Swiss Vapeur Parc

Today was a very fun day indeed. We traveled due south of home to the town of Bouveret on the east side of Lac Léman. Geneva is on the west side of this lake. There we found a wonderful park for little boys and big boys alike (girls will like the park too). Swiss Vapeur Parc is 17,000 sq. meters of miniature railroad. Not model railroad, but 7¼" guage railroad. (this represents the width of the rails). You can see from the pictures that these are good sized trains. These babies can work and play.

I shouldn't get ahead of myself though. On the way down we just had to have our little taste of Americana. Guess where we went?

You bet, we stopped off at Starbucks. There isn't one in our town and we never pass up the chance to visit at at least one when we travel.

On to the train park... As I said, this park is pretty big and devoted totally to riding the trains. There really isn't anything else to do here but ride trains. Kids under 4 are free. Ride all day if you want. There is over a mile of track with 16 switches that make for many different track layouts twisting and turning throughout the park. Depending on demand they run from 1 to 9 trains simultaneously. They travel across numerous bridges and streams and through a number of tunnels.

Situated around the park are miniature buildings. There is a 1/8 scale replica of Aigle Castle, - a stronghold dating back to 1475, in the little 'village' of Chablais is Saanen church which you can go inside and worship, plus several more buildings and constructions.

It had been a pretty full day by the time we headed home. We thoroughly enjoyed this train park.