September 12, 2015
Map Link (there)
Fall weather is the best time to ride and today’s forecast was to be excellent. Dan and I took a while to get ready, as our recent move has completely disrupted our habits and we still need to iron out some wrinkles.
While I really wanted to visit the Alps, the amount of time needed was more than Dan wanted to dedicate to our ride, so I led us on a romp through the Jura, a guaranteed good time.
A sunny fall day
My shadow
Because of our new apartment is on the other side of town, it took us some time to get out and in the right direction. In fact, we ended up riding through a good bit of French countryside before actually heading to where I intended.
French village
Muespach, FR
The further south we went, the more the clouds gathered in the sky above us. As we rode through the shaded valleys the temperature dropped and the cold air blew through our mesh gear. But it was still a glorious day to be out on two wheels.
One of the few cars we saw that day
Through the cool forest
Bit of blue sky teases us with warmth
A couple of riders cornering a little harder than we were
We reached our destination for the day, the ancient village of Saint-Hippolyte. We parked the bikes, took out some snacks and water, and then walked around a bit to enjoy the sunshine and the fall flowers. I have no idea why I didn’t take any pictures. As one point Dan turned to me and asked “Are we in France?” (we were) and I enjoyed the fact that we had popped across so many borders that it was easy to lose track of which country we were in.
We took a different route home, complements of the GPS and a random waypoint. This led us up over a ridge and along some delightfully remote roads.
Map Link (return)
The valley below was our morning route south
Dropping down the other side of the ridge into a wide valley
Fresh pavement and light forest
The sun was back out!
Another one of those sneaky border crossings, this time into back into Switzerland
Fall traffic jam
Dan and I, heading home
Overall, we were on the road for about four hours. It wasn’t the trip to the Alps that I originally had in mind, but I’ll save that for another brilliant day.