Montreux to Saint-Tryphon

 

This was a fairly easy day, with only a few steep climbs and about 12 miles traveled, mostly on pavement. We continued to the end of the lake, then from Villaneuve we turned away from the lake and headed up the valley between the French Alps and the Swiss Alps. The scenery varied greatly, as can be seen in the following photos.

We walked along a canal path covered in slugs and snails, through wet grass, past factories and power lines.

We took a bike path alongside railroad tracks.

We saw more poppies in a field filled with wildflowers, including daisies, mullein, and others.

We passed numerous terraced vineyards.

We walked up to and around the 15th-century, very photogenic Chateau d’Aigle (Aigle Castle).

We met a group of young cows in a meadow.

And, we walked through several villages with a mix of old and new homes, with streets in chaotic organization close to sterile subdivisions.

Lunch came from a supermarket. Our standard lunch consists of bread, some sort of salami or smoked salmon, some type of local cheese (such as comté, emmental, or Gruyère), and 1-2 fruits or vegetables. Today we added olives to that.

We had planned to cook dinner but I forgot that there is no market in the town where we are spending the night, or in the town before it, so we found a restaurant that prepares pizza and had drinks and waited there for an hour until they opened for dinner at 6:30, then took the pizza to our apartment. Many small stores close for lunch, while many restaurants close for mid-day, then open later for dinner. The pizza partnered well with a local wine that we bought at Aigle Castle.

We have been learning that we really need to plan ahead for meals. Tomorrow’s breakfast is likely to be meager, as we only have a small amount of oats remaining, one slice of bread, and a handful of cherries. And tomorrow is Sunday, which means that the markets are all closed. Fortunately, boulangeries (bakeries) are open on Sunday mornings, so we will change tomorrow’s route so that we can access food. We take each day as it comes, but a little planning goes a long way in ensuring that we can eat along the way.