For the new year my partner and I decided to hit the road and ended up about an hour away (relatively far by my downtown Genevan standards) to the lakeside town of Vevey, nestled in the Montreux Riviera (I had no idea that there even was such a thing until I googled Vevey and was directed to www.montreuxriviera.com). Other than the hotel that we stayed in, which i will come back to later, my highlight was to discover the gigantic sculpture of Swiss artist Jean-Pierre Zaugg, a 8 meter high metallic fork (that's over 26 feet) stuck inside the lake across the town's Alimentarium or food museum.

The giant piece sticking out of the still lake with the white-tipped Alps turning pink in the background was a stunning sight to behold and a grandiose farewell to the last day of the year.

When we scrambled to find a cozy mountain abode with a fire-place at the very last minute, we came up with zilch. Thank God I had the présence d'esprit to check out the website of Relais & Chateaux, the ever reliable source of independent hotels and restaurants around the world where you can be sure you will not be disappointed... and disappointed I was not. I had never heard of The Grand Hotel du Lac but from the moment we stepped into the building and for the next 24 hours we were seriously pampered into 2013...

The black and white dinner featured an array of amazing dishes, though I could have just settled for the poached lobster (from Maine) and the scallop and truffle ceviche I had to ask the chef where the scallops were from, they tasted so buttery fresh... straight from the US!

At the stroke of twelve champagne was poured and a giant macaron tower or pièce montée was wheeled out. Fortunately I am not a big macaron fan, as I had already over-eaten by that time!

For the first morning of 2013, we woke up to a sumptuous breakfast with view of the mountains before heading back to Geneva... what a way to start the new year! Best wishes to all!

Resources

http://www.relaischateaux.com

http://www.hoteldulac-vevey.ch