Famous People in Montreux Vevey

One day last Fall we just went out to explore the nearby vineyards. Now, we had our little daughter with us.So our adventures were not so thoughtless any more.Just above Vevey there are two little villages: Corsier and Corseaux. We decided to go to Corseaux as from there one could reach the vineyards easily.The walk is uphill, but the view compensates the trouble. So we walked pushing our daughter's little stroller through the winding little streets enjoying the glimpses of Lake Geneva between the houses,the little gardens in front of the little stone houses where huge pumpkins lay in abundance and some late Fall flowers were still in bloom.

Corseux

Then we reached a crossroad where we had to decide which way to take.We had tried the one on the left before.This time we decided to go in the right way.And right it was.For there was a little surprise waiting for me there. The road on the right was very steep and I had trouble pushing the stroller up.In a while, we were inside the village and there was a sign again to the right which said "Graham Greene...".
I stood there for a moment overwhelmed by the knowledge that Graham Greene might have stood at this same spot looking up the road before starting for his house that was just a little walk from there uphill.And this thought,this knowledge suddenly gave me a completely different and new view of the old Corseux village. I have came here several times earlier,yet have always missed this particular spot and hence this particular view. I was no more just looking at a little cosy wine-growing village at the foothills of alps.I was looking at the final resting place of one of the greatest novelists of the century.

Yes,that was what the sign said.I knew that many famous people have come to Vevey and lived there.
But Graham Greene was one of my favourite authors.I loved his Monsignor Quixote, The Power and the Glory, The Human Factor....Monsignor Quixote,in particular, is one of my most favourite books in English literature.

After we reached the place where Graham Greene used to live,we found that another famous man,James Mason,the British actor was his neighbour.Mason moved to Vevey in 1962.Mason's greatest roles include Brutus in Julius Caesar,Captain Nemo in 20000 Leagues under the Sea. and Humbert Humbert in Lolita. As coincidence would have it, the writer of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov was living here in Montreux-Vevey almost at the same time(1960-1977).

With Charles at lake side Vevey

The most famous resident of Vevey was,of course,Charles Chaplin.He lived in Corsier which is just above Vevey and adjacent to Coreseux.There is a park in his name at Corsier and a statue by the lakeside.He settled in Corsier sur Vevey in 1952 and died in his sleep on the Christmas of 1977.Graham Greene and Mason were neighbours and they used to visit Chaplin often and were good friends. Mason,later in his life served as  narrator for a British Television series on the films of  Chaplin, which was later aired in the US.
Graham Greene conceived of the novel Doctor Fischer of Geneva while in Vevey.Although short, it is one of his more powerful later works, a devastating satire on capitalism and the corrupting power of greed.Mason's final screen-work was playing the lead role in Dr. Fischer of Geneva, a T.V film adopted from Graham Greene's novel of the same name.

Greene,Chaplin and Mason were buried in these two little villages above Vevey. 
Vevey Montreux has had many other famous residents from Rousseau,Dostoevsky to Hemingway and Freddie Mercury. Rousseau stayed in Vevey in 1730 and the house he stayed in later turned in to a cafe,Cafe De la Clef.Vevey Montreux Tourism offers a tour on these famous residents and there are talking benches all over the two towns that has recorded voices that tells what these people had to say about this place.

A few Interesting links:
1) Graham Greene, Graham Greene in Vevey
2) James Mason
3) Charles Chaplin, Charles Chaplin in Vevey
4) Famous People in Montreux-Vevey

Montreux-Vevey: My life in the Riviera continued...

In 2005, we lived in Vevey in a house which was very close to my husband's office.The supermarkets were all within walking distance.But this house didn't have a dishwasher and was not as large and beautiful as the first one.Yet, from it I could see the Mt.Pelerin.
The 1 Vevey Funi bus that I told you about in my last post actually takes you to the Funiculaire station of the Mt.pelerin.Now what is a Funiculaire? It is a small train that operates with the same technology that a lift does.These are small tilted trains with transperant top and bottom so that you can have a nice view of the valley while you go to the top. I have described this in my Lugano post.But this was smaller and with a lesser descent.The Mont Pelerin Funi does not take you to the top of the mountain.It takes you to a little village from where you have to walk up the hill to reach a tower at the top.This tower has a lift and the view from the top is spectacular.
But what I like more is the nice little journey up the cozy automatic Funi.Yes,it is automatic and there is no driver.It has three intermediate stops that is very uncommon for a Funiculaire. It stops at Corseaux,Chardonne and La Baume and crosses the famous Chardonne vineyards. You can just hop off at any of these places and the world heritage site of the Lavaux vineyards will be within a few minutes walk.

These vineyards are natural and can be traced back to the 11th century.At that time the area was controlled by Benedictine and Cistercian monesteries.The vineyards look their best in the fall when the grapes are ripe and ready to be picked up and the leaves display a variety of colours.

This picture reminds me of another aspect of Vevey.This little town and its surrounding villages had been the place where many a famous people lived their last days in peace.
The most famous of them is of course, Charles Chaplin.
But more on it on my next post...
Usefull Links: 1) The vevey Funi
                    2) Lavaux Vineyards
                     3) Vevey- Montreux tourism

Montreux-Vevey: My life in the Riviera

The stories that I have so far shared with you are from 2003.That was the time when I was outside India for the first time.I had to rake my brain and really try hard to remember some of the details of those journeys.But I have lived for a long time in Switzerland and other European countries since then. And it is somewhat difficult for me to remember the cultural shocks that I experienced at that time.
Yet today, I intend to tell you about my everyday life as it was in Switzerland and the way I adopted with that life. I have lived in three different houses in the Swiss riviera in three different times.The place I lived first was Bonivard that I described in my older posts.From there,the nearest shops were quite far away.I had to take a bus and go to Montreux which was 5-6 stops away.The journey was,however, really beautiful.Imagine me, a girl from a suburb near Kolkata, the most crowded city in India, who was a daily passenger in the madly crowded trains that come to Kolkata from those suburbs, sitting in the beautiful trolley bus looking out of the enormous windows at the lake Geneve....

These buses are actually all windows.They have very small rails separating one window from another...so the feeling is never of being inside some closed carriage, rather of  moving through the town and by the side of the lake in an open carriage.These buses move like trums, but not on rails.They are linked with the electric lines on the top as trums in India are. This 1 Vevey Funi is the bus that I used to board whenever I needed to go to Montreux for my shopping. And the route of this bus is just by the lake.
Unlike in our country,here the cheaper option is always the shopping malls and supermarkets.In Kolkata, we still regard supermarkets as fancy new options where the quite well off families go to experience the flavour of life in the western world. And in 2003 there were very few supermarkets in Kolkata.
In Montreux,there is a big shopping mall called Forum.There are a variety of shops there including Migros,Vogle and a Mac too. The most popular supermarket chain in Switzerland is the Migros.That is where I used to buy my vegetables,chicken,prawns and lamb....Yes,lamb replaced our usual goat meat.And salmon or saumon as the French call it, was the fish we bought. I bought other groceries like wheat, milk, oil,etc. from another market chain called the Denner.Denner is the cheap option and it saved us a lot of francs.


Usefull links: The Riviera Bus-VMCV
                   Montreux-vevey Tourism