Averaging 25 km/hr we entered Geneva in no time and headed for the lake front and a view of the Jet due Jeau the 460 feet high water spout that is Geneva`s world reknowned emblem.
Without a map for the day and without a functioning GPS / Tablet (hence no photos) we struggled momentarily to get out of Geneva.
H sent on a mission to discover the sign posted Tourist Info office road twice past the sign we needed to get out of town without noticing. When later questioned H calmly said `what do you expect I'm male I can only concentrate on one thing at a time`!
Working out that it was likely that the river Rhone (our route) fed into Lake Lehman (Geneva`s 75 km long lake) we were soon zig zagging our way out of the suburbs of Geneva.
On the way out Mike lost his panniers on two occasions after hitting bumps bringing back memories of his pannier tirade in 2011 that saw him go 15 rounds with his panniers even wrestling them on to the ground until H intervened !
A continuing tailwind saw us fly into Chancy in the Nth West corner of Switzerland before we climbed into France and immediately got lost.
Stopping for directions a French former foreign legion soldier straight out of the pub gave us rough directions as we struggled to remember even the name of the place we were heading towards !
Querying with another Frenchman we got similar directions including info that suggested a) he was having an epileptic fit or b) telling us to turn left at a village en route after a herd of moose !
It wasn't until we passed through the small village that we realized he was in fact telling us to turn at the Statue of the stone bear in the middle of the town - I've always been crap at charades !
Past towns like Savigny and Frangy we rocketed downhill wondering if we were going to pay later for this beautiful downhill ride !
Eventually we made it to the lovely town of Seyssell spending an hour to find out that all the towns available accommodation were closed !
Ross volunteered to go further afield 3 kms down the road to check out another suggested hotel while Kev and I raided the local Boulangerie - a fair deal we thought !
Full we set off after Ross catching him cycling back to inform us he'd secured a hotel room - another outstanding performance by the kiwi !
Our accommodation on the river was adequate even though operating our toilet sounded like initiating a jet engine !
Ross breathed a sigh of relief when the owners opened the restaurant to serve us a filling 3 course dinner of local produce that even left H satisfied !
A good day all round !
Mega, I thought that you had done a crash course in French?
ReplyDeleteBut Welcome to France - and good local produce in Henley sized quantities! Hope that the rest of the trip serves you as well as Seyssell or wherever it is that you had a filling 3 course dinner of local produce.
The sun is shining in a still damp Montmorency.
Kev, Monday's ride was a dream!
WMc