Road to Home 2023 Day 54: Rivaz - Roche

 We think too much and feel too little

- Charlie Chaplin 

This morning Audrey and I woke up at 5:30 and decided we might as well get up and go. By the time we had breakfasted and packed up it was 6:30: still early enough to see the sun rise over the mountains, and to enjoy the morning light and the cool, fresh air. 

Fresh, that is, until we were back in the vineyards... where the workers were taking advantage of the cool morning hours to spray the vines! Wishing I hadn't packed away my face masks in the bag of "just-in-case-but-I-probably-won't-need-it" stuff at the very bottom of my backpack, I pulled my scarf up over my nose and mouth and hurried past the sprayers. The workers pruning the vines, mostly middle-aged women who looked like they might come from somewhere in southeastern Europe, carried on their work without masks, unconcerned about the spraying. 

One vineyard was being sprayed by a drone controlled by a young man sitting on a bench with a sort of joystick, as if he were playing a videogame. He stopped the spraying and sent the drone high up in the air as we passed. 

We walked down the hill into the village of Saint-Saphorin and then climbed back up into the vineyards again, even higher than before, passing above Corseaux and approaching Vevey from behind. 

Saint-Saphorin 

Vevey is known as the residence of Charlie Chaplin in his later years, from 1952 until his death in 1977. The city is home to the headquarters of Nestlé,  as anyone who reads the fine print on food packaging will know! The company was founded here in 1867. And it is here that milk chocolate was invented, in 1875, by Daniel Peter, with Henri Nestlé. But Vevey actually owes its existence to the Via Francigena: the town, originally Vivaec, is located at the crossroads for pilgrims to Rome coming from France and from Germany, a fact recalled in the name of the mountain above it, Mont Pèlerin. 

Nestlé headquarters 

We walked into a Volkswagen dealership across the street from Nestlé's head offices and asked if we could use the toilets; it was probably the first time they had seen pilgrims go in there! Then we walked through the city along the waterfront. A big stage was being constructed in the main square, so I was unable to take any photographs there, but I took plenty of pictures of the sculptures along the waterfront! 

Hungry Charlie Chaplin 

Besieged Charlie Chaplin 

The Fork, outside The Alimentarium museum

Frame around a view painted by Gustave Courbet

Not a sculpture - my water bottle!

Between Vevey and Montreux we had to leave the lakeshore and walk beside the road for a while. But the waterfront in Montreaux was even more stunning than in Vevey! Perfectly landscaped, with more sculptures and an abundance of all those public facilities that had been so lacking in France - from benches to drinking fountains and public washrooms. The waterfront gardens were decorated with a musical theme in honour of the Montreux Jazz Festival.

We went into the tourist office to stamp our pilgrim credentials and then crossed the street to a pâtisserie, where I had my most expensive sandwich ever, but possibly also the most delicious! Smoked salmon with crudités, rucola, and cream cheese with beetroot, all in a crunchy sort of pastry bun with a swirly pattern in it!

We had a nice chat with an American couple at the next table and asked them to take our picture; as usual when you ask someone else to take a picture for you, they didn't wait for all the passers-by to get out if the background! 

More sculptures followed on the way out of Montreux along the waterfront to Chillon Castle, famously described in Lord Byron's poem.

In Chillon's dungeons deep and old...

No longer dim with a dull imprison'd ray, Chillon's dungeons are now crawling with tourists, and we left them behind to continue on our way to Villeneuve, where the Via Francigena finally leaves Lac Leman, or Lake Geneva. 

Villeneuve is where the dreamland of lakeside sculptures, paddleboat rides, fancy cars and well-dressed super-rich people comes to an end and regular everyday life kicks back in, complete with supermarkets, factories, shopping malls, quarries, waste processing and sewage treatment plants. In fact, I got the impression Vevey and Montreux may be sending all their recycling and sewage up to this end of the lake to be dealt with, judging by the size of the processing plants! 

Don't get me wrong: Villeneuve is not an unpleasant place; it has some sculptures of its own, including a kinetic one, as well as a steamboat stop, and it is set between a pretty waterfront and the base of the mountains,  at the head of the valley.  It is actually a better town for a pilgrim to stop in than its fancy neighbours: hotels are more affordable, and there is a co-op supermarket,  where we bought readymade meals for our dinner, and a Decathlon on the way out of the town, where we stopped to make one minor purchase and take a major rest: the store provides a sitting-room corner with sofas, which we did not hesitate to take advantage of! 

On the way out of Villeneuve we met Emma and Thea, two Canadians in the final days of their walk northwards on the Via Francigena, from Lucca to Lausanne. We questioned them about their experience crossing St. Bernard's Pass. Then we carried on for the final kilometres into today's destination, the village of Roche.

Today's accommodations: Hotel Siol Garni, Roche

 Rivaz - Roche 25.5 km