St. Aubin: La Saison de Vendanges

For the first day of October, my boss slash task manager B.P. suggested me to take a day off and visit his hometown, a small town next to Lac de Neuchâtel named St. Aubin, where his family has lived for more than 500 years and are still running a vineyard and making wines in a small family business scale. The occasion is that right now it is la saison de vendanges (the grape harvest season) so I could take a look at the vineyards, maybe help the family out a little with harvesting, or just relax in the countryside, etc. 

So in the morning at 8AM we headed to St. Aubin, which is about an hour away by car from Lausanne. It was a totally different canton and I could see the scenery quickly changing into calm countryside, with Jura Mountains on the background. When we arrived B.P's families were already scattered in the vineyard harvesting, so we set out to find them and say hi. It turned out most of them, B.P's mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephews, don't really know English well so I struggled to communicate with them in French throughout the day.

I could either help with harvesting or do a little tour by myself around the village and the lake, and I decided to do the latter because I wouldn't be a huge help for them if I happen to make mistakes and because they were worried my clothes and shoes would be all wet and stained with grape juice. So in this beautiful lakeside village, I could take a break from the usual routine in the office and enjoy the autumn season to the fullest, all by myself.

 My activity in St. Aubin mostly consisted of continuous walking, reading books while listening to music, and dozing off at the lakeside. Oh, can't forget the lunch with the family with a little bit of house wine and beer ;) Anyways, I think the photos can explain better than I do. Enjoy!