On Saturday, we took a paddleboat ferry (the one below) across Lake Geneva to Chateau de Chillon, the castle made famous by Lord Byron’s “Prisoner of Chillon.” The misty rain was rather Byronic, too.
The castle was a stronghold of the Savoys, complete with dungeons for political prisoners. During the wars of the Reformation, a prisoner named Francois Bonivard was imprisoned here for his Protestant faith and for opposing the Savoy domination of the area. When Lord Byron stumbled upon the story, centuries later, he took out the unromantic parts (like that Bonivard was released and went on to marry four times and die peacefully in his 70s) and wrote a harrowingly Romantic poem that made Chillon famous! We read part of the poem in the dungeons, right by the pillar where Byron etched his name.
Our tour guide was hilariously abrupt, and we had to brave pouring rain to duck in and out of various rooms throughout the castle.
Fortunately, the rain slowed down a bit by the time we got to the top of the tower and looked down at the ramparts and the lake.
And just to be silly, after we walked into Montreux, we noticed a watch shop and a supermarket that shared a great name!
