We traveled along Lake Geneva to Vevey, which is where my stepmother Sylvia lives. We visited with Sylvia and her nephew Marc while we got over our jet lag. It was nice that Marc had the time to have lunch with us all. Marc is the man who brought mass produced sushi to Switzerland. During Covid Switzerland discovered how handy sushi is as a quick supermarket takeout meal, which has made Marc a busy guy.
Vevey is an old compact town, really a small city, where in 15 minutes by foot you can either be in the commercial center or out in the vineyards. Here is a cat we said hi to while walking past some vines.
Sylvia lives in an area called St. Légier, and between town and St. Légier is the church St. Martin. My father Hob’s ashes are interred there in the Jardin du souvenir.
We met up with our friends Paul and Lisa in Vevey center and went up nearby Mont Pèlerin for a view. There’s a funicular that runs from the lake up to a fancy hotel, the Mirador, near the peak.
On the way down we visited Graham Green’s grave in the small town of Corseaux. Green used Corseaux as his home base for the last decades of his life, traveling to troubled parts of the world for his writing and then returning to tranquil Vevey.
On our way through town we stopped at David Chocolatier. David makes very pretty but small chocolate bonbons. They look like shiny little planets, with swirling colors, but when you pick them up the size is a little disappointing, it’s only a half dome. My semi-hot take is that Läderach is just as good and a better value.
Sylvia reports that the best chocolates are from Tristan in Perroy, which is between Lausanne and Geneva. We’re not going to have a chance to stop by on this trip, which means we will just have to come back next year!
The next day it was raining, so it was a good day for Paul and I to cook lunch for Sylvia, her companion Ariel, and Lisa and Michele. Afterwards we walked over to the Charlie Chaplin museum at his old house.
Chaplin lived in Vevey after being run out of the USA. In the states you tend to hear that he fled due to scandals stemming from relationships with teenage girls. The museum paints him as a political refugee from J. Edgar Hoover. In any event, it’s a fun museum that focuses on his films and worth a visit.
Ken Chin-Purcell 