Day 2 Paris to Zermatt, Switzerland

We were up early and off to Orly to rent our Ford diesel sedan, which turned out to be a Peugeot. Nice. Not hyper-economical, but pretty good at about 52 mpg.  Back to the hotel as my ankle was very swollen from all the walking and stair-climbing we did the day before and the flying doesn’t help with swelling.  We loaded up, then we were off, with help from Jeeves (our exceedingly polite British-butler-voiced GPS we’ve named Jeeves).  Mark downloaded European maps for our GPS, and it is working fantastically.  He (Mark) is an excellent driver and is managing so far very well.  I drive occasionally as well, but he’s doing the lion’s share and enjoying it most of the time.

Once we started on the road, Mc Donalds lured us in on the promise of free wifi on which it did not make good.  4.65 E (Euros currently 1.43 US Dollars = 1 Euro so 4.65E equals $6.51)  for a processed square of chicken  sandwich equally as bad as what they serve in the USA, if not worse.   Café (an espresso) 1.25E.  Don't be fooled.  A freshly made crepe on the streets of Paris with ham, mushrooms and egg or filled with banana and Nutella at 5E  is a way better value and much more fun.


If you would have landed me in rural Central France without seeing the buildings, there were times that I might have thought I was in West Virginia; other places, I might have thought Arizona had become green.  The countryside has the long views of the American Southwest and the green of the East, along with oranges, yellows and reds all its own.  We rolled through hundreds of kilometers of vast fields of sunflowers, wheat and corn.

Eventually the hills became steep and had a character all their own; clearly we had reached the Alps.  We stopped at Montreux to touch Lake Geneva, which is stunning... found a sweet park along the lake where you can put up a tent and spend the night.  Would have been a good call had we had a tent.  Along the road from Lausanne to Tasch, we went through over 9 tunnels, some of them 2 miles long, and we agreed that even in the face of a major earthquake they would remain intact and neat.

The Swiss, of course, would have it no other way.  Switzerland is about precision.  Things work really well.  The doors go (I need a hand motion inserted here to show open) and they go (insert hand motion showing shut) very perfectly and efficiently. They make almost no noise at all.  Some are actually silent.  Everything is clean and beautiful. Even the garage floor at the train station (very busy) looks recently cleaned and polished.  You feel you could safely use the 20 second rule here for dropped food.  It’s the “God is a Clockmaker” country and I don’t even think they are aware the rest of the world does not create this energy.

We drove through a long valley with taller mountains on both sides than anywhere else we’d been.  Then the climb to Visp was sudden and sharp.  It has to be this way because of the steepness of the mountains; there really is no going over them easily.  Many switchbacks and sharp curves led to the quick ascent to Visp’s 2680 feet – and one is still in the main valley.  Heading up a side valley to Tasch at 4868 feet meant a 2,200 ft climb in a few minutes.

Tasch, which is about 8-10 miles from Zermatt, is the end of the public road – only electric vehicles are allowed past that point, to keep the remainder of the valley pollution-free.  Yet another piece of clever Swiss foresight  So the last leg of today's trip was via the quiet efficient electric train that takes you up to 5815 ft. at Zermatt.   The top of the glacier is 9,800 ft.  The Matterhorn itself tops off at 14,691.  Once we're there, my ears are still ringing and if this train doesn't stop running through my head, I don't know how I'll sleep – exhaustion will work I guess.

In Tasch we had a nice dinner, served by an incredibly hard-working Dutch woman who spoke English, Dutch, German, and French very well and could switch from one to another easily. Swizz (Switzer) Deutsch is the language of the area but many people are multi-lingual.  It was the first time I've spoken German to a German on Germanic soil.  Mark said I looked very comfortable.  I did feel somewhat at home there.

As we've mentioned, the Swiss are precise.  The automatic doors are so quiet that even if you stop and listen you can't hear them!    In Paris, you go downstairs into ancient cellars where bathrooms are located and you can tell there is 1000 year old dirt ground into ancient stones.  In Switzerland, you go down clean and neat stairs (regardless of their age) and find an immaculate bathroom where the tiles meet perfectly and it feels like it's been disinfected less than an hour ago.

Lake Geneva

Walk to the campground on Lake Geneva











From the station at Zermatt, there was one final athletic adventure, climbing cobblestone streets with our bags to our very high up, very petite hotel (it was called Le Petit Hotel).  The air is very clean, but also quite thin.  I’m glad we took our Chlorophyll supplement.  It’s after dark and the way is much longer than expected.  Fortunately we called the hotel ahead letting them know of our later-than expected arrival.  They told us the code to get in the front door, left a key in an envelope with our names on the desk.  Off they went to bed as they get up really early to make the breakfast.

Staircase at the Petit Hotel in Zermatt

Many things were petite about this hotel – it has the smallest lift we've ever seen.  We had to go up one at a time and squeeze to get one bag in with us. Here we are on our 4th floor and ready for sleep.  We open the window wide.  It too works perfectly despite the age of the building.  I think the Swiss know better than to put another coat of paint on a window without removing the old one.  Nothing sticks even though this building is ancient.  The air is refreshingly crisp and clean.  No smell of fumes is a delight to our noses.  You can smell flowers.  Many buildings are decked with window boxes full of colorful flowers.  There is no sign of the Matterhorn view our internet booking promised.  There is no moon and it’s a bit overcast, so we’ll have to wait till the morning to see the solitary peak that draws so much attention in the heart of Europe.  I am disappointed that no stars are visible either.  The room is small and nice.  It’s a good sized village so the lights might block view of the stars.  We are tired but all good.  Goodnight.