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.