So one fine day in October 2013, we decided to visit the Castle of Aigle, or Chateau d’Aigle as it is known in French. The train ride from Geneva to Aigle takes about an hour and a quarter, and our breakfast would usually be some fruits and flavoured yogurt. So there we would sit in the train, munching on grapes or bananas and marvelling at the landscape that passed by. Times like this, I really missed the slow chugging of our Indian trains… there were so many moments, where I just wanted to freeze time and somehow transport myself outside the train carriage to click pictures. Once the train doors slide shut, I don’t think you can open them there, unless you are at a station. But in India, the train doors are always open and it’s pretty easy to stand at the door and click pictures (Tonio keeps saying that, one of these days I might land up on the tracks if I keep taking pictures from moving trains… ). So anyway, a road trip or biking or plain backpacking is the best way to see all the lovely sights that go whizzing by when you are on a train in Europe…
Aigle in French means Eagle, and as you get off the train and wander around you’ll come across this eagle statue… the town’s namesake.
Aigle looks quite bewitching…
You see any tall spire, you follow it… chances are it’s either a castle or a church, and these two are never far from each other.
This is a church and the castle is quite close by…
Which means royalty attended services here…
Everything looks quite medieval, the light fixture, the door…
A close up view of the altar…
The coat of arms with the eagle at the centre…
The pulpit… notice the eagle again behind the book stand.
We then resumed our walk… Spotted this beautiful lace curtain on the way…
This cobblestone path is a sure indication that the castle is near…
Houses and pretty lace curtains on the way…
The medieval Inn…
Old wine presses…
The castle of Aigle is surrounded by vineyards on either side….
They stretch as far as the eyes can see….
And here is the Castle of Aigle…
The symbol of the eagle hangs proudly…
The courtyard…
A multimedia presentation depicting the castle and the vineyards surrounding it…
This castle is now a wine museum, and they have wine tasting visits… this is a medieval wine crushing machine.
Another medieval contraption used to in the wine making process…
Barrels to store and transport wine…
Typical medieval flooring and the arched doors…
Massive wine barrels…
Different types of wine pitchers, bottles through the ages and wine dispensing taps…
A drinking room ….
Wine making interactive sessions…
Different smells associated with wine are released when those canisters are pressed… this was quite nice, me and Nam were running around pressing these jars and taking in the earthy scents of different wines.
Wine stomping boots…
Flowers lining the balcony…
That runs the length of the castle…
View from the castle towers…
Imagine waking up to this…. the mountains…
Another view of the vineyards…
This is where prisoners were tied up, hands on either side and the head rests in that square section…
The prisoners had a pretty awesome view…
Steel pitchers used by common folk, wine containers, a miniature display of people making wine, the different scents and colours of wine and ornamental wine jugs….
I guess these holes are for firing Cannon balls…
One last look at the castle before biding adieu…
Flowers along the way…
A wall covered in ivy…
Spotted this church along the way…
Stepped in… this is the altar.
We stopped at a COOP supermarket to have lunch… ordered this awesome pepporoni pizza,
And a ham sandwich. Every place I went, ham was my meat of choice… I’ve always liked ham above the other meaty food like salami, bacon, sausages and the like. In french it’s called jambon, so I would always look out for jambon sandwiches.
On the way back to the station, we came across a chestnut tree and there were so many chestnuts lying beneath it, we picked up quite a lot to roast at home and eat later. That was one of our new found discoveries, our love for roasted chestnuts… or marrons as it is called in French and Marroni in German. These were quite nice to munch on and not that expensive, and they come in these cute little paper bags with two separate compartments. In one compartment are the hot marrons, and the other section is for the husk of the chestnut, that are collected and thrown out later. This way, you don’t littler the road as you walk along. I like that they give importance to simple things like this, to keep their surroundings neat. I didn’t take a picture of the paper bag… was too busy eating them, let me see if I can find a picture online.
Picture taken from Makiko’s blog at Just Hungry…
How magical it seems to be transported into another world – sitting in front of the computer – feasting at the pictures and the wonderful words that you have used.
This year I am getting a passport – come what may I am taking a holiday at least within India.
All this picture-gazing on various travel blogs has fueled my desire for travel 🙂
Thanks for sharing this amazing trip-diary 🙂