Skip to main content

Evian-les-Bains

Evian is beautifully positioned on the French (south) side of the lake, midway along that shore. It is a little like Buxton, in that it has natural waters that have attracted people for well over a century and it has the imposing buildings to match. I think Buxton’s Crescent beats anything that Evian has though.






The Evian waters have apparently taken 15 years to filter through from rainfall to outlet. Buxton claims their’s takes a ridiculous 5,000, which is bizarre and crazy and can’t be correct.  Can it?

Just as at “The Springs” in Buxton, people have free access to the constant supply, 24/7, which is 24h/24 and 7j/7 to use the longhand French approach. I do think though, that Evian people appear to be a little more greedy than Buxtonians when it comes to “taking the waters”.


The highlight of our morning visit, was a journey on their funicular, from the street parking at the top, down to the bottom station. It is a pleasant ten minute ride, free of charge and great fun, although there’s little scenery to look at.

Two cliff-rail type carriages move in opposite directions, each driven or braked from the top by a single steel cable.

You can either stand or sit for the ride but it is clear from the signs that seated passengers are to be super chilled, whereas standing passengers need to be alert for possible danger to their personal well being.







We stayed overnight at a site at Brise du Leman, run by Glenn and Frances who, as people often seem to do, told us their life story before we had hardly got settled.

It was very handy for the lake beach, with wide grassy areas behind and also for a lake bar but I found it noisy at night, not the campsite but loud cars and motorbikes.





It served a purpose, it was much warmer in the evening than the Abondance valley and we have realised just how good Lake Geneva is. The local kids really appreciate it and were doing acrobatic dives off the ferry jetty, This isn’t yet in use, as it’s not high season for obscure passenger ferries across to Switzerland. The bigger towns do have a service though.




A quick tourist visit followed to Yvoire, a little to the west of Evian. This is a rather twee old village which appears to cater just for tourists. We enjoyed a walk and a coffee and pastry.






Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The empty map of Macedonia and into Greece

Continuing south towards the Serbia / Macedonia border, the satnav warned of a lack of detail, "do you wish to continue with this route?" However we are not intrepid explorers and Macedonia comes with a few " be careful" warnings, so we decided to stay on the motorway :-) We didn't explore Serbia; it will wait for another trip. So it was on to the border. Here, passport and V5 were required again and also proof of insurance. We didn't have any of course. When we rang the UK insurance company call centres prior to the trip, most had no idea where these countries are. They don't understand non-EU. "Macedonia - can you spell that"? The nice man at the passport office was already expecting me to say that I would buy my insurance at the "Green card office" and he handed back one passport and the V5 and put mine in his pocket until I had the necessary paper for the Landy. Unfortunately in spite of the Land Rover being classed as PL...
9 comments
Read more

Our Landy

Here is our new Landy. It's a 1996 Defender 110 County Station Wagon. The engine is the 300Tdi which is a straightforward diesel that doesn't have an ecu so we won't need access to computer diagnostics in order to fault find. It was bought at the end of 2014 in 'restored' condition, but we soon discovered that the restoration was wallpaper and in fact it required some serious work on the drivetrain, hubs and brakes. The jobs done: Rear half-shafts and drive flanges Front n/s CV joint and drive flange Front ventilated brake discs One old and one new front disc New brake callipers fitted to each corner Rear lower link arm bushes Front radius arm bushes New shockers all round Front turrets replaced with galvanised versions New transmission brake shoes ( after replacing the failed rear transfer box oil seal). Replaced the rear body cappings with galvanised - hence the silver coloured band around the body. Galvanised capping, supports the r...
9 comments
Read more

First views of the Picos

 Santillana del Mar comes as a surprise to those of us that haven’t done the prep and read about this place. Fancy having planning controls going back to the 16C. when you have such amazing stone buildings. This town is a tourist town certainly but it’s thoroughly deserved. Beautiful sturdy Cotswold stone coloured buildings are everywhere. The stone quoins, lintols and supports are impressive but there’s plenty of substantial hefty cross sections of wood too. We wander the streets, looking at the wares aimed at us tourists but encounter cascades of water from the roof tiles. It’s raining and there are no gutters! The bar is welcoming and we cleverly order dos cañas de cerveza  having learnt this glass size from a bartender in Tenerife. We are rewarded with a plate of crisps too and settle on the bar stools, wondering whether to eat here. Unfortunately we discuss this for too long and the tables fill and we are left on the bar stools until we decide to wander again. Inside...
6 comments
Read more