Arriving in Geneva after delays and re-routing due to the French strikes (causing some airspace to be closed), I was finally ready to begin my quick weekend away. Unfortunitly the weather was not the crisp, cool fall air that was hoped for, but a damp, frigid drizzle that seemed to permeate the bones. But no worries, after all, I was here for the annual Neuchatel Wine Festival!
Maria and I wasted no time after work on Friday heading down to town to partake in the festivities. Now, my concept of wine and beer festivals is that there are all the local merchants who have set up boths to let you sample their wares, and if all is pleasing, a bottle or two (three, four, etc) maybe be purchased for indulging at home, or in our case, while relaxing on the shores of Lac de Neuchatel. So as we descended (Maria does like mountainous regions, so once again, my legs got a workout) into the streets, we were greeted with a level of revelry unexpected and quite intoxicating!
This was no WINE festival, it was a full fledged street party in honour and celebration of the beverage we know as wine....basicly an excuse of the entire town (and half of France) to take to the streets, enjoy carnival rides, all types of food, street fare and all the adult beverages you can handle.....a bit curious was the actual LACK of booths selling wine, but we did find some and enjoyed the atmosphere for the evening. Saturday morning, we decided that we wanted to take to the quieter and more beautiful countryside, so we fired up Maria's new car, and headed out for a day-long tour of some of the local lake towns. First stop was Murten, which was about as picturesque as you can get when it comes to Swiss villiages. But quickly we were onto our second stop, Gruyeres. As in the cheese. As in the cheese which serves as THE base for fondue. I have one word to describe what a trip to Gruyeres is to me.....Mecca. It is not a secret how deep my love of cheese goes, and frankly, I make a mean fondue. But visiting the source of it all.......as I said...Mecca.
Of course, all good things require some work, and for us, it was the short but steep hike from the parking area to the gates of the town. But as we entered the gates, the distinctive (and from some unappriciative types, smelly) aroma of well aged Gruyere filled the air. All of the many cafes and resturants advertised their well-known fare, however we decided to check out the town, and its chateau before partaking.
The Chateau d'Gruyeres is a small castle overlooking the countryside and pre-Alp ranges. The air there was crisp, the views were amazing, and slowly the noise of the crowd slipped away, and if you listened carefully, the sound of the cowbells tinkled gently amoung the clouds that obscured the snow-caps of mountains. It was truley breath-taking.
Back in town, we headed to one of the local establishment to finally indulge in a pot of steaming cheese and a glass of crisp local wine. As we walked in, the first thing that hit us (and it really was an assault on the senses) was the aroma of very aged cheesed mixed with very raw cheese. As it turns out, not only was our pick a resturant, it was also a frommagerie, which was in the process of making a batch of Gruyere. So not only did we get to enjoy our own fondue, we got to watch the making of future batches :).
Maria finally tore me away from the town of my future retirement, and we headed back to Neuchatel via the Lake Geneva-side town of Vevey. After having a lunch of cheese, bread, and wine, we thought it wise to take a stroll along the shore of the lake, taking in some of the unusual scultures lining both the boardwalk and the shoreline. We got back to Maria's just in time to catch more of the celebration, this time in the form of fireworks over the Lake. Now THAT's the way to celebrate wine....
On Sunday, we had an early afternoon train to catch, so we decided to take advantage of the clearing skies by hopping a ride up Mount Chaumon to get an elevated view of the Lake, along with hopes of catching glances of Mts Blanc and Eiger, which you can see on clear days. (No such luck, on the Alp spotting, but no worries, I will be hitting the Alps for some skiing later this year). It was a nice way to cap-off an indulgent, yet very relaxing weekend!
