After eight grueling, scorching, almost unbearable days of high temperatures over 90° F, I am happy to report that our heat wave broke on Wednesday when the high was only 78° F (which is still above the historical July average of 77° F). It may not seem exceptionally hot to most people, but the struggle comes from Switzerland’s strange distain for air conditioners. There isn’t one in our apartment or Melissa’s office. And where they are running, like grocery stores, they seem to be set to the highest temperature possible, maybe 80° F if I had to guess.
Thursday and Friday had pleasant weather, but on Saturday, when we decided to be outside all day, the high crept up into the 90’s again. Our Saturday activity was visiting the country just across the lake, that we can literally see from our bedroom, France. From Lausanne we took a 50 minute ferry ride, that traveled about 11.5miles to the town of Thonon-les-Bains, France.
We disembarked at the port, then were faced with a steep hill between us and the center of town. Luckily though, we didn’t have to hike up because near the port is a small tram, called a funicular, that goes to the top. The funicular operates a little different than a normal train. It has rails and wheels, but what pulls it up is a giant wire cable attached to a car at the bottom, and also to a car at the top. As the car at the top descends it helps pull up the bottom car, and the extra energy needed comes from a motor moving the cable at the top.
From the top of the hill there is a park with a nice view north, back to Switzerland, as well as nice views south, of the Alps behind the city. It’s a curious place to see Switzerland look hilly and flat with farm fields, and then to turn around and see France with forests and the dramatic Alps just miles away. The town of Tholon-les-Bains is pretty similar to Lausanne, everything is in French, and there are narrow streets in a mostly pedestrian zone. The biggest difference is, at around 34,000 inhabitants it’s quite a bit smaller, and feels a little less crowded and busy.
Being a smaller town, the bus we wanted to take to the town castle only came once an hour. We had 40 minutes to wait, and decided to spend the time at a cafe where I ordered a traditional French cocktail called a Kir, which is crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) mixed with white wine. It tasted similar to wine, but sweeter. We didn’t get to the castle until around 5 p.m., which happened to be when it closed. It wasn’t disappointing though, because we could still admire it from the outside and walk through the scenic vineyards that surrounded it.
After making our way back to the port, we had just enough time to grab one last drink before our ship came in. Heading across the pond (for international travels) in Switzerland is a whole lot simpler than heading across the pond from America!
P.S. I found it interesting when I was reading about Thonon-les-Bains on Wikipedia, that not only did the French Wikipedia page have different information than the English page, it was nine times longer! It’s easy to translate with Google translate, so it might be something to keep in mind if you’re reading articles about foreign subjects.
