Switzerland & France 2017 (#1)

Part 1: July 19th – 20th

By Watracz Is Traveling

After two weeks of riding in the Italian Alps (which you can read about in the previous post), I’m heading towards Switzerland through France.

No Google Maps this time, since the roads are blocked at the moment, which means you can’t set the route. I guess I’ll wait until the snow thaws and update this post!

Day 15: Mont Cenis Lake, Col de l’Iseran, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc

July 19th, 2017

Around 9 a.m. I leave the Gran Bosco campsite in Salbertrand and head north east. I reach the French border, and take a breakfast break a few kilometers further, right before Mont Cenis Lake.

Mont Cenis Lake

2,083 m. a.s.l.

As I reach Bonneval-sur-Arc, it gets chilly and it starts to drizzle, so I put on my rain jacket and try to get away from the dark cloud that’s gaining on me.

Col de l’Iseran

2770 m. a.s.l.

Chevril Lake

1,790 m. a.s.l.

Little St. Bernard Pass

2,188 m. a.s.l.

The last stop before the Italian border!

Verney Lake

2,088 m. a.s.l.

Some time about 3 p.m. I stop at a gas station to fill up. The gas is incredibly expensive here. I have to pay 25 euros for less than a full tank of lead-free. I pass the charming town of Pré-Saint-Didier and keep going towards the border of France.

I reach the tunnel under Mont Blanc. The Alps’ highest peak is hidden behind a dense fog, and the wall of ice on its eastern face (Brenva Glacier) looks both beautiful and menacing at the same time.

Surprisingly, it costs 29.5 euros just to go through the tunnel! It’s 12 kilometers long, and it’s quite hot inside. The closer to the middle of the tunnel, the worse the ventilation, and the hotter it gets.

I exit the tunnel near Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, at the foot of Aiguille du Midi (3,842 m. a.s.l.), where you can see a cable car station.

Chamonix-Mont-Blanc

There’s a Carrefour supermarket along the way, so I stop there to do some shopping. I do a tour of the tourist-packed town, and find a campsite around 7 p.m. One night is about 20 euros. I set up the tent, shower, and go to bed.

Day 16: Sanetsch Pass, the Pyramids of Euseigne

July 20th, 2017

I head out from Chamonix-Mont-Blanc early in the morning. The weather is much better today, and you can see the snowy peaks in all their glory.

Switzerland

At 10 a.m., I reach the town of Martigny in the south-west of Switzerland. Going through the town I notice that people here drive much slower than in Italy; they look at who’s entering a roundabout and who’s exiting it, they use their rear-view mirrors and indicators, and they care about who has the right of way.

I stop at a MediaMarkt, where I buy three memory cards: two for the GoPro and one for the camera. A coffee break (and two chocolate croissants) later, I move out.

Sanetsch Pass

2,422 m. a.s.l.

I turn north in the town of Sion and ride towards Lake Sanetsch. At one of the stops I realize that my GoPro cam hangs down from the case it was taped stuck on, so I fix up the mounting with a tape on each side. Good that I noticed it in time — if it fell off somewhere along the road, I wouldn’t stand a chance at finding it.

Lake Sanetsch

2,034 m. a.s.l.

The area around the lake is beautiful. The water is crystal clear, the green is vivid, and the tourists are barely there. I rest there for almost two hours, and don’t really feel like going further. It’s one of the places you want to come back to, and stay longer.

I go back to Sion and go south. There are interesting rock formations some 15 kilometers on.

The Pyramids of Euseigne

These rock pyramids are 10 to 15 meters tall. They’re a remainder of a glacier that left sand and rocks as it receded. The material around the rocks was removed by rain and erosion, and the rocks themselves protected the ground underneath.

I head back north from Euseigne and stop to shop at a store in Vox. I buy some cured meat, fruit, vegetables, and a baguette that I need to break into three parts before I’m able to fit it in the top case.

Leuk

I ride through the valley of the Rhône and I glimpse and interesting satellite station on a hill to the left, so I turn and go to see it up close. The station is owned by Signalhorn, a company providing telecommunications services to large corporations and governments.

Geschina campsite

I find a campsite around 8 p.m. The price is 14 franks for a night. Doing laundry and drying it is another 4 franks. Since I’m supposed to start off on winding Swiss passes early in the morning, I go to bed quickly, as soon as I’m done making sandwiches for the next day.