When driving on the motorway through the Swiss mountains, there is often an urge to pull over and take a closer look at your majestic surroundings. However, one French tourist may have taken this urge a bit too far, stopping on the slip road of the motorway to paint the surrounding Alps.
On August 4, 2022, Charles André, a driver from Canton Valais, was travelling along the A9 between Ardon and Martigny. As he was passing the turnoff for Riddes, he spotted a vehicle parked on a slip road, but instead of being the scene of a road accident, André got a bit of a surprise.
“I wondered what this car, immobilised at the exit of the A9 motorway in Riddes, was doing there. And then I saw an elderly man who had crossed the guardrail and who was painting,” André told 20 minuten. After contacting the police, “Officers informed me that they had already been warned by other motorists and that a patrol was en route.”
According to 20 minuten, the man, an 85-year-old from France, pulled over because he wanted to capture the “beauty of the Valais landscape.” Faced with a picture postcard setting, he hoped to immortalise the vista with his own painting, oblivious to the danger he was putting himself in.
By the time the police arrived, the artist was packing away his easel and paints and was about to leave the scene. Cynthia Zermatten, a spokesperson for the Valais police, explained that "as this man did not obstruct traffic," the officers settled the case without a criminal charge.