THE FREQUENT FLIER
TRAVELIFE MAGAZINE
HAPPY ON BOTH SIDES CHRISTINE CUNANAN spends the summer along Lake Geneva, going back and forth between Switzerland and France
I turned the navigation system off, avoided the highways, put on some opera and just let instinct guide me around Lake Geneva until I hit Saint-Gingolph, the sleepy border town jointly administered by Switzerland and France via a neat physical division.
Ironically, when I finally got there, I was told that – save for the bottled water available for sale everywhere – there is no access to the healing waters of Evian anywhere in this town that bears its name except at a health center housed in a nondescript modern building that somehow made me think of a Soviet-era community center.
SMALL TOWN WITH A BIG TASK
LOOKING AT THE BRIGHT SIDE
Saint-Gingolph has almost no charms to commend it so most travelers drive through without giving it a thought. However, it once provided crucial access to Switzerland for the French resistance via a drainage pipe below this town during World War II; and this same pipe saved not a few fleeing Jews as well. Until recently, it served as the official border between Switzerland and France, in the days when both countries still issued their own visas, and its old border gate is still in place.
Not one for spartan facilities but also never disappointed for long, I happily took walks along the lake instead and for the most part basked in the quiet luxury of the Hotel Royal, a historical and impeccably renovated hotel with no Evian water except in bottles to drink, but with lovely gardens, a decent spa (with regular water), and perhaps the most beautiful views of the lake from the French side.
along the circuitous route of country roads that pass through some of Switzerland’s loveliest towns, including Vevey and Montreaux.
In between, we drove thousands of kilometers around some of the most beautiful parts of Europe, and this time, I drove, too. I usually never drive in Europe, but this is my year for adventure and I had a few days by myself to go anywhere I wanted while my companion attended to some business in Lausanne and Geneva.
ACROSS SWITZERLAND BY CAR So from Munich, we drove all the way to Lausanne, which is not an inconsequential distance, stopping for a night in Zurich and then for coffee in the pretty but underthe-radar town of Solothurn, with him at the wheel the entire time while I enjoyed the scenery. We literally drove through Switzerland and it was fascinating to observe the big and small changes in the colors, influences and designs along the way. But after dropping my companion off at the Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne for a meeting, I got into the driver’s seat and headed for the French spa town of Evianles-Bains, which is about three hours away
After Saint-Gingolph, it was just a matter of following the narrow road along the water until I began seeing sign posts for Evian-les-Bains, a picturesque town reportedly famous for its thermal waters for bathing.
So until it was time to check-out and drive back into Switzerland and meet my companion in Lausanne, I drank copious amounts of Evian water instead of bathing in it, slept well and ate even better, and nevertheless enjoyed a summer along the French side of Lake Geneva, living a #Travelife. n
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PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE CUNANAN.
T
his summer we rented a nifty little sports car for three weeks of driving around Switzerland and Germany, with a bit of France thrown in. I’d arranged everything, getting a rental company to deliver a car to The Charles Hotel in Munich the morning after our arrival in Europe and then to pick it up the night before our departure back to Asia.