Day 2 - Paris to Montreux

Good morning from beautiful Paris. The alarm went off at 7:15 and we opened the shutters to beautiful blue skies.

We left the very nice little hotel (definitely staying there again) and headed for the metro station - Bastille. We’d spotted a nice bistro last night next to the metro that we’d earmarked for breakfast. Le Petit dejeuner - 14 EUR for a juice, water, coffee, croissant with jam, and eggs with toast. The nice waiter said “omelette” but what arrived were three fried eggs each. Andrew then ate my eggs and his eggs! Six egg Bryan - the man is a machine.

We caught the metro one stop (line 1) to Gare de Lyon where we were due on the 10:16 to Geneva. A visit to Gare de Lyon would not be complete without a stop at Le Train Bleu. A most beautiful restaurant inside the station. I’ve been here before with my friend Julie for lunch, and really wanted Andrew to see it.

The interior of the restaurant dates back to 1901. There are frescoes on the ceiling, over the top art nouveau chandeliers, dark wooden tables with pristine white tablecloths and waiters with long white aprons. If you had to imagine a typical french restaurant, this would be it. It’s not stupidly expensive and the staff are polite and friendly (very un Parisian).

Coffee complete we headed back to the platforms, via a macaron shop, to find our first train of the day. Paris to Geneva on the TGV Lyria. A high speed train that would whisk us into Switzerland in just over three hours. The train was packed - we had reserved seats, sat together and at exactly the scheduled departure time we set off and soon were hurtling through French countryside.

There were only three stops on this leg of our journey. Two regional French towns and then Geneva. Our seat allocation meant that we were travelling backwards. Not my favourite way to be, especially at speeds over 200mph! After about two hours I felt a little green so went to sit in the buffet car in order to recalibrate. The train is a double decker and the buffet car was on the upper deck and I started to feel much better and took a few photos of the beautiful scenery.

We arrived in Geneva at 13:30, exactly on time. Our next train departed Geneva at 14:10, so we had time to buy a drink and a baguette and wait for the next train. The Geneva to Brig local train, with stops at Lausanne, Vevey (where Nestle have their HQ), then Montreux, which was to be our stop until the next day.

Within ten minutes of leaving Geneva, tucking into our lunch we were treated to the most spectacular views of Lake Geneva. Despite the forecast of rain we’ve been very lucky and the sun was shining and the sky was blue. The beautiful lake glistened in the sunshine.

An hour later we arrived in Montreux station. Thirty steps from the platform and we found ourselves beside the lake. We are on the “other half” of Lake Geneva. Lake Geneva is shared (?) between the French to the south and the Swiss to the north, 40:60. The part we are on is known by the Swiss as Lake Leman. It was hard to believe that 5 hours ago we were in busy Paris and now we were walking next to a lake with boats, paddle boarders and pedalos. The weather was HOT.

We saw a statue of Freddie Mercury on our way to the hotel. Queen recorded seven albums here and Freddie had an apartment and villa here, and the locals are rightly proud of the fact.

We checked into our hotel - the Golf-Hotel Rene Capt (odd name, particularly as there is no golf course in sight) and were very happy with our little balcony and lake view. We spent an hour relaxing on the balcony then had a drink on the terrace before heading out to dinner.

We took a walk into the old town, which was a bit like walking up a ski slope in ski boots! Blooming steep. Very nice little town, although everything was closing. Most of the buildings look quite alpine - large shutters, small windows - a bit like something from Hansel and Gretal. No luck with a restaurant in the old town so we walked back down to the lake.

We found a beautiful restaurant called La Terrasse du Petit Palais. We decided to just eat there whatever as it has such a nice terrace overlooking the lake. Andrew had Caesar salad and I had “a collection of antique tomatoes with peaches and limoncello sorbet”. Followed by Steak Tartare for Andrew and pasta with pesto and buratta for me. The prices were not petit at all. Bit of a gulp but we were in now, so best to just enjoy. The antique tomatoes (they were fresh) were so delicious , especially with the peaches and the pasta was amazing. Pesto can be a bit rich, but this was so subtle. Andrew said his salad was gorgeous and so was his main course. The service was good, the restaurant was good, the food was excellent. Nice.

We then walked back along the lake shore, past Freddie again and we watched the sun go down, coming across beautiful sculptures dotted along the promenade.

We tried to walk to Chillon castle, and old 12th century fort but we couldn’t make it (turned out to be on a small island close to the shore) and as the best views are from the lake we just got as close as we could and then turned back.

Montreux is absolutely breathtaking. It’s hard to take in the beauty of the lake surrounded by the snow-capped mountains of the Savoy Alps and the big sky. We are not here for long, but it’s been a wonderful day. Perhaps we’ll come back one day.