Monday, Sept 2, 2024 - Leysin

Deb here. Woke up to a beautiful clear sky. I had lots of plans for today, chasing down places from my family’s stay here in 1970! We started our day with breakfast at the hotel, which was quite delicious. Once again, fresh breads and jams, yogurt, a stellar coffee machine (with hot chocolate options), cheeses, meats and fruit.

Since the day was clear we decided to first take the gondola up to the top of La Berneuse, the ski bowl I skied in way back when. It was so stunning at the top, although things have changed in 54 years. There’s now a revolving restaurant on top (built in the 1980’s), along with huge letters that spell Leysin. Otherwise, the look of the ski area is just as I remembered it.

After views, pictures, and a walk around we returned down on the gondola. The next project was to find the house we lived in that year, Chalet Pollux. I had the map from Monsieur DuBois, and we walked in the direction where we thought it might be. In all these years things have changed, and if it hadn’t been for John’s sharp eyes we would have missed it, but he saw the “Pollux” sign on the side of the house. And then we located the “Castor” sign on the side of the neighboring home. Upon a further look, it appears that both of the modest chalets are still intact, although engulfed by two large homes right next to them. Wow, memory lane indeed!

We then headed past Chalet Pollux to Nid d’Aigle, the walk I remembered. It was a lovely walk without a lot of elevation gain out to a lookout at the end. The lookout would have been quite dramatic, but by the time we made it there, midday, the clouds had rolled in. Still a nice walk.

Back into town to swing by La Fromagerie and talk with Monsieur DuBois. He wasn’t in, so we walked on to a coffee shop in the village, Cafe la Farandole. We split a rosti with ham and cheese that was delicious. It was a Swiss sandwich of sorts with something like pressed hash browns for the top and bottom layer.

A bit of souvenir shopping, then back to the hotel for blog writing and down time. The skies looked like rain, but nothing materialized. At 5:30 pm we walked back to La Fromagerie but no Monsieur DuBois, so we sat and had a drink (aperol spritz for me and beer for John). We then walked to Restaurant la Lorraine for dinner, sharing a great pizza and coffee and tea. People here have all been oh so very friendly and welcoming to us, even with my limited French and their limited English.

By 7:30 pm the skies were clearing nicely and it was back to the hotel.