Switzerland

I was on the road the whole month of August, going to Switzerland spend some time with an old friend, then heading to Brittany to meet some other friends and finally to Amsterdam for the Embedded Linux Conference Europe. This is the first leg of the trip: Switzerland.
I got invited to spend the weekend at my friend's friends' to attend a local festival next to Zug, Switzerland, called Waldstock. It's an interesting concept of a festival, with activities and concerts for children in the afternoon, then some concerts, then a movie, then some more concerts. Repeat that 3 days in a row and you've got the recipe.
The festival is located on a cow field as far as I've been told and it's not an insignificant detail when it's absolutely poured rain the last few days and still quite often rain during the concerts. Fortunately, I was told to bring hiking boots so the ankle-high mud was unpleasant but not terrible. I have never seen mud that was both so sticky and slippery though. Also, when feet get entirely covered in mud, even in shoes, they get cold, but at least not wet!
We started first with TC & The Groove Family, then Roshâni and finally finished with Home Counties. All of this being too loud of course, I had earplugs in which unfortunately heavily modified the various soundtracks but Roshâni was the concert I enjoyed the most.
The next day, the sky blessed us with even more rain. I was less receptive that day but had nice discussions with my friend's friends. Concerts and places with lots of people tend to make me anxious but I was pleasantly surprised by how my brain took it this weekend.

We then spent the next day visiting Lausanne where my friend lives. We started with the old town and the Notre-Dame cathedral, as well as les Escaliers du marché (Market stairs). We then had a look at the Titeuf mural, depicting the main characters of one of the biggest comics of my youth.
We ended the day snacking at the Tour de Sauvabelin admiring a 360° view on Lausanne, Lake Geneva and the surrounding mountains. The sunset was beautiful though near impossible to capture with the camera.

Back in the West part of Switzerland, the weather was much better than in Zug so we decided to go on a hike to Rochers de Naye, a bit above 2000m.
We took the train to Montreux and then boarded an old and luxurious train called Belle-Époque to the Jor train station. This station is really in the middle of nowhere, with just a small building next to it. There's no platform, you just directly stop on the tracks, walk a few meters and you're in the thick forest.
We then went our way to Jaman with its 100+ cars parking lot where the start of the hike really was. Les Coursis shows itself there.

We passed through Col de Jaman on the way to Dent de Jaman where we took our lunch break with a great view on Lake Geneva, Rochers de Naye and Le Merdasson peaks which will come next.

We ended up reaching Rochers de Naye early in the afternoon, with a breath-taking view on the neighbouring mountains some still with snow on them. The view from there is nice and the place can easily be reached by an expensive panoramic cogwheel train, which we took to go back to civilization after eating an ice-cream at the restaurant at the train station.

The day after still was a nice day, so we took yet another train, this time in direction of the Swiss Jura. We started in Vallorbe and went to Dent de Vaulion. The hike alternated long sections with little to no shade with the sun hitting hard, and a few minutes among thick trees but still with not much shade to take shelter from the bright yellow star.
The top is once again easily reachable, this time by car. I usually prefer slightly strenous hikes with as few people as possible on the way and at the top. It also differs from the hike from the day before and its gorgeous landscapes so maybe I'm being too picky here!
On the way down, we met a group of cows and a couple of Alpine Chamois next to the track.