The walk from Montreux to the Chateau de Chillon and then a visit to the Fort had been planned for a long time, but Covid intervened. We finally managed it on 30th March, when 7 of us congregated at the Freddy Mercury statue in Montreux and walked for an hour to Chillon. The weather didn’t look too good, but Alan, Rudi, Tim, Paul, Colin, Wouter, and Brian were undaunted. The spring flowers and the magnolias were impressive, and we remarked that Montreux must spend a fortune on their gardens. Arriving at the Chateau we had a leisurely lunch and some of us even took the opportunity for a quick visit inside the Chateau.
Then across the road to the Fort which has not long been open. It was constructed in 1940 and 41 because at that time the Swiss believed a German invasion was highly likely. It was one of a large number of such Forts across Switzerland and was intended to repel attacks that might come at the end of Lake Leman. There are many camouflaged firing ports in the hillside and the soldiers lived in the various rooms which had been carved out of the mountain. We had an introduction in English and were then able to go by ourselves into the various rooms: the bunk rooms, kitchen, refectory, generator room, hospital, etc. In most of the rooms a full-size video was projected onto the wall showing what went on there. These were often humorous, for example in the hospital where a surgeon was busy doing a spoof operation using tools and gadgets from a Swiss Army knife handed to him by a colleague. The visit continued with a short film and then outside to an observation platform where you get a superb view of the Chateau, see below.
We all agreed this was a very interesting visit and well worth the walk to and from Montreux.
