Dear Readers, today was the July 4th holiday in USA, and it was an opportune day to look through old boxes of slides and purge "pretty" pictures. And here in Mississippi, it was hot and muggy, so these scenes of the cool clear water of Lac Leman (Lake of Geneva) made me wish that I were there.
The Bains des Pâquis are on a man-made peninsula that juts out into Lac Leman from the north shore in Geneva. It was an unusually hot spell in June of 2000, and I had a few spare days in Geneva, so swimming was of definite interest. You pay a modest admission and can rent towels and use a changing cabana. The water flows to the west, or left to right in these photographs. Many of the conservative Calvinist Swiss ladies seem to lose part of their swimming suits when they visit the Pâquis.
I took these photographs with a Leica rangefinder camera through a 20mm Russar lens. This was a marvelous design made in the Soviet Union. The lens was a bit hard to use, but under the right conditions, had wonderful optical quality. I sold it several years ago, and, of course, now wish I still had it (you know how that goes).
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| Changing cabins at the Jetée Des Pâquis, Geneva. |
All the water from Lac Leman flows out the west end of the lake into the Rhône River, past Lyon, and finally to a broad river delta in the Mediterranean Sea south of Arles. Geneva is an interesting and historic destination with easy access to hiking areas in the Swiss and French Alps. Definitely go.
