We currently (sadly only temporarily) live in Chexbres. The first fun thing about Chexbres is figuring out how it is pronounced (hint: rhymes with "meb-ruh"). Once that's out of the way, it's hard not to notice that you're in a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yes, seriously. The village is ridiculously cute itself, with little Swiss-style houses, a lively main street, smoking chimneys, and the wonderful little caveau I told you about earlier. But you take all of that, put in in the middle of 1000 year old terraced vineyards and surround it with Alps, and you have the makings of one of the most stunning vistas in the world. The local boulangerie is even quite good-- they make a german style dark bread that is soft and sweet and delicious.
Unverifiable but probably true story from the guy who owns the caveau: Apparently the boulangerie has been owned by the same German family for some number of centuries (I admit not remembering exactly how many). They had a tumultuous start: the founding boulangere was run out of town several times because his scale was off, causing his "kilo" of bread to weigh something less than a kilo. This was a Big Deal at this unspecified point in the past, and some government heavyweight was brought in to calm the situation. The scale was fixed, and the family stayed. Luckily their brown bread stayed as well!
My pictures can't possibly do it justice, but I've attached a few just in case. Do a google image search for "chexbres" and you'll see much nicer photos. One of the reasons my photos aren't so good is that we have had pretty bad weather the past couple of weeks. All of Europe is in the grip of an insane cold snap. The temperatures have been vacillating here between -5F up to about 20F, but not higher for about a week. My fingers are cracked and raw and I almost lost my toes today! I have to admit that it was my own fault, though, since I wanted to wear my fashionable boots instead of my practical ones.
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