Visitors and excursions

The first of my summer visitors arrived last week, on Wednesday, and life has been full of excursions - small and large - since.  Friend G, recently widowed, and having also recently completed the frenzy that is the end of any school year, was content to meander about for a day.  We had originally planned to go into Geneva and explore a bit.  But Thursday was basically a "catch-up" day and we didn't get started until mid-afternoon.  So we decided instead to stay closer to home and popped over to nearby Nyon, which is always a treat.

In spite of yet another gloomy forecast, the weather actually turned quite nice and Nyon showed us its best face.

We weren't the only visitors.  These came on bicycles - a great way to exercise while sightseeing.

There were some beautiful gardens on the walk down from the castle to the lake.

Built on Roman ruins by the Counts of Savoy, the castle, dominated by five towers, is one of the most striking features of the landscape.  Today, the castle houses a Museum of Porcelain that is a reminder of the days when Nyon had a well-regarded porcelain-manufacturing industry.

In the square in front of the castle, people were whiling away the afternoon in one of the local cafes.

So we, of course, followed their example and had glaces at this cafe, down by the lake.

All in all, it was a pleasant and satisfactory afternoon and Friend G seemed to enjoy herself.