Views of the river Rhône, 2 April 2014

Dwight Peck's personal website

The neighborhood of Ollon, Switzerland

Ollon, Switzerland. We've just moved in, and it's time to get out and scope out the neighborhood.

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Views of the river Rhône, 2 April 2014

A temporary pause in our vegetating on our new sunny back porch with an improving book -- we're going to walk down and visit the Mighty River Rhône and bring our little Lumix. That's the hamlet of Verschiez, an Ollon suburb.

We're passing the quarries on the little hills of St-Triphon: black marble, evidently, in operation since the 13th century.

The rail line to Italy

To the Rhône -- on the digue, or embankment, with hiking signs for the local attractions. You can walk or cycle here, but you must "soyez fair-play" ('be fair play' by respecting others' right of way).

The embankment is nearly dead flat, thus popular with cycling clubs. The Rhône is 813 kilometres long, from the high Alps to the Camargue delta in the Mediterranean, but now that we've got here, we're only going to walk along 2 or 3 kilometres of it.

Switzerland preserves the charms of its villages by congregating the required ugly stuff in their own zones industrielles.

The Dents du Midi: not all Swiss mountain views are created equal.

A Bridge on the River Rhône -- for gas pipes.

Another cycling club

The gas pipe bridge . . .

. . . and the Dents de Morcles

A few explorations inland; ouch.

Heidi-land

Doubtless necessary. But that can't be healthy.

An equestrian path along the Rhône embankment

Back home through St-Triphon

The 13th century tower of St-Triphon

There's other archaeological stuff nearby; we'll have to make a proper visit soon.

St-Triphon village

St-Triphon . . .

. . . and its tower.

Dear friends back in the day lived here and had a ceramics workshop -- we will discover soon whether this is they. That's Ollon on the hillside, and the recycling centre in the mid-foreground.

The Ollon village school, with the St-Triphon tower

Up to the Ollon rail station . . .

. . . and so to home.

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