A quiet day in Evian

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 28th September 2023

Weather report remains the same, too good to believe. A lazy day around town is today's plan once again catching the funicular down to town for breakfast and a walk around.

There is an Exhibition on at Palais Lumiere that we decide to go and have a look at.


The intro that came with the ticket says "Man Ray is considered as one of the greatest photographers, with a central place in the history of 20th century art. He was a precursor, one of the first to use photography not as a simple means of reproduction, but as a creative medium in its own right". With this in mind we bought our ticket and headed into the exhibition to see his work. There is little doubt he was a very talented photographer with a penchant for photographing female nudes. He later branched into experimenting with other art forms.

Many school students were also at the exhibition with their teachers seemingly had given them assignments to do whilst they were there. 

Palais Lumiere is in itself, an amazing building. Whilst photography inside the exhibition was not allowed, the foyer area of the Palais was worthy of a few photos.


The main entrance


Entrance to the exhibition


This statue symbolises Source Cachat

We stayed in town for lunch and went off in search of a restaurant where we could get a good feed of mussels. Yesterday many restaurants had it as their daily special but today only a few. Eventually we settled on a suitable venue and most of us enjoyed an excellent meal of moules frites.



We later wandered past the fish shop we visited yesterday and I dropped in to show him the photos that Mike Wesslink had emailed from his fishing trip in FNQ. He was very impressed at the size of the fish and the variety and quite curious about some of the species he was unfamiliar with.

This afternoon the girls had some shopping time in town and John and I looked around, visiting the Evian Thermes Spa building to check it out, had a walk along he water front where we saw a large group of kayakers out on the lake and John had some laundry to pick up from the dry cleaners.



Kayakers on the lake

Ferry leaving for Lausanne

When we arrived back at La Verniaz the girls had yet to return and, as they had the room keys we had to get a spare key from reception to get in. This would seem an easy exercise and after a few attempts we were successful in getting access to the main building and John's room to leave our stuff. It seems a number of the keys are faulty and they are a very strange key design.

Once we had lightened our load we walked down to the Hotel L'ermitage where we could get a beer. We sat on the overlooking the lake and had a nice cold beer before heading back to La Verniaz.


It is a huge hotel and looks like it would be a popular conference venue. Also associated with it is a large timber auditorium, next to the funicular line which is undergoing a major renovation, La Grange du Lac. Internally it apparently has excellent acoustics and is a good concert venue.




When we got back the girls were home, without enriching the local economy with major purchases. After an hour or so rest we decided to dine in at the La Verniaz restaurant where once again we had a very nice meal and a complimentary taste of a local liquor to have with our coffee which was very nice.



Tomorrow we plan to drive to Gruyere in Switzerland.







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