Le Cheval

Today we spent the day in Lausanne after a night flight. We arrived at the Geneva airport about 8:30 and after learning that the girls suitcase had not arrived we headed out on our adventure. The girls immediately forgot the worries of their lost luggage when they were greeted by the wonderful smell of a fresh European bakery. Amani was able to use her French and place the order for some pastries. Once done she promptly told Katya she got to order next.

We then headed to the train concierge where the teller was from (of all places) Daly City. This is where Ashi's parents live in California. Therefore Katya didn't get the chance to use her French. We headed down to the train station and somewhere between the concierge and the platform we managed to lose one of the train tickets. Ashi's had to run back up and had to purchase another (luckily a children's ticket), and made it back just as the train arrived.

The rest of the day ran rather smoothly. Fabio met us at the train station in Cossonay and took us back to Chateau Vigliotti where we would be residing for the week. We had a lovely brunch with Fabio and Elodie and made our plans to spend the day Lausanne. After brunch, Fabio took us back to the train station and we were on our way. We started at the tourism office and picked up some maps and points of interest then bought our tickets. We started with Eglise St. François, a church that was built around 1270. After that we headed to Place de la Palud, where there is a colourful fountain and the City hall. The fountain looked a tad out of place with all it's bright paint.

Next we went to the large cathedral in the middle of the city. It took quite a few steps to reach it on top of the hill where it is situated, but it was well worth the climb. We looked out over the city from the courtyard then visited the museum, which use to be the Bishops housing quarters and finally into the Cathedrale Notre Dame a structure built between 1150-1275. While the rest of us we're impressed with the architecture and internal structures Sabeena found it all to be rather haunting and was eager to leave. From here we ventured on to the Chateau St-Marie,followed by the Palais De Rumine (serves as a university, library and museum)

Next item on the agenda was food. We began to view the options as we walked around when the girls noticed an unusual item on the menu, Le Cheval, which is horse. The girls then proceeded to vi and reject restaurants on these grounds. If Le Cheval was on the menu we were NOT eating there. We found a few without it on the menu, but the girls weren't happy with the rest of the selection or the place was about to close (we were a little confused as for us 530 is dinnertime). Finally, almost back to the main strip we came upon a hotel with a restaurant (Le Chene Brasserie), I don't think they were actually open yet, but the hostess told us they were and single-handedly got us a table and took our drink orders. As she was preparing our drinks the st of the staff began to trickle in. She took our food order and then the waiters arrived. Needless to say the food was amazing.

We still had a little time before we wanted to be on the train so we decided to take a walk down to the water and get a preview of the area we would visit tomorrow, Esplanade De Montbenon. This area was a large park with lots of activity. We saw young adults mingling, practicing back flips and tightrope walking. There were some nice pieces of sculpture spread throughout the park as well.

After this we headed back to the train station and then back to Penthaz for bed.