Angels in the rain

The sun returned today after three days of almost constant rain. Mt. Blanc never did manage to shake off its shroud of cloud before we left the Lake Geneva area this morning, which was a little disappointing.

Nothing to see here today at Lake Geneva!

Because of the rain, we spent two nights in a little hotel in the city of Lausanne, and toured the city. This is the location of the IOC headquarters, and also the Olympic Museuem. So that seemed like a great rainy day activity. The displays about the history of the Olympics, equipment used by many well-known competitors, all the torches from the various Olympics, etc were pretty interesting.

The Olympic Museum, Lausanne

The actual torch used to light the Olympic cauldron in Calgary 1988,
On display in the museum with all the other Olympic torches


 Yesterday, in spite of more rain in the forecast, we decided to press on with our ride towards Geneva. Our friends Jacques and Angela, who live in southern France, and with whom we have been in contact since our trip began, persuaded us to do a little diversion to dry out with Jacque's daughter Helene and her husband Denis. They live to the north-east of Geneva on the slopes below the Jura Mountains, near a small town called Gex, which is actually across the border back in France.

Having slogged along in the rain, we were within about 10km of their home when I heard a voice calling from down the street of a village where we had stopped to check our navigation. "Are you Daphne??" I couldn't quite believe it, but it was Helene! She had managed to spot us on her way home from work, and she was able to take all our gear in her car and lighten our bikes for the hill climb that lay ahead. I guess we hadn't been too hard to spot with our bikes and Canadian flag.

She really was like our angel, as she headed on home to prepare supper for us all. We were welcomed to their lovely home for an evening of good company and a lovely, dry, comfy bed!

A nice section of trail today - an old railway bed

We have now rejoined the Velo Rhone route and are currently camping in the town of Seyssel, on the banks of the Rhone. It made us really mad tonight when we arrived at the Carrefour supermarket at 7.25pm delighted to have found a place to buy some dinner supplies, only to be turned away at the door because they were closing at 7.30pm. Luckily when we got to the campground, their restaurant was open, so we've just had a decent meal here on the patio overlooking the very high water's of the Rhone. 60 km done today, with a good amount of hills, and a few too many busy roads.


Wheat fields above Lake Geneva
Barley field below the Jura Mts on today's ride
Along the route today, passing through a gorge above the Rhone

Comments

  1. Iveta bxJune 13, 2019 at 10:15 AM

    It's good that you have found something interesting to do even in the rain and luckily you found your angels too.
    I love the barley field picture! It's like a painting.
    BTW, I've received this latest post via my email again. May be they cut me off just temporarily 😉

    ReplyDelete
  2. DaphneJune 14, 2019 at 1:56 PM

    The poppys in the barley look realy pretty I think. Poppys are plentiful here. I had to re-enter all the emails, so good to know it's working again.

    ReplyDelete

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