Lac de Divonne, France, Sept 25, 2013

Intro

The best laid plans of mice and men...

Since my knees were rebelling today, we decided that perhaps a boat tour would be cool. In his wanderings a few days ago, Stephen had learned about one that departed the thriving metropolis of Coppet at 11 am, and returned at 6 pm. He had also figured out where there was parking.

We got to Coppet about 10:20 - plenty of time. Or so we thought.

And we found a parking lot.

And we checked the prices. 10 cents for the first 3 hours, and 5 francs per hour after that. I guess they are trying to prioritize short term parking!

A nice man there at the same time told us that if we went to the train station, we could park all day for 5 francs.

Well, it seems that everybody knows of this inexpensive longer-term parking, because there was not a single spot available.

So we decided on Plan B, a walk around Lac de Divonne, back in France.

We had walked a little around this lake a few days ago. But this time, we decided for the full circuit.

The full circuit ended up being only 3.2 kms. Reasonably easy on my knees. And we added a couple of kms just wandering around the town, getting lunch at a bakery (bakeries are one thing that the Germans, Swiss, and French do very well!).

Then back to the hotel, where I had a nap, to rest my achy knees, and Stephen went for a strenuous walk.

Here is the Google Earth shot of the lake circuit. Notice the island in it just below the two n's in Lac de Divonne.

The views of the lake

This is a pretty little spot. There are several exercise stations, where you can stretch or do chin-ups or other things. But basically, it's a really pleasant place to walk.

Notice the sunlight glinting off the waves, and the island in the distance.

The island.

A view of the town, with mountains in the distance.

Fauna

I do love swans.

Unusual things

As we were walking to the lake, we saw this School-Zone-type sign. Much more interesting than those in Calgary, n'est-ce pas?

But what was really interesting was the school associated with that sign. It is ALL portable classrooms. Even the washrooms are in a separate building. I estimate that there are about a dozen portables.

What is particularly interesting about this school is that when I zoom in on its location in Google Earth, I find a parking lot! The kids that we saw there were playing on asphalt, which you can see in the photo above. And the green space next to the school is on the other side of a pretty tall fence. So something must have happened to their real school. It's a puzzle!