We met M. Brunner when he cut Neil's hair last Wednesday - in a conversation of broken French (me), broken English (him) and broken German (both of us) he said that he had a Swiss Army bunker that he had bought in the hills nearby and asked if we'd like to make a time to go and see it with him. Today we went, and it was such an interesting visit for which we are very thankful to M. Brunner.
The story is that the Swiss were concerned about invasion from the north (Germany and Russia), so they put bunkers like this along main entry roads for potential invading armies. This is just a small one, but consisted of maybe 5 or 6 rooms, each sealed off with a thick door (see the previous section on A-Bomb shelters) from the others. M. Brunner has spent a lot of effort on the place, it looks almost like a museum (including mannequins with Swiss army uniforms etc).
The Swiss all spend time in the (mainly part-time) army, and it is designed as a defensive force rather than an attacking force - understandable when you consider the size and location of the country.
M.Brunner et moi standing outside the camouflaged door to the bunker. It might be easy to seethe door in the photo, but it is virtually invisible from the road. The door is a little better camouflaged than the passport holder under my top though :)
Inside the main room - the mess hall and sleeping quarters if you like. As you can probably tell from Jan's jacket, it was quite cool inside.
From the other end.
A pantry, with some provisions.
This gives an idea of the size of the doors and the interconnecting chambers. We were invited to climb a ladder (about 15 metres up) to see the "big gun" at the top, but my vertigo got the better of me.
It really is quite invisible from most angles.
Some horses for Aja.
We fed them bread and they were very friendly.
A view back down the road (and at our petit apperitif spot).
A very nice wine.
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