Smoke on the Water

We finally made a day trip to Montreux today. I say finally because every time we considered a trip to Montreux it seemed like bad weather would thwart our plans. Montreux is a resort town located along the southeast corner of Lake Geneva (a.k.a. Lac Leman). It is considered the "jewel of the Swiss Riviera," according to our guidebook, and is best known for its annual Jazz festival in July. In fact, when Frank Zappa played at the festival in 1971, a rocket flare from the show set off a fire at the Montreux casino and cast a pall of smoke over Lake Geneva. The scene inspired Deep Purple to write the famous rock classic, Smoke on the Water. Montreux was also the second home of Freddie Mercury, who died there in 1991.

But we didn't go to Montreux for the music (this time). No, we went to check out the Chateu de Chillon. Chillon is one of Switzerland's most recognizable sights, right up there with the Matterhorn. The stunningly picturesque castle is set on a rocky island a short walk south along the coast from Montreux. We purchased the audio guide tour and spent two hours exploring, visiting just about every tower and medieval chamber the place had to offer. We learned the dungeon was once used as a prison. The most famous prisoner was Francois de Bonivard, who spent six lonely years in captivity chained to one of the columns. The story was immortalized by Lord Byron in his famous poem 'The Prisoner of Chillon" in 1816. Legend has it that Byron was so moved by his visit to Chillon that he actually carved his name into the column to which de Bonivard was chained. Not sure if that is true, but I took a picture of the graffiti just in case.  Pam also took a picture of me imagining myself as poor Francois.

Anyway, after our tour of Chateu de Chillon, we took the short ferry ride back to Montreux for dinner. Montreux is a beautiful city built into the steep hillside along the waterfront, with wonderful views across the lake of Savoy (France) and the Alps. We enjoyed a short, relaxing walk along the shore after dinner and then caught the 8:30PM train back to Bern. All in all, Montreux was definitely worth the wait.  Here are some pictures from our day in Montreux/Chillon.