Saint-Maurice & Montreux - 22 April 2024

22.04 - St Maurice, and a bike ride to Montreux 

They say every picture tells a tale - well by about 8.30pm last night, we’d retreated to our beds to watch iPlayer (me), YouTube (him) - and generally try to keep warm! Yes, we do put the heating on sometimes - but the benefit seems to be very short lived. 

Mohos seem to attract other mohos - safety in numbers mentality, and we heard people arriving last night. They were in a car, plus an old moho. Scummy Spanish - just left their gray drain open in the carpark this morning. No wonder places put barriers to prevent people like that!

Was only 3° outside this morning.  I’m pleased to say we’ve had a good day - despite what the doom forecast said yesterday!

Not sure how long Tintin drove for today - made up of several drives. 

We tried the services on the motorway first of all. No fresh water, or gray water drainage ☹️

We chanced our luck at a smallish carpark in St Maurice, where we had an hour of free parking. 

We went into the St Maurice Abbey reception room - but no further. However, the basilica next door was free - and oh so warm inside. The huge doors opened automatically to welcome us in. All had a nice feel to it, no dusty, musty dark place you want to escape from straight away!

From there we walked towards the Château - all closed on Mondays. The river running alongside is the Rhône. We walked up to the top castle - just to get warmer!

Virtually all the shops were shut, but again - all looked very nice. We thought about treating ourselves to a cake. Just couldn’t bring ourselves to spending CHF 8 for two Mille Feuilles 😉 Will wait for France!

Tintin then drove onto a moho dealership (before 12 - otherwise they have a long lunchtime!) where in exchange for CHF 2 we bought a jeton so we could service Dave. A rude Frenchman came and emptied his s**t whilst we were watering up - it’s just something we wouldn’t do - you’d just wait. 

Onwards to about the only place we could find near Montreux to park. Hercy said he enjoyed Montreux and Sion - and as we couldn’t park anywhere near Sion, knew we needed to try Montreux. 

Parking wasn’t really suitable for Dave, but we squeezed into two spaces near the edge, at an angle. Had lunch, then put our multiple layers on again to go on our bikes. It was trying to rain a bit, but didn’t ever really succeed - thankfully!

Montreux didn’t disappoint - 4 miles cycle each way to Châteux de Chillon and back. Stopped so many times to take photos! Even though it was cold and a bit damp - very pleasant place to be. Lovely scenes out over Lac Léman (Geneva) and lots of interesting things to see. 

The annual Jazz festival is in July each year. The statue of Freddie Mercury is popular too. We’re back to queuing behind the Asians - just don’t get me started! I actually saw Queen perform live in Paris in the 1980s - fab!

Apparently the Château de Chillon was used as inspiration for Disney’s Little Mermaid. It’s a while since Sarah watched that - can’t remember! Once again, posing Asians got in the way!

Tintin likes my photo of my paddle steamer - he doesn’t get his camera out much these days - mainly for zooming in - as my iPhone struggles with that. I also might have to treat myself to a new iPad. Have found that any video I take on my phone looks washed out when transferred - something to do with HDR, and no longer being compatible…

There are some splendid examples of real estate along the waterfront. On the basis average apartments in non sought after areas were in the millions - who knows how much money you’d need to live around here!

We spent some time just watching the swallows and martins zoom past at such speed. I really admire all the people back at home who manage to get such clear photos - fair to say they don’t use an iPhone!

Didn’t fancy staying the night where we were - very much on a slope and didn’t want to outstay our welcome. 

Tintin drove around the coast for another 30 minutes - we’re in a place called Pully - right on the waterfront. However, neither of us have ventured out - it’s windy and cold. Should be free to park over night - and you get 6 hours free during the day - good job we brought our Guernsey parking clock with us!

On the way, it was just vineyard after vineyard - we both said we don’t think we’ve even knowingly had Swiss wine before. A quick Google says Swiss wine is a rarity - only about 1% is exported - as they prefer to drink it themselves!

The freezer is no more! We need to eat Chilli again tonight. Think we’ll have to dump the rest of the meals I made, as they’re no longer frozen. Add this to the list of repair jobs for Tintin to do when we get home!