Day ride to Yvoire - Geneva South through the Western Alps - CycleBlaze

July 16, 2017

Day ride to Yvoire

Breakfast at this Hôtel des Alpes (not to be confused with the Hôtel des Alpes we stayed at in Annecy) was not bad, but it seems the breakfast pastries in Switzerland just aren't as good as those in France. But the juice (mango was one of the choices!) was excellent and this hotel had the best automated coffee machine yet.

My online research indicated that there is a marked bike route all the way around Lake Geneva (Lac du Leman). We saw enough signs to get to Yvoire on quiet roads, but I wouldn't say it was well marked. This time we didn't have a Garmin option since Yvoire was outside the extent of our loaded OSM maps of France.

The route wasn't as scenic as I'd hoped. We couldn't see the lake to our left nor the mountains to our right. But Yvoire was very nice, all dolled up for tourists and the first four-flower "ville fleurie" I've visited. It was odd, though, to see a banner for "Harley Days à Yvoire" outside the tourist office. Yes, they meant Harley-Davidson motorcycles and there were quite a few around. It was especially odd to see them roaring (slowly) down one of the medaieval streets to the old port, where special parking was provided for them.

Attractive building in Hermance (I think)
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Why there is a statue of Voltaire in Yvoire, just outside the medaieval village, I don't know.
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Lots of tourists on a sunny Sunday morning in Yvoire. The church steeple is clad in stainless steel.
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Village fleuri
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Village fleuri indeed!
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One of the Harleys roaring slowly down to the old port
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This sign gave me a smile. There were at least four well-behaved dogs in the yard.
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We took the ferry across to the lake to Nyon (the second Nyon of the trip!) to make a loop instead of out-and-back. 

Leaving Yvoire on the ferry
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There was a nice breeze on the lake (luckily it wasn't a headwind for us)
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This wasn't the only sailboat equipped with an umbrella
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Approaching Nyon
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It was a small, fast ferry
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Tidy Swiss vineyards on the west shore of Lac Léman
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The ferry docked in Nyon
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Is that Mont Blanc? A few moments of clear sky and unobstructed view (except for that large ugly building in the middle ground)
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 Arriving back in Geneva, the Geneva International Triathlon had finished but the main road along the waterfront was still closed to vehicles. We had been told about this by the fellow at the reception desk at our hotel last night; apparently this road closure caused traffic chaos throughout the weekend. We enjoyed it though! We looked it up later: this triathlon that required closure of a main road in a large city for an entire weekend was, as far as we could tell, really a local event that anyone could enter and there were races for kids, a "super sprint", relays, even a "super sprint" relay.

After a very good beer and another walk around Geneva, we went out for a $100 pasta dinner that wasn't even particularly good. This city isn't winning my heart, it's just trying to empty my wallet.

At least they fill your beer glass above the line!
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54 km, ascent 227 m, descent 223 m

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Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,077 km (669 miles)

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