Charlie Chaplin, Chocolate and the Prisoner of Chillon
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The French speaking western part of Switzerland, curves round the north side of the banana shaped Lac Leman, or Lake of Geneva as we sometimes call it. The international border runs down the middle of the lake, and the Alps and France dominate the horizon along the southern shore. The area has a sheltered climate, always the best of the sunshine, so that the hills rising up from the lake are covered in serried rows of vines, and the wine is plentiful and superb. This wonderful region has attracted the rich and famous who come and live here – they know a good place when they find one! To name a few, Richard Burton lived here and is buried here, Graham Greene, Stravinsky, Prince, Audrey Hepburn, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and countless more, including Charlie Chaplin.
In 2016 a new museum has opened, near Vevey at Corsier – sur – Vevey, dedicated to Charlie Chaplin and his films. Charlie was born on 16.4.1889, and had a terrible, very poor upbringing in the slums of London. He made it onto the stage, and eventually America to make his world renowned silent films. His first feature length film “The Kid” came out in 1921. He became wealthy and world famous, but the Americans were suspicious that he was a communist (which he wasn’t). On 18.9.1952 he and his fourth wife Oona left New York on the “Queen Elizabeth” to come to Europe to promote his latest film “Limelight”. The next day the Americans rescinded his permit to return! This was the final straw and Charlie decided to stay in Switzerland. Oona (who was still an American citizen, but soon after took out UK citizenship) returned to liquidate their affairs. Charlie found the Manoir de Ban for sale, and bought it. Charlie and Oona had 8 children, and they all lived here, for the last 25 years of his life. Charlie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1975, but he was weak and accepted this in a wheelchair. He died at Corsier sur Vevey on 25.12.1977, and is buried in the local cemetery. On 1.3.1978 two immigrants dug up the coffin to use it to demand a ransom from Oona. They were caught by the police in May, the coffin was found buried in a field at nearby Noville, so it was re-interred at Corsier under reinforced concrete. Today Oona is buried there alongside Charlie. The large Chaplin family inherited the Manoir and the 10 acre gardens, with the super view out across to the Alps on the other side of the lake. Eventually it was decided to open it as a museum to his work. It was 10 years in the planning, and 2 years in construction.
The Manoir is open to view as well, every day from 10.00 to 18.00. It is just as it was, a large family home. It as if they had just popped out for a while. The barn is a very Swiss style building, today converted to the tea room and restaurant called “The Tramp”. The “Chaplin’s World” centre is next to it. You enter and go into a cinema, with plush seats. The curtain rises and you see a short film about Charlie’s life and work. Then the lights come up, and the screen disappears up into the roof - revealing a street scene of old London. You leave your seat and walk down into the actual street, peopled with characters from the silent films. You see into the houses where more screens are showing clips from various films, and ahead of you, at the end of the street, a full size screen is playing another series of clips from one of the films. You become totally immersed in the films. You walk into the police station, life sized wax work figures of Charlie and a lady are sitting on a bench, the sergeant is behind the desk, clips of the film are being played, and you are part of it. There are 30 life sized figures throughout the building. You descend into the industrial world of “Modern Times” where the huge machinery grinds away overhead, making you feel very small, you also see “The Dictator” – the take-off of Hitler that was very controversial at the time. There are so many screens playing parts of all the films, and so many sets that you walk into and become involved, that when you emerge into the shop, you are dazed! It is good to go and take a glass of the local Chasselas white wine in the sunshine terrace of the restaurant and relax. To find out more, go to www.chaplinworld.com
There are many hotels all along the “coast” and one that is appropriate to the Chaplin Museum is nearby, the “Modern Times Hotel”. See www.moderntimeshotel.ch for full details. This brand new hotel has been cleverly built to reflect the theme of the film – it is starkly angular and severe outside, and very modern but comfortable inside. It is a top class 4 star hotel. The “Modern Times” theme is throughout, and each bedroom has a design of the cogs and machinery that are such a feature of the film.
Descending back down to Vevey and the lakeside, the town has much to interest you. It is a friendly place, not too big, but big enough to have all the shops and facilities that you could ever want – including a special chocolate shop, in the centre near the market place in the Rue du Theatre. This is Läderich, see www.laederich.com for tempting pictures of their special chocolates. They have even patented chocolates shaped like “The Tramp’s” shoes! These are to a special recipe, and are sold in circular metallic cans like reels of film. All their chocolates are special – the dilemma is which ones to choose! Even more tempting, they run courses, ranging from 25 Swiss Francs for 45 minutes “tasting” session up to 55 Swiss Francs for a combined tasting and make your own chocolates.
Henri Nestlé started here in Vevey 150 years ago. Farmers brought in their cows for milking, he had a bakery on site making special bread which was then ground into powder in the factory, milk added and the baby food produced. This original site, near the railway station, has been very cleverly and strikingly redeveloped to be the “Nest”. Of course, “Nest” could be short for Nestlé, and also if you remember, their trade mark, one of the first, is a silhouette of a thrush, and this is its nest. This new museum, opened in June 2016, takes around 2 hours for the full tour. There are play areas to keep children amused and active throughout and a fascinating history of food development over the one and a half centuries. The building alone is worth a visit! For more information see www.le-nest.ch
From Vevey you can take a train, bus, or a short hop on a stately paddle steamer further along the coast to the fairytale Chillon Castle (Chateau Chillon) that perches on its rocky outcrop into the lake. Archaeologists believe that there have been people living on this rock since Bronze Age times, and the first written record of the castle dates from 1150. It has been chopped and changed ever since, giving us today this jumble of a fairytale castle.
Continuing to name drop, in 1816 George Gordon Byron and his doctor John William Polidori were doing the grand tour of Europe, and spent 5 months, from the 20th of May to the 10th of October in Switzerland staying in the Villa Diodat. They met up with Percy Bysshe Shelley and his soon to be wife, baby and her sister, who were following in their footsteps and they all went around together. 1816 was a bad year, cold and dark. This was because in 1815 the largest volcano eruption known to man took place at Mount Tambora in the Philippines. It sent millions of tonnes of ash and rock far into the sky, and the subsequent climate change caused global crop failures, mass starvation and disease. 1816 was called “The summer without sun”. There were days when the group could not go out, because of the poor weather, but they did go to Chateau Chillon, on the 25th of June. They loved it.
Byron was fascinated with the true story of François Bonivard (1493 – 1570) who had been imprisoned here, with his brothers, and badly treated. Byron, for once using historical facts as a basis, wrote a lengthy poem “The Prisoner of Chillon”. In those days, such writings were the mass media, and the poem became a world-wide success, really marking Byron out for honours and fame. It also put Chateau Chillon on the world map, and is credited with starting off mass tourism to Switzerland.
On the days when they could not go out, the group sat around and told each other horror stories that they made up during the long grey cold days. This resulted in Mary Shelley, just 19, (Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin at the time) to write “Frankenstein”, which has remained popular ever since. Doctor Polidori wrote “The Vampyre” – starting another long running story. So some good came out of the volcanic disaster!
Today Chateau Chillon is one of the most visited paces in Switzerland, and of course makes a great deal of the famous British authors. Behind the castle the road and railway squeeze past, as the cliff rises steeply up nearby. This gave the castle control of the trade route in past times, creating wealth from taxing passing merchants. Unfortunately, modern necessities have resulted in an ugly concrete motorway ledge on the side of the cliff making the view from the lake spoiled. The interior of the castle is well worth visiting, it is a jumble of rooms and corridors, weapons and flags, furniture and dungeons, and when you are tired, they have just the thing to revive you. On the slopes of the cliff they grow grapes and produce white and red wine exclusive to the castle – superb and relaxing. See www.chillon.ch
It is no surprise that tourism started with us Brits going to Switzerland – and we continue to do so. There is so much to see and discover in this lovely country. Untold miles of signposted walks, ski, paragliding, tobogganing, just about any activity you can imagine is available all year round, and in this particular part of Francophone Switzerland, these new and spectacular museums provide so much to visit, in any weather. The Lac Leman region has so much to offer it won’t all go in this one article – so see more in the next one!
As ever, information and advice is available from the ever efficient Switzerland Tourism office in London. They can also provide access to the superb Swiss Travel System, and you can buy Swiss Travel Passes from them. These passes make life so simple. They cover all land and lake transport throughout the country (some special mountain railways only give a discount with the Pass, but all normal transport is free) and also gives entry to countless attractions – making Switzerland not as expensive as it could be.
Part 2 of Ron Smith's Swiss adventure will follow soon.
