Château de Chillon

We had an earlier start this morning. We were luckily awake when Peter’s phone rang at 7am. It was a call from Griffith University offering him an interview for a job. It was arranged for next Tuesday. Fortunately we will be back by then, but it will be a scramble for Peter to be adequately prepared.

When we went down to the cure to collect the rest of our travelling companions for the day, we gave our gifts to the children. Sam had a koala puppet for Lorick and a book for Maelle, and I had koala slippers for Lorick and a knitted jumper and beanie for Maelle. All were well received.

We left with our Swiss hosts and the children just after 8.30am. We drove to Lac Leman arriving in good time to catch a beautifully restored paddle steamer across the lake to visit the Chateau de Chillon, a medieval castle that we had seen on previous trips along the motorway just below Montreux, but which we had never visited.

It was extremely interesting and we spent some time walking down through the dungeons and storerooms, and then up to the splendid dining and living rooms. It was very easy to imagine the medieval banquets once held there. We returned on a different boat and Michel bought us all lunch at a lakeside restaurant. We enjoyed the speciality of the house which was fish from the lake. Sam had a pizza.

The rain that had been threatening for much of the day held off long enough for us to visit the Swiss Vapeur Park, an attraction with several operating miniature trains. the route took us all through the park which contained miniature shops, castles, and houses. As on the previous day, Marie-Francoise and Roland declined any offer we made to pay for any of the places we visited.

The children enjoyed their day out but were completely exhausted (as were their minders). We returned home via Planojean where we dropped the children off with Myriam. We spent some time there talking with Myriam and Claude and Sam played with the children. In the evening we went out to dinner to celebrate the 60th birthdays of Roland (in January) and Peter (in June). We all ordered and enjoyed horse fillets with pommes frites and salad which was followed by dessert of banana split for Sam and apricot sorbet (liberally doused in apricot liqueur) for the rest of us. We succeeded in paying the bill on this occasion.