Gruyere & Montreux

Today we visited a cheese factory in the mountainous town of Gruyere and the old town it is near as well as took a scenic train journey to the lakeside Montreux. With a lovely walk along a blooming foreshore we arrived at the Chateau de Chillon, a castle built in the 12th centuary.

Cheese aging

Smelling the various plants the cows eat

The old town of Gruyere

Statue of Freddy Mercury from Queen by Lac Lamen (Lake Geneva)

Flowers in bloom by the foreshore

Sculptures inspired by Madagascar 2

Chateau de Chillon (image courtesy of tapetky.cz)

Inside the Chateau

Ancient amour

View from one of the many rooms

Weekend in Switzerland

We had a lovely weekend with Sarah & Dave. In celebration of Sarah's upcoming birthday friends came over for dinner. On Sunday Richard & I visited the UN headquarters and went to the old town part of Lausanne and Morges.

Sarah opening presents

Sarah & Dave's friends - Denys, Paulina, Markus & Alex

One of the UN meeting rooms

One of the original meeting rooms

Church in Lausanne

View from the church over part of Lausanne and Lake Geneva

Morges

Three days in Paris

We just spent a relaxing three days wondering around Paris - seeing a few of the popular sites such as the Lourve, Arc de Triumph, Eiffel Tower etc. We most loved wandering around the quaint streets of the Latin Quarter and relaxing on reclining chairs in wide gardens with the city's historical structures in the backdrop.

The entry to the Lourve

Inside one of the many rooms in the museum (we won't bore you with all the info & photos!)

Notre Dame

A street in the Latin Quarter

The Seine

Reclining

Arc de Triumph

The spell of romance continues by the Eiffel Tower

One of the many pastries we tried, neatly packaged

Serious games of petanque in the Luxembourg Gardens

A perfect day for the Matterhorn

Today the weather was brilliant, the slopes tempting (except Rich didn't have a board and my growing belly ruled me out), so we enjoyed the scenic train rides, spectacular views of mountain ranges including the stunning Matterhorn, and went for a little walk/slide down a few runs (who needs a board or skis huh?!).

Richard the poser

Sarah, Richard & Paulina

Now we've both caught the posing notion

Sliding down the slopes

Storytelling in igloos

Chalet windows in Zermatt

Snow-shoeing in St Cergue

Today we caught a train to a town a little way past St Cergue, an hour out of Geneva. Scenery on the way entailed green rolling hills, cute houses with views of the lake, swings under trees ready to bloom besides small winding brooks, shaggy goats amongst pine trees, yellow bunches of wildflowers embedded in rock faces and brilliantly blue sky.

We tried our feet at snow-shoeing, definitely a good work out and something to consider taking up when winter approaches back home.

*Photos to come courtesy of Dave*

For dinner, Sarah & Dave took us to their local Ethiopian restaurant. Good food, great atmosphere (and perfect company!).

Me, Sarah & Dave

Nyon & Yvoire

It's not too far from Geneva for a lovely day trip to castles and quaint French towns by the lakeside.

A 15 minute train ride from Geneva around the lake takes you to the cobblestone town of Nyon

One of the many water fountains in town - decorated for Easter

Chateau de Nyon


Cobblestone streets

Another water fountain

Flowers in bloom by windows

Across the lake into Yvoire, France

Streets lined with cute stores

Park in Nyon

Roman ruins, Nyon

Sarah & Dave

The afternoon sun lights up the Chateau de Nyon

Geneva

We've been checking out Sarah & Dave's current home town - Geneva. Walking around the beautiful old town; rolling gardens with bulbs in bloom; buying fresh bread, cheese, tomatoes and olives for a lunch by the lakeside; sipping hot chocolate that was actually hot and more like thick chocolate soup...yum!; and looking at a photo exhibition at the Red Cross museum.

Reformist statues

St Peter's Cathedral

Soul warming hot hot-chocolate

Lakeside

Representing the nameless

Broken Chair - representing those handicapped because of land mines

Walking over one of Sarah and Dave's local bridges, together with nice view