31 August 2012

Geneva, Switzerland - Chambery, France

I had a great time in Switzerland. I liked it a lot. 
Best from everything was a people who I met during my time in this country. 
Definetely I come back here again to visit my new friends, buy expensive Swiss watches and a house by the lake:)


This is a Swiss-French border just 5km from the Geneva.
Goodbye Switzerland....

Welcome France:)

France met me with a high mountains.


2092+1240=3332km

It was a most challenging and hard day during my all trip so far.
Many of steep uphills and downhill.

Road on my Garmin looks like my heart rate during my climb up to the mountain.

It was very hard to make it on my 50kg bicycle.


But I done it.
My first 1175 metres :) It took me almost two hours to cycle 10 km distance. Always uphill. During this climb my speed was 4-6 km/h.





My next 10 km downhill was very fast as my speed sometimes was more than 50 km/h.




Friendly French dog:)




Alps Cows.

Typical French house.



Very good cycle road near Annecy.


Annecy is a very beautiful city. Unfortunately I had no time to stay an discover it more. I still had to cycle more than 60 km and high mountains was ahead....






I've seen tel.box like this somewhere..... Just can't remember where:)


Lake Annecy.





I cycled some time along the lake.
Then I had a long 12 km climb to "Col de Leschaux" mountain.





During my climb to "Col de Leschaux" I had met Geraldine. She is a professional cyclist /designer. 
She invited me to visit Annecy and I definatly use this kind offer later.

After the very long climb I had a short and fast descent.



I nearly had a Cow crash at this point.



At some point my Garmin decided that for me would be better to cycle off road.

Stupid GPS!

After I called my Garmin "Stupid"  it broke down again...(3rd time) Noooooooooooooooooooo...
He just left me in the wood alone......


I found my way out from the wood. Get into the main road and continued cycling to Chambery without map.
I also run out of my water and stopped at the chocolate shop to ask for water and for the direction to Chambery.


Girl who was working at the shop was very kind and refill my "Camelbak" also she had drawn a little map with a direction to Chambery:)

Now I had a map and water.

This is a church from the top of the map.
I was on the right way.

First sigh to Chambery.
33 km to go.

15 km of 30 was uphill:(

I was exhausted.

Was getting dark.

 :((((((((((((((( I't was a hardest day during all my trip......




After 15km climb was a 15 km descent. I was very tired and a it was very dark. I found my way to Chambery but still had to find a Laetitia's house. It was hard without my "Garmin"



I had to phoned to Laetitia and tell her where I am.
I was waiting her near one of the French restaurants in Chambery and 10 minutes later she came  and rescued me:)
It was a second time when French people coming to pick me up when I getting lost. First it was a Pascal from Stasbourg and now Laetitia.
Thank you French people!


Next day while Laetitia was at work I went to discover the city.
No...
First I went to find a shop to buy some food.



I was walking along the street and couldn't find any...




I had walked maybe 4-5 km and get to the other town called Cognin.
Here I found one big supermarket.



Later evening when Laetitia came back home we took a walk around the city.
She also told me that the shop I was looking for is just across the road with 2 min walk....

Streets of Chambery.





Chambery's castle.

Shutters at the left side of the building are fake.
It's a painting:)

Window frame are painting too.




Courtyards.






This windows are real...





Cathedral.

Elephants fountain.


After walk around the city Laetitia invited me to the traditional "French" restaurant for the traditional meal.
I had always loved this kind of French food. :)

This is Laetitia.
Girl with a very good sense of humour ;)
I had a great time in Chambery because of Laetitia. She is a great host and very interesting person. I loved my time time in this lovely city.

...........................................
And my next stop is Grenoble.
...........................................



1 comment:

  1. Congratulations on crossing the mountain pass, especially with your huge touring load! I hope the rest of your journey is successful - what a long time on the road!

    ReplyDelete