Thursday, Sept. 27th
Day Trip #15

Up early to prepare for our trip to Switzerland. There is sun & blue sky! Hooray!

            An email from Lori about Rita being sick w/ probable heart / oxygen problems. Also Clem stressed & not sleeping & in the middle of preparing two of his planes to be sold.

            Note: In the shops on the street yesterday, when you walked in with a dripping umbrella, everyone left them by the door. Sometimes a box was provided to put them in.

            Off at 9:00 to head east to Switzerland. It is about a two and a half hour trip to where we’re going. We stop along the way at a store “Le Relais del Terroir,”a store which specializes in local goods, esp. Napiot cheese. It is in La Vrine, between Pontarlier & Besancon. We see a short video on how they produce their famous cheese. We have a taste of two different aged cheeses of the Napiot & end up buying a piece, along with a baguette & a squishhy orange, light-up animal/cow for Chloe & a post card for Ken.

            We stop at Yverdon-les-Bains on the lake – Lac Neuchautel & park in a public parking area & try to do the meter, but it won’t take our Euros. We read the sign more closely & discover it’s free from 12 to 2:00. Later (after 2:00) we try again & it still won’t take our Euros. A local woman shows us that we need to use Swiss Francs! By then, we’ve paid for lunch in Euros & we aren’t sure what the exchange rate is, but are convinced we left a huge tip.

fromagerie at La Vrine, on our way to Suisse

in Yverdon-les-Bains on Lac Neuchautel

through the Jura, on way to Suisse

near Morges, on Lac Leman

            Lunch is in a café along one of the streets, called Brass-erY. Our waitress speaks good English & helps us out w/ the menu. She tells us later that she speaks 5 languages, & spent several months in Australia. She learned her languages in school. Food was OK – salads to begin with & chicken & frites for Don & Deb; Me – veal sliced thin & slathered w/ tuna fish & a salad; Tim – frites & HORSE steak! And it was really good! Has a softer taste than beef & very tender texture. Afterwards, Deb goes to a fabric store she found &finds it very expensive.

            Back to the car, & we drive further east in Switzerland to catch a better view of the mountains. We stop on Lac Léman & see a beautiful view of the mountains / Alps, some of which are fogged in. Others are snow capped. The lake side is in the town of Morges. It is very windy & in the low 60s.

            To return back to Pommard, and we take a circuitous, switch backed route over the mountain. We hit heavy rain for about 10 minutes or so & then drive  out of it & eventually into sun & blue skies again. A gorgeous ride.

            On the trip to & from (2½ hrs each way), Tim drives, Don is the navigator & Deb & I sew, knit & write.

            Our route on the way east to Switzerland was Pommard – Beaune – Dole - & Besancon on the Interstate – to Pontarlier – Cluse de Souix (double mountained chateaux), to Yverdon-les-Bains on western tip of Lac de Neuchatel for lunch to South on Interstate to Lausanne, Switzerland on Lac Leman – stopped for views in Morges – to Nyon, also on lake, climbed switchbacks over mtn. to St. Gerque, on to Morez to Champagnols to Poligny to Interstate back to Dole & then Beaune. Many ski areas.

            Sent mass email to people again. Pasta & snacks for dinner. A bit of “rummy” w/ D & D & to bed at 10:00.