Chillon Castle
Settle in Montreux
“I have ordinary habits, I am unpretentious in food, I would never trade my favorite ham and eggs for a menu full of typos,” Nabokov said arrogantly, living in the expensive Montreux Palace suite on the shores of Lake Geneva, and he was absolutely right. It seems to us that Swiss serenity can only be a reward for genius and despair: first emigrate, yearn for Russia, write ‘Lolita’, become rich in exile. And only then wander along the lake, catch butterflies, breathe the purest air, fall asleep at dusk.
In reality, it’s different: first Montreux, then the great novel and everything you desire. You just need to rest – where no one will find you.
Drink in the Lavaux Vineyards
Dry white wine. Take dry white wine and modestly sit in a dark wood gazebo overlooking ancient vineyards, Alpine mountains, and a life you never had. Later, when you return home, you will tell about seven wine varieties you now understand: Lutry, Dezaley, Villette, Epesses and Calamin, Saint-Saphorin, Chardonne, Vevey-Montreux, pouring your companion another glass. But for now, simply drink with Patrick Fonjallaz, the twelfth-generation owner of the winery – a la vôtre! – he owns 34 hectares of fragrant memory of old times, which in these parts are eternal.
Try chocolate with every flavor
With chocolate, essentially, as with love – it all depends on the subtlety of your taste and general jadedness. In every Swiss town, there are chocolate shops where caramel rivers flow into candy shores, you just have to choose, pack, and give away.
Johnny Depp, resisting chocolate temptations in the famous film, told the beautiful Vianne: “Delicious, but not favorites.” However, he would hardly have repeated that if he had met Monsieur Blaise Poyet, a chocolatier from Vevey, who creates sweets with flavors of imagination. His confectionery has chocolate flavored with Cuban cigars, with salt and caramel, pistachios and pepper, cinnamon and cardamom. There is even a Tom Yam candy – with ingredients of Thai soup – once created in honor of the King of Thailand.
Visit Chillon Castle
Even if you are far from the idea of visiting Byron’s places (the lord once waited out a rainstorm here, after which, having dried off, he composed the world-famous poem), still stop by: the most famous Swiss castle – a former prison with extremely harsh morals, but with a delightful view from behind the bars. Count Tolstoy came here to ponder everything, and Gogol worked nearby on “Dead Souls.”
Chillon Castle lives in all times at once: on one hand, it looks like a set from “Game of Thrones” – you might just meet someone from the Lannisters or Starks. On the other hand, here respectable guides, dressed as old aristocracy, work routinely, suddenly switching from French to literary, lost, once-carried-away Russian.
Spend a day and night in Lausanne
Lausanne is the capital of the French-speaking canton of Vaud, one of the largest cities in Switzerland, known for the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Château Saint-Maire, the Palais de Rumine, the Olympic Museum; put away the guidebook. No, no, it’s all worth studying according to a strict tourist plan, but it’s even better to forget about it and just walk around the city, alone or with someone you love (you love someone, don’t you?). Watch the swans, comically diving into Lake Geneva for their swan breakfast and giving you an extremely haughty look.
Play street chess with locals – large-scale, with a queen up to your knee. Stroll through the hilly streets of the old town, buy a wilted bouquet from a flower girl, choose Gruyère and Emmental at the market.
Marvel at the graffiti, which is welcomed here, drop by a city festival of something beautiful – Lausanne loves beautiful things and often brings them. Have coffee with cookies. And in the evening, go to the nightclub Le Mad on Rue de Genève (just say it) or Babylone, forget everything and spend the night as a different person.
Elena SHAKHNOVSKAYA.
Gazeta.ru