Poitiers to Geneva and on to InterLaken
Poitiers to Geneva to Interlaken
We traveled more or less due east from Poitiers into the Massif Central, where lo! there is a great deal of vulcanism, calderas, lava flows, the whole bit. Trileigh has some explanation for this in terms of plate tectonics, which may not have been fully understood by her pupil. [TT: that may be because I actually have no idea, but was making up stuff about volcanism behind a subduction zone, which doesn't really seem to apply but was the best I could come up with at the moment...] We ended up camping up in the provincial forest above the sweet medieval village of Olliergues, in a raging thunderstorm, lightning crashing directly overhead, wind thrashing through the trees and all. Put the tent to the test, and it worked wonderfully.
Onward around the unnervingly complicated-looking Lyon, to the northeast through an area of marshes and bird sanctuaries, clearly an huge area for migrations, and finally into the foothills of the Alps. Stopped for the night in a cute little auberge in a town called Ruffieu (?). In all these little French towns there are poignant war memorials to the fallen and deported in the last several wars. Always in the central square, always very close to the collective consciousness; how does that ongoing proximity affect citizens' feelings toward their neighbors? The following day we went up through the Monts Juras, the real Juras-sic Park as it were, with some pretty extraordinarily revealed geology. [TT: Gorgeous folds and faults! Limestone and shales galore! Plate tectonics in action! Glacial icing!]
From that auberge I managed to contact a cousin once removed, Irene Duisberg Cassels, who lives with her family in Geneva and whom I had not seen in nearly 30 years. Checkpoints at the beginnings and now middle of whole lives lived! Geneva was gloriously beautiful and crisply clean as one might expect, and the hospitality of Irene and Keith was extraordinarily warm (especially given the fact that they'd been given less than 24 hours notice...such is our improvisation at this stage). Keith even sent us out to spend the day on Sunday sailing in his 10 meter sailboat out on the lake, a most unexpected special pleasure. And the lake was wonderfully refreshing to swim in, and the wind calm enough to make repeated plunges very inviting. All this plus Mont Blanc in the background.
On the Swiss national holiday of August first we found ourselves traveling into the real mountains, driving up an astounding long winding road that Rob had cycled during his Amsterdam-to-Vienna bicycle trip 30 years ago (!!!-TT), ending up at Interlaken, beneath the Jungfrau (4000+ meters). We wandered into town toward evening and got caught up in a festive crowd and were treated, again unexpectedly, to a completely extraordinary fireworks display. And all around the mountains, above the lakes, bonfires could be seen being lit!
Today's rainy weather gives us a chance to stop and catch up with ourselves and do a bit of processing of what we've been taking in over the month of our travels so far. Tomorrow we may head up into the high meadows and do some hiking up there in the glorious central Alps, so reminiscent of and yet so different from our own Cascades.
posted by robduisberg @ 4:56 AM
2 Comments:
What a great travel log to come back to! Just back from wonderful exploration and discoveries in Finland and Estonia, I vicariously linger in Europe through your travel log. Trileigh, I noted the "A Priory Thé" location for future stops in Paris. I'll have to check it out.
Enjoy your meandering in the Alps!
Véronique
hi!
say: do you still plan to come to vienna? we could (with a few exceptions) manage to come to the city for two days in august if you were here so that we could meet you (and offer you a humble place to sleep). if you postpone your visit of vienna to the 29th or after, we would be here anyway, so - are there any plans yet?
peter + sylvia
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