Montreaux Jazz Festival

This weekend I headed down to Lake Geneva for the Montreaux Jazz Festival. Montreaux is this small town on the edge of Lake Geneva which throws a huge Jazz Festival every year, so big that Prince actually played this year (but not the weekend I was there). A little fun fact about Montreaux: the song “Smoke on the Water” (with the most famous guitar rif) was actually written in Montreaux after the band saw the club they were suppose to play at catch on fire and blow smoke over the water. Not sure how true that is, and I am too lazy to look it up, so take it for what it is worth.

Anyways, I went down with a group of 7 co-workers and friends for a boat cruise/concert. The plan was to head down early Saturday morning by train, explore the festival a little bit and then get on the boat for the afternoon concert. This weekend was the last weekend of the concert so it wasn’t that crowded, plus there were some mean looking rain clouds ready to come in over town. We hopped on the boat, grabbed a few drinks and got in good position to hang out, watch the bands and check out the scenery. The first band was amazing, with a more creole/blues sound to them. Unfortunately, the second group was more jazz and apparently I DON’T LIKE JAZZ. The good news is that I DO like Heineken and there was plenty to go around, the day wasn’t ruined.

After the boat we were hoping to walk around some more, grab some food and hang out til the bars got good. Unfortunately for us, the weather had other plans. It started raining, and not just a sprinkle, but a torrential, horrible, downpour. With no place to go we did what we could and went to a bar. Sounds great, especially for me…but NO… they were playing Jazz So not only was I wet, hungry, starting to get sober but stuck inside listening to more jazz. Good thing I had good company.

Kidding aside the weekend was great. It was my first excursion out of Zurich, and I got to see the French part of Switzerland. Not sure if I will go back again next year, but it is worth checking out, assuming you like Jazz.

Side note: As I was in the French part of Switzerland, the language spoken was Swiss French, not Swiss German, the language I have been trying to learn (and by learn I mean I know how to say hello, thank you, please, beer and sausage). So the entire weekend, I was speaking a cross between English, Swiss German, attempting French while throwing in some Spanish to boot. Apparently my mind assumes that if I am not speaking Enlgish, it must be Spanish. Hopefully I will get it before I leave



Me and the girls on the boat cruise (Kim, Nancy, me and Shannon)