Turn the other cheek? Not us ...

Last weekend our friends Graham and Tracey came to stay at Le Pre vert. We first met 8 years ago when we moved into our apartments at Thollon-les-Memises, Haute Savoie. Although we were in different buildings we were invited for drinks and found we had a lot in common. They are both teachers, interested in music, skiing and cricket and we discovered that when we first started teaching, in 1979, Graham and I had lived about 500m from each other in a small place close to Cannock called Great Wyrley.

We'd meet up during most holidays for meals, drinks and the odd days out in the mountains. When we sold in 2009 we vowed to keep in touch and last Christmas we returned to Thollon to ski and this summer, on their way back to the UK, they made the long trek across France to visit us.

We took them to Angles-sur-l’Anglin which in many ways is a miniature Yvoire (a medieval village on the shores of Lac Leman) but without all the souvenir shops and the lake!

A semi-retired Graham helping Tim with a drainage problem.

On our way home we drove through the main street of Preuilly-sur-Claise (where Simon and Susan of Days on the Claise live). The day was hot so the car windows were wide open. Near the boulangerie Tim noticed a lad hiding behind some cars wielding a huge water squirter. As we drove past Graham was soaked by the squirter and although Tracey and Gaynor ‘see the funny side’ neither Graham nor Tim can. We manage a U-turn at the top of the hill and go back. Graham, for once, is speechless but wags a finger or two. Tim manages to tell the lad several times that he isn’t very pretty (in other words, this could mean that he is very UGLY!) Gaynor wonders whether gentil (kind) is the word he’s looking for!

Feeling somewhat better we drive back down the hill, do another U-turn, and back past the lad who is waiting for another unsuspecting motorist. He doesn’t notice us coming back or even Graham with a water bottle at the ready. Graham squeezes, and, with exceptionally good timing  and a squirt of biblical proportions, soaks the lad!

This kept our simple minds amused for the rest of their stay and whenever we thought about the look on the lad’s face as he was soaked we had a little chuckle.

Turn the other cheek? Not us …

From a different perspective ..

I’m not religious but was brought up going to chapel/church and I have great respect for friends who are true believers. Sometimes I want to believe that life as we know it is more than just coincidence and evolution, but the scientist in me holds me back.

Yesterday fellow blogger Broad did a beautiful post about her ‘sacred place’. You can read about it here. This set me to thinking about where my spiritual place would be. I didn’t have to consider for too long as I knew exactly where that place would be.

It would be the summit of a mountain. When my time comes to an end I would like someone who loves me to do for me, what, because of circumstances, I didn’t do for my father. It’s a long story, and not really one for this post, but Dad wanted to be scattered over the Brecon Beacons.

Courtesy of The National Trust

His sister wouldn’t attend a cremation, so he was buried in the churchyard a couple of hundred metres from my house. She still wouldn't attend the burial because it wasn’t in Wales! The decision was the right one because when Mam died less than a year later she was buried in the same plot. So, there is a little corner of a Staffordshire churchyard that will be forever Wales!

Anyway this is my place and one where I have felt great peace.

From the summit of the Dent d’Oche the view one way is of Lac Leman and from the other is this spectacular view of the Dents du Midi.

This is not a morbid post, but is for me uplifting. I have no doubt that in one way or another I will climb to the summit of that mountain again…

 

A trip on the lake ...... to the Château de Chillon

Évian les Bains and Lac Léman is about 15 minutes drive down the mountain from Thollon, so boat transport to places along the French or Swiss side of the lake was a regular outing.

One of our favourite trips is to Lausanne, which takes about 35 minutes. The port is lovely and the Olympic Museum is about 5 minutes walk away. Shopping is above the port and there is a regular train service up the hill.

Sometimes if I had driven out to Thollon alone, Tim would fly out to Geneva. Mostly I picked him up at the airport, but sometimes he would get the train from the airport to Lausanne and then the boat to Évian.

The boats are very comfortable and the views spectacular.

The Château de Chillon sits on the lakeside near Vevey, just along the lake from Lausanne and Montreux. We visited one summer along with Tom, and his friend Ben.

The site has been occupied since the Bronze Age.

The Château is the result of several centuries of constant building, adaptations, renovations and restorations. The rocky island, on which the château is built, was both a natural protection and a strategic location to control the passage between northern and southern Europe.

Togetherness!

The history of the château was influenced by three major periods:

The Savoy period (12th century to 1536)

The oldest written document mentioning the château dates from 1150; it says that the House of Savoy already controlled the route along the shores of Lac Léman.

During the 13th century, the Counts of Savoy conquered most of the territory of Vaud. This marked the beginning of Savoy domination over approximately two-thirds of the territory which makes up today’s French-speaking Switzerland.
This land lay both to the north and to the south of the Alps, so they controlled the two major routes across the western Alps, the Mont Cenis Pass and the Grand St Bernard Pass.

The Bernese period (1536-1798)

The Swiss then occupied Chillon in 1536 so the château continued to be a fortress, arsenal and prison for over 260 years.

The Vaudois period (1798 to the present)

The Bernese left Chillon in 1798 at the time of the Vaudois Revolution. The castle became the property of the Canton of Vaud when it was founded in 1803. The restoration of the historical monument began at the end of the 19th Century and continues to this day. Lord Byron gave Chillon a mythical dimension in 1816, with his poem ‘The Prisoner of Chillon’.

The Patrouille Suisse practising over the Lake

Both the château and the landscape, framed by the mountains, are well worth a visit.

Ten years on - the journey begins ................. part 1

Since the early 1980's we have travelled in France for our holidays. In the early days we were both teaching so would set off for nearly six weeks, making the most of the long holidays. We travelled to most regions, but were drawn back to two main areas the Alps and the Charente.

In the Charente we mostly holidayed with our caravan at a small site at Bignac,near Angouleme. Our children loved it there, and wanted to return every year. It was a relaxing holiday for us as they were able to make friends and keep themselves occupied at the pool, lake, boules or tennis.

The Charente department

Camping Marco de Bignac (from their brochure)

Winter holidays were spent skiing, staying mostly at the small village of Chatel  in the Portes du Soleil ski area.

In 2004 we decided the time had come to buy a property and that Chatel  in the Haute Savoie was just the place!

The campsite at Chatel was full, so we booked a small site at St Paul en Chablais in the hills above Evian les Bains as our property hunting base.

St Paul en Chablais,  Haute Savoie.

Quite by chance one morning we drove up to Thollon les Memises and found views to take your breath away. Within an hour we had found the apartment we wanted to buy!

Our apartment (the one with the yellow sale boards) with the Memises behind.



The developer was building some new apartments, and to show us the quality of the build took us into another block, which was a year old ,where unexpectedly a re-sale had just come on to the market.
We were staggered by the views  from the balcony of Lac Leman.

Lac Leman from our balcony, looking west.



The apartment was the right size and prices were lower than at Chatel. Tim knew straight away that we had found 'the one'. Being Libran it took me a little longer!! Within a day we had signed our first contract.

The rest is history (as they say). Or for readers of this blog the history will be the future, as periodically I  blog about this beautiful area and the wonderful time we had there.