Gruyère's Cheesy Castle

as we were driving to our next trekking route -- a walk in the alpine meadows this time -- we came across a signboard that said "Gruyère".  Gruyère, in case you don't know, is the all-purpose Cheddar of the French-speaking world. It is used in slices in burgers, grated and strewn on top of pizzas before baking, folded into omelettes and quiches, and so on. It is a bland, faceless kind of cheese. This is what it looks like...

Our fridge is always full of packets of grated Gruyère for Blandine's quiches and omelettes. So this was the place where that darn thing comes from. So of course we had to stop for a look. The cheese gets its name from the village of Gruyère around which it is made, and Gruyère castle that looms above the village on a hill. The village itself wan't anything much so we trekked up the castle. From a distance, the castle looks imposing. But come up close, and it turns out to be a disappointment. The whole place has been renovated out of existence. It looks bland, artificial and ... cheesy. No other word for it. Not a patch on the painstaking restoration work on historical monuments that one sees in France, taking care to preserve as much of the original as possible.

Anyhow, the place makes for great pics, with the surrounding Swiss countryside. Check it out...

Sid n Sod 013 B

 

Sid n Sod - 013A

 

Beau Village: Saint-Saphorin (Lavaux)

 As regular readers of my blog know, I have made it my life's ambition to visit all the villages on the official list of les plus beaux villages de France (the most beautiful villages of France). Switzerland, of course, has its own list, as do most European countries. So when we found out that one of the villages in the Swiss list was right around the corner from our hotel in Cully (see previous post), naturally we had to stop for a dekko. It also happened to be on our vineyard hiking route. Here are pics of the village, Saint-Saphorin , also known as Lavaux. 

Sid n Sod - 012B

 

The vineyards of Cully

For our hiking trip to the vineyards of Lake Geneva region, we used the tiny village of Cully on the banks of the lake as our GHQ. We dossed out in a lovely hotel called Hôtel Lavaux on hillock overlooking the lake. It had a view of the lake to die for. Highly recommended.

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Smoke on the Water City: Montreux

We all came out to Montreux

On the Lake Geneva shoreline.

Braving covid, we decided to venture out on our first post lock-down holiday. It being furiously hot in our part of France, we decided to head for the cooler climes of Switzerland, just a hop across the border from Lyon. Luckily, Switzerland has no restrictions on visitors from France and vice versa. We had no intention of spending all our holiday in a confinement camp.  The place we chose was Cully, on the farthest banks of Lake Geneva. It had vineyards and hills and whatnot and seemed a great place for hiking. More on Cully in future posts. But Cully is just a stones throw from the gentle town of Montreux, and I had to stop by. Reason being, that about 48 years ago, these gents had visited the city and made the song of songs...

To make records with a mobile

We didn't have much time

The gents in question were, as you have gathered, Deep Purple, and they has come down to Montreux in December 1971 with the Rolling Stones mobile recording studio to make an album (which eventually became Machine Head). They had hired the Montreux Casino for this purpose, which was closing down for winter renovations. But on the last evening before closing down, there was a Frank Zappa concert at this venue, which they attended.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers

Were at the best place around

BUT...

But some stupid with a flare gun

Burned the place to the ground

Here at last I was at that hallowed spot... this is what the casino looks like now, after it was built up again in 1975. This photo was taken from the street side (or city facing side):

This is what the casino looks like from the lake facing side. This photo was taken from the promenade along the lake;

Some unknown chap who was never caught shot off a flare gun during the Frank Zappa concert, burning the whole place down. Everyone ran out, while the building burned to the ground. The Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover watched the smoke from the burning building float out over the lake. The phrase "Smoke on the Water" formed in his head.

Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

Smoke on the water

This is the spot on the promenade from where Glover might have seen the smoke on the waters. It is the right distance from the casino that a man might run to get away from a burning building and then stick around to watch the fireworks. It also juts out a bit into the lake with a nice railing at this spot, so this is where he might have headed for a good view of the fire...

There was an Arab couple canoodling on the railings when I took my photo. Hey dudes, it isn't my fault you are in the photo. I gave you enough time to move away but you wouldn't. If your respective spouses happen to see you in my blog and give you what-the-hell, you have only yourselves to blame.

Here is a photo of the casino and lake together in one panorama shot. My new smart phone does amazing panorama shots. I'm rather proud of the little thing :-)

When it all was over

We had to find another place

We ended up at the Grand hotel

It was empty cold and bare

But with the Rolling truck Stones thing just outside

Making our music there

OK, now it gets more complicated. Because the casino was burned out, they had to find another place to record. So they found a hotel called Grand Hotel that was closed down for renovation, and hired that. This is where a major part of Smoke on the Water and the rest of the Machine Head album was recorded. I checked google maps and found a Grand Hotel Du Lac (Excelsior) not 800 meters down from the Casino along the lake shore...

This is the view from the lake side. Below is the view from the city side

I headed in, and checked out the reception:

Lovely view of the lake from the lobby:

A pretty young receptionist turned up. At least, her eyes were pretty, above the face mask. I presume the rest of her was pretty too. One misses out on so much in these covid times.  She asked me my business.
"Est-ce que c'est l'hôtel de Smoke on the Waters?" I asked in my not so bad French.

She rolled her eyes.
"Oh, you are one of those," she replied in perfect English (albeit with an accent I could not place - it wasn't French and it wasn't German. East European, perhaps).

"Yes, this is the place. And no, you can't enter and see the room where they recorded. This place is part hotel-part clinic. Outsiders are not allowed."

Still, well contented, I went on my way. 

The kicker came later, when I got back to Lyon and decided to do some research for this blog, I found to my dismay that dudes on the internet were claiming this wan't the real hotel. The real McCoy was a candidate  a further 800 meters down. A dosshouse currently labelled Résidence des Alpes. Back in those days, it had another moniker: Hôtel des Alpes-Grand Hôtel

Chagrined, I took a snapshot from google maps:

If the first hotel wasn't the right one, why did nice receptionist lady say it was? What could possibly be her motive for dissimulating? I can't believe those pretty eyes were lyin' cheatin' eyes. On the other hands, can dudes on the internet be wrong? Dudes on the internet are, after all, the closest we have nowadays to the oracle. Whom do I believe? I leave it to you chaps to decide. If you ever plan to visit Montreux, I suggest you check out both joints.

There are a couple of other music related venues in Montreux, quite aside from the celebrated Jazz Festival. This was also the place where Freddy Mercury lived for a time and recorded numerous albums. There is a statue of Freddy Mercury on the waterfront

Actually, there is supposed to be a small plaque commemorating Smoke on The Water next to the Freddy Mercury statue, but I did not see it. I was in a bit of a rush. The wife was getting impatient and itching to leave Montreux and hit the hiking trails. What can I say, she is French. Smoke on the Water means little or nothing to her. She listens to (God help me) Florent Pagny.

In fact, there is supposed to be a plaque to Smoke on the Water in the casino too, but I did not catch it for the same reason (wife going hot under the collar in the car).

 And you can check out Freddy Mercury's apartment, not far from the Grand Hotel (the first one).

With a few red lights and a few old beds

We make a place to sweat

No matter what we get out of this

I know we'll never forget

Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

Smoke on the water

Luckily, nothing burned down while I was in Montreux. But there was a long, cigar-shaped cloud over Lake Geneva next morning when I looked out from our hotel balcony in Cully. It 'sort of' looked like smoke on the waters...