Goodbye Lausanne – with gratitude

Our year is over, we’re packed up and leave tomorrow for one last week of cycling through France before we head home. We feel tremendously blessed to have had this time in such a beautiful place and hope to carry a bit of the Swiss life back to California with us.

We have much to be grateful for – Nicholas, who made it possible for Doug to come and work here for a year; old friends Debbie, Marie-Odile and André, who have become like family to us, new friends made along the way, miles and miles of gorgeous cycling routes, and a wonderful house to live in with a garden and unbelievable views of the lake and French Alps.

I’ve had the good fortune to be able to do some volunteering while I was here in Lausanne – with Magasin du Monde, a fair-trade store in downtown Lausanne, and also with Mercy Ships, an organization that operates a hospital ship and provides free medical care around the world.   Both organizations rely heavily on volunteers and I’ve learned so much working for them.   I’ve seen how these organizations value, respect, and honor their volunteers, and invest in their development. 

Magasin du Monde at Place Ripone in Lausanne

Artisanal fair-trade items from around the world

 Mercy Ships headquarters in Lausanne - a 10 minute walk from our house

Mercy Ships in the winter

The view from Mercy Ships headquarters - Roveréaz

Mercy Ships event

I’ve so enjoyed watching the Swiss political process this past year.  I saw a funny TV commercial the other day that I thought summed up the social and political life here in Switzerland.  A man was at the cash register at a grocery store, and the store clerk, after looking over what he had on the counter, asked if he planned to serve the food and drink that he was purchasing in the same meal.  The line at the cash register was long, but no one seemed upset at the long conversation.  The clerk asked the folks in the line if they thought it was a good choice, a debate ensued, and someone suggested that they take a vote on the man’s choices.  A parody, yes,…but with a hint of truth to it.

So, with 365 days of our lives in Lausanne behind us, goodbye Lausanne, it’s been great and we will never forget you.  Thanks for everything…

The Finish Line

With one more week until we leave Switzerland we’re rushing to wrap things up, say our goodbyes, get together with old and new friends, try new bike routes, and take in one last view of this beautiful country.  It’s making us uncharacteristically bold – knowing that it’s now or never - this time and place in our lives will never be repeated.  Friendships are forming quickly; sometimes it seems not quickly enough as there isn’t enough time now left to do all we want to do.

I’ve mentioned my good friend Debbie in several of my posts.  I’ve known her since nursing school days (over 30 years), and even though she’s lived in Europe now for about 25 of those years we have miraculously managed to stay in touch.  She’s a terrific communicator - every year I’d look forward to her hand written letters describing her Swiss adventures with her wicked sense of humor. 

When we moved to Switzerland a year ago, it was Debbie who met us at the airport, drove us to our new place, supplied us with her homemade bread and jam, cheese, orange juice and enough provisions to ease the pain of our long flight and jet lag.  And throughout the year, Debbie has always been there to provide us with the insider Swiss info, tips on what to do and see, and even managed to be on duty at urgent care when I hurt my knee.  And now that we’re leaving, she’s here for us again to give us a place to stay our last few days and a ride back to the airport with all of our luggage.   

Even with all that she’s done for us this past year, she was still thinking of fun adventures this week when she planned a belated birthday adventure for me.  She told me to be ready at 9am for a girl’s day out.  She drove me to Cugy, a town that I pass regularly on my bike rides, and pulled up to ZenFish Spa, where as we entered the main salon I saw what was on the agenda for the morning – fish therapy!  After an initial foot preparation routine, the no-nonsense owner gave us the rundown - put both feet slowly in the tank, and it’s ok to laugh or cry or scream, but you can’t pull your feet quickly out of the tank or you will scare the fish (she was quite stern on that point).  So we both plunged in, laughing hysterically from the tickling sensation for the first few minutes, and then were fascinated to watch the fish go to work on our feet for the next 30 minutes.  By the time we were done, our feet were aussi doux que les fesses d'un bébé*

Fish feet

Then, to continue the fun, we went to Le Deck at Le Baron Tavernier in Chexbres, for a lunch on the terrace with stunning views of Lac Léman and the French Alps.  I’m back to pinching myself like I did when we first arrived – I hope I can remember this gorgeous scenery when I’m back home in California.

View from Le Deck

Friday evening was Fête de al Musique in Lausanne, and after a dinner at home (a replica of my Paris cooking class) with friends Roland and Karin from Yverdon we went to Lausanne, leaving the metro at Place Rippone to see the crowds in the streets.  We let the music and the crowds guide us to the different bands of all types playing throughout the city.

We woke up early Saturday morning for one last ride with the TCS group, led by Raymond, the guide from my group in Majorque.  Not knowing the route, we thought this was a relatively easy 50-mile group ride somewhere in Canton Vaud.  Au contraire – we headed to the mountains just south of Gruyère.  We had several steep climbs to Les Paccots until the final climb to Vuipay, in the clouds next to patches of snow.  At the top of the pass we were treated to a stop at the restaurant, where some of our co-riders indulged in the regional specialty of the thickest, richest macaroni and cheese you could imagine.  Think throwing some macaroni in a fondue pot…

Yep...that's snow!

Pour avoir du plaisir, il faut souffrir… (no pain, no gain)

We were expertly guided back home by our guide Raymond and a few of his friends, and were delighted to have them come over for a beer before their ride home.  Again, friendships formed at the last minute…

*Soft as a baby’s behind…

Allez-hup Alpe d’Huez….

When cycling up big climbs in Europe, particularly those in the Tour de France, you often see words of encouragement painted in middle of road where riders will clearly see them.  A favorite seems to be “Hup!” which we think means “go” in Dutch.

Laurie and I decided to spend one of our remaining weekends exploring in the area around the town of Bourg d’Oisans in the French Alps.  Actually, this time of year almost everyone travels there for one thing: to cycle to the top of Alpe d’Huez and we wanted to do the same.

Our plan was simple:  take the train from Lausanne to Grenoble, ride to a chambre d’hôte (B&B) in Bourg d’Oisans, and get an early start up the 21 switchback climb up Alpe d’Huez.  The timing was perfect: the Tour de France will go up Alpe d’Huez twice this year.  Even better, this being Father’s Day weekend, Laurie planned the whole trip…

Resting up on train trip to Grenoble*

We had amazingly good luck.  The weather forecast was cloudy but no serious rain.  The bike route out of Grenoble was complicated but when I asked directions from a fellow cyclist he motioned that we should follow him and we had a personal escort for the next 50 km (30 miles).  Turns out Aldo had already ridden 400 km in 3 days and was out to just “loosen up the legs.”   He delivered us to our destination and then headed back to Grenoble.  Feeling inspired by Aldo, I left Laurie to check us in and rode another 10 miles or so up the nearby col d’Ornon.  Decent climb with spectacular views.

Col d'Ornon

The chambre d’hôte in Bourg d’Oisans, La Cle des Bois, was a real find.   The charming owners, Marie (from nearby Vizelle) and Peter (a former restaurateur from Belgium), fixed up an old farm house five years ago.  We met the other guests on the way to hot tub - 10 Dutch cyclists who planned to go up Alpe d’Huez the next morning.  Hup!

Le Cle des Bois in Bourg d'Oisans

While Doug was climbing col d'Ornon...**

View toward col du Glandon from our balcony

Many chambre d’hotes offer dinner (“table d’hôte”) for an extra charge, which are usually fantastic and this was no exception.  Laurie and I had a romantic dinner of beef vigneron fondue (made with red wine), ravioli, salad and cherry ice cream in the wine cellar (a converted goat shelter).  Total cost: 58 euros (for 2) including a carafe of organic Cotes du Rhone wine.  Wow.

After a big breakfast of fresh croissants, yogurt, fruit and coffee with the Dutch riders, we left our bike bags at La Cle des Bois and headed to the base of Alpe d’Huez.  We decided in advance that we would each go our own pace and meet at the top.  In addition to frequent encouragement written on the road, each switchback had a sign with the name of the stage winner in a previous Tour de France.  Inspiring.  Final results for the 13 km and 3113 feet of climbing: my time to the top was 1 hour 2 minutes, Laurie did it in a remarkable 1 hour 32 minutes.   

Ready to go!

Final switchback on Alpe d'Huez

View from top of Alpe d'Huez

Most cyclists turnaround and go back down, but we decided to continue past Alpe d’Huez, climb the col de Sarenne and loop around to Bourg d’Oisans via a very remote route with a "technical" (that usually translates to dangerous) descent. 

Col de Sarenne

Easy part of the descent of col de Sarenne...

Laurie descending the "technical" part of col de Sarenne

After lunch in Bourg d’Oisans we picked up our bags from the chambre d’hôte and started riding towards Gernoble.  About halfway there we were unsure which way to go, and sure enough, along comes another French cyclist who points us in the right direction and says he will lead us to the train station!   Hervé joined us for drink (“un verre”) at the train station before leaving us to take the train back to Lausanne. 

Bourg d'Oisans.  Cyclist's paradise.

Hervé, our guide back to Grenoble

Hope all you Fathers, but particularly ours (Chuck Bauer and Les Meier) had a wonderful day.  We can’t wait to see you again…

Editor's notes: 

* Doug likes to put unflattering photos of me on the internet

**Unlike Doug, I was resting up before our big climb the next day.