St. Gingolph, July 31, 2014

PUp here, the weather is still pretty dismal, but we were optimistic that it would clear as we descended into the valley.We set off around noon for lunch in St. Gingolph, on the southern side of Lac Léman (aka Lake Geneva), within a stone's throw...literally...from the French border.  And the weather cleared...beautiful blue skies, sunshine and warmth!  We went to Le Bellevue, since Villa Eugénie is now closed.  We went specifically for les filets de perche (Ken, take note!).  We all had exactly the same thing, except that Dave and Danielle had pommes vapeur and I had pommes frites.  The dish was served "en deux temps", Swiss style.  This means that they serve you a nice plateful of your order....then a second plateful, exactly the same!  We had started with  a very nice mixed salad, so we were pretty full at the end of the meal.  We had a bottle of a wonderful Saint Saphorin, one of my favorite Vaudois wines.  In the past, we have gone over ther border into France to have coffee farther along the lake, or to go to Evian, but we returned to Monthey to stop in and see Paulette, Danielle's mother, for a quick visit.

Back up to Villars where we decorated for the national holiday tomorrow....strings of Swiss flags and red and white electric candles!  Olivia came over for a drink and helped out.  Then another neighbor, Valerie, also dropped by.  The weather up here was better than it had been...it was nice and sunny, with some lingering clouds as we sat outside.  We finally saw some of the Dents du Midi before they disappeared again into the clouds. There were a few fireworks ahead of the holiday.  An almost new moon completed the picture.  Oh yes and some lovely birds at the feeders...lifers for me.  Chaffinches, Green finches and European goldfinches. All very colorful.