We woke up to a cool overcast morning, but the forecast was for clearing skies so the four of us decided to hop in Yves and Katja's little car and they took us for a tour of the lakeshore.
The north shore of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) belongs to Switzerland, while the south shore belongs to France.
Yves is originally from this area in Switzerland, so he knows it well. He says that Lac Léman never should be known as Lake Geneva, and that most Swiss people call it Lac Léman.
Pretty easy to see why this is a popular area.
All of the north shore is covered in grape vines. You don't hear much about Swiss wines, but Yves says that's because the Swiss keep it for themselves and very little is exported.
By the time we got there, the skies had cleared and it was a gorgeous day!
Wow. Just beautiful.
Terraced grape fields.
We are staying near the top right at Chalet Saint Denis.
We drove down the lakeshore towards Lausanne, then back to Montreux.
Heading towards Montreux.
Montreux has long been known as a place where famous people can go and not be bothered. Freddy Mercury had a place here, as did David Bowie. And of course it is home to the popular Montreux Jazz Festival. Charlie Chaplin lived here, and there is a Charlie Chaplin museum. And Shania Twain has lived in the area for the last thirty years as well.
And of course the famous Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water" was written here in Montreux. The lyrics tell a true story related to a casino fire in 1971...
We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn't have much time
But Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water
A fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
Lac Léman at Montreux.
Beautiful lakefront walk in Montreux.
The fancy Eden Palace Hotel.
Makes you want to think about buying property in Switzerland.
We walked down to the Montreux Christmas Market...
Nice reindeer statue.
We stopped at a booth and had a typical Christmas Swiss hot wine drink.
5 Swiss francs ($7 CAD, $5,20 USD) each.
It was really delicious!
Sante!
Kevin, Katja, Yves, Ruth.
Me with Santa.
His normal uniform must have been in the laundry!
Mommy kissing Santa Claus!
Too funny.
Back at the apartment, Ruth had made a chicken curry that we all shared, and then had lots of travel talk in the evening.
What a great day we had. We knew that we would love Switzerland. It's so beautiful and we have only seen a small corner of it. Well, we know that we will have to come back.
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