Visiting the Lake

The view of the lake and surrounding mountains, which I was lucky enough to enjoy during lunch on the lake.

One of the flowers that grew next to the
stairwell alongside the vineyards by the lake.

The day after our ill-fated hike at Cret du Locle, Jacques, Astrid, Pearl and I drove back to Switzerland to visit what I think was Lac de Neuchatel (Neuchatel Lake). We wouldn't be doing hiking like we'd tried to do at Cret du Locle, just a nice walk around the lake edge. It was a perfect day to visit the lake—there were only a few white, fluffy clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky. The lake was almost as blue as the sky, and there were sailboats drifting lazily across the water. There's not too much to describe about the walk. We walked along a trail that traced the edge of the lake, so we saw a gradually shifting viewpoint of the lake as we went.

We stopped for lunch at a little inlet that jutted out into the lake. There was a restaurant further back on the shore, but since we'd packed a lunch, we sat on a little dock that was just big enough for the four of us to set up our little picnic. It was such a nice lunch—enjoying sandwiches on the edge of the water, just watching the boats drift across the lake, and listening to Astrid's continuous stream of conversation.

After lunch, we continued around the edge of the lake. Before we'd stopped for lunch, we had mainly been walking through the outskirts of a city. There had been houses and little cafes and even some apartment buildings—very much a suburban setting. But after lunch, we had the lake on our left and vineyards and wide-open fields on our right. At one point, we veered off the main trail to walk up a thin set of stairs in one of the vineyards. It was a quick walk up the stairs, and once we'd reached the top, we were rewarded with an incredible view.

Another view of the lake from our walk around the edge.

 The lake was our only stop that day, since Pearl had class at 8:30 the next morning. Jacques walked back to get the car and pick us up, and then we headed back to their house. Astrid and Jacques taught Pearl and I a French card game. It was a fun game that I unfortunately can not for the life of me remember how to play...and it doesn't help that their deck of cards is different than a typical American deck. Then we had dinner, and soon enough, it was time to go. Pearl, Astrid, and I got back into Astrid's car and headed back to Besancon so Pearl and I could get back to our five-hours a day classes.