Rhone River Travel Journal—Day 12

Lausanne Cathedral
Lausanne Cathedral

We journeyed from Geneva out to Lausanne and Montreaux today.

In Lausanne we toured Lausanne Cathedral, a twelth century cathedral located at the highest point in city, like the churches in Geneva and Montreaux.

Their location in places visible to anyone in the city and set above the other buildings reminded people God is sovereign over creation and of the place of the Church in culture. Jesus taught the same principal to His disciples:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matt. 5:14.

On the drive from Lausanne to Montreaux, we noticed the hills covered with vineyards. I couldn’t remember ever having heard of Swiss wine, so I asked our driver what kind of grapes they grew in Switzerland. He answered, “The red and the white.” I then suspected I knew why I have never heard of Swiss wine.

Montreaux is a resort town, that rests on the banks of Lac Lemon (aka Lake Geneva) at the other end of the lake from Geneva. We strolled along the shore, which is populated with restaurants and shops. The girls avoided the chocolate shops, still clearly traumatized from their experience with the chocolate Nazi the day prior.

We then toured Chateau de Chillon, a twelfth century castle owned by the Counts of Savoy. Margaret of Provence, the granddaughter of the Count of Savoy married Louis IX of France (Saint Louis), the great thirteenth century crusader and one I’ve identified on my top ten list of people I’d like to have met. Maybe Margaret spent time at Chateau de Chillon.

When we got back to the hotel I tried to goad Ann into asking our French-speaking concierge if he was capable of accomplishing some ordinary service for us to incite the response, “Well of course, I am the concierge!”—one of our favorite lines from the movie, Intolerable Cruelty. She laughed but refused. Such are the heady, mature conversations at days’ end on GSB travel journals.

At dinner we took a chance on a local Swiss wine, and to our surprise it was wonderful. Our server explained the reason we have never heard of Swiss one is their wine is not exported. The Swiss, you see, drink three times as much wine as they produce, so they cannot spare any for the rest of the world.

The Wife and Ann chose to have a second glass. I, naturally, was more restrained. Ann made the mistake of not completely finishing her first glass before our server began pouring the second glass—an amateur mistake—resulting in a top-off that was less than a full glass of wine. Ann gave the server the stink eye to no avail. We should have asked the concierge if he could have done anything about it.

Tomorrow we head back to the States. GS

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