We spent this past weekend visiting with some friends in Lausanne, Switzerland. We (finally) got our A/C (mostly) fixed, but the heat wave continues unabated. We sure were glad to have an excuse to get out of the city.
I can’t leave the Schengen Area until I get my Titre de Sejour (at least not if I want to make sure that I can get back in). Switzerland is famously not part of the European Union, but they joined the Schengen Area to make border crossings easier. We had to walk through a customs area in Geneva, but didn’t actually have to stop. I had our passports and copies of all my paperwork, but nobody asked to see any of it.
Seventeen years ago, Kristian and I took a roadtrip from Talloires, France through Switzerland and into Italy. We definitely drove around Lac Léman, but we’re only about 95% sure that we spent the night in Lausanne. A lot has changed in the last couple of decades! I had this blog back then, but apparently I didn’t write much about our little jaunt (probably because I got awful food poisoning on the last night of our trip).
Isn’t it crazy that you can go on an epic roadtrip and then have all these holes in your memory about it? Brains are weird, bro. I remember that they “upgraded” our rental by giving us a bigger car, but I can’t remember an entire city that we spent at least one night in.
I do remember visiting an old cathedral (something that Lausanne definitely has) and staying in an attic apartment in the old part of town. I also remember it being eerily clean, but in the world of Swiss cities, that really doesn’t narrow things down.
I must have a stash of digital photos somewhere that aren’t in my iPhotos Library. It’s making me all itchy that I can’t find them.
My friend Adrien picked us up at the train station on Saturday and brought us over to his parents’ house. They have an amazing wrap-around balcony with a view of the mountains. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon eating and chatting in a combination of English, French, and Spanish (I’m pretty sure that last one was partially just to troll me). Adrien’s parents served us a five course meal! There was a cheese course and everything. Swiss cuisine is not for the lactose-intolerant. They are (rightly) proud of their dairy products. We tried everything from a soda made from a dairy by-product to a “double-crème” with meringues and strawberries.
After lunch, we took the bus downtown to check into our AirBnb. We stayed in an area called “Ouchy” (pronounced oo-shee) which is right on the lake. Because I’m the most easily amused person you know, I laughed at every sign I saw. “Oh no! The Ouchy metro! Better mind the gap!”
The outside temperature in Lausanne was about the same as it’s been in our apartment back in Lyon. So, a welcome respite, but still too damn hot. We walked down to the lake to cool off. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, some thunder decided to make an appearance. Lilian and I showed everyone why men are far more likely to be struck by lightning by shooing everyone out of the water. We all felt better for having gone swimming, though!
Most of the restaurants in our neighborhood are tourist traps, but Adrien’s mom recommended a Vietnamese restaurant on the water that didn’t disappoint. They found a table for us outside and we were able to watch golden hour come and go.
Earlier in the day, we were all excited to go out and watch some World Cup action at a bar. But then, we remembered that we’re in our 40s. So, Kristian and I watched most of the Norway/England game on my laptop. Note to self: take a nice long nap before France plays later this week. Switzerland played last night, but the game didn’t start until 3am and there was no way we were going to make it that late. Allegedly, all of the bars got special permission to stay open all night, but we didn’t hear any noise. I guess we were just far enough away from the action? It was business as usual this morning, I’m assuming all the football fans were sleeping it off.
Today, we wandered along the lakeside enjoying the breeze and trying to stay in the shade. We contemplated going into the Olympics museum, but like all things IOC related, it’s wildly expensive. We did, however use the restrooms outside their gates. Lilian would like me to tell you how great the public restrooms in Switzerland are.
We met up with Adrien and Payal for lunch and then we went on a boat ride!
(Go ahead and sing that Lonely Island song).
(You know you want to).
We motored out towards the middle of the lake and then cut the engine. The guys took turns staying in the boat, something that the rental company didn’t specifically mandate (I guess they were too busy making sure we all took off our shoes), but which the guy agreed “made sense” when Adrien mentioned it.
If you’ve never swam in the open water looking at the mountains in the distance, I highly recommend it. Getting back into the boat is no joke, but the experience is worth the momentary struggle. I feel like I need to say some more influencer-y “#blessed” type things about it, but I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. Sunny day + mountains + lake = bliss.
We had one little nervous-making moment when just about everyone was in the water and we realized that the ferry was heading awfully close towards our location. We all quickly scrambled back into our boat. I was pretty pleased with my ability to haul myself back in. It uses a lot of the same muscles as aerial hoop, so my training has paid off.
I can neither confirm nor deny that Lilian got to try driving the boat. What I can confirm is that we saw a guy holding onto the back of a similar boat with the motor going. None of us had to witness him losing a foot, but not for lack of trying on his part. Adrien tried to signal to him that he needed to stop being an idiot, but he just thought that we were all waving at him to be friendly.
We did tell the guy at the boat rental about what we saw, so hopefully they got a stern talking to when they brought the boat back.
Lilian asked me today if we can make a visit to Lausanne while our friends are there into an annual tradition. I think we need to! It was a pretty quick trip, so hopefully we can stay longer next time. It’s only about 3 hours each way on the train, but not having a full day made it a lot harder to make plans. Unfortunately, Switzerland is stupid expensive. We got a great deal on AirBnb (they didn’t have any ratings, I think they were karma farming), but even then we didn’t want to pay for 2 nights. It would have been worth it, though!
It’s truly wild that you can just… get on a train and be in a completely different country in a couple of hours. Where should we go next?
