Switzerland

Wednesday Chris and I were off to Switzerland.  The train ride, while somewhat complicated, was fairly uneventful.  We switched trains five times in our journey to Sion.  But, we traveled through some of the most breathtaking landscapes I have ever seen.  The snow capped peaks of the alps rise above verdant fields and terraced vineyards.  Nestled in the small valleys and crevices of the mountains are picturesque villages with stone churches and red roofed houses.  We were met in Sion by our friend Noemie, and her father, and we drove to their small town about twenty minutes outside the city.  Every minute of the way was gorgeous.  Noemie and her family live in what was at one point a rectory for the church in their village, which is about a quarter of the way up a mountain surrounded by vineyards.  The small church consists of a single room, and is at least 500 years old, though probably more like a 1000.

Thursday morning we were awakened at 7am by the ringing of the church bell literally outside of Noemie’s window.  It rings every hour and half hour, and a bunch extra at 7am.  Who needs an alarm clock when you have a bell tower?  I resisted the inevitable for quite some time and lay in bed listening to strains of Jazz music and French from Noemie’s kitchen.  Eventually I did wander out to join Noemie’s parents at breakfast in front of the typical European breakfast of bread and spread – but the bread was homemade, in fact I had seen it turning in the bread maker the night before!  Chris and I decided we would like to go to the mass of Corpus Christi (optional feast day), which I was rather confused about because I don’t think I have ever celebrated it in America.  But, it was exciting, as promised.  All of the children who had completed their holy communion this spring were dressed in white robes with wooden cross necklaces and the girls had floral wreathes.  According to Noemie they were dressed similarly at their first communion as well.  I will note however that the white robes were of the simple type alter servers wear, and not pretty white dresses or suites of first communicants in America.  The wreaths as well were fake.  The children sat at the front right side of the church with their parents and the band and choir sat on the front left, the parishoners filled in behind then and the small church was filled to the brims.  The band and choir were both dressed in similar traditional outfits.  In the choir the women wore black mary-janes, white knee socks with lace patterns, and pink floral dresses with puffed sleeves.  The band, of the brass marching variety, was wearing maroon pant suites.  With the addition of the brass band, which I don’t think I’ve ever heard in church before, mass was fairly normal, and French brings my foreign-language-mass count up to six (Swedish, Kmer, Spanish, German, French, Tagalog).  Following mass however, the host was put in the monstrance and the congregation followed the priest, the choir, and the band out of the church and into the streets.  We paraded through the town (maybe a kilometer or so) and ended at the steps of the community center.  There we listened to more music, by both the choir and the recent communicants, and a few readings.  This being accomplished we paraded (to music) back to the church.  There benediction was said, there was more singing, and everyone exited the church.  Having exited the church there was again more music from the brass band as well as wine, bread, and cheese.  My favorite part of the band was the children who played in it;  they had miniature sized instruments and miniature sized uniforms, including miniature hats.  There was even one little boy whose only job appeared to be holding the music for the snare drummer. 

After church Noemie’s mother dropped the three of us off in Sion and we proceeded through the town up to the top of the Château de Valère.  Here we looked into the medieval church (Notre-Dame de Valère) with the oldest working organ, and toured the fortifications of the castle which are now a history museum.  Inside the museum we learned of the history of the Valais region from prehistory to the present and a rather drastic prediction into the future of urbanization of the valley and abandonment of the mountains, as well as deforestation due to the warming climate. 

Next were the ruins of Château de Tourbillon.  From the top of these ruins we had a magnificent view of the city.  Even more than the view though, they were magnificent to climb on.  I enjoyed scrambling all over them, and the old windows provided lovely resting places in the walls.  

From Tourbillon we wandered through Sion.  We stopped in one building which had a fresco on the wall from an Apothecary in the twelfth century I think.  We also stopped at a fountain which sprang from a river running underneath the town and filled our water bottles and had a drink.  Then there were my favorite: churches.  We went into both the cathedral and another church which was quite literally across the square.  The cathedral was complete with a crypt under the alter.  It also had a side chapel to St. Anthony, which I actually liked better to the church itself.  It was a wooden annex with lower ceilings and lots of windows, making much brighter than the vaulted stone church.  It appeared to be mostly a waiting room for confessions and was decorated with the stations of the cross as well as several other paintings. 

Finally we stopped, fairly tired, in a park where several small shoots of water fountained up from a metal grid covered in small glass pieces.  There were many children playing in the gravel like glass, piling it on top of the fountains to make them disappear and jumping back squealing with joy as the pressure would increase shooting out water and dislodging their carefully assembled piles. 

Friday Noemie had to go to school again, and there was some disagreement about what Chris and I would do.  Chris wanted to go hiking.  I wanted to see more urban environments.  In the end Chris did both.  He awoke early to ride up the mountainside with Noemie’s father, and I stayed in the house to read and write. Most of the morning was spent out in their garden in front of the raspberry patch reading in the sun and looking down on the towns in the valley below.  I also went into Sion with Noemie’s mother to a farmers market where there was a wonderful cheese stall as well as the strangest vegetable I have ever seen.  Apparently is a cross between broccoli and cauliflower, but mostly it looks like a strange green shell. 

Chris and I both returned home for lunch around noon after which we traveled to Montreau with Noemie’s mother.  She had a meeting, and asked us if we wanted to tag along.   Meandering along the waterfront through beautifully manicured parks we came upon an information center.  There we found maps and tourist guides for free.  We headed toward Chateau de Chillon.  Chillon means rock in French, and this castle is built on the rocks on the side of Lac Leman.

It took us almost an hour to reach the castle on foot, but I enjoyed every minute of it.  The castle was used and owned by both the Bernese and the House of Savoy and is built out on a jetty into the lake.  Defensively the castle is not particularly significant, and not very well placed, but it is gorgeous.  The water of Lac Leman is extremely blue and it can be seen from the whitewashed windows of the castle.