Evian les Bains

We walked to the Mulhouse train station in the morning prepared for rain, since it was predicted, and it was one of those drizzly mornings where the sky keeps you guessing.  We managed to avoid getting wet -so off to a good start.  

Our destination was Evian Les Bains, a French town on Lake Geneva.  We changed trains in Basel, Switzerland and arrived in Lausanne, Switzerland -which is across Lake Geneva from Evian les Bains.  We could have taken the train all the way around, but it would have taken longer, so  I thought it would be more enjoyable to take the 1/2 hour ferry boat ride across instead.  The only thing I hadn’t figured out before we got to Lausanne was how to get from the train station to the docks.  I knew it involved a “metro” transfer, but had no idea about how to do that.  It didn’t take long to figure it out (thanks ticket office at the station), but Mike was not feeling happy about me not having figured it out in advance because he doesn’t like “unknowns” like that when we’re traveling!

I enjoyed the crossing very much!

Evian les Bains is the location for meeting our family for Stage 16 of the Tour de France -which is a time trial.

Once we disembarked, it was a relatively short walk to our hotel.  When we checked in -we got an upgrade- so we were very comfortable for the next few nights.  The room was huge!

It was getting late in the day, so we decided to just eat our dinner at the hotel restaurant.  This is what a $30 hamburger/fries looks like.  To be fair…I did have them remove the lettuce, tomato and mayo, because I consider those toppings unnecessary!

When we took the elevator up to our floor, we had to cross a skybridge over the lobby to our room.  I snapped a picture of the lobby.

We also had a balcony with a view of Lake Geneva.

The next morning, we took a walk around town.  I had printed out a self-guided tour, but it wasn’t long until we managed to get off track and so we decided to just wander and see what we could see.  Evian les Bains is only about two square miles and has a population of less than 10,000…so it wasn’t that hard to wander and still feel like we’d seen the town.

This was the main shopping/entertainment street. They were flying little yellow flags in honor of the Tour

It isn’t a trip without a door picture!

We noticed that there were driftwood art installations everywhere we were walking.  It turns out that they are related to a Christmas tradition.  According to the story, the people of Evian les Bains once saved Santa from drowning.  The driftwood characters, called Flattens, arrive each year to shelter from the winter weather that causes them to drift to Evian les Bains in the first place.  Each year there can be up to 500 driftwood sculptures built around the city.  There is a whole festival around this tradition.  After the festival, there is a slow removal of the sculptures.

When I saw this one, I wondered if they left some of the sculptures in place because of the Tour de France.

We came across the church – Notre Dame de l’assumption, built in the 1200’s

We walked along the waterfront and saw the Casino

We weren’t feeling lucky, so didn’t stop in.  It was built in 1912 in the Art Deco style.  We could see signs that it had had a fire -which happened in March of this year.  Fortunately the dome wasn’t affected.

We were seeing decorations around town for Stage 16.

The town is built into the hills.  We looked up a side street and saw this impressive building.  We climbed up to check it out..

I

It was once a church -and has now been remodeled into a historical center for architecture and is a cultural center for the region.

Later in our wandering, we climbed the next block above it to see the back side:

At the height of the Evian les Bains spa town history, this building was the place for spa treatments.

If you haven’t guessed already Evian les Bains is the source of Evian water.  In 1789 a French nobleman out for a walk found the spring and declared the water light and refreshing.  The origins of the Evian brand began in 1826.

This is the source.  Anyone can walk up and fill a bottle.

Nearby was this statue, which is a replica of the original statue that was created in 1906.

Because of the springs, Evian les Bains became a famous spa town in the 1800’s and has endured ever since.  It has been the favorite of kings in years past.  I think in modern times taking a spa vacation isn’t as popular as it once was.  However, it is still a popular holiday town on the shores of Lake Geneva.

More wandering led us to the monument called Aux Morts

I can’t seem to find much information about it, but I believe it was installed right after WWI and has added plaques relating to WW2.

More wandering:

I’m developing a strange obsession with shutters on this trip.

I liked this one because… If you don’t have shutters, paint them on!

We took a long uphill hike to a grocery store and the only reward was this view!

On the way back, we walked through the town center again.

Normally, the crew for the Tour de France sets everything up overnight.  The time trial stage was on Tuesday, but Monday (today) was a rest day for the Tour.  We wondered if they’d start setting up early because of the rest day.  We knew where the booth they use for time trial departures was supposed to be and we were very curious about how it was all going to work since the spot was a very small intersection of a couple of different roads.  They did put up the departure booth on Monday.

The relatives were arriving later that evening.  We took an early dinner and then went back to the hotel to wait for them.  Once they arrived and got settled in, they went out for dinner.  It was already late by then, but I sat with them to chat while they ate.

The next day would be our last experience with the Tour de France.  I was a bit like a kid going to sleep the night before Christmas.  I was very interested to see what tomorrow would bring.

Categories: Part 6: Evian les Bains, Switzerland 2026, Uncategorized