go to Thun which was the closest to our location.
The atmosphere of the city was way more hectic than at Bern. We first went by the city promenade – full of young people, Christmas emblems and crazy window displays. Then we headed to a boulevard stretching along the Thuner See (Thun Lake). A look on the Alps felt like a foreword to the views that we are going to see when we visit villages even more to east and south.

On our way back we went through an old city alley that was heading to the castle. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the top. We decided to return to car because I was feeling more and more ill. Better to save my health for later – in the end, I already saw the castle in 2010 (photos from 2010 below).

And here is a view from the castle hill in 2010 (just four years ago but seems like an eternity now):

Hazy Bern

Christmas are past and Radek has still a couple of free days left so we decided to use the time wisely and do something else than my usual 'staying at home’. It’s a pity I am ill though, nevertheless I feel like getting out and so we went east – to Bern anf Thun. Bern is the capital city of Switzerland well known for its bears (emblem of the city). I have already visited it twice in the past but each time was a bit different. This year we were greeted by a thick mist which made the city look dim and mystical.
We parked our car by the bear cave which is situated just by the river with a nice view on the city. Pas de chance though – I guess the beras were sleeping so the carrots we had taken with us remained in our rucksack.

Then we went past the bridge to stroll down the main bernenian alley and admire beautiful ornaments on the tenement houses and throw ourselves into the remains of the Christmas atmosphere. I guess it was good time to visit the city – the Christmas rush was by no means over, yet there were a lot of people (mainly tourists) who made the old town vibrant.

We continued walking and passed by what seemed to be the town hall, cathedral, well known tower clock and a couple of other fancy buildings. At the end we found a Christmas market next to a coffee house we stepped in to warm up. After this short but restorative break we went back the same route. Surprisingly, I noticed a lot of different details on the way back. Perhaps a change of an angle makes the difference while observing the world surrounding us. Also, the mist became less thick so it made us see the colours a bit better. We didn’t stop any more and went straight to the car to continue on our day trip and go to Thun.

Exploring Dombes region

Today, because of Swiss holiday, we had a day off to use. Although it is September, the weather was like in July, so we decided to make a trip outside the city. Destination: Dombes region, France. The area is well known for its ponds and water-soaked grounds. Our plan for the day: les jardins aquatiques (water gardens), Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne village, Le Parc des Oiseaux (bird park), a medieval village of Pérouges. Looks like an action-paked day for us.

We started from a small but beautiful water garden, nurtured by a company selling water-garden stuff (like fish, pumps and plants). They really know their ropes – the garden was marvelous. It’s best known for koi carps – very colourful little fellows swiming in their ponds. I really enjoyed this short walk – it was a nice start of our day.

Next, we headed to a lovely village – Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne. There was nothing special to see or do there, so we just walked around narrow allays, visited the hill with a castle, sat down in a cafe and enjoyed the sunny day and the charm and idleness of the place.

Then, we drove to Le Parc des Oiseaux – but this is a place that deserves a separate post, so I will skip it here. A visit in the park took us almost four hours, so when we were actually free it was already late afternoon. Last in our plan: a medieval village of Pérouges. It’s listed among 'les plus beaux villages de France’ (the most beautiful villages of France). I would personally compare it to Yvoire, although I liked Yvoire more. When we arrived, the village looked… deserted. There were few people, restaurants were closed… It felt a bit strange. We had a fast stroll through the cobblestoned streets, tasted la galette de Pérouges – a local delicacy and went back to car.


Paris Day 7: Au revoir Paris

We devoted our last day in Paris for strolling in a park, wandering through the less popular streets and a Batobus ride. We started the day from Le Jardin des Plantes – a huge place of greenery, with the National Museum of Natural History placed in the area. We decided to see just one part of the museum – hall of the skeletons. We felt too tired to visit the rest of the exhibitions – a week in Paris was an intense experience for us and we simply had had enough of pacing through the alleys with showpieces. Instead, we sat down on a bench in the park and enjoyed the summer.

Since the day was exceptionally hot (so hot it actually was too much for me), we decided to head to the closest cofee shop to cool ourselves with a big iced latte. On our way we passed by some yet undiscovered places – like Place de Bastille or Gare de Lyon. We finished the day with a Batobus ride and dinner in a restaurant. Au revoir Paris!