Yvoire Lake Geneve

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Yvoire and Switzerland

I always wanted to go to Switzerland. And in the French alps we met some particularly helpful Swiss, one of whom had sailed around he world and recounted his time in Darwin.

So on leaving the Mt Blanc area we headed for some flat land.

The location we headed for was on the southern shore of Lac Leman- or Lake Geneva to us ordinary folk. So we head for Excenevex. Its just downstream from Evian where they bottle the water that quenches toploftical thirsts.



As we left Chaminox Mt Blanc the sunny weather was heading for the history books and it was raining when we turned up bright eyed and bushy tailed at Excenevex which turned out to be one of Lake Geneva’s southern beach areas set aside for the privately rich and recluse. So following a walk around their beach and observing how many shades of grey there are in he sky and on the glacier fed lake on a late August afternoon, we bedded down in a parking lot after a bus driver practiced his English while we looked up a few words in the French dictionary to make a sort of conversation. It was all very friendly. An Englishman told us about some treasure nearby.



The following morning we headed off toward Geneve ( a fancy French / Swiss way of writing Geneva). But only 2 miles away we stopped to inspect the local treasure.

Local treasure comes in the form of a medieval town of Yvoire. Its a beautiful walled town like many in Europe rich in history and a sheer delight to wander through. The city fronts Lake Geneva on its northern shore and has the standard castle, narrow streets, cobbled pavement, and feeling of history well preserved. Of particular interest is the Saint Pancras’s church built relatively recently for this town (14^th century). Saint Pancras is he patron saint of children. On the ceiling of this relatively small and simply unobtrusive church is painting which is quite challenging as well as being extremely well preserved. The painting reminds us of a dramatic event in 304 AD. It shows 14 year old Pancras being decapitated – with the Yvoire castle in background.

Good stuff to contemplate as we drive on – right along he lake and through the CBD of busy Geneva .

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