Spectacular Rides and Soaring in the Sky
Not long ago two quotes took up residence in my brain. The first from my favorite physician telling me I'd passed now from being "elderly" in middle age to a "toddler" in old age.
The second came from my daughter. After hearing yet another of my complaints about some new ache or pain, said "Dad we all just live in burning houses".
I find my new toddler phase has brought declines in equilibrium, the onset of cataracts, and the constant aches of arthritis.
My daily gym workouts are no longer about just staying fit, they are a battle the grim reaper.
The final stage of my life has made me rethink my attitude about travel. My active cycling trips are now equal parts flipping off old age and celebrating new adventures.
I travel much more thoughtfully now. Every trip counts more. I also find that I'm more willing to consider doing things I'd never have done when I was younger. Staring at seventy, this is my last chance to go out on a limb.
On to the trip.
Day one began by leaving Chamonix to officially start our biking adventure via a repositioning shuttle to the pristine Swiss vineyard village of Saillon. The trip traveled through lush mountain passes filled with cows wearing those big wonderful clanky bells. While real life to the Swiss, to me it was pure "Sound of Music".
The Hills Were Alive
(and filled with very happy bovine)
Our hotel in Saillon was a huge, modern, and thoroughly clinical, Swiss Spa Hotel. It came with Swiss staff; half of them all "nose firmly in the air" regal, the other half ridiculously friendly.
But this hotel offered a dazzling array of thermal and spa services, great food and after the heat of Chamonix (in a hotel with no AC) we loved being in a modern resort with perfect AC.
After meeting our VBT guides were fitted out our bikes. And, after the bikes were correct, we tested our GPS maps with a modest warm-up ride. The ride took us to a lovely medieval hillside town to see the world's smallest vineyard.
The little hillside vineyard (only 1.67 SM) has lovely views of the Rhone Valley. It was built as a tribute to the region's master crook / counterfeiter Joseph-Samuel Farinet. From 1870 until he was shot to death in 1880 Farinet minted almost perfect fake 20-centime coins. He spent some and distributed the rest to the local poor gaining a Robin Hood reputation.
A modern group of Farinet's fans decided to create a legacy to the forger by creating this tiny "vineyard". Currently owned by the Dalia Lama, it is visited by 10,000 people a year. A few limited bottles of wine (containing some of the grapes from its three small vines) are sold annually as "peace wine" with proceeds going to charity. The visitors list at the site was a who's who of international celebrities.
Day two's ride was a beautiful 34 mile ramble past vineyards and farms along the Route Du Rhöne. The highlight of this ride for me was stopping at the UCI World Cycling Centre. There we could shop for for jersey's and admire its magnificent indoor velodrome.
The UCI Velodrome
Day three's cycling was 23 miles of spectacular scenery along the shores of Lake Geneva. Along the way we stopped in local deli's for picnic fixings to eat along the lake shore with views of the elegant resort city of Montreux. This ride was pretty special to me as I visited Montreux 51 years ago at the impressionable age of eighteen.
Entering Montreux we quickly joined the lakeside trail filled with seemingly all of the famous resort cities summer crowds. As we rode we zigzagged past workers frantically assembling the various stages for the 2025 Edition of Montreux's renowned annual jazz festival.
I stopped at the sculpture of Freddy Mercury (who lived in Montreux, finding it a place of calm and respite). His sculpture resides near Montreux's "new" Casino. It replaced the previous casino after it lost in a fire. The fire that inspired Deep Purple to write "Smoke on the Water".
As the trail was crowded and partially blocked due to the construction I went rogue and finished the ride through downtown Montreux.
After locating our coach we shuttled to our next hotel the Abbaye de Talloires on the shores of Lake Annecy. I've never been in a bus that fitting through spaces that simply did not seem passable. But Our amazing driver knew how to back up, readjust, then creap inch by inch (literally) between two buildings until he reached our spectacular lakeside hotel.
Just before our final drop to the lake the sky above us was filled with graceful paragliders. We got a closer look at them the following day when our ride around the lake rode us directly past the grassy field where the they all eventually land. I was mesmerized.
Paragliders Soaring Among the Peaks Above Talloires
The Abbaye was initially built in 1681 and was used a monestery, a winemaking operation and a stable before becoming a hotel in 1862. Over its life guests have been a "whos who" of artists and celebrities; Paul Cezzane, Charles Aznevour, Mark Twain, and even Bruce Willis have experienced the Abbaye.
This evening while the others whet to find a dinner somewhere I just hit a grocery for picnic items and crashed on the lawn in front of the hotel with a sandwich and a beer. It was pure bliss.
On Day Four we gathered in a garden for our morning route briefing. It was a lovely morning to meet outside. And while our guides sketched our route overhead some local celebrities flew by.
It was an ultralight followed by a a flock of geese. Our guides explained that the pilot Dominique worked on a documentary entitled Winged Migration. After the movie he imprinted baby goslings that now fly along side his ultralight.
Dominique's Morning Flight With His Geese
And as we cycled we cycled 24 miles completely circling Lake Annecy. Along the way we visited the Paccard Bell factory and stopped tour and eat lunch in the beautiful city of Annecy. This factory has furnished many of the church bells throughout the world. The bells that ring out from the towers of Notre Dame were cast at Paccard.
The cycling was pretty amazing the entire way. Everywhere there was the energy found in a summer resort town. The lakeshore was filled with families and kids splashing everywhere. This is Europes cleanest lake due to stringent laws that were put in place in the 1960's.
After watching all of those graceful paragliders in Chamonix and now above Lake Annecy I decided that it was something I really wanted to experience myself. It took a few calls to get a same day appointment but our VBT guide was able to set it up for me to fly with a instructor in a tandem paraglider. Not much in life gets my adrenaline flowing anymore, but I was pretty excited that I'd get to fly.
We set off to the top of a hill configured perfectly to launch gliders. It was sort of an astroturf shelf that ended at a shear cliff.
My instructor then set up the flight by arraying the sail and the cables. When it was all set I was instructed to just to look straight ahead and walk forward (we would literally walk off a shear cliff).
As we got close to the edge the sail filled with air and lifted (the result was the forward force tripped me as I was walking forward). So I took off by being literally dragged off a cliff đ!
As the sail lifted the design of the glider rotated and lifted me into my seat. And then we soared. The next 45 minutes of my life will be remembered as some of the very best minutes of my life.
The gentle soaring was thrilling and the scenery was spectacularly beautiful. We caught winds and ascended to circle the mountain peaks above Talloires.
At that point my guide Gil handed me the controls and gave directions how to ascend, descend, fly to the right, and then to the left. We changed direction and flew out over Lake Annecy as the sun was starting to set. Surrounding us were dozens of other fliers sharing the sky. They were above, below, and all around us.
My guide could clearly tell I was having a great time and we flew a bit over my alotted time. The landing was just a slow descent onto a lawn.
For a little less than an hour in time I wasn't old.
I was a kid again; filled with awe.
The next morning Day Five we rode along the lake and then at its tip we turned toward Albertville and the Village of Conflans. At 39 miles, the ride was one our longest. But it did not seem long as we cycled on beautiful bike paths and along the Isares river.
It was ironic to me that we'd visit (and stop for lunch) in Albertville. I have always held a totally unjustified animosity toward Albertville.
It all goes back to when I lived in Alaska in the early eighties. At that time there was a "We can do anything!" feeling in the air up there. And one of the windmills we chased was to compete for the 1992 venue for the next Winter Olympics.
To us it all made perfect sense. After the Munich games security for the Olympics was a very real concern and Anchorage offered very tight security. It can be accessed by only two roads, one rail line, and an international airport.
By the time of the Olympics, hours of daylight in Anchorage would exceed any of the other venues competing. And, Anchorage's time zone meant that games could be live streamed in prime time to the East Coast maximizing coverage and revenue. And finally our major ski area started at sea level. So it This would have been the first winter Olympics where altitude would not affect Olympians.
But the "politics" of the Olympic selection committee kicked in and Albertville was selected. And that, as they say, was history.
But I still arrived with a grudge.
We concluded our ride with a climb to our final hotel. It was a beautiful historic chateau converted into a hotel. Although well up a mountainside we got to see a continuous stream of fixed wing gliders launched from the valley below. Upon arrival at the hotel we assembled in its ancient wine cellar for a tasting of local vintages.
Wine Tasting in the Cellars Below our Hotel
Day 6 would be our last day of riding. Our route was 32 miles and we visited Lake St. Andre and then stopped in the town of Chambéry for lunch. There are a few sites to see in Chambery but it was summed up well by two enterprising teenagers that approached us to be tour guides. When we told them we didn't have time and would be off to Lyon tomorrow they shrugged and confessed that "Lyon is much better than Chambéry".
On the way back we stopped to watch the gliders take off from the airport below our hotel. Some gliders were towed into the sky by a fixed wing airplane. But most were launched by cable. They were tethered to a cable embedded to the runway that would spin fast enough to launch the gliders. of the day we returned to the hotel for a farewell dinner.
The next morning we said goodbye to our trip leaders and boarded our shuttle to Lyon. In Lyon we had an overnight before catching flights early the next day. The Chambéry teens were right, Lyon was lovely. The highlight for me was scoring one of Lyon's famous pink praline brioche cakes. The French really know how to bake. Damn!
In the morning we said goodbyes at breakfast and took an uber to the airport. I arrived very early and was glad about that once we got to the terminal only to find it on full "machine gun carrying soldier" lockdown.
The airport military explained the night before the US had attacked Iran and global threats to international airports were being taken very seriously.
The reality then sank in. A week spent cycling had tamped down the constant din of whatever daily dose of gunfire, hatred, and crazy will erupt every day now in the US.
Roadboy's Travels © 2025
