United States or Bhutan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Whistler gave the case of the Swiss as an excellent people with little capacity for art. But the old Swiss chalets are full of character and beauty, and there are churches in Switzerland which have all the beauty of the Middle Ages.
So we shall see, as we come down by our little lake in the lap of Lucendro, and even before we reach the road, the first scattered chalets and households in which these migrant people live, the upper summer homes.
Semmering was a favorite resort with the American colony, but not until later in the winter. In December there were rains in the mountains, and low-lying clouds that invested some of the chalets in constant fog.
I stopped short before one of these chalets, it was so pretty: a small white house with brown trimmings, overrun with rambler roses up to the top. The garden was a mass of flowers, of all colors and all kinds, mixed in a coquettish, well-planned disorder.
But those who know by old experience what friendly châlets, and cool meadows, and clear streams are hidden in their folds and valleys, send forth fond thoughts and messages, like carrier-pigeons, from the marble parapets of Milan, crying, 'Before another sun has set, I too shall rest beneath the shadow of their pines! It is in truth not more than a day's journey from Milan to the brink of snow at Macugnaga.
Her eyes fell; did he mean anything? She gazed at the horizon as though she would look beyond it; then she said slowly: "I should like to go to Italy and to Greece and to Corsica, it must be so wild and so beautiful there." He preferred the chalets and lakes of Switzerland.
Some of these villages have been burnt by the volunteers, and the remainder are entirely deserted, their inhabitants having built fresh huts among the rocks in almost inaccessible places. The appearance of these white huts peeping out all over the black rocks was very curious, and reminded one of the Swiss chalets.
On top of the mountains are the chalets with their kine, and at a certain elevation the milk and the wine meet, while below is the water of the lake, so good to mix with both. I do not know that the Swiss use it for that purpose, but there are countries where something of the sort would be done.
In the towns outside of the capital wooden houses are the rule and some of the wealthier people have pretty chalets. In the large cities there is a good deal of "mamposteria" construction: brick or stone work, covered with cement. In the capital the walls of a majority of the houses have come down from the early days and are of great solidity here a man's house is literally his fortress.
Thus refreshed, they started on the last stage of their journey, three leagues of which yet lay before them, and at half-past eleven arrived at the chalets of Meril, which they had left at dawn.
Word Of The Day