les jardins des iris

It's a holiday, here and back home, so we had the chance to spend a lovely Monday wandering the grounds at the Château de Vullierens while the iris are in full bloom.

We ate a little picnic lunch in the churchyard of the town and then spent the afternoon admiring all the colors.

I couldn't pick a favorite.

Just a couple more:

We decided to run on the quiet country roads to explore a bit more of the area and enjoy the fading light.

Pink piggies.

We'd had a full day and started toward home, taking the longer scenic route through fields, forest, and the last bit of sun before descending to the highway. Happy Memorial Day / Whit Monday to you.

more walking in the vineyard

I don't tire of the vineyard views, and love watching the vines grow high and green. Tiny grapes are just starting. The days are already long, staying light after 9pm, making it hard to go in for the night. The evening have been perfectly pleasant, cool with slight breeze. So, we're doing all the walking in the vineyard we can manage.

spring storms

It's been getting warmer here. I can already feel the coming summer heat on afternoon runs. Derek and I had good weekend runs, and spent the rest of Sunday walking in the vineyard: watching clouds pour over the mountain ridge and quick storms come and go. The fields are glowing green.

3 hour tour

We took a long evening walk through Dardagny and Russin, and some fields and farms in between to enjoy the vineyards and dramatic clouds. It's a nice 8+ mile loop with some nice hills.

caves ouvertes

Yeah! It's that time of year again...wine tasting celebrations have begun. This year, with the threat of rain, we are on foot rather than bike, but we're ready to taste. First stop, at the bottom of the hill, Elizabeth succeeded at the blind taste challenge to identify red, rose, and white. Harder than it sounds when they are all the same temperature.

After sampling a good number of wines from Les Faunes, which happens to have some of Dardagny's best wines (in my opinion), we made our way through several other domaines for samples and snacks and entertainment. 

Since the sky grew darker and cooler and it rained a little, so we didn't leave Dardagny to continue our wine tour. Fortunately, there are more than a handful of wineries in this little town, so we kept busy and our glasses full.

Already looking forward to next year...

By evening there had been such a drastic change in the weather that we settled in for a raclette dinner (perfect for keeping warm), and managed to squeeze in a late CERN tour on the last night of Elizabeth's stay.

scaling the ramparts

Today we took a trip up to Murten, about 2 hours drive, and crossing out of the French speaking part of Switzerland. It was another summery day, and humid, but we enjoyed walking around the town, picnicking lakeside, and scaling the medieval ramparts for views over the tiled roofs and chimneys.

One of these things is not like the others...it's that twisted chimney!

We had fun walking through the town and the few covered portico streets. We stopped in both the French and German churches where it was cool.

Loving the striped doors and shutters.

A few parting shots before starting towards home

And just two more quick stops. After a pretty full, but leisurely day in Murten, we squeezed in a short walk through Gruyeres.

More scaling...

And a lakefront stop in colorful Vevey in time for the last bit of daylight.

Vevey's fork, and paddle boats (my big summer plans involve a paddle boat).