August 3, Verbier- Mont Fort

Mountain Day. We headed back into the Valais to check out Mont Fort. This was recommended to us as some good hiking. We left out of the village of Verbier (a big ski village) and shamelessly took full advantage of the lifts. In total we probably only logged about 2 hours of hiking but we caught some great scenery, explored a neat hut, tried there worlds largest binoculars and generally had a good swiss mountain day.

August 2

Quiet day today catching up on shopping and chores as stores were closed yesterday and tomorrow. Tonight we were invited to dinner by our neighbours Nicole Cedric and Hugo (8). The food and hospitality were great! and after dinner we ahd even more fireworks. I think Cedric and Hugo has some kind of a bottomless supply. Charlie commented a number of times that Uncle George would be jealous of the quality of the volcanoes compared to the ones George buys from his “supplier”.

August 1

The Swiss national Holiday…we drove to Lausanne to have dinner with Jen and Alex and their Kids, and see the fire works on Lake Geneva. We had hamburgers and Hotdogs with salad fix’ns which was delicious, then walked from their house down to the lake to watch the festivities. It is quite amazing because every little village has there own celebrations but they all do the same thing….a little parade of children with glowing lanterns to an open area that will have a massive bonfire (which is guarded by firemen and their ready water hoses), and tons and tons of fire works!!! It was really great to see. You could look down the lake and watch other village’s bonfires and fireworks. As we drove home we watch fireworks from some if the other villages and when we got to our place Cedric and Nicole and Hugo were outside lighting off their own fireworks….so we watch with them and went to bed at about 12:30 or so. I think we fell asleep listening to fireworks in the distance.

July 31

An excellent day. To start off with we headed south east along the Lake Geneva and stopped to visit Chateau Chillon (just South of Montreux). It is a really neat old castle (mostly constructed in the 1200s) right on the lake of Geneva. Jack liked it because it had “chains, cells, and towers to look all around from”. There were some cool latrines too. The Chateau was made famous when Byron wrote the Prisoner of Chillon based on the true story of Francois Bonivard, a Genevois who was imprisoned there in the 1500’s for opposing the local Duke. When we were finished we went for a swim at this little crescent beach right beside the castle. It was clean blue water and very refreshing.

Very weird coincidence, as we drove south from Monteux through a neighbouring little town called Villeneuve we heard Smoke on the Water being played on the radio. The weird part is that this is apparently where Deep Purple got the inspiration for Smoke on the Water as they watched the wooden concert hall in Monteux burn after it was lit on fire by a flare at a Zappa concert.

We then drove a little further south east to a little town called Sion. We drove past several vine vineyards that creep up the hill side so far that you wouldn’t think that anyone could possible stand and pick the grapes let alone plant them. It was so beautiful. The wine is supposed to be some of the best in Switzerland…so we bought a couple of bottles. We then proceeded along a long, steep and winding road for about 16 km. to one of the largest (highest, as high in fact as the Eiffel Tower) dams in the world, ‘Grande Dixence”. It was definitely high and large! Quite neat to see. Mind you, several comparisons were made between this particular sight and Clark Griswald’s “World’s Largest Ball of String” which was only "three short hours away".

On the way home we stopped in Vevey and had a picnic (apparently pronounced “peekneek” in French) on the lake while watching the sunset.

July 30

After a morning of little things to do here (like ping pong, badminton, journals & laundry) we headed North West from here. We drove to Lac de Joux. On the way there we stopped at a small beautiful medieval village called Romainmotier. It was built right on the hill side. We went inside the church and as we were entering it we could hear loud, heavy organ music and it seemed like we were in a movie….but it was just the organ guy practicing. It was pretty cool. We looked around the village, had coffee and ice cream and then had a drive to Lac de Neuchatel. We stopped in a town called Yverdon and had a swim before heading home. We got home and started dinner and just as a thunder and lightening storm hit. We were happy to be home.

July 29

Road Trip! We went off to France. We drove down the south west side of Lake Geneva and just across the boarder to a town called Annecy. Once we found the old part of the town we had lunch and walk around on the little cozy streets. They are full of old stone buildings all close together and the river/canal on the other side of the side walk. We toured the “Palace on the River” which is a prison built in the middle of the river with little arched bridges going to it. It was used for a jail at one time and the cells are still there with heavy wooden doors and large rough metal hinges and door knobs. We really enjoyed it.

We then drove back towards home and stopped in Geneva for a swim in the lake, to look around and have dinner. I tried to find a store that I once went to with only hand made Christmas ornaments but no luck. Graham was really, really disappointed... He did however take us down a road that was for only the trams…..it was quite funny. Fortunately for us (and the Lenoir’s car) there were not tram’s running at that time. We cooled off in the lake, saw the big fountain (Jet d’Eau), then walked around and stopped for a great dinner at Pizza Molino. Home by about 9:00…

July 28

Carrie, Chris, Beast, and Tina left us today…..we had fun with them.

A rest day today….stayed here and caught up on a few things. Sleep, work, laundry, journals, groceries and emails. The boys and I went into the little town of Echallens for groceries and explored a bit. We came home with food and a Badminton set. The boys got that all set up, played that and a bit of ping pong.