Martigny

This weekend was another long weekend, but after 5 days in the Netherlands we needed to take it easy. We decided to head up to Martigny, not far from Vevey in the Valais, to see the Rodin exhibition at the Fondation Pierre Gianadda.

The exhibition was quite good, especially considering how close the gallery is to where we live, although having been to the Rodin museum in Paris it was difficult to get over excited by it. There was also some Roman artifacts from the area which were quite interesting to see.

We had some pleasant surprises, however, in the automobile museum, which houses a large collection of antique cars, including a Model T ford (apparently the first one produced), the car that would have been delivered to Czar Nicholas II had there not been an inconvenient revolution, along with a number of other cars that are now unique in the world.

Outside we found the sculpture garden a very pleasant place to wander around.

We then moved on to the Saint Bernard museum, which is located in Martigny since this is the home of the breed. Of course they aren't used for snow rescues any more (certainly not with the barrels of rum around their necks). There was also a Himalayan mask exhibition (Switzerland likes to think it is related to the Himalayas, courtesy of the mountainous link).

Lastly we loitered around the town, which was surprisingly open (from a commercial perspective), which Linda puts down to its proximity to Italy, and in fact Martigny is on the cross-roads with France also. There is even the remains of a road that reports to be the link between Rome and London!

Anyway we had a nice time in Martigny, and will probably come back if any new interesting exhibitions open up in the Fondation.