From belle époque velvet to pink granite: two shores, one lake, a thousand details.
“Welcome, traveller. I am the Keeper of the Pier: for a hundred and sixty years I have watched travellers arrive on the Simplon train, and I count them one by one.”The Keeper of the Pier
What the narrator asks you. The answer, and the true fact behind it, is for you to find on the spot.
The Simplon train unloads its travellers, and I have watched them for a hundred and sixty years. This is the Travellers' Register, or rather what is left of it: the pages flew away, scattered between two shores. First page: look where everyone used to look.
A statesman built a villa here; a century later the garden hosted animals from far away. A park where nobles give way to peacocks.
On this strip of land the houses huddle like in a boat. All the other islands are gardens; this one is home.
A composer found a refuge here between greenery and lake. The park today belongs to everyone. A good reason to sit down for five minutes.