A Day in France

One aspect of our sabbatical in Switzerland that we have been excited about from the beginning is the ease with which we can get to other European countries. Switzerland is of course a small country right in the middle of Western Europe.  From our home in Lausanne we can get to all kinds of places fast: Paris (5 hours by train), Milan (3 hours by train), etc.

In planning our time here, we envisioned multiple weekend jaunts to different countries.  But we have learned two things since being here (more than two, of course, but two in particular are relevant here).  First, there are tons of fun and interesting things to do IN Switzerland.  To be honest, Switzerland was never really on my radar screen as a potential vacation spot.  Our time here has really changed my perception.  It is a lovely country that I can’t believe I almost missed.  So now we have our list of things we must do and see in Switzerland before our time runs out.

The second thing we learned is that we don't quite have the energy to do as many weekend trips away as we anticipated.  Our weeks are full with school and work, and just as we of course don't go away every other weekend when we're at home, it's clear to us now that we're not going to be doing that here either.  We'll go to Italy for our fall break, but the upshot is that we've basically decided to prioritize experiencing Switzerland and all it has to offer.  Oktoberfest in Munich can wait for another trip.

All that said, we look at another country every single day from our balcony (from which, recall, we can see across Lake Geneva to France), and at the top of our Lausanne list has been to take a boat trip across the lake to France, just for the day.  So that's what we did this past Sunday.

The weather was perfect:  sunny but not too hot, after the prime tourist season but not yet winter.  There are dozens of potential Lake Geneva boat trips to choose from, everything from your run-of-the-mill commuter boat to an old fashioned three-hour tour on a paddle-wheel steamer.  

At night we can see the lights of one of the more famous French towns on the lake:  Evian, home of spas and bottled water.  But we opted for a trip to Thonon-les-Bains, partly because it looked charming (in the guidebooks), and partly because it would give us a somewhat longer boat ride (about an hour) and the boat ride itself was part of the point of the excursion.

Aye, Aye! Captain!

We had a great time.  The boat trip was lovely.  The boys really got a kick out of being on deck, at the front of the boat watching the waves, below deck eating croissants, and getting closer and closer to France.

Guys on the boat with France in background

Vive La France!

The boat makes a quick stop at Evian on the way to Thonon.

Thonon-les-Bains is a charming fishing village.  We played in the waterfront park, rode the funicular up to the old village center, and walked back down for lunch.

The Port of Thonon-les-Bains

The village at the top of the hill

We had an excellent lunch.   It's maybe a bit cliche that the best restaurant meal we've had since we've been here is the one meal we had in France, but there you have it.  

Lunch in Thonon

Mark and I opted for the “plat du jour” while the guys opted for "nuggets de poulet"  (no joke).  The plat du jour was the chef's selection of viande (meat).  Our only concern was to be sure that we were not ordering cheval (horse), which is very common here both on menus and in supermarkets.  I am sure it is just fine, but I, for one, am not eating Mr. Ed.  So we asked our waiter (in French) what kind of meat was in the chef's special.  He said a word that sounded an awful lot like cheval, but he assured us (in English) that it was not horse but "the papa of Bambi."  Bambi aside, we're fine with venison, but we checked our French-English dictionary just to be certain.  The French word for deer is "chevreuil," which is awfully close to "cheval," at least to our American ears, so I don't think we should feel too bad about our French that we at first mistook chevreuil for cheval.  And the dish was delicious.

After lunch we walked the quai (harbor-side path) until it was time to catch the boat back to Lausanne. Near the park we noticed several signs with the date August 14, 1944.  We assumed this had something to do with WWII.  Christopher and Matthew had all kinds of questions about the war and this gave us a bit of an opportunity to talk about WWII with them.  (And it's not that easy trying to explain the French Resistance on the fly with actual French people within earshot.)  But it wasn't until we arrived back at the apartment when we had a chance to look up the date to find out the real story.  August 14, 1944 was the day when the French resistance fighters took over key ports in Southern France. During the WWII, Thonon was occupied by the Italians and later by the Germans. Evidently, the repression of the resistance movement was harsh and the liberation of the town was difficult.  Clearly a date worth commemorating.  A sign said that the battle on the square we walked through took six hours.  We've commented before on all the ancient history we've encountered, and of course there are no WWII sites in Switzerland, but this was a reminder that European history didn't stop with the Reformation.

As we were heading to the pier to catch our boat back to Lausanne, the sky grew dark and the lake choppy.  The rain drops started to fall just as our boat pulled up.  Fortunately, this was a commuter boat which was largely enclosed and only took 27 minutes to get us back across the lake to Lausanne.

The trip back to Switzerland

And that was our day trip to France.