Yvoire & Evian, France, and Geneva, Switzerland

 On a following day and we drove to Yvoire and Evian for more sightseeing.  Yvoire was one of the highlights of our entire trip.  If you like medieval, visit Yvoire, on the south shore of Lake Leman, which is a scenic village with the rare virtue of convenient parking.  You are probably familiar with Evian water; this town is the site of the gushing spring where it all started.  It is a comparatively recent city; the oldest buildings are only about 200 years old.  I took few photos at Evian; other than a pleasant lakefront area, it was not noteworthy in its somewhat typical modernness.  I understand that a tour of the Evian plant is available.  This city is also on the south shore of Lake Leman (French name), also called Lake of Geneva.  The north shore is Swiss territory which we have visited on a previous trip.

Typical building in Yvoire.  Okay, that is not a 'medieval" TV antenna, but they have kept much of the heritage while making it a 'lived-in' village.

Lots of stone walls and enclosed gardens.  I wonder if those walls may lend protection from cold north winds sweeping off the lake.

On the left is a hotel, but you can see that much of nature has been preserved.

Another beautiful wooden power boat with harmonious details.

                                    

Great reflection of the sailboat masts; no wind and a good day to stay at their docks.

We debated visiting the touristy mountain town of Chamonix which is fairly close but were afraid that we would discover just another location with too many tourists and no parking; plus, at this point we were limited for time.  Snow-clad Alpine peaks, including Mt. Blanc were visible from our location. 

Yvoire waterfront with appropriate architecture and authentic wooden fishing boats.

 

Yvoire town gate (some upper works missing).  I had to wait until most tourists, and a delivery van were finally gone before taking this photo.

Aren’t vacations supposed to be fun and relaxing?  This trip, although rewarding, has felt like a continuous series of challenges.  Our time in Geneva provides a good example.  Driving from our Hotel L’Arborescence (9 total rooms) near Annecy to Geneva, the plan was to refuel at a petrol station along the way.  We encountered zero petrol stations!  Negotiating an interminable series of roundabouts and urban complexity, our first stop was our Hilton hotel to drop off luggage and get our Geneva public transport passes (common throughout Switzerland).  Next was to drop off our car at Hertz airport car rental. 

We were supposed to return our Volvo with a full tank of gas, but it wasn’t worth the hassle to drive around looking for a petrol station, and the Hertz people were good with receiving the car near empty of fuel.  They even deducted one day from our rental because we were two hours early for the return.  Next, we needed to find a public bus headed for central Geneva.

Not much else besides this cathedral and some cobblestone streets remain from the old section of Geneva.  If you want the latest in shopping experiences, I am sure you can find it here.

I knew that central Geneva was near the river, but we wanted to explore the old section, not the pricey retail stores.  We found the ‘old town’ (look for cobblestone streets), but it proved to be small and not noteworthy.  Alternately, we toured a museum of practical art (exhibits of furniture, staircases, home design, and other implements).  We struck up a long conversation with one of the guards there. He was from Portugal, and we discussed the history and attractions of that country.  He would like to return to Portugal, but the job market is better here in Geneva.

Jet d'Eau with its constant stream of water.  Note how high it goes in comparison to the masts of those sailboats.

Next was a tasty and expensive lunch followed by a walk along the harbor visiting more attractions.  The 'Jet d'Eau' is a major focal point at the city waterfront.  It is a fountain in the harbor projecting a stream of water 140 meters (460 feet) into the air.  Continuing our walk, we passed the English Garden, crossed the Pont du Mont-Blanc (bridge), passed the Brunswick Monument, and arrived at what (on posted maps) was a TI, tourist information center.  All we found was a ferry terminal.  Ferries from this location travel to many parts of the lake.  On a previous trip to this area*, we took a ferry to Montreux at the far end of the lake and then returned by train.

*See September 2021 entry, 'Lausanne and Lake Geneva'

Asking at the ferry ticket office, we were told that the TI was located at the transportation center about 8 blocks northwest, uphill from the harbor.  Following GPS directions, we found the TI, got our bus directions, (bus #5) and were dropped off close to our Hilton hotel.  One last problem: a huge convention center, Palexpo, stood between us and our hotel. GPS stated it would take 24 minutes to walk around the periphery of this complex to our hotel.  We tried to enter the building but were refused by guards: a pass was needed.  Then I realized that one partial level of the huge building complex was a parking garage.  We took stairs to the parking garage and were able to pass through the complex on that level to get back to our hotel, saving 15 minutes.

Every action we took during our day in Geneva required a new decision.  Our vacations tend to be informative, enjoyable, but not too relaxing.  When you go on your own, filling in the details as you travel, this is the situation you face.

Lake Leman ferry boats are very old side paddle boats that have been well maintained

Annecy & Cruseilles, France

 Bustling, scenic Annecy, France, continues to be full of tourists at this date in October, and it is understandable.  The city borders a large lake which promotes a mild climate.  We saw hearty souls still swimming in its cool, clear waters.  The city is surrounded by mountains, the ‘pre-Alps’ with the true Alps nearby to the east.  The outlet of the lake, a small river, flows through the city, past ancient bridges, cobblestone streets, and ancient stone buildings with historic character.  We discovered a large marketplace for fresh fruits & vegetables, cheese, wine, meats…. Pretty much anything you could want was there. Tourists in large numbers, many restaurants, and an adjacent retail district for anything else that could interest you.

Annecy promenade; great place for a long walk while enjoying a pleasant day.  We are looking east, the city is off to the left (north).  

Dawn relaxing on a bench lakeside.

Looking south from Annecy along the length of its adjacent lake.

Old town Annecy, looking west along the outflowing river.

A large and well-attended market in old town.  Providing restaurants with fresh produce and, at other booths, handcrafts for tourists.

The old town section of Annecy extends along both sides of the outflowing river requiring a series of bridges.

I have a weakness for the fair curves of wooden boats.  Hundreds of boats, mostly plastic are available for rent along the waterfront here.  It must get hectic on a summer's day with the crowds of tourists.  

Every tourist seemed to want a photo of this building, and it is a striking location.

L'Arborescence Hotel & Restaurant, located on a small lake (15-minute brisk walk around it) on the outskirts of Cruseilles.

Near our lakeside hotel, on the far shore, was a pleasant, wooded park with a deer enclosure.

The major difficulty in visiting Annecy was to negotiate the multitude of roundabouts, one-way streets, bus-only zones, confusing GPS directions, and find a PARKING place.  We got yelled at when GPS directed us into a bus only zone.  Finally, we found a well-positioned parking spot, and we walked everywhere else, not wanting to endure the maze of traffic more than once.  If we were to do it again, I would enter "Annecy parking lot near lake" into my GPS instead of simply "Annecy".

I am glad that I selected a hotel (9 rooms total) near the town of Cruseilles for our accommodation.  Otherwise, we would have had the same problem we encountered in the London area.  L'Arborescence, our hotel, is located on a small lake with walking paths and even a wild animal enclosure.  The hotel was recently purchased by a young couple only a month before our visit.  It is a decent hotel, but many details need to be refreshed.  Their restaurant is supposed to be outstanding (often sold-out, reservations needed), but Dawn and I did not eat there.  We hate waiting until 7 pm to eat.  Instead, we went to the local Boulangerie-Patisserie in close-by Cruseilles.

  

Montagny les Buxy, Beaune, and Burgundy

 After a long drive, the Alsace region is now behind us, and we are in the Burgundy wine region.  We are staying at Villa Fugue Blanche B&B which is absolutely beautiful.  They have three rooms to rent and provide superb service.  Breakfast is home prepared with homemade jams and juices. Valerie is an interior architect and Jean-Philippe is a retired corporate manager.  He got burned out from hectic business travel world-wide and now enjoys home cooking for guests.  For Valerie, she has transferred her business from Paris to this location and is now more selective in her projects.  As an interior architect, in addition to choosing furnishings and finishes, her range of services includes changing doors, windows, and walls in rethinking an interior.  She has done a very attractive job of updating what were previously two old houses.

You can kind of see how this was previously two houses.  The owners live in the right half and rent three rooms in the left half.

Montagny les Buxy:  I think that means that Montagny is a suburb of Buxy.  The entire area is covered with vineyards.  

Looking across the broad valley towards Buxy.  During WWII, Buxy was controlled entirely by the occupying German Army, but Montagny was part of Vichy France.  People coming home from shopping had to pass through a German guard post.

No cathedral in this village, but I liked the composition in this view of their church.

We really enjoyed our conversations with Valerie and Jean Philippe.  If you pay attention to international news, you are aware that France has gone through five prime ministers in the past two years.  They explained that the prime ministers each came to the conclusion that France must drastically cut its expenditures.  Too many handouts and subsidies.  However, the national legislature does not want to accept such facts.  This is what happens when takers outnumber producers.  Valerie and Jean Philippe say the France is at its absolute low point.  Their total effective tax rate is 65%.  They encourage young people to move elsewhere.  All of this is a lesson for us in the United States.

I do not think that they manage this B&B for its profitability, more likely for stimulation.  Their visitors come from all over the world.  You need a vehicle (or road bicycle) and GPS to find their location in the tiny village of Montagny les Buxy, about 200 inhabitants.  No stores here, you need to drive to Buxy, a slightly larger village, for even basic shopping.  The view from our room looks across a river valley with extensive vineyards and scattered villages.  The nights are absolutely quiet.

Yesterday, we spent our time in the town of Beaune.  There is a walled central old town: narrow cobblestone streets, interesting shops and restaurants, old churches, and a famous hospital, Hospices de Beaune, (now a museum). Today, the current Wall Street Journal edition had an article on Beaune as the foremost wine town in the Burgundy region.  Beaune has a wine museum which recounts the history of wine in the region since Roman times.  People here take their wine very seriously.  They claim that the wine from each parcel of land has a unique taste.

We also drive to Dijon, famous for its mustard.  Unfortunately, it was a cool drizzly day, and parking was difficult.  We didn't see much worthwhile there.  The following day we headed south to Tournus and Macon.  We toured a beautifully maintained chateau and had the best meal of our trip, counting both the atmosphere as well as the food.

A chateau maintained for display near the Town of Tournus.

Beautiful gardens including a large shrubbery maze.

Kitchen with a fire burning in the fireplace and a boar's head hung above it.

Bed chamber.  What else did they use this room for besides sleeping?

Meals were a problem; that is, dinner was a problem.  Restaurants in France are only open 4-5 days per week, and they ALL (90%) close between 2 pm. and 7 pm.  Dawn and I hate late heavy dinners.  We were told that one reason that restaurants have such limited hours is because they can't find workers.  Instead, we would often eat our late meal (4-5 pm.) at a Boulangerie and Patisserie. That translates to a bakery and pastry shop.  We could find healthy sandwiches and fruit tarts (for me).  

Everything here was well maintained.  With the shrubbery sculptures, I am sure the trimming takes constant attention.

Another castle in the rea.  This one is not open for tourists, but I am sure its history would be interesting.

Colmar, Alsace, and The Vosges Mts.

 From Basel we moved to a nice hotel in Colmar, France.  Colmar is a scenic, mid-sized city in the Alsace valley, a major wine-growing region.  This region was part of Germany from 1871 until the end of World War I, 1914-1918, and still shows a German influence.  To the west the Vosges mountains rise to 3,000-4,000-feet heights and were the scene of heavy fighting during that war.  Even today, portions of trenches, bunkers, and shell craters can be found in the thick forest that now cover its ridgeline.

If you enlarge this picture, you will see a cross atop the far hill.  Walking the path to that cross, you will see trenches, shell craters, and bunkers preserved from that long go war.  All the trees you see have grown up since 1918. this area was a barren wasteland when the fighting ended.

A bunker (the barred entry is to protect tourists from potential accidents) whose roof was formed by railroad rails then covered with rocks and dirt.

The area is attractive to tourists not only for its premium wines, but also for its scenic villages which retain the architecture of the medieval period in their central “Altstadt” areas.  Today those old buildings are well maintained with many shops and restaurants, although you may have to park on the edge of town.  I would love to better understand the craftsmanship involved 500+ years ago when this was all being built.

Dawn and I spend our days visiting various Altstadt sites, plus a war memorial, castle ruins, and a nature trail.  In the early evenings, we wander the cobblestone streets of Colmar itself.  We have been to Colmar previously, but we then were recovering from COVID and had limited time.  Strasbourg, to the north is very scenic and much larger, but even more ‘touristy’.  Now we are back to explore in a more relaxed schedule.

We visited almost every small scenic village in the Alsace valley; so many so that in my memory they have all blended together.  Names like: Keyersburg, Eguisheim, Riquewihr, Rouffach, and Guberschwihr.  Although it was now October, plenty of tourists were still present.

This Sherman tank is a memorial to the US soldiers who drove out the last German troops at the end of WWII.

These boats are called punts.  Instead of being rowed, in this shallow river they are propelled using a pole.

When this street was laid down, there was no thought of the modern automobile.

Arrival at Basel

 Our first day in Basel, cloudy, drizzling, and a high of 55 degrees. But you can’t just sit in your hotel room.  Off we went on a bus to downtown.  We missed a bus connection but made up for it by walking the remaining distance.  Many shoppers out, interesting store windows, wonderful architecture, 'fussganger' areas (pedestrian only), thus, our walk was pleasant.  We were here briefly three years ago and remember a sumptuous meal we shared at an Italian restaurant but, despite searching, were unable to discover it again.

Basel Airport is at the intersection of Switzerland, France, and Germany (just across the Rhine River).   At the airport, if you go out one door, you are in France while another door leads you to Switzerland. 

Instead, we toured the Basel Zoo, small but an easy walk from the city center.  The weather seemed to not affect attendance; plenty of parents with children.  The sea lions don’t mind this weather, but the large African animals are now indoors.  While at the zoo, we received an email stating that our scheduled flight London to Washington, DC, was canceled.  From the zoo we called British Airlines and rescheduled.  Cell phones are amazing. 

Every town or village has a cathedral, many are magnificent.  It demonstrates the power of the church in previous centuries.

W never tire of looking at the interesting architecture from that medieval era, built using no modern construction equipment.

A day later and now the sun is out, and it is warmer.  We picked up our rental car and headed for Freiburg, Germany, an hour away.  A section of the autobahn had no speed limit, and Dawn ran the Volvo up to almost 100 mph.  Freiburg is a popular university town, it was Saturday, and we had difficulty finding parking.  When you are in a city whose streets were laid out 500 years before the invention of the automobile, that difficulty is not surprising.  Finally, frustrated, I googled ‘public parking’, found the names of two companies that had parking structures, downloaded their app, and was able to get guidance to a nearby underground parking lot.

Our Volvo XC40 was an outstanding rental car.  Heated seats and steering wheel, auto trans, 500-mile range on a fuel tank, but the feature that really caught our interest was the 360-degree camera system.  No, it does not have a camera on the roof.  Instead, it has a series of unobtrusive cameras installed about fender level which are tied together with software to provide a view as if you were looking down from above.  With the narrow roads, cramped parking garages, and narrow parking space prevalent in Europe, this is a valuable feature.  Perhaps I should mention that when we were renting the car, the quote for insurance was about $1700-1800 dollars.  We elected no insurance and brought it back without even a scuff mark (as we have on every other rental we have ever used).

 

A photo to demonstrate the crowds present on this Saturday afternoon.

Freiburg has a magnificent cathedral.  Concession tents and food trucks were arranged around it along with a stage and entertainment.  Crowds everywhere.  After a nice meal and exploration of the Altstadt, it was time to head back to Basel.  Tomorrow and for the following 11 days we will be in France. 

England

Supermarine Spitfire, England's premier fighter during the London blitz.  It had a Rolls Royce engine.  The US used that same engine, under license, in its P-51 fighter.

I confess to poor planning for our stay near London.  I did not realize how horrific traffic is in that area.  We chose a hotel halfway between London and Heathrow, thinking it would be convenient to both: it wasn't.  If you want to visit London proper, use the train system.  If you want to visit outlying villages, get an accommodation outside the metro area.  Our hotel was near a park, and we could go for evening walks along a path surrounded by fields and trees, but....  The only nearby public transport was a bus stop.  We had a rental car but had to fight traffic for about an hour to get past the convoluted traffic and narrow streets.

This is a typical street near our hotel.  You travel at the speed of the buses around you.

We did take that public bus one day to visit a nearby shopping mall.  Nice mall, but it took an hour to go the 8-9 miles to get there.  Fortunately, it was a double decker bus, and we got to sit up front on top and enjoy the scenery.

Europe loves 'roundabouts' as a way to avoid stop lights.  They work well with moderate traffic.  Unfortunately, in the London/Heathrow area traffic is so thick that the roundabouts are choked.  The solution has been to place a traffic light at each point in the roundabout where traffic enters or exits.  Now, to get through, what should be an intersection, you have to deal with at least three traffic lights plus the complexity of the traffic circle just to stay straight on the road you are following. 

GPS is a great aid, but not infallible.  A few times our auditory guidance was telling us to turn in one direction while our route chart was indicating the opposite direction.  Exits may be only a few car lengths apart, and if the auditory guide is slow or fast in its announcement, "Turn here!", you will take the wrong exit and need to do a U-turn somewhere down the road to get back on course.  In busy traffic, don't look down at the GPS screen; have someone act as navigator (usually me).   

We were able to leave the metro area to visit the village of Castle Combe, west near Bath.  The village was scenic but small.  You could enjoy all of it in less than an hour, hardly justifying the several hours it took to get there.

Church at Castle Combe village, with a graveyard in the foreground.

We also visited the imperial war museum north near Duxford.  This museum is an actual working airfield where historic aircraft can not only be seen in static displays but also in flyovers, takeoffs and landings.  They have a large group of WWII Spitfire fighters.  There is also a large building where other historic aircraft are actively being restored to flyable status.  World War I is a special interest of mine, and I was able to view examples of some of the most noteworthy biplanes of that era (Spad, Nieuport, Bristol, Fokker, RE8).

German Messerschmidt BF-109 fighter, shot down over England during the Blitz.

Backyard landscaping in Village of Castle Combe, scenic but small. There was no open parking in the village, it was atop a hill several hundred yards away.

Heathrow airport has a reputation for being difficult to navigate.  The complex consists of five large terminals, each with a large number of concourses and gates.  The concourses are not arranged linearly; may be far apart.  Dawn and I enjoy long walks between long flights, but they have shuttle trains for the less mobile.  We have now been through Heathrow four times with no troubles.  Read all the signs, and don't hesitate to ask for guidance.

Weather was perfect for our visit.  Our hotel itself was very comfortable; near the Thames River, a 200-acre park, with surrounding green fields and a walking path.  The daily struggle started when we left the Syon Park grounds.  

With England's moderate and wet climate, gardens grow well.