Views of Morges, Switzerland, in spring 2013

Dwight Peck's personal website

Beautiful spring afternoons in a beautiful Swiss lakeside town

Morges is a small city on Lake Geneva (Lac Léman), population about 15,000, chief town of the district between Lausanne and Nyon. Here are two walkabouts with a Coolpix on 23 April and 3 June 2013.

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.

The Castle of Morges, first built in about 1340. Remains of Neolithic communities have been found dating from 3,000 B.C., including some of Switzerland's famous lakeside stilt villages dated at around 1,700 B.C. A villa and farms expanded in the neighborhood during the Gallo-Roman era, and the city and an earlier castle were founded in the late 13th century by the Counts of Savoie, who ruled this region along Lake Geneva.

The Château, on the west side of town, is presently a military museum, specializing, along with the usual uniforms and firearms, in hordes of tiny tin soldiers arranged to commemorate famous Swiss battles.

The Château seen from the Rue Louis de Savoie, the one-way thoroughfare through town heading towards Lausanne.

The Rue Louis de Savoie. This page is not an exhaustive study of Morges, just a collection of snaps I took to illustrate some of the scenery whilst waiting for Kristin to finish her appointment here in town.

Venerable Swiss traditional urban architecture -- in a city that is made up of one-third foreign nationals.

The Catholic church (St-François de Sales, built 1842) in a Protestant canton -- in a city that is presently 35% Roman Catholic, 3% Muslim, with 23 Buddhists, 16 Jews, and 8 Hindus (alongside the 38% Protestants). And the 13% agnostics (and 5% who didn't answer the question), they count, too.

The Castle again zoomed at the end of the street

And the church at the far end -- the baroque Protestant church (or "temple"), built in about 1770.

The end of Rue Louis de Savoie, where it becomes the Rue de Lausanne (the "lake road", the Route du Lac) and heads off towards Préverenges and St-Sulpice on the way to Lausanne.

Turning back onto the parallel Grand Rue, or High Street, mostly pedestrian

We've got time for a coffee.

Charging back to put another franc in the parking metre

Street scenes

Another visit (to the same doctor), 3 June 2013

A very yellow tourist train


Definitely a non-standard road train. Overwhelmingly, European tourist trains come from Dotto Trains of Italy or Tschu-Tschu of Germany, and this is neither.

In fact, it was made by Carrelli Elevatori, a subsidiary of Cerin S.A. of Giubiasco in Ticino, which specializes in forklifts.

It evidently belongs to the private caravan/camping establishment in the huge park on the western edge of the old town. The city's own tourist train, now in its third successful year of operation, is this one: