Friday, March 21
Today was a quick one at the office: after watching a
scientist’s presentation of a year’s worth of work from my office, I quickly
zipped across the street to observe something in the lab. Sadly, I missed all the action but it was
good to get a debrief on how things went, the upcoming plan, and to ask follow up questions; plus I got to chit chat with the assistant scientists in the lab for a bit, which was a lot of fun. We ended up chitchatting about travel ideas because one of them had spotted me walking to the office this morning with my suitcase. In response to my Iceland plans, he mentioned that he'd spotted the aurora borealis in Zurich last year!
Lunch featured a "hot dog", a Swiss schüblig on a brioche bun with coleslaw and a curry sauce: it was a tasty treat 😋 It felt a bit strange to eat a hot dog not covered in chili with a knife and fork but I was pleased with the result. After lunch, I put together an update of what I've done in my 1st month here to share with my higher-ups; I think I'm on the right track to keep them happy but I still have room for tweaking the path for the remaining month and I need their feedback to do so.
I left the office early based on some advice and realized that the world continued to turn 😂ok, it's not that bad, I just avoided needing to take notes late in the afternoon. I'm glad I did leave early, with my train travel to the Valaisanne Alps, I managed to snag a few hours of daylight in the town of Sion. See, my plan is to spend the weekend in Zermatt but I'd been recommended to check out Sion and maybe even break up the long journey by doing so. It was a 2 hour train ride from Geneva to Sion full of interesting views.
Ah, Lac Leman, I know you so much better this time around.
Behold, the sheer face of where the rocks that caused a big splash in Geneva once perched.
Just at the other end of the valley is the frontier with France. The Valais canton sweeps up through this valley before curving up and following the Rhône practically to it's source.
I remember my Valaisanne coworker mentioning apricots and apples being a big thing. Having spent an hour zipping past orchards and vineyards, I'm inclined to believe him!
After two hours on the train, I was ready to stretch my legs. Watch out, Sion, here I come!
Once in Sion, I dropped my stuff at the hotel before charging back out to make the most of my 2 hours of daylight. Like a moth, I was drawn to the big ticket items on the map: the town features two hilltop castles and a vineyard trail called a bisse (it's actually a path along an irrigation canal). Attacking the hill to climb to Chateau Torbillon reminded me a bit of my visit to the castles in Cathare country in 2023; however, there wasn't so much wind this time so I managed to avoid crawling. The castle was closed but I enjoyed the views the climb provided of the Rhone valley all the same.
My 1 bedroom room at the Hotel Elite. I'm a fan of European 1 person rooms, they're very practical for a decent price point.
As far as I could tell, the biggest item to cross of the list in Sion was the castles looming over the rest of the town. The castles were already closed by the time I reached their shared base, but I resolved to get a view from above all the same.
The wind picked up as I climbed, ripping down the valley. I found the handrail not all the helpful given it's height relative to steps but I enjoyed the ascent very much.
The north side of the castle was a sheer cliff face with views out towards hill faces covered in vineyards about as far as the eye could see.
It might be a bit brown right now, but it really is quite a nice valley 😆
Once back down from the castle, I pressed myself to cover some distance and get over to the Bisse de Claveau. Per what I'm told, bisses are a Valaisanne special: through various means and methods of construction, water is conveyed from mountain sources to vineyards all over the valley's hills. Some of these canals include nice foot paths adjacent and people can hike along to enjoy the vistas and fresh air. In the case of the Bisse de Claveau, you can also stop at the wineries as you pass by to relax and sample the wares: I can envision the 2 mile hike become a 2 mile stumble if one were to enjoy a summer day to the fullest. I only pursued a short distance on the Bisse, enough to get the jist of what was happening: I realized that sunset would be arriving shortly and I wanted to be in the city with streetlights before that happened.
My route to the bisse involved walking through a winding passage between vineyards, sometimes with tall walls of foliage.
Voilà, la Bisse de Claveau, or at least its tail end. The path isn't very wide nor the canal for the water all that inventive, but I could see this being a popular spot once the vines are lush.
I was frankly surprised I was able to traverse the distance from the castle to the Bisse before sunset. I guess these boots were made for walking...
The bisse continues for about two miles up near a town called Sierra but it seems there are a plethora of these irrigation canals hanging out in the valley, maybe the inventive water-corraling devices kick in further up the mountains
Up close to one of those blossoming trees. At one point, someone had told me the word for blossom but I forget it at this time 🤔
En route to the Bisse and coming back from it, I stumbled upon the Valaisanne brewery. I'd seen this brand of beer before but didn't realize it was literally brewed in Sion. So I took the opportunity to pop in and taste a sample flight: overall, I approve of their beer though I didn't care for the particular funk in their juicy IPA.
After the walk, a cold, local beer sounded pretty good. I feel like I've heard of Valaisanne but maybe that's just cause I'd been seeing signs for the beer everywhere in Sion.
Sion is the sole brewery for Valaisanne beer, so I got to try a flight of beer. Very refreshing for a weary wanderer such as I 😆
I took a peak (j'ai jeté un coup d'oeil) at the newspaper while hanging out at the bar. It's kinda neat that they include a QR code to listen to audio articles, though you need a subscription to access them.
"Oh, look! A man in a dress?" "Look ahead of you instead" 😆
For a new car, that actually doesn't sound too bad! I suppose factoring in the rate from USD to CHF bumps it up a bit more, but not unreasonable.
I popped by the viewing platform outside the brewery to get up close for a bit. Pas mal. It was interesting that the brewery building exists on both sides of a public street and includes a throughway for the road.
After beer, I walked a bit further back into town to have dinner. Dinner was a relatively quick affair featuring Valaisanne beef and a wider variety of cheese than I'd expected. Afterwards, I took the opportunity to explore the old town of Sion by night light. It's fun following quiet winding streets; kinda like discovering an open secret.
Walking back into the heat of Sion, I was pleased to see that they'd installed lights to highlight their castles.
The old town main drag wasn't too occupied this evening but perhaps I'm simply too early, the night is still young.
After dinner, I was very pleased with the cheese sample platter for the dessert. It was a nice variety of cheese to savor after a meal and each sample was just enough to get a feel for item.
This building was once the granary, now it stores cafes
I retraced my steps to catch the castle area by dark, the lower castle is a museum of some sort, I forget exactly what sort.
Back to the base of the castles, the lights were giving them a different appearance from earlier, even from the same angle.
I didn't climb this one but I think it served as the seat for a bishop in the area.
Walking the quiet streets back, it reminded me of my night wandering in Tudela in Spain; a network of winding streets with unofficial charm.
Like I said, unofficial charm 😂 very little pomp and circumstance or preening, these streets felt lived in but also old.
Like Tudela, there were even some funky doors. Either this is for a very large dog or the Valaisannes used to be much shorter.
I was surprised to find that the Sionne stream had been under my feet for some time before being unleashed in this channel. I couldn't see what was causing it, but waves of water were being released from upstream on a regular period.
I didn't eat at the hotel restaurant (apparently I had a 10% discount), but I chuckled at the idea of the "Superior" fondue containing more of one cheese than the other. Though I'm not sure it'd be Valaisanne vacherin instead of Fribourgouis.
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