Sep 14 - view of Mont Blanc

Sep 14. Camp at route mile 93. 

80 and sunny and dry.

Campsite: 45.40297, 5.99989. A fine place at the edge of a small open meadow in a big wooded nature reserve park. 

Another warm day, outside the 90th percentile band for daily high. But NOT 93 like the day we arrived in Geneva. 

Another fine day of walking, with good variety including vineyards, lots of deciduous forest on the east facing slope of the escarpment we followed today, and the final three miles on a 4 meter paved bike/pedestrian path on top of the levee on the east side of the River L’Isere. We’ll stay on this riverside path for another 25 miles until we reach Grenoble. 

Highlight today was, hands down, a completely unexpected, and unobstructed, clear sky view of the Mont Blanc Massive, 50 miles away. Our GR5 walk some years ago took us around this visible side of that huge mountain. 

Picnic breakfast and dinner. Lunch was quiche at a bakery. 

We are happy and healthy and looking forward to a break in the warm weather.

Sep 12 - Aix Les Bain

Sep 12. Camp at route mile 65.5

79 and sunny and dry.

Easy walking on roads, forest paths, and dedicated bike/pedestrian paths. -2000 feet of gain, but all gentle gradient; nothing steep or loose or tricky. A few spectacular miles on the same west facing escarpment as yesterday. 

Lunch at a 5-star burger joint in Aix Les Bain, the city on the southeast shore of the lake. A warm Saturday and the city’s lakefront was hopping: sailboats, kayaks, swimmers, sunbathers, a health fair with a few dozen info booths and a dozen food trucks, Lycra fast cyclists, old folks on old bikes, kids on tiny bikes, tandems, cycle tourists with panniers, recumbents, scooters, roller skaters, lots of runners, people walking well-behaved dogs, and us and one other couple with packs.

The lake and environs reminded us a bit of Tahoe. A big blue lake surrounded by mountains with lots of holiday merry-makers.  

Picnic grocery store food for dinner, in a very nice two story bird hide. We were entertained by an 81 year old local fellow who walks to the hide every day, and presumably talks and sings to everyone who enters. Fell in love with an Irish girl, canoed the Yukon river in 1987, visited Canada every year for 20 years, has lived here for 75 years, sang lots of Irish jigs and a bit of John Denver, and many, many stories we couldn’t comprehend due to his age (his English was fluent enough). 

We are happy and healthy and camped in the field next to the bird hide. 

P.s. yes, we made one patisserie stop today. Yummie.

Sep 11 - approaching the big lake

Sep 11. Camp at route mile 34. 

73 and sunny and dry.

We are on the east side of the Rhône river, on the west-facing side of a steep 2000’ limestone escarpment. Today we followed the GR south, on the side of that escarpment, from river level up to about 1500’ above the river. There are no trails in this area that go to the top because there’s a mostly continuous band of cliffs near the top. Many of our miles were on the ancient horse cart paths that connected the farms halfway up the escarpment. It was all lovely. Easy walking, but lots of uppity up and downity down. 

We are camped near route mile 50, on a graveled farm track inches above a surrounding marsh, about 2 km north of Lac du Bouget, which we believe is the largest natural lake in France. Tomorrow we skirt the east side of the lake, likely finishing the day at the south end. 

Today we left the GR65, aka Way of Saint James aka Camino de Santiago. We picked up the GR695, aka route of the Huguenots. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenots

Breakfast and dinner at bakeries. Picnic grocery store food for lunch. 

We are happy and healthy and ready for sleep. 

Sep 11 - approaching Lac du Bouget

Sep 11. Camp at route mile 34. 

73 and sunny and dry.

We are on the east side of the Rhône river, on the west-facing side of a steep 2000’ limestone escarpment. Today we followed the GR south, on the side of that escarpment, from river level up to about 1500’ above the river. There are no trails in this area that go to the top because there’s a mostly continuous band of cliffs near the top. Many of our miles were on the ancient horse cart paths that connected the farms halfway up the escarpment. It was all lovely. Easy walking, but lots of uppity up and downity down. 

We are camped near route mile 50, on a graveled farm track inches above a surrounding marsh, about 2 km north of Lac du Bouget, which we believe is the largest natural lake in France. Tomorrow we skirt the east side of the lake, likely finishing the day at the south end. 

Today we left the GR65, aka Way of Saint James aka Camino de Santiago. We picked up the GR695, aka route of the Huguenots.

Sep 10 - now in France

Sep 10. Camp at route mile 34. 

70 and dry. Scattered clouds, but never between us and the sun. We were shaded by trees most of the day. 

Foothills on the east side of the Rhône river. Attractive small farms and small towns and villages. Good bakery for breakfast and another for lunch. 

Compare and contrast…

1. We camped last night 0.5 miles into France, so today and the rest of the trip are in France. The price of coffee and croissant is 2x in Switzerland compared to France. Swiss Cafe au lait was ~4 Swiss francs. Same in France is 2 ~euros. The 2 bakeries we visited in France today were 10000% better than the two we visited yesterday in Switzerland. Random or representative?
2. Yesterday we passed one house with relentlessly barking dogs. Today we passed two. In Portugal nearly every rural home had 2 to 4 guard dogs rattling our nerves. That’s one cultural difference we truly appreciate. 

We are happy and healthy, enjoying walking on a well-marked GR65 and GR 695.  Unexpectedly, we are now walking concurrently on waymarked piece of a Camino de Santiago and have seen two possible Caministas. This is a complete surprise to us. 

Sep 7-9 — starting in Geneva

Sep 7 depart SFO. THANK YOU Paige and Zac. 

Sep 8 Arrive Geneva. Temperatures 93 F. Yuck. This is hopefully the very last day of the 85+ heat that has brutalized Western Europe this summer. 

Sep 9. Walking! 

4 hours of steady very light rain in the morning, from a front that broke the heat wave. Temps mid 60s. Yay!

Most interesting crop is fields of sunflowers, drying out and looking ready to harvest.

Most of our trail was next to the Rhône river. Oaks and maples have only the slightest suggestion of autumn, the golden color coming primarily from a mast year production of maple seeds. 

We’re seeing the usual European birds. Highlight today: 6 Grey Herons in a field. 

Camped at route mile 18 in a one acre grassy clearing in the woods. Good campsite, quiet, level, private. 

We are happy and healthy and happy to be walking in Europe again.