Dwight Peck's personal website
Féchy,
Switzerland, 2011 +
In
summer 1998, Mr Peck vacated Trélex in haste and moved books, computers, skis,
and a few clothes to a new little bachelor flat in the village of Bassins, Switzerland. Thirteen years sped by.
But now, with Kristin joining us here, we're looking for something a little more commodious. We found it here.
We're partial to restored farms with ceiling beams.
Beams. Big thick walls. The whole thing tucked snugly up into the attic.
Back in Bassins, round-the-clock packing up, and a brilliant déménagement by Stefan Berger of Gland.
A lot of sorting out to be done. Can't get back to customary, soothing routines until everything's found a new home.
The new workroom or study, with bits of IKEA in various stages of usability
Anytime's a good time to get on the telephone to the friends-and-relations.
We're in the village of Féchy -- according to Henry Suter, that's a name dating from the 12th century, probably derived from the gallo-roman for a Roman gens name. The ancient Romans were making wine all over the hillsides here, and The Tradition Continues (there are nearly 20 winemakers in Féchy alone).
This is just out our front door.
Specifically, we're in Féchy-Dessus (Upper Féchy), a one-and-a-half street sub-village about 50 vertical metres up the vineyards from Féchy-Dessous (Lower Féchy) -- they've got the post office, the auberge communal, the town dump, and possibly even more winemakers than we do. This is the one- street . . .
. . . and this is the -and-a-half street, leading up through still more vineyards to Upperest Féchy, called Cassivettes, where the extremely rich people live (including some celebrities!). The town plan shows two swimming pools in Féchy-Dessous, no swimming pools in Féchy-Dessus, and nearly all swimming pools in Cassivettes.
That's our front door in the centre, and our flat -- behind the three dormers on the roof.
We're taking a little walking tour up above the village, to see the sights.
The view out over the vineyards
Lake Geneva, with something very blue on this side of it.
It's the IKEA. Lifesavers. Can't get into it on Saturdays, though. The autoroute or thruway between Geneva and Lausanne runs just in front of it, and on Saturday mornings the cars are backed up on the exit ramp.
That's Lausanne, with the zoom lens still on.
The upper part of Upper Féchy, Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) behind
Féchy-Dessus from the vineyards
We've got the village church, and Lower Féchy doesn't. We've got the village school, too, the lower grades, but we're told they're building a new one downtown.
The back of our house from the vineyards above -- we're the three little dormers in a row just left of centre.
The church, cited in the documents from 1100, and the village lower school just to its left. And IKEA just down the hill. That's part of the village of Allaman, which (like us) is part of the district of Aubonne.
Féchy-Dessous, lower Féchy
Féchy-Dessus, upper Féchy
Closer look
The town of Rolle, with its castle and the only real island in Lake Geneva, the artificial Ile de la Harpe
Our nearest neighbor, Perroy, on the lake, the autoroute in the foreground
Féchy-Dessus amongst the vines
Féchies Dessus and Dessous from directly above
Féchy-Dessus from the farther (eastern) side (The little white spike on the far shore is Geneva's famous jet d'eau.)
Féchy-Dessus
The main road through Féchy-Dessus is called "Féchy-Dessus".
That's our house (the dormers on top).
The view from our lakeside windows, Geneva in the distance
Down to the post office in Féchy proper.
Mont Blanc is still hovering in the distance, if not so dramatically as in Bassins, which is 250m higher up the hillside here.
Féchy-Dessus from Féchy-Dessous
Church and school
Church, and nearby, the Vigne du Monde. There's a wine festival here every September and guest nations show off their art, and then leave behind some of their grapevine thingies to be planted in a patch here with all the other "vines from around the world".
Church
Church, school, etc.
From the southwest
A closer look
More views
Our front door
The schoolyard
Féchy-Dessus from the vineyards. And our parking place when we can't squeeze into one of the five public parking places on the main street.
Féchy-Dessus in the distance, along the road between Nyon and Aubonne, the ancient Vy d'Etraz that connected the Roman establishments of Nyon with Yverdon and Aventicum near Lac de Neuchâtel. That's our new car, Schubert; Kristin found him on-line but it turned out that he was living in Lucerne, so we had to go up there for a few days to fetch him down.
Féchy-Dessus from the southwest
Settling in, not painlessly. Kristin's new sofa was too big to get in the door, and we had to saw off the whole end of it. Luckily, our neighbor is about as handy with tools as I'm not.
After two days of deconstructing and reconstructing, we're almost there.
Well-earned rest. (I don't think I've ever seen a real leather sofa before.)
The sofas are too low to get up out of, anyway, without a block-and-tackle, but that's my "throne" in the foreground.
There's a fireplace and a television, too, which we'll have to learn how to use, I suppose.
The workroom (and guest bedroom, if it had a bed in it)
The kitchen (the neighbor, a charming German retired engineer who PhD'ed in Wisconsin (what a coincidence), built all that himself).
The workroom or study. Some of that's going to have to move out when the guest-bedroom bed gets here.
Our view out the back. Vineyards.
Feedback
and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, .
All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 6 June 2011.
|