Dwight Peck's personal website

Snow day in Ollon, Switzerland, January 2016


Very little snow in the lower Alps this year so far [Climate Change, get used to it!], so when some of it finally comes along, that's fun.

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Scenes of snowy Ollon, 16 January 2016

Imagine our surprise, mid-January, foggy cold rain for weeks and weeks, and poof! we wake up to foggy cold snow instead. (The climbing rope on the balcony is meant to be taming a rose bush that has gone mad.)

So we'll pull on a sweater and grab the little Sony Cyber-shot.

We're only at 480m altitude here in downtown Ollon, so we don't expect too much snow here, jusqu'à la plaine, but the ski resort of Villars-sur-Ollon at 1300m (up to the summit of Le Chamossaire at 2112m) is also part of the municipality of Ollon. We're starting our walk from our flat in the dead centre of town up the Rue de l'Industrie towards the top of the village.

Our local pizza place, the Auberge de l'Union

Up the Rue de l'Industrie

Downtown farming

Vineyards above us north of town

Vineyard scenes

The little Chemin du Bornel-Dessous

A house on the corner of Grape Street (Le Raisin), with something like a poya painting out front.

The poya is a Fribourg dialect word for the late-spring ascent of the cows to the highland pastures, and for the past 200 years there has been a regional tradition of placing paintings of that procession over the doors of barns, usually primitive art with a deliberate lack of perspective. The valleys of the canton of Fribourg are full of them (and so is the Musée Gruérien in Bulle), but we're in the canton of Vaud.

If not an authentic poya, it's beautiful anyway

The Rue de l'Industrie has now become the Chemin du Bornel-Dessus. The house is dated 1666.

The road into the Domaine de Trécord, vintners

At the top of the village, the mill farther up the hill

Two residences in the middle of the vineyards (on the Chemin des Morettes)

A glance downtown

Safe trampolining

The Chemin du Moulin up to the sawmills

The sawmills above downtown Ollon (leading up to the plowed road to the village of Panex, also part of the municipality of Ollon)

Back into town

The Protestant church in the town centre -- comparatively not a very attractive bell tower, by medieval Italian standards for example, but scenic anyway.

On Le Raisin street

On the intersection with the Rue de l'Industrie; we'll go left.

Down the Rue Demesse to the town centre

Arriving down near the Boucherie Nicollier (red building)

The town centre. We're just passing through, crossing the Route de Villars.

Down the Rue du Château (that's not the château; we'll come back this way)

Turning left out into the vineyards

The Chemin de la Roche leading out south of town along the hillside

Some cute but cold sheepses

On the Chemin de la Roche out through the vineyards, looking back into town

This is the route of our usual late afternoon constitutional walk . . .

. . . out to the forest and back again. Just for a breath of fresh air.

Ollon village

A side trip to the Château de la Roche in downtown Ollon

A footnote to the château

The Château is undergoing long-term renovations but presently hosts a full programme of exhibitions in the meantime.

Back into town; unfortunately, the snow has stopped.

On our way home, just before the church, our favorite pharmacy

The central intersection (the Socialist Party platform in the upcoming elections, 28/02/16, includes a reconstruction of the town centre with a public space for casual meetings)

Down to home on the Rue du Carroz

The Rue du Margeiron across from our front door

Our tiny carpark on the left

And our tiny back yard, with the church and the city administration building looming

Our patio and flat, with Lisa's patio and flat above

Our meeting room

The study (most of the books are in an unheated room some doors up the street)

The living room, which is . . .

. . . also the bedroom. Formerly a doctor's consultation "cabinet".

The snow is over now, soon melted off, and (a month later, in mid-February) hasn't come back.

Ollon views
Lisa's new house in Ollon, 2006
Christmas in Ollon, 2006
PhD party in Ollon, June 2007
Christmas in Ollon, 2007
Christmas in Ollon, 2008
Christmas in Ollon, 2010
Pre-move scoping mission, Feb. 2014
Scenes of Ollon village, March 2014
More scenes of Ollon, April 2014
Snow day in Ollon, January 2016
Random snapshots from Ollon, 2016-2017

Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 10 February 2016.


Local Swiss villages

Ollon VD,
2014-2019

Féchy,
2011-2014

Bassins,
1998-2011


More local villages

Aigle

Allaman

Antagnes

Aubonne

Genolier

Lutry

Morges

Nyon

Panex

Perroy

Plambuit

Pully

Rolle

St-Prex

Vevey