HOLYDAYS AT THE LAKE OF GENEVA - THE END

HOLIDAYS DAY 9

Today was our last day, tomorrow we will return home with a stop in Reims.

It is still cool outside, but fortunately the heating works perfectly now and this morning it was nice and warm. Only my room was ice cold this night because just in there the heating didn't work.



After lunch it cleared up a bit and we could drink our coffee outside for the last time.



In the afternoon we strolled through Thonon and I saw the city hall for the first time ! Then we visited the Sonnaz Castle where we saw an exhibition of smuggling by boats from France to Switzerland.




The smugglers were really very creative, gold coins in a bread and lots of other things, but I will write a post about that later.



At the entrance of the castle was this statue which had been created by a German artist, and I couldn't resist to sit besides it in the same pose.

Nicole and Dominique are pottering around to clean what is to clean because tomorrow we will just close our luggage, check if everything is switched off in the villa and then take the road.

HOLYDAYS DAY 4

We were already in bed when a terrible thunderstorm started over the lake. Up we went to the living room with French windows from one side to the other of the house and standing there all three in our nighties, we admired the beautiful lightening over the lake ! It was very impressive and the lightening was not only sudden light but really had this zig zag shape !

I can't remember when I had seen this the last time. After this free amazing show, we returned to bed and listened to the thunder which slowly went away.

In the morning it was a little cloudy and cooler, so we went shopping and filled in the fridge again.



Then we had our lunch on the terrace, Dominique is waiting for us.



and while we were eating we saw all these little sailing boats on the lake. The sky over the lake looks different every minute, or almost.



In the afternoon it cleared up and we could use the beach beds, but not the swimming pool. It was full of leaves. Nicole saw me sitting on the little wall and wanted to take a picture of me, so I posed. But when I got up the wall broke (I am probably too heavy) and two pieces stuck on my bottom and then fell down. We bursted out in laughter and  had a closer look at the wall which needs to be rapaired.

After our supper we had another thunderstorm, but this time with buckets of rain and a very strong wind.
We watched the lightening again and talked and talked and then went to bed. When I entered my room a drop of water fell on my head. I was rather surprised. Water dripped from the ceiling ! My room is located under one of the terraces and a tile was loose. I slept with a bucket under the spot where the water came through. Monday workers will come and  start to repair at least provisional before the winter.

To avoid that the drops falling into the bucket were not a Chinese torture for me, we put an old bath towel in the bucket and I didn't hear the drops. Again we had to laugh seeing each other half undressed running around for rags and towels and then checking all ceilings on the first floor ! Fortunately only my room was damaged.

One thing is for sure our risible muscles are well being trained  !

HOLIDAYS AT THE GENEVA LAKE, THIRD DAY

We started our day with watching little and big boats on the lake while having our coffee, and different sorts of croissants. After breakfast Dominique decided to check through the villa and see what had to be cleaned or tidied up  (especially the cupboards in the kitchen, as her 3 children with partners had used the house just before us



While I was useless I  installed my "office" with view on the lake.



Nicole helped her in the kitchen



Then she prepared the beach beds and checked the temperature of the swimming pool. It was a little cool, but in the afternoon Dominique used it.



We spent the whole afternoon there, napping, reading and chatting, and of course taking sunbathes !

Far too lazy to move we just did some shopping for the evening, fortunately there is the same deep freeze food shop " Picard" just a few little streets far,  as we have in Waterloo, and had a very good supper.

The time went by so quickly and we finally were again so tired from nearly doing nothing, that we went early to bed.

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

1. On Monday I prepared my suitcase and gathered all things I would take along to Thonon les bains in France. In the afternoon Dominique let me try out her car, as we wanted to share the driving. It worked very well as her car is very similar to mine and I got familiar with it right away.

2. We made the first part of our trip until Troyes (see post below )

4. and 5.



I woke up this morning and went outside my room. This was the view I had. So beautiful. We couldn't use the swimming pool yet because something had to be repaired. But that didn't really matter.



The villa has 3 terraces on 3 different levels all with view on the lake. The first one is just outside the living room, the second one to sit in the shade with help of an umbrella and finally the terrace with the swimming pool which is on the same level as the bedrooms and the bar/ hobby room.



Our living room and the bar,  so far unused because it's far to sunny and warm to sit inside



While Dominique and Nicole did the shopping, I answered emails and made pictures. When they came back we prepared our lunch, salad different kind of cheese and mozzarella with tomatoes. It was delicious.

After lunch we all lay on the beach beds around the swimming pool and rested, napped or read.




Later afternoon we went for our first visit to Thonon along the lake.



We took the funicular train which brought us up to the town center. I had never taken such a train !



There was a quiet big market and we strolled around but not for very long, we were quiet hungry. The supper was quickly prepared, we had salmon with pasta in a delicious sauce, all bought ready to heat up in the micro wave ! After all we are on holidays and none of us is very keen to cook.

We had our first full holiday in Thonon with a lot of fun and laughter !

POST ONE OF MY HOLIDAYS AT THE LAKE GENEVA

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

Together with my two friends Nicole and Dominique, we started our first part towards Thonon les bains at the Geneva lake, but on the French side.



We had about 860 km to drive, which we split into two, first Dominique drove and then I took over after a delicious picnic at a rest area on the highway until our stop in Troyes.






We had booked in a very old but very nice hotel and had a big room for 4 people. It was located in the town center so we could easily walk through the little streets, have an ice cream in front of the city hall on a big place and also looked for a restaurant for the evening.

After we had checked into hour hotel, we walked through the very beautiful old city all houses dating from the 15/16 th century ! Nicole found an intriguing opening in  a wall and of course had to found out what was in there. Besides a big spider and some dust there was nothing. Nicole jumped away and we laughed, she doesn't like spiders and apparently the spider didn't love her either, it run away.




Suddenly Dominique saw a very small side street with the name "Cat street" and she laughed and said it would be the perfect street for me ! And at the end of the little street was a beautiful very old restaurant away from the huzzle and buzzle of the tourist places. We looked at the menu written on a wooden cat  and decided we would go back there for supper. The whole place was decorated with cats and looked very cozy.



The place (and food) was absolutely lovely and we had a lot of fun. Nicole showed us with a napkin that orange is her color ! Quiet tired we returned to the hotel.

The next morning I drove the first part out of Troyes and without any problem, thanks to Mme GPS !
We stopped for a picnic and a coffee and finally arrived at our destination in Thenon.

Dominique owns a huge villa there with view on the lake, I almost needed my GPS not to get lost in this big house. We had bought some food for supper ate on the terrace overlooking the lake and very tired went to bed very early. Tomorrow is another day !



View over the Geneva lake during supper, the swimming pool and part of the second terrace.



and here we are, more photos are to come. The day was quiet long !