| Show r. HUB OF PEACE i International conferences never ruffle dignity of Switzerland's venous famous Lake Geneva one Olle of the worlds world's most beautiful fill ful f ul inland vacation spots f 4 tr r t Prepared c by National i I Geographic Society V Washington rg t D. D C. C C. Service i HE Lake Geneva coun- coun countrY r THE itry try styled self-styled peace hub of the world has learned learned to take international crises in its stride Here for 2000 years Caesars Napole Napole- Napoleons ons bishops and barons have fought and ruled come and tt gone but Lake Geneva stays and the ancient River Rhone keeps right on rollin into one on one end of the lake and out the other Lake Geneva lies in a sort of peninsula that juts out from Switzerland's southwest corner into France In fact I most of its southern shore is French territory and two fifths of the lake itself belongs to France Geneva people if they want to go golor for lor a Sunday automobile ride have but one main road on n which they the can driver drive rI r 5 a than a few miles w II without Laving to cross the French frontier r r. r Most motorists like to drive driver r j Stan d' d so the single high high- z it lakes lake's es e's north shore is f th traffic on pleas- pleas pleass n a ty v f moons f Alps s feet abo md a 75 j es es from the at a ual la 11 C e basin you see you ee e where Lake Lak Geneva Genev Is Is born The massive Rhone glacier glistening greenish white in the sun lies on a mountainside moun moun- mountainside mountainside surrounded by towering precipices and snow clad peaks Lake Geneva fills a deep moun mountain l tain tamn abyss in which the Eiffel E Tel tower r feet high ugh would sink out of oft sight The lakes lake's surface is 1230 t feet above the sea but the deep deep- deepest Jest gest est hole in its bottom goes down t 1015 feet almost sea level Moun Moun- Mountains Mount t 5 Stains bins feet high tower close around its eastern end but gradual gradual- gradually ly give way to rolling green hills Lake Fronts r- r r r Like Follies Chorus tJ J The lake fronts of all the towns r around Lake Geneva are as uni uni- uniformly uniformly lovely as the girls in a fol fol- follies folL follies L lies chorus and as much alike as ast their costumes Always Alwa's there is a an t n sturdy sea wall against which t. t waves dash high when storm winds Hi blow a neat stone balustrade for for- formal formal mal oral rows of green plane trees their f r tops pruned to equal height and flat fiat umbrella shape as carefully as any hedge flower beds grass plots t park benches gravel walks paral paral- paralleling paralleling the shore and a neat wharf Nyons Nyon's lake front is like them all all and like most Lake Geneva towns r y II too it has its castle high on the F hill the roofs of its five towers as t sharp as pencil points But this castle seems to smile instead of ot t frown perhaps because there are areL L flower flower foxes in its windows a little park parc with more bright flowers around it it and homely terraced vegetable vegetable gardens sloping up to its very foot Entering the gray ghost walls through a gate dated 1572 you find findon findon findon I on the first floor a musty museum that preserves a few bits of Nyons Nyon's past Roman tiles and md carvings ancient an cannon wax figures In the I bright costumes of other days A spiral stair in one of the round cor cor- corner cort t ner ncr towers leads to neat court court- courtrooms courtrooms rooms and offices for the Judges THE HE prisoners on the top floor if they have any eye for beauty I L must spend much time gazing out the me windows Across the lake be be- beyond beyond beyond yond the green hills of the French shore to the south Mont Blanc highest of Europe's peaks looms loom I tike like a white cloud on clear days I y Back of the town rise the peaks o othe ot of the Jura range along the Swiss Swiss- French border on the north To th the east Grand Lac broadens to a width lof Of more than eight miles and looks look ike the sea The weatherworn houses of ot Nyons Nyon's citizens cluster their white am and gray walls and red-brown red roofs roof closely around and beneath the cas cas- tl Narrow cobbled streets with wit sidewalks one man wide or none non nonet t I j d. Most waterfront towns on Switzer Switzer- Switzerland's Switzerland's lands land's Lake Geneva Gene look the same from rom the shore Here lIere Is a side- side wheeled heeled pleasure boat oat heading out over the deep blue waters at t all thread between them up the hill But as you explore them the medieval peace is shattered by the thelast blast last of ot an auto horn and you Jump ump aside just in time as a modern sedan edan rushes down over the cobbles |
