Crississippi, Switzerland and Michelin 3-star pastries

Crissier, population 7,900, is a suburb of Lausanne (where I live) and hosts a yearly music festival. What kind of music? Mississippi blues. Get it? Combining Crissier with Mississippi gets Crississippi. Every time I cycle past the sign it makes me chuckle. 

What Crissier is famous for is not the music festival but, this building. It houses Restaurant L'Hotel de Ville. In French, "Hotel de Ville" means city hall. It's Crissier's old city hall. Since 1992 this restaurant has managed to snag the coveted three Michelin stars every year. Three stars is the highest number of stars awarded. It's a big deal with only 132 restaurants around the world garnering this honor. In the USA 13 restaurants have three stars, Switzerland has three while France with 30 has the most. 

Franck Giovannini, chef/owner, recently took over. Jeez, he's got some big shoes to fill as the three previous chefs/owners managed for 30 straight years to win top honors. Heaven forbid he screws up and the restaurant gets demoted to two stars or less. Giovannini has 85 employees helping him.

I wonder if visiting all 132 three star Michelin restaurants around the world is on anyone's bucket list? It's doable but, scheduling might be the biggest obstacle. Here at this place you have to book three months in advance for dinner and six weeks for lunch. 

Every year various golf magazines come out with their list of "100 Best Golf Courses in America". I wonder if anyone out there is trying to play all 100 courses? That would be really tough as most of the courses are private. It would take a lot of bribe money to get it done.

I remember back in the early 1990's reading about some guy going around the USA trying to visit all 140 Starbucks. Try doing that today. Did you know there are now more than 33,000 Starbucks around the world? 

Which brings me to this boulangerie/patisserie located directly across the street from Restaurant L'Hotel de Ville. I've been cycling past the place for years and the past five or so years it sat empty and forlorn. Imagine my surprise a few months ago when I saw it reopened. What's more, it's owner is none other than Restaurant L'Hotel de Ville! 

Man oh man, the pastries are dangerously good. 

A smattering of cakes.

This is my favorite item: pecan brownie. This is a photo of two of 'em. I like my brownies moist and fudgy/chocolatey. These have pecans inside, along with caramel coating on top, along with more pecans, little carmel balls and then the tiny chocolate wafer plus, there's also something crunchy--kind of like crispy rice. 

The Volkswrecks Bar & Museum (Saint-Sulpice, Switzerland)

This is part of my previous post of cycling through the Val-de-Travers valley. I came to this roundabout and saw the brown sign with "Musee VW" on it.  Hmm, since there're so many watch companies in the valley could it be some kind of watch related museum?

I head down the side road a bit and then stop and ask these guys if they know the way to the museum. Don't know if they could see me with all that hair in their faces.

Anyway, I spot this museum sign and hang a right---taking me through a small, kind of  rundown industrial park.

Could this be the place?

Looks to be some kind of an old storage facility that has seen better days. 

Holy moly, it's a Volkswagen museum! Actually its official name is "The Volkswrecks Bar & Museum. Created in 2006 and occupying three floors, it's home to over 150 vehicles. 

The vehicles date between 1950 and 1979. The place reeks of oil and grease like in an old smelly car repair garage. 

Beetles and camper vans are lined up on the ground floor.

Look at this stretch VW Beetle limo. 

The bathrooms are behind the door.

Another view of stretch limo. 

Love this mosaic tile covered Beetle.

One part of the second level houses a bar with bandstand for live music.

Second and third levels house cars with themes.

Love the rear "throne" seats.

There're VW police cars, VW ambulances.

This one is being done up with mosaic tiles.

This one is called "Bronx". Note the graffiti, shopping cart and even the mannequin holding a ghetto blaster on his lap. This quirky museum was worth the $10 entrance fee

Val de Travers, Switzerland

Nestled in the Jura Mountains lies Val-de-Travers, a narrow valley about 40 miles long. If you look behind the church you can see a ski lift. I was here back in 2003 to visit a watch company. I'm returning to snap photos of watch facilities. Why? Back in the summers of 2003 and 2004 I cycled around Switzerland visiting more than 100 Swiss watch companies. It's a fascinating and secretive industry worth tens of billions of dollars. 

There are lots of watch enthusiasts out there and as I've mentioned watch companies are extremely private (secretive). I've received emails ever since my visits asking if I've seen this new Rolex building or that new Cartier facility. So, as I cycle through this picturesque valley I'm snapping watch-related buildings.

Watchmaking was introduced to this valley in 1730 and by the end of the 1700's it was home to 106 watchmakers--13% of the population. By 1890 over 650 watchmakers had set up shop here. 

Saw the "Buttes Watch Co." sign on a building in the village of Buttes. Founded here back in 1924, Buttes Watch Company is still in business though everything has moved to Germany.   

Val Fleurier occupies this building and the modern black building located next door in the following photo. I always go around to the back of buildings and take photos. Email me and I'll send rear photos

Richemont, one of the "Big Boys" in the watch industry, owns Val Fleurier. Here they make watch movements for some of Richemont's many brands (Baueme & Mercier, IWC, Panera, Montblanc and Piaget.  

Wow, I'm in downtown Fleurier (population 3,000) and looking up I spot the building way up on the ridge. Looks like a castle. I ask a couple about it. It used to be a restaurant but, was bought by a Finnish watchmaker and turned into a workshop. The couple say there's a road going up from the backside but it's gated and also it's Saturday. The husband pipes up and says there's a hiking trail and takes about 40 minutes but, the wife corrects him and says the trail has been blocked. How did Kari Voutilainen, the Finn, end up in this isolated Swiss valley? He worked 10 years at Parmigiani, the watch company headquartered here in Fleurier. 

Vaucher makes watches but its main focus are movements (the innards of a watch). Hermes owns 25% of the company with the Sandoz Family Foundation owning the rest. 

Love this metal cow sculpture outside Vaucher's building entrance

This is one of high-end watchmaker Chopard's buildings in Fleurier.

Fleurier Ebauches is owned by Chopard and manufactures watch movements here. It's several blocks away from the previous photo of a Chopard facility.

Located on the main street through Fleurier I had a feeling this building was watch related. 

Yep, checking the small plaque I see the name "Parmigiani". This is the watch brand headquartered here that I tried to visit back in 2003. The head office is/was several blocks away and was given a crummy reception by the CEO no-less. To read it go to www.corporatetrivia.com, then click the "Watches & Chocolate" heading to find the story. 

This building lines the only road through the valley. What does Waeber, a family-owned business do? They occupy a niche--specializing in the manufacture of watch hands. 

I cycle past lots of quiet villages.

See the bottle and wine glass this guy/woman on the wall is holding up?

This Cartier building looks new. Have no clue what they do here but, it looks very similar to one recently built in La Chaux-de-Fonds--in another nearby valley. 

This building sits next door to Cartier and I google the name "LTM Group" spotted on the building. It stands for Le Temps Manufactures and evidently they manufacture watch movements

Here's another cemetery. I like checkin' them out and reading the tombstones.  However, there's something strange I learned years ago about Swiss cemeteries: I could never find tombstones more than 50 years old. It turns out after 50 years they dig you up and do who knows what with your bones so the spot can be taken by a newbie. I assume this was true all over Switzerland but today I find out it's not true as I spot quite a few graves being in the ground more than 80 years. I think it's a cantonal issue. In the USA we have states and in Switzerland they have cantons. I'm in the canton of Neuchatel and am assuming they have different rules. 

I remember this "Bovet" sign from my 2003 valley visit. Bovet has its headquarters in Geneva (which I visited) and when I saw this sign I cycled up the steep road to Chateau de Motiers.  See next photo.

Using my camera zoom lens, you can see the top of the chateau (castle) peeking out above the trees in the distance. Dating from the 14th century, it's a magnificent castle. Of course they had no clue who I was and never got past the reception area. There's over 50,000 square feet of workshop space. I remember taking lots of pictures but can't see to find them in my photo file--otherwise I'd post 'em here.

See those concrete slabs behind my bike? Those were put there during World War II to stop Germany from invading Switzerland via nearby France.