… Switzerland.
This morning I was awake at 06;00 which was quite a surprise seeing as I had a really bad night when it took ages trying to get off to sleep. And even more surprising, I actually beat the third alarm to my feet.
It was a really beautiful morning again out there but I didn’t have all that much time to admire the view.
First task was to write my notes from yesterday. Everyone else was still asleep and I’d forgotten to ask for the internet password so I wasn’t able to upload it – that’s something for tonight.
But anyway there was a group of people setting out to cause mayhem in an Egyptian city last night, planting explosive and everything like that. Somehow I’d become roped in to this. We’d worked out our whole plan and tactics to do this. On the very day I had to go to meet them in the morning and they would communicate all right . I would have to walk into town with this and we would meet up somewhere and I’d pass the dynamite out to various different people. This was what I set out to do. I set out but I remembered that I had my fitbit on back to front or upside down or something and everytime I pressed one button it gave me the wrong reading. I started to develop really cold feet. I could see all things about treatment in an Egyptian gaol and surviving to be executed, all this kind of thing. I made up my mind to go to the British Embassy and give them the dynamite but walking into the British Embassy with an overcoat full of dynamite – all this came into my mind about how on earth do I get rid of all of this stuff and do it safely?
Sooner or later everyone else came out of their room and we all had breakfast together, followed by a nice long chat that went on for hours. And that’s quite a surprise really because, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, I’m not usually the sociable type.
When it came to about 12:30 I reckoned that it was time to leave. If I stay too long in one place I start to put down roots and after all I still had a long way to go. So I said my goodbyes and Caliburn and I headed off into the hills.
We drove through Macon, confusing ourselves as we always do and ended up on the by-pass which was not the way that I wanted to go. I was hoping to head through the town centre and have a look around as I passed by but it didn’t work out like that.
On the way through some small village I stopped at a supermarket (it was lunchtime and all of the boulangeries were closed) to pick up a baguette. We carried on through Bourg-en-Bresse and then began to climb into the mountains.
The road that I’m on is the D936 that winds its way through the mountains from Bourg-en-Bresse and Dorlat, and at Corveissiat it drops down onto a clifftop following the meanders of the River Ain.
Just along here is a scenic layby with a good view overlooking the river and if there is a better place than this to stop and admire the view as I ate my butty, I would love to see it because it really was splendid.
The colour of the river was interesting too. I’m not sure whether that emerald green colour is actually the colour of the water, the reflection of the sky, the reflection of the forest, a trick of the light, a trick of the camera or a combination of one or all of them. And I pondered over that as I ate my tomato, hummus and salad baguette.
The town of Corveissiat is not without interest either.
There are the ruins of an old medieval castle – the Chateau d’Arnans – in the vicinity and htere’s a church, the L’église de Saint-Maurice d’Échazeaux which is very rare indeed in the western world because the last modernisation of the church took place in the 14th Century. It managed to escape the “Victorian Frightful” scale of modernisations that ruined just about every other church in western Europe.
there’s also a well-known cave system in the rock, complete with a submerged chamber that is said to be the favourite place for many divers to practise. As well as divers, it’s full of bats too. At least 7 species of bat have been recorded here .
But unfortunately I don’t have the time to go exploring. I’ve a lot to do and a long way to go today and not much time to do it.
A really nice drive through the Jura mountains brings me into Switzerland where there is the really weird road junction and border post
And then we reach our most favourite spot in the Jura mountains.
Strawberry Moose has to leap out of Caliburn and go for a look for himself at the view. There’s even a handy little bench on which he can sit. And I have to say that I was glad to see it because we had been roasting inside Caliburn even at this kind of altitude.
Where we are is actually by an old Roman road that runs between St-Cergue and Trélex in Switzerland. The modern road is a windy, twisty route full of hairpin bends but the old Roman road just goes straight up and down the slopes.
Where the Roman road and the modern road meet, there’s a scenic pull-in where we can stop and admire the view, and take a few photos here and there.
Down there is Lake Geneva – Lac Leman – and the fertile alluvial plain. We’re looking towards the south and somewhere in that direction off the photo to the right is Geneva. Beyond it are the Alps and we pass back into some more of France and encounter Mont Blanc on the border with Italy.
We’d be able to see all of that if there hadn’t been all of this haze. That’s a real disappointment this afternoon.
Down there at the foot of the hills on the shore of the lake is Nyon, famous for being the headquarters of UEFA.
We’re going to be driving all the way down there to the lakeshore and then turning left, north-eastwards towards the interior of the country and the Austrian border. We aren’t unfortunately going to get to see all that much of the mountains in the background as we travel and the hazy afternoon means that you can’t even see then properly from here..
So down the hill we went until we hit the lakeshore and then headed for Lausanne. At Lausanne we left the lakeshore and headed inland up into the hills.
Having consulting the internet, I found myself a motel, the Motel La Poularde, in Romont.
This is the most expensive hotel yet, but then again this is Switzerland and the place is good value for money. My room is enormous and I could even hold a ball in my room.
As is usual, I have forgotten to bring my adapter with me for the electrical plugs but they managed to find one at reception. That means that I can cook tea and then use the laptop. I must make a mental note to buy an adapter tomorrow because knowing my luck, I’ll be stranded here in Switzerland again and I won’t be able to find one.
ut talking about tomorrow, tomorrow I’m pushing further on and we’ll see where we end up. But right now tonight I’m off to bed.
