Martigny, Myriam & Maëlle

On Monday we had a restful morning and then, after lunch, we set off with Marie-Francoise, Roland and Michel to Martigny.

Our first stop there was to visit the Musee of the Fondation Pierre Gianadda where there was a representative exhibition of European paintings on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. The exhibition included works by Rembrandt, Renoir, Gaugin, Cezanne, Constable, Gainsborough, van Gogh, Manet, and many others. We also viewed the museum’s own collection of classic Swiss automobiles, an exhibition of photographs of an alpine shepherd, the sculpture garden and some Roman ruins on the museum site. Martigny has been an historical centre of interchange because of its location close to the mouth of the Rhone valley at Lac Leman, the Grand St Bernard pass to Italy and the pass to France via Forclaz. That puts the museum at a location convenient for visiting from several countries and it attracts some significant exhibitions such as the one we viewed.

From there we travelled a short distance into the hills above Martigny to visit Myriam, the daughter of Marie-Francoise and Roland, and her daughter, Maëlle. Claude, Myriam’s husband was at work and we missed seeing him. Myriam served the traditional plate of Valais with dried meats, cheese and bread which we enjoyed with a glass of wine.

We returned to Sierre in the early evening for dinner and sleep.