HOLIDAYS DAY 8

This morning I had the feeling that winter had moved into the villa it was freezing cold although the heating should switch on automatically. After a couple of hours it still didn't work and as it was a new system Dominique didn't know it and called the company. After some explanations she did what the man had told her so we dressed in several layers and had breakfast and lunch in a rather cool house.

Then we went to Evian a famous high-market holiday resort and spa town on the shores of Lake Geneva it has been visited, over two centuries, by royalty such as Kings Edward VII and George V of the United Kingdom and King Farouk of Egypt, and other celebrities, so of course we had to go to. There was an exhibition of huge old luxury cruise ships in the Palais Lumière, a beautiful building which had once been the thermal bath of Evian.





The artwork inside and the architecture of the building were very beautiful.




The poster of the exhibition was very promising. I had high expectations and thought I would see replicas of rooms, uniforms, etc. The truth was very disappointing. The ships were little models and the cabins were in doll house size. The only thing which was good was the advertising ! Lots of visitors rather disappointed came out of the exhibition.



It was not allowed to take pictures, which didn't bother me I took them when nobody looked. The poster above was hanging in the exhibition and it was not allowed to photograph, but outside you could buy a copy, so I took a picture of the copy instead. In short the whole exhibition was a real flop at least for me.

Dominique and Nicole had taken a guided tour which lasted 2 h and I was happy that I hadn't joined them at least I could watch 3 very interesting movies from 1930 showing life and travel on a cruise ship at that time. In fact not very different of the once we have today.



When I went out I saw these old suitcases and a cruise ship.



Outside we found this funny little place to sit and Dominique squeezed herself into the children seat.
Then it started to rain and we returned home.

Instead of a warm house the heating hadn't worked at all and it was still cold. Suddenly we heard strange loud noises, like whistling, growling, squeaks and rumbling. It was as if all ghosts from Thonon had a meeting somewhere in the house. It was rather eerie. We followed the noise and found out that it came from some hidden tubes in a closet on the second floor and more loud in the utility room on the first floor. Apparently there was a problem with the heating. The house is heated through the tiles on the floors. Before the house blew up and I had to day goodbye forever to you all,  Dominique called the company again, and a man came immediately to check what was wrong. Fortunately it was only air which were in the tubes and caused this noise, as the heating hadn't been used for a long time. Relieved we had our supper and Dominique and Nicole some glasses of red wine, to calm their nerves. After that we laughed about our adventure and finally it was good that it had happened while we were here and not when nobody was in the villa, although there is a guardian who checks it regularly.

HOLIDAYS DAY 6

After the thunderstorms, the weather was sunny again, but the temperature had cooled down. So we decided to use the morning to visit the Thonon castle which is named Chateau de Ripaille ( Ripaille’s castle),  which was built in the 15th century..

The castle was very well restored and looked beautiful.



There was a little film explaining its history and I took a picture of an overview of the castle and a friendly man took a picture of the three of us at the entrance.



The castle is used today for wedding receptions or for seminaries, and also has a restaurant. We payed the entrance fee and followed the indications.



In one room was a huge mirror, and I tried to take a picture of us, but it didn't came out very well.



 We visited all rooms where furniture and other antiques were displayed. One of the furniture was a praying stool and Nicole always ready for a joke knelt and faked to pray. With the stuffed bird aside it was too funny ! 



Then we visited the wine cellar. The entrance had a little window with bars and we amused ourselves by looking through the bars.



This is a rack for empty bottles I swear we didn't empty them ! The wine casks were enormous. A very tall man could stand easily inside. There is still wine produced but not in the castle anymore but the wine is called Chateau de Ripaille.

After we finished our visit, we went to a public  place where women used to wash their laundry. A local lady told us that it is still used by the people when there is something special to wash.



It looked so pretty. We just imagined the women washing and chatting all together around the stone washing bassins. Although the place looked beautiful with all these flowers around, I honestly prefer my laundry machine !

We stopped at the local bakery and bought some cake and croissants and then went home for lunch.
The whole afternoon we spent at the swimming pool and watched the little boats sailing on the lake.
It was too cool to swim.

And while Dominique and Nicole used their green thumbs in the garden, I was busy with my pictures and emails. I have no green thumb at all ! Instead I prepared the supper and we spent a quiet evening watching the sunset and chatted and tired from this hard day we went to bed early ! I think it is all this fresh air, that makes us going  to bed so early  and the fact, that there is no TV ! A new one will be installed later.