A sleeping castle with an interesting historical link and a safely moored ship

I had the opportunity to find some time free last week, which inevitably meant I got out with my gear to capture more images of the beauty around this region.

The first image is one I have been planning for some time - to capture the sun as it rises over the Aubonne castle. The castle was built in 1680 for Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, an early visionary of the opportunity in Indian Trade. Interesting historical tidbit (Thanks to Wikipedia), M. Tavernier was the individual who discovered and sold the 118 carat Hope Diamond (as it was known when it was re-discovered after a theft in London) to Louis XIV. This was taken from a secret vantage point I identified near the Arboretum...

The second image was taken on a sunny morning of the CGN ship, "Lausanne". This ship, part of the fleet of the Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le lac Léman (CGN) who operates the steam ships on Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) is one of the modern ships of their fleet, commissioned in 1991. Here, we find it safely moored at its home in Ouchy, a district of Lausanne in the Canton of Vaud. Taken with an ultra-wide 10mm lens to emphasize the texture and color of the mooring rope and chain.

Thanks for reading! I have a bunch of new interesting photos from an outing to La Salève, a mountainous outcrop overlooking Geneva, Les Rochers-de-Naye overlooking Lake Geneva and others, but I need some time to select the best ones. They should be up soon!

Wade

la-Creux-de-Van, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Recently, I took a hike up to a formation I had heard about but had not yet seen. I have posted this elsewhere, but I will include it in the blog to ensure we can get this out there, as it is really impressive to see.

Satellite View, courtesy of Google Maps:


View Larger Map

Essentially, this is a near-perfect semicircular cliff face in the country side...I say countryside, because this is back in the sweeping Swiss fields, and inevitably. Cows graze directly on the brink...

My wife and I hiked up to it this past summer. It was an easy hike along a road, which was a bit of a surprise...what was even more of a surprise was to learn the road led directly to a nice restaurant stocked with good food and cold beer only about 300m from the formation itself.

View from restaurant - that horizon line is where the world ends...

Following our heavy but delicious meal of croûte de fromage at the restaurant, we walked through the grazing cattle to the brink, and were honestly struck dumb. Being there was better than expected. The cliffs are almost perfectly vertical and the formation itself follows a very smooth circular track. The view wasn't so bad either :

Again, sadly this is a small image, so the resolution isn't great...but you get the idea. My panoramic files end up being HUGE (500 MB+) so have to cut it way down for the blog...

Another view, just to give you an idea of the height of the cliff face and the impressive structure of the rock, here's a snapshot of my wife and our savage hound. She always comments she ends up as speck in my photos while the landscape sweeps majestically out behind her....as if she thinks I am focusing on the landscape and not her...

Stay tuned for my next posts!

Wade

New Panoramic of Fall colors near Fèchy

Autumn moves on and the colors just keep getting better. Fortunately, the vineyards have not yet suffered from the strong windstorms we normally have by now, which usually eliminate most of the leaves. Autumn this year is the gift that keeps giving.

Below is a new pano I took of the area. It is a 1:7 panoramic, so I hope you have a wide screen!