Vignobles, Lavaux, July 27

Just below us lies Lake Geneva, or Lac Leman as the French speakers call it.  Along this part of the lake is Lavaux, the wine region of Western Switzerland.  Our original plan for today was to visit the old town of Lausanne.

But it was too beautiful a day to be wrangling with buses and the underground metro. Much too pretty outside to be going in and out of old musty cathedrals and buildings.  So we threw our plans to wind and set out to explore along the lake towards Montreaux.  We decided to find the terraced hiking paths which take one through many of the vineyards (vignobles in French) and into the small villages.

All right down the hill from us  –and, as we turn west along the lake, we knew we’d made the right decision — take a look…

Notice in the last photo, a mere four rows of grape vines are planed in the narrow space between the road and the railroad tracks – utilizing every bit of the fertile land.

We climbed up and up into the vineyards to more panoramic views of the lake — even came upon a pretty man-made waterfall diverted from the irrigation canals.

The terraced walkways are paved with stones and are bordered by low stone walls and meander through the vineyards and in and out of the little wine villages — with names such as Epesse, Chexbres. Each village has plaques on the houses proudly designating the inhabitant and their role in the local wine industry.  We did finally stop and have a glass of the local wine and watched the clouds chase each other across the sky.

 What a spectacularly fine day – one to remember.