Bougy-Villars

Today we had plans to go for a picnic and walk since my time in Geneva is coming to an end. However, it had been raining for a couple of days, so the outlook wasn't promising. Luckily, we were going by car so could drive away from the bad regions in search of better.

The rough plans were to go around Perrot-Malessert and since the weather there looked like it would be better, we headed in that direction. We ended up having lunch there on a bench in a park overlooking the lake, which was scenic and cold, but it least it wasn't raining. We then looked up at the hills for somewhere to walk, and decided that the communication tower we could see would be a good destination and set off in search of some yellow trail signs.

Hiking is one of what I would call the national sports in Switzerland (a list which also includes cycling and skiing) and they cater for it very well with signs at the start and crossroads of every trail with estimated hiking time to the destination of your choice. I heard a couple of weeks ago that the times are locally calibrated, which sounds both very Swiss and not Swiss at once. Very Swiss, since all the cantons are governed differently than each other, so why would there be a federal hiking time calibration. Not Swiss, since they are all about precision timing, but I guess it is hard to find a way to calibrate hiking times, since it depends on so many factors.

Anyway, we found signs to Signal de Bougy which we figured was the communication tower, and drove up to find a parking spot near a sign above the villages and headed up the hill. Little did we know that: firstly, the weather would clear up so the view of the lake from up there would be amazing, a fact I really regret as I didn't bring my camera with me; and secondly, at the bottom of the tower was Pré Vert Park, which is a huge family park, with lots of family entertainment. There was play equipment, some of which looked really fun, and which I would have liked to try, except for all the children already on them. There was also an adventure park, which various courses where you climb up and around trees, which looked really cool, though was kind of expensive. There was a children's farm, including sheep, pigs, fowl and all types of mountain goats and deer. There was also minigolf for the kids and normal golf for the parents. Hm... what else was there? Oh yeah, there was an amphitheatre, a restaurant, picnic and bbq areas, as well areas for various sports. I'm sure there was more that we didn't walk past, but we were very impressed with what we did see. If I ever have kids here, I'll be taking them there every weekend.


This is the view from where we parked the car. Imagine what it would have looked like from the summit... *sigh* Another time on a warmer, clearer day.

Oh, in the park area of the park, they had signs up with scientific multiple choice questions on them on one side, with the answers and explanations on the other side. One of the questions was about the Dahu, which I now know is a fictional animal which supposedly lives in the Alps. It is an alpine deer which has evolved to have with uneven legs so that it can walk on the steep mountain slopes easier. Its major flaw is that this means it can only walk around a mountain in one direction, which you are supposed to exploit when trying to catch one, getting it's attention from behind so that it turns around and falls.

I quite like the idea of this fictional animal, probably because it is foreign to me, and I think a Swiss person on my first trip over here asked me if I had seen one on one of mountain hikes, though he couldn't remember the creature's name. I've never actually tried the drop bear or hoop snake thing on people coming to Australia because I think it's kind of silly, but maybe I will now, since they are amusing creatures.