Estavayer-le-Lac

It's Saturday and the sun's out!  After several days of rain we decided to head out on an expedition.  After some discussion of possible destinations Ahriel, Nicole, Paula, Teo, and I all piled into the Volvo and headed to Estavayer-le-Lac (and yes, it's pronounced as you would expect).

Estavayer-le-Lac is an old town on the banks of Lake Neuchatel.  As one description has it, "Settled in prehistoric times, colonised by the Romans, plundered by barbarians, coveted by barons: thrilling traces of the civilisations which have shaped this region can be found..."

It was about a 45 minute drive (if it hadn't been for the stalled-car-traffic-jam-in-Lausanne) up highway 1 (which is the equivalent of the interstate highways in the USA) and then a ten minute side trip to the town.

In Estavayer-le-Lac we found the typical narrow streets (they never planned for two way car traffic when "designing" their roads in the 1300s...).  We wandered around checking out the sites and imagining what life must have been like 500 years ago when it was a bustling center of activity (today there are a few locals and a few tourists and a lot of quiet).

We wandered around the local castle...

And then we went looking for lunch.  We found a cafe with a "Menu du Jour" - a three course lunch for a fixed price of 17 Francs.  These lunches change every day and usually offer a relatively good deal.  This restaurant also made pizzas, so it looked like a winner.  It was.

Paula and I had the Menu du Jour and Ahriel and Nicole each ordered a pizza.  Teo was happy to graze on whatever was offered to him.

The old restaurant had some uprights holding up the roof that looked like they might have been there since the 1300s...

The first course of the Menu du Jour was a barley soup.

Then a tossed salad.

And finally the pork chop (with a mushroom and bacon sauce), rosti (fried potatoes), spinach, and a baked tomato.

Everything was excellent (though the reasoning behind baking whole tomatoes has always escaped me - it seems like something that someone should have tried once and then said, "No, let's make the rest into pizza sauce.").

In the end we wandered out of the restaurant and back into the Medieval streets of Estavayer-le-Lac...

Some wandering around curling streets looking for our car gave us a chance for more tourist activities (no, we were not lost!) and then back.