Postcards from St Maurice: Aeschiried, Switzerland

Dear Mother,

It may well be that Aeschiried will be the highlight of this year's trip. The mountains had just endured weeks of rain, so the grass was a lush green, flowers were opening faces to the sun, people were almost frenzied about catching up on their weeding. Our B&B hosts warned us that more rain was predicted, so we unpacked and drove off to take advantage of the evening sun. As it turned out, we had excellent weather for several days, with the occasional shower.

We ate twice in a tourist restaurant (I saw three tourist buses pull away the day we arrived) and enjoyed the simple regional cuisine. I particularly enjoyed trying white local wines which were nicely fruited and gentle on the palate. All sorts of fondues were available, but we tried to watch our diets. The mountain folk tend to eat lots of rich cheese and sausage, but we also saw people of all ages roaming about on bikes and walking distances to get groceries. Even a little old lady with her walker went uphill to get her things; her walking possibly keeps her alive? If I ate like this every day, I would need to do a lot more walking!

This was the view from our patio. It was perfect, and if the weather cleared, more mountains could be seen in the distance.

One day, we took the Altestrasse (Old Street) up into the valley as far as we could drive. It took us through fields and then high into the mountain side. The photos tend to flatten things and take away any sense of steepness, but it was impressive. At times, Janice could not bear to look our her passenger window (no railing). We could only stop when the slope was more gentle and pullouts were available.

The opposite hills were littered with little huts right up to the tree line. In the old days, farmers would cut the grass, dry it, and store it in these huts. In the winter, they then used big sleds to bring the hay down to the cattle in the barns. I understand that the Swiss were among the first to learn to store hay in sufficient quantity to keep herds alive all winter, whereas other people often had to slaughter animals around Christmas when they saw how many animals could be sustained by the remaining hay.

We had lunch in a simple pizza etc. restaurant. Although the weather was quickly changing, we were able to eat on the patio.

This is the restaurant from a distance. The village would be alive with skiers in the winter.

An impressive waterfall was off in the distance, feeding the creek we had been following into the mountains.

Wood supplies heating, so everywhere we drove, we saw impressive stacks of wood, possibly for use by the owner, possibly for sale (though I never saw signs advertising corded wood).

Time and again, we saw large buildings were were barn+house. Many had ramps or barn banks so that hay wagons could be pulled up to the first floor.

I enjoyed watching several storms develop. Rain can be impressive in the mountains.

Janice is fascinated with cows, especially anything even remotely related to the Montbéliardes which were bred by Anabaptists (combining Swiss and French cows in the Alsace for Compté cheese, my favourite if aged 24 months).

The cows had so much good stuff to eat out in the lush fields. What a contrast to keeping them in pens all day. You can taste the difference in the milk, cheese and meat.