Day 5: Sulvan, Switzerland to Saint Maurice, France
The apartment we rented included 3 beds in a “loft” attic-like space. It was a bit warm at first, but during the night, things cooled off well. The doorways in the place were low, and I banged the top of my bald head more than once. I was a little sore in the morning.
They host had coffee supplies for us, and I enjoyed my cuppa with a view.
Let me say something about Greg’s routing – in a phrase, it was spectacular and his efforts did not go unnoticed. Most every evening after dinner, Greg would sit down with his laptop and plot a route for tomorrow. He was able to use his experience to generate general routing and he enhanced the route using a program called Kurviger, which finds the curviest routes in the area. From there, a route would be generated on Greg’s My Route App account, to which we all had access to. At times, I was having challenges getting the route to my GPS, so I used my Garmin USB cable to download it directly from Greg’s laptop. Even so, I usually loaded the file as a track, to ensure my best chance of Garmin not “recalculating” the route and changing things up. As I wasn’t leading, this was plenty good enough for me to just have a good idea of where we were going.
And where are we going today? Further south, it would appear.
As we ride, the further south we go, the more mountainous the terrain gets.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Bryan and Marissa.
During the day, we crossed another border into France, our 3rd country in 3 days. My hamburger for lunch was delicious.
We are finding the Europe that I have grown to love – rural Europe. Here in the villages and the farms and the countryside, things are far different than in the big cities. It’s slower and quieter. Everything is so clean and tidy. They re-purpose materials and are creative in their endeavors. Everywhere we go, the people are warm and friendly. They are rightfully proud of their home, and seemingly happy that we chose to come here on our holiday.
And I am having great fun “trying”. I want to speak to all of them. I want them to tell me something – anything, really. I use very simple and broken English in my efforts. My wife and my kids are bi (and tri) lingual. In that respect, Pants is dumber than a bag of rocks. But they want me to try and I am. I think my wife would have been proud of me.
Greg owns over 20 Yamaha FJR motorcycles. One of them is this one, which he shipped to Knopft and stores it there all year long. My motorcycle has, of all things, a Texas license plate. Greg’s FJR sports an Arizona plate. The other two are Germany plates. This alone draws people to us like magnets.
In the mid afternoon, the route takes us off pavement for a bonified Goat Trail. As I am on an “ADV Bike”, I am not worried in the slightest. It was a nice slow change of pace.
Who could argue with any road that provides this kind of view?
This picture needs no description.
It can’t be adventure, without adventure.
We get back on pavement, but happily the Goat Trails continue. Kurviger is fantastic – we would NEVER find these roads without it.
Or… cow trails as it were.
The French Alps are beautiful. I found them to be different than what we’ve seen so far. Less trees, more “tundra-like” terrain. A shade different color in the rocks. I get so much enjoyment in observing the land.
What a day, man.
This is Roseland Lake and it is indescribably gorgeous. The turquoise hue on the water contrasting with the grassy and rocky hillsides is like a natural painting to me.
We spent a few minutes at this lake, looking around. Everyone was taking pictures and soaking in the environment. I remember enjoying a little time alone in the hillside of the shoreline, thinking about how truly blessed I was to be on this trip. I was feeling proud that I had the gumption to “go for it”, and I was reaping and basking in my reward.
Greg found an apartment for us to stay at in the town of Saint Maurice. The restaurant nearby was nice with good service, good bier, and good dessert. Everywhere we eat, the service is excellent. I am reminded that by in large, for these people, this is not some tenuous part time job that helps pay for college. This is their career, what they have chosen to do. They take pride in that, and they want us to have a nice experience enjoying their food.
Today was the kind of day that riders dream about. For the better part of the ride, we had the roads all to ourselves, but at no point did I feel apprehensible about being “alone”. The views and scenery were just incredible. I can’t remember ever having gone to a place where the view was literally 360 degrees around me, continuously for most of the day. I felt immersed in it, and that brought me to a new level spiritually.
I’m in the mode now and I’m having such a wonderful time.
