Lake Geneva and Colmar (France and Switzerland) 2016

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Autumn of 2016. Our son had one week off from school, so an opportunity to hit the road again. Cigdem would like to see the medieval village of Yvoire at Lake Geneva. We used this spot as reference to explore the surroundings of Lake Geneva. Via AirBNB we found a reasonable room. We also decided to combined our trip with a visit to my cousin who is living in Switzerland.



Saturday morning we left from Vlaardingen and arrived at Spreitenbach around dinner time. I did not saw my cousin and her family for almost 7/8 years so we had a long evening to talk about the last years. In combination of a nice wine and good food and off course the nice conversation time fled and it was time to go bed.



The next morning after the breakfast it was time to go. We drove from Zurich area towards the Lake of Geneva. Before we went to our accommodation we made a short stop at Montreux. This city is a lovely place. Nice view of the Alps and the Lake of Geneva. Our stop was too short. For sure it's worth for a next visit. From Montreux we drove to the French part of the lake, to the village of Orcier where our AirBnB accommodation was located.



Once we arrived we called our host, who unfortunately did not speak English. However our hosts were a nice French couple. They bought an old mill and renovated to a house. Very cozy in a very silent area. With my limited French and some body language they guided us to our room. We dropped our luggage here and went out to explore the lovely village of Yvoire.



Its a short drive from our accommodation to arrive to this village. Yvoire is a 700 years old village with ramparts, fortified gates, harbor and castle. Very lovely and you can finish it in some hours. The village is also called: “gem of the lake”.



After walking trough all the nice streets we looked for some restaurants. Strange enough most of the restaurants were closing. The ones which were remaining were the restaurants with a higher price-class. There was only one small pancake house where we could snack a bit. Looking to the prices, (5 euros for a small pancake) we could better just snack a pancake and find a restaurant outside Yvoire.



At the evening, the village became a kind of a ghost town. Less people and most of the restaurants were closed. After our short snack we decided to go back to our accommodation. On our way back to Orcier we found a nice restaurant beside the road where we had our dinner and went to our accommodation. Umut slept immediately and we just rested a bit and went to sleep.



The next morning we went for a breakfast at the local patisserie. Lovely French croissants and sweets together with a cup of coffee. Today we drove to the Swiss part of the lake, to the city of Geneva where we spent our day. Geneva is the second most populous city of Switzerland. We parked our car and walked trough the city center. At a park we saw an impressive landmark, the Brunswick Monument which is a mausoleum built in 1879 in Geneva, Switzerland to commemorate the life of Charles II, Duke of Brunswick (1804–1873). He bequeathed his fortune to the city of Geneva in exchange for a monument to be built in his name, specifying that it be a replica of the Scaliger Tombs in Verona, Italy.



From there we walked beside the lake. Another famous landmark is the The "Jet d'Eau", a large fountain, being featured on the city's official tourism web site. Situated at the point where Lake Geneva empties into the Rhône, it is visible throughout the city and from the air, even when flying over Geneva at an altitude of 10 kilometres.

However it was quite cold, while we were walking with our winter jackets, there were some people swimming at the lake. At the shore there were many swans. When Umut approached them, we noticed how huge they were.



From Geneva we moved back to the French part to the city Evian les Bains. This city is the home of Evian Mineral Water. It was another lovely town at the Lake of Geneva. The beautiful landmarks are the lakeside of the city and the Lumieres Brothers Villa, where the town hall is housed. At this city we found a very lovely Italian restaurant where we had our dinner. We shortly explored the city center and walked a bit at the lakeside.

It was time to move back to our accommodation as it was bedtime for Umut. We decided to sleep also early as the short holiday was slowly to its end.



The next morning, we woke up to leave. First we went to the patisserie at Orcier to have a lovely French breakfast and moved slowly to the direction of Switzerland. At the lakeside we stopped to take some pictures. The weather was a bit foggy, which gave the a mystic view to the lake.



Saying goodbye to the district Rhone-Alpes and entering Switzerland we continued our road via the Motorway. It took us approximately 2 hours to cross Switzerland and enter France again. (district of Alsace) One of the most beautiful cities of this district is the city of Colmar, where we took our break.



Colmar's secular and religious architectural landmarks reflect eight centuries of Germanic and French architecture and the adaptation of their respective stylistic language to the local customs and building materials (pink and yellow Vosges sandstone, timber framing).



The city center of Colmar is one big open air museum. Lovely buildings and channels. We walked trough the lovely streets, grabbed some coffee at one one of the cozy terraces. Before we continued we also took our dinner at this place. It was a good final of our autumn holidays.....

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