Bretagne

This afternoon we flew to Nantes in northwestern France. Emilie's sister is getting married tomorrow in St. Nazaire (the groom's hometown) and we'll stay in the area through Wednesday in order to explore a bit of the Brittany region.

Emilie's mom and grandma picked us up at the airport. This was my first time meeting her grandma (affectionately known as "La Mamie") and, being a bit nervous, said the equivalent of "what's up Mamie?" in French when introduced. This wasn't my intent, but Emilie said the same thing and I simply followed her lead rather than using a more formal salutation. Fortunately, no offense was taken and a nice laugh was had at my expense.

We're staying the weekend in La Baule, which is a seaside resort town that boasts Europe's longest sandy beach (12km). In the summer the town is reportedly bustling with French tourists, but in the early fall it has a much more relaxed "off-season" feel.

The weather was gorgeous, so after arriving at the hotel we walked around a bit along the beachfront. There were a few people on the beach taking advantage of the summer-like weather, but for the most part it was pretty quiet.

While I really liked the sandy beach, which reminded me a lot of Southern California's coastline, the beachfront development was a bit much. Unfortunately, very few of the older beach cottages remain and instead have been replaced by hotel and condo developments that lack the charm of their predecessors.

We walked around the interior of the town as well. Here's a nice church (Chapelle Saint-Anne) that we passed along the way.

While walking back to the hotel we passed an advertisement that I felt accurately portrays Emilie's general demeanor while driving. Emilie indulged in my humor with a photo.

The rest of the night was fairly mellow as we had a relaxing dinner at the hotel. Here's the view that we had from our hotel balcony as the sunset approached.

Empty Nest / More Venice

My parents headed home yesterday, leaving a bit of an empty nest feel around the apartment. After two weeks of having guests, it's a bit weird for us to come home at night and not have anyone around. That said, it's nice to return to a bit of a routine.

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After going back through my photos from Venice, I found some more that I wanted to share. The first is a shot of some Gondolas and a couple of Gondolieres taking a break. For "only" 100 Euro, you can get a 40 minute ride.

The following is a church that I liked. We passed it on the boat a number of times, but didn't have the opportunity to go inside.

Here's a photo of some Venetian carnival masks. They made me think of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.

The following are some buildings along a canal. One of my favorite parts of Venice was simply walking around and looking at the various buildings. While I've read a lot on the engineering behind the city's foundations, it's still a bit difficult to fully understand how a marshy lagoon was physically transformed into one of the most important cities in history.

The following is a mosaic that was above the door on a small church that we walked by.

And to finish things off, here's another shot from one of the smaller canals. You could spend days just walking around the backstreets of the city and taking in the views.

Last Day in Venice

Given our 2pm train back to Lausanne, we had a half-day left to explore Venice. The weather in the morning was beautiful, as last night's storm had passed through by the time we got up.

We began the day at the Accademia, a museum with Venetian masterpieces through the 18th century. Titian and Tintoretto were the artists that I was most familiar with (at least in terms of their names), though I recognized a number of other paintings that I must have seen before in textbooks. The museum also houses Da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man, which unfortunately wasn't on display.

After our museum visit, we walked to Harry's Bar -- a bar / restaurant near St. Mark's known for introducing the world to Carpaccio and Bellinis that was a favorite spot of Ernest Hemingway. Unfortunately, it wasn't open when we arrived (or we simply weren't able to successfully open the door), so we left with merely a picture.

Our next stop was the Museum of Modern Art, which Emilie wanted to vist. Here's one of the canals that we crossed along the way.

As with every other MOMA that I've visited, I either didn't like or didn't understand 99.9% of what I saw. I guess the artwork was "interesting" to see, but I don't think that I was able to fully appreciate any of it. The following is an example from the lobby area -- basically a massive cloth-type monster puppet. How the artist thought of this, I have no idea.

We then went back to the hotel to grab our belongings and head to the train station. The following are some pictures that I took as our boat made its way down the Grand Canal.

The trip to Venice went quickly, but I think we did a good job of seeing a lot in our short time. It really is a unique city given its aquatic environment and lengthy history. If only it could do something about the foul canal smell...

Murano

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This morning we headed to Murano, which is just north of Venice and easily accessible by boat. As we departed one of the docks near St. Mark's Square, I took the following picture looking back towards the square. The two columns in the foreground used to serve as the site of executions during the time of the Venentian Republic.

The boat ride was relatively quick (Murano is less than 2km north of Venice) and after arriving we walked around the city's main canals for a bit. The island definitely had a more relaxed feel to it, with far fewer people around.

Our first stop was the Museo del Vetro (Museum of Glass), which offered an interesting perspective into the glassmaking industry and had a number of exhibits on display (some dating back to Ancient Roman times). The following is a glass chandelier that was hanging in one of the rooms.

Our next stop was the Church of Santa Maria and San Donato, which is one of the oldest churches in the Venetian Lagoon and dates back (in its earliest form) to the 7th century. 

The church is particularly known for its 12th century Byzantine mosaic floor.

Before going inside we had to wait a bit because there was a service going on and we didn't want to intrude. It's pretty amazing that people have been attending services at the church for over 1,300 years.

Shortly after leaving the church we passed by the following crucifix / display, which was mounted on a wall that would otherwise not have specifically drawn our attention. I'm not sure if it was meant to be purely religious, purely artistic or some combination of the two, but I thought it was nice.

We spent the balance of our time in Murano walking along the canals in an area with a lot of glass shops. My mom and Emilie shopped a bit for some glass souvenirs, while my dad and I took in the views. We wanted to see some actual glass-making, but apparently Sunday is a day of rest for the glassmakers as well.

As we headed back to Venice, there were some ominous-looking storm clouds hovering in the background. It was still sunny where we were, but looked as though things could change at any moment if the wind blew the storm our way.

Once we got back to Venice we visited the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari church, which had been off-limits yesterday due to a wedding. The church is known for having the second tallest bell tower in the city (after St. Mark's) as well as being the final resting place of the painter Titian.

Next we headed to the Peggy Guggenheim museum, which includes works by Picasso, Kandinsky and Dali.

While walking back to hotel after, we heard singing coming from the canal next to us. It turned out that the two gondolas passing by had musicians in them who were performing for the tourists on board. It was pretty neat to see / hear.

And here's a picture of Emilie and me while we were heading back to the hotel before dinner. It was taken on yet another bridge that spanned one of the countless canals that we passed over.

For the second night in a row we called it quits after dinner, as the sightseeing had gotten the best of us again. We were fortunate in that we had chosen a restaurant that had covered outdoor seating, a valuable commodity given that the storm we had seen earlier in the day finally arrived during appetizers. Many others who were initially enjoying an outdoor moonlit dinner did not fare as well.

Sightseeing in Venice

We began our sightseeing today by walking from our hotel to St. Mark's Square. Though the distance wasn't very far as the crow flies, the path that we had to follow was a bit roundabout given the canals and bridges along the way. Here's a picture of my parents on one of the bridges that we crossed not far from the square.

When we arrived at St. Mark's square we had a nice view of St. Mark's Basilica and its Campanile (bell tower). I tried to squeeze as much as possible into the following picture, though much of the square itself was lost in order to get the top of the bell tower.

I thought that the basilica was particularly interesting. It was consecrated in the 11th century and is considered one of the world's best examples of Byzantine architecture. The inside is covered by mosaics containing gold and bronze, though unfortunately no pictures were allowed.

Next we visited the adjacent Doge's Palace, which was built in the 14th century. It served as both the residence of the Doge (the leader of Venetian Republic) as well as the home of the Republic's political institutions. It also housed a prison, which is known in part for the escape of a famous prisoner -- the talented Mr. Giacomo Casanova. Here's a view of the Palace's interior courtyard.

One of the more interesting elements of the palace was the Bussola chamber -- effectively a mail box for the Republic's citizens to submit written complaints / accusations for the ruling elite to address.

As part of the visit we also walked across the famous Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs), though much of the outside was obscured due to ongoing renovations of the adjacent building facades. Fortunately, I found a picture online that provides a nice, unobstructed view.

After our tour of the Palace, we took a boat ride to the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore. The small island has a similarly-named 16th century church and bell tower. Here's a view of the island from the Doge's palace.

The best part of the visit was the view that we had after ascending the bell tower. The Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Campanile stand out in particular.

There was also an interesting art exhibit in the interior of the church. I believe it was supposed to represent the Ascension.

We spent the balance of the afternoon simply walking around the city and admiring the the views along the canals and the architecture of the buildings. I'm not going to lie -- while the canals are beautiful to walk along, certain areas where the water doesn't circulate much get a bit tough on the nose.

 

Here are some shots from one of other bridges that we crossed -- the Ponte di Rialto, which passes over the heart of the Grand Canal.

We finished off the day with a nice meal at a nearby restaurant recommended by the hotel. Given all the sightseeing and walking around, we called it a night thereafter and rested up for our plan for Sunday -- a boat trip to nearby Murano, the island that has served as the heart of Venice's famous glassmaking industry since the 13th century.

Venice Arrival

 

This afternoon we took the train from Lausanne to Venice, with a connection in Milan that added about an hour to the journey. The ride was relatively uneventful, aside from standard boarding-related chaos in Lausanne as well as the sporadic hissy-fits from a nearby todder whose parents thought that this was adorable and should be enjoyed by the rest of the passengers.

After arriving in Venice we walked from the train station to the Grand Canal in order to catch a boat that would take us in the direction of our hotel. Here's a view along the canal that I took while we were waiting.

Luck was not on our side. The first two boats that we tried to catch were too full and wouldn't let any new passengers on. And then when we finally did get on a boat, it turned out to be heading in the wrong direction. Fortunately, though, the "wrong" direction still took closer to the hotel, and simply required us to walk a bit more than planned.

On a positive note, it was beautiful out and we were able to take some nice pictures of Venice at night as we wandered the streets and crossed some of the city's many bridges.

As we neared the hotel, we fell victim to the difficulty of navigating the city's streets. While we knew exactly where the hotel was, we ran into multiple dead ends due to various smaller canals and the irregular street patterns.

Through some trial and error we eventually arrived at the hotel. It is relatively small (~10 rooms) and feels like it could have been the former residence of a wealthy Venetian bussinessman. We later learned that it used to be a Swiss Embassy.

Given the late arrival and extended trip to the hotel, we decided to call it an early night and start the real sightseeing in the morning.

Scaffolding Removal / Visit Update

 

Today the scaffolding around our apartment was finally taken down after over four months of exterior renovation and painting. That's actually not completely true -- while the scaffolding was in place for the full four months, the actual work going on couldn't have taken up more than a month in total.

Regardless, it's nice to have an unobstructed view back and not have to feel like we're living in a fish bowl when the workers actually show up and are outside the windows. Plus, the removal was just in time for my parents to see the apartment and its view without the massive eyesore.

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My parents have now officially become pros of the Swiss transport system. They've successfully navigated day trips to Bern and Lucerne via the trains and made their way around Lausanne on the buses (albeit with a minor hiccup that took them on an unexpected tour of the city).

The rail pass that they purchased has turned out to be a great deal. In addition to the unlimited travel within Switzerland, the pass also got them free entry to many museums and other points of interest.

Tomorrow we leave for Venice, where we'll be through Monday night. Thus, my parents' visit to Switzerland has basically come to a close as their flight home is on Tuesday. I can't believe it's already almost over, but at least we get to finish the visit off on a high note in the Floating City.

Lunch in Annecy

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Today we headed to Lake Annecy in France for lunch at a very nice lakeside restaurant. In addition to me and Emilie, the group included Emilie's mother, my parents and their friends Terry and Barbara.

We had been to the restaurant this past May for Emilie's birthday and really liked it given the beautiful surroundings and great food. Thus, we thought it would be the perfect place to bring my parents as part of their visit. Here are pictures of the restaurant and the view from the dock in front.

Here's a picture of the group after sitting down at the table. We all decided to go with the menu surprise, which simply consisted of the chef's selection of various items from the menu. Everything looked fantastic, so we figured who better than the chef to decide what we'd have.

The meal lived up to the high expectations that we had set, and kicked off with a "hay" flavored ice cream appetizer (to cleanse the palate, of course) before building through various vegetable, seafood, fish and meat courses that even on their own would have caused the meal to stand out.

As always, the main courses were followed by cheese and desert courses to ensure food comas for all. I think the cheese course was a definite highlight for my parents and their friends -- when the cheese cart was wheeled up to the table, they were a bit in awe.

Here's a picture of Barbara and my dad between courses that I thought turned out really well.

After finishing up we headed out to the front patio to digest a bit and enjoy the view. All and all, we couldn't have asked for a better day -- great company, great food, great weather and a great view.