Au bord du lac

So you have some day visitors, and after a hearty helping of Merguez sausages and tarte aux pommes (not together) at home, where can you take them for a couple of hours to walk off the customary excess of French cuisine?

With it already being mid afternoon, the skies not as clear as we would like (in fact it hammered down all morning) and thunderstorms forecast (again!!!), the Alps were out of the question. Instead, Vero and I took Philippe and Peggy to Yvoire, a small medieval village on the French side of the lake (Leman).



The sun was out and tourists were sparse so we took a really nice stroll around the village, taking in the shops and galleries, along with a walk around the small harbour watching all the winged critters (including a possible golden eagle?).




Yvoire looks out over the wider part of lake, looking towards Lausanne, and it really does have a slight feel of being by the sea, with the waves lapping the shore and the odd gull flying by.

There were plenty of old buildings to see, all starting to look very floral. There is of course the chateau as well, sitting on the point overlooking the lake.




We finished off the tour with obligatory refreshments where I had a hot chocolate with quite possibly the nicest chantilly cream I have ever tasted. See what I mean below...



As we finished off our drinks (and Vero her crepe...she was hungry) we heard a distant rumble of thunder. Aaah no worries that should stay up in the mountains we thought. Wrong. As the skies darkened once again we dashed back to the car just in time and witnessed some simply phenomenal weather. The clouds literally looked like they were falling out of the sky, lightning was flashing and I am sure if we were in the American mid-west we may well have been taking on a tornado..sounds dramatic huh? Judge for yourself - here's the video (complete with Philippe's inevitable commentary):