The hills are alive...

This past weekend, Paul and I took the TGV to Lyon, then rented a car to drive to Switzerland. Switzerland is, in a word, spectacular! The two places we found the most lovely were never in our actual travel plans.

Fribourg - Paul found this little town outside of Geneva. The plan was to use it as a stopover on the way to Bern, since we reasoned it would be less expensive than the big city. The next morning, we headed through the town and spotted the valley below. We drove down and parked to wander along the river. The area almost looked staged. We gushed on saying how cute everything was until Paul finally said it was so darling he could hardly stand it. Then we walked around the corner and spotted a natural stone bridge...next to a covered bridge...with a tulip garden abloom. We fully expected Maria von Trapp to come strumming by with her guitar. Okay, I know it's not the right country, but you get the idea.

Vevey - This town is the headquarters for Nestlé and it happened to be close to where we were headed. We thought it might be fun to see headquarters but fully expected to breeze through. As we rounded the corner of the mountains, we saw the town nestled at the foot of the Alps on the shores of Lake Geneva. Clearly, we were stopping. Six hours later, we left with plans to return and visit the interactive Nestlé food museum.

One thing that constantly amazes us is the ability to wander off nearly any road and find these fabulous places. If you are looking for breathtaking views, pastoral settings, century old chateaus and pure charm, it's really hard to go wrong in Europe.