24 Hours: Geneva — Chamonix (Terri and Finn’s European Adventure Day 12)

After we left Geneva, we drove to Lausanne in hopes of finding a cute place for breakfast and to walk around. Unfortunately, driving around Lausanne was quite confusing and our GPS kept sending us through a parking lot as we tried to get to the old city center.

We finally gave up and found a neighborhood cafe with sidewalk seating. It was a beautiful morning until the yellow jackets descended at which point we couldn’t eat fast enough. We were hoping for something more substantial than bread with butter and jam, but after circling the city four times, and getting a little cranky in the process, this was the best we could do.

Our plan was to take the scenic route to Montreux but once again Lausanne got the better of me and we accidentally got on the autoroute (after driving down a bus-only street which we couldn’t get off fast enough).

This worked out well because we needed to get to lunch before 2 PM and we wanted to walk around Montreux. My friend (Paris) Terry suggested we drive around Lake Geneva, stopping in Montreux, on our way to Chamonix, and it was a great suggestion.

Montreux is known for its jazz festival, one of the largest in the world. There is even a sculpture garden dedicated to jazz musicians called the Alley of Jazz Musicians with sculptures of jazz musicians including Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald and B.B. King. It was kind of eerie.

Montreux is situated on Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) with a serene lakefront promenade, beautiful buildings, and stunning hills covered with grape vines.

We parked and walked along the water in search for a place to have lunch.

With our blood sugar running a little low, we opted for the Fairmont Palace restaurant at this historic grand, yellow hotel (one that Montreux is also known for).

The view from the terrace restaurant was worth the exorbitant prices.

The food was good and service was ok despite there only being a few people at the restaurant.

As we enjoyed our coffee and tea and waited forever for the check, we played some cards. This was pretty typical for us as Finn brought a deck with them wherever we went. If we had any downtime, we played (mostly) gin rummy.

While we were having lunch, I looked at places we could visit in Montreux and discovered Chateau de Chillon, a medieval castle on an island on Lake Geneva.

I booked tickets online and we walked down to the closest bus station and, after downloading the bus app, zipped down the road to the chateau. I’ve lost count of the number of public transportation apps I now have installed on my phone because of this trip.

For this one, we had to start the app when we got on and then stop when we got off, thereby allowing the app to calculate the bus fare.

We were not disappointed with this well-visited historic site.

Throughout the chateau there are information panels providing context and history for each part of the chateau. We tried reading (and understanding) everything in French. I don’t recall if there was an English translation on the signs. I checked with Finn and they remember using the English translations to verify their understanding of what was written in French.

Given it’s age, it’s remarkably well preserved with beautiful views of the lake and its surroundings.

It was a picture perfect day and after spending about an hour walking around, we decided it was time to get back on the road.

After we visited the gift shop, of course.

We managed to find the scenic route and avoided the autoroute as we made our way into the Alps.

The roads were steep with tight, hairpin turns that were incredibly fun to drive. As with many cars in Europe, I’d been given a car with a manual transmission. It was pretty gutless but I could still pretend I was a grand prix driver.

I was most amazed by the grapevines growing on the steep hillsides. As we were driving from Lausanne to Montreux, we saw so many vineyards along the hillside and both of us wondered how they were maintained. You really had to be a billy goat.

It was a perfect day for a drive and as we ascended into the Alps, the weather cooled down a few degrees.

Our hotel in Chamonix was on the other side of town. As we slowly made our way through town, we passed lots of hikers that were most likely coming back into town for dinner (or a refreshment) after one of the many local hikes.

We weren’t sure where to park at the hotel so we parked at the adjacent public parking lot. As folks were leaving, spots were opening up, and it was a good thing that we parked there because two days later when we went to leave, the power was out. More on that in Day 14.

The view from our hotel room balcony was incredible. We thought this was Mont Blanc but it wasn’t. When we took the cable car up this mountain the following day, we could see Mont Blanc.

The white icy looking part just beyond the trees is a glacier (Glacier Rond).

Our hotel (Mercure Chamonix Centre) was in a great location near the Aiguille du Midi cable car and a short walk to the shops and restaurants in the center of town. More about the cable car and mountain in the Day 13 post.

We walked through town looking for a good place to eat. We were a little bit early for France in the summer (it was before 7) but we did find a Lyonnaise restaurant, Canailles, that was taking reservations for passersby.

We saw a sign for company that was offering tandem paragliding (parapente) and descended into the basement of the building to see if there were any spots open for the next day. While there, we met an American woman who was in the area to hike Mont Blanc with her girlfriends, both from the French side and the Italian side. I didn’t know people did this.

None of us were able to book a spot for the next day so we all left somewhat disappointed.

Over dinner, Finn and I continued to discuss paragliding and we were both excited about (and determined) to add this mode of transportation to the list.

Dinner was really good. It’s a small place operated by the owners. We both had the Lyonnaise salad and Finn had a vegetarian option as a main while I had the quenelles. I don’t think I need to have it again. Mine had creamed fish (other options include creamed chicken or meat). It was very rich.

In the hotel room, I made parapente reservations for the following day, surprised that the option was available. Unfortunately, we woke up to them being canceled. But then later we were able to get reservations for Friday before we left for Les Arcs.

We woke up to a gorgeous day and decided to walk around the town and see about getting tickets to the Aiguille du Midi cable car.

This river running through the town was loud and absolutely beautiful. It reminded us of the Truckee River.

We stood in a short line to get tickets and managed to get some of the last ones for that day at 4 PM.

We continued to walk around town. More about that and our cable car adventure in Day 13: Chamonix.

Terri Hanson Mead is the multi-award winning author of Piloting Your Life, Managing Partner of Solutions2Projects, LLC, and an advocate for women through all of her platforms including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and this blog. Terri is the mother of two college aged kids, is based in Redwood City, CA and in her spare time, loves to travel, cook, play tennis, and fly helicopters around the San Francisco Bay Area, especially under the Golden Gate Bridge.