We’re on our way!  16 miles and 2200′ of climbing brings us to the outer edge of the Lake Geneva valley and our rest stop for day one!

We started early out of our hotel

Following a trail through a major city is really challenging as the trail markers are inconspicuous (at best) and can be rare. Nonetheless, we made it out of town without getting lost (yippee)!

Fifteen miles later, we closed in on our rest stop. Here a photo of Diane with Lake Geneva in the background.

If you look carefully over her right shoulder (zoom in), you can actually see the water jet spout in Lake Geneva. You’d think that after 6 1/2 hours of walking we’d be further along. Oh well.

There’s so much to talk about in this first day, but … we’re actually a bit beat, so we’ll save those items for another day.

We’ll leave you with some photos from the day’s hike. Until tomorrow …

Au revoir!

Today was 13 miles,  with 2,000′ of ascent, giving us 29 miles and 4,200′ of climbing, total.

The morning started well, misty and cool with the well-marked trail right across the road from our night’s stay! Awesome!

We walked for 2 miles, enjoying the quiet, the beauty and each other. Our plan was to stop in the village of Charly, just after 2 miles to see if we can find a small store to get some snacks. What we didn’t notice was that 100 yards before  Charly, our desired trail (we think) turned right … away from Charly! Oops! We walked into town (nothing open) and continued following “signs’ for another mile, steeply descending, until we “ran out of trail” at a medival amusement park! This doesn’t look right!

Not good!  Stopping for about 15′ to figure out where we went wrong, along with Google maps, Bill figured alternate way to intersect with the trail. Two miles of paves roads later

We were back on the trail! So, how did it happen? Eagerness to get to “the town’ was a factor. We weren’t looking diligently enough to see an indication that our trail turned.

The second factor was confusing signs. The “scallop shell” is the official sign for our path, but our path is also known as “4” for the first 30 miles of so. Also, multiple city, regional and French national trails join our trail for a period of time then disappear.  You can get lulled into thinking that those signs will “always” lead you to the right place.  Here’s a typical sign post:

The final factor is the approach the guidebook uses; mostly focused on facilities available in different towns, rather than course directions.  Here’s an example of today’s path. Pretty limited on details:

Ultimately, the biggest factor was the first; you simply have to pay attention all the times to where you’re going!

At the end of it all, getting lost is just a story.  The real value in these trips are the beauty you see, the dedicated time with your hiking partner (spouse), and the people you meet on the way!

There were the Brits, in a Lotus car club, doing a circumnavigation of France in 10 days.  Interesting stories!

The German couple also walking the Via Gebennensis. Actually, the only other trekkers we’ve seen, so far.

The British ex-pat cyclist who stopped to have a chat with us.

And of course, the numerous hosts we’ve had the pleasure to talk with while they suffer through our French.

There is no better way to get to know a nation, or region, or lifestyle, than taking the time to talk and listen. We’ve been blessed!

Today was 12 miles walked and 1,300’climbed for journey totals of 41 miles walked and 5,500′ climbed … so far.

The more things change, the more they remain the same … In Geneva, we took this picture of Diane on our balcony overlooking the very beginning of the Rhone River.

Three days later, we’re back on the Rhone, in Seyssel,  with Diane on our balcony …

This may become a theme as we continue westward!

Similarly, on our first day of hiking, we snapped a photo of an interesting canyon in the distance to the west, as:

Today, that canyon is to our East, as:

So, that’s what 41 miles of walking buys you, a different perspective!

Yesterday afternoon, after we made it to our day’s stop, we took a hike to the top of a nearby hill. Amazing views! While it will likely not do justice to the true view, here’s a photo of Mont Blanc from that hilltop.

It’s been a good day. Cleaning, eating and resting await.  Bis spater.

Today was 15 miles walked, with 500′ of climbing.  Our totals are now:  56 miles walked, and 6,000′ climbed.

Our stay by the river yesterday was beautiful …

as was much of our walk today along the river.

About 8 miles into the walk, we encountered this sign

“Detour, landslide! ”  Okay, we’ll go around! It added another couple of miles to the walk, but it got us to where we were going, Chanaz.

Chanaz is s very nice tourist town, bustling with, well,  tourists 🤔!

We saw two fellow peregrinos today. Chris, from Munich, who started his walk in Munich! He’s covering 25 to 30 miles a day and intends to finish on Santiago, 1200 miles later,  in mid October. WOW!   Then there was Carolyn, a single female hiker from North Carolina,  who is walking from the border of Italy to Le Puy, about 500 miles in length.

We’re happy with our 250 mille journey.  We may be slow, but we’re out here!

Take care, A demain!

Today was 11 miles walked, 1600′ climbed, for totals of:  67 miles walked and 7,600′ climbed.

This is a beautiful party of the world!  We can easily use all of our superlatives and still be at a loss to describe the beauty.

There was the watermill on the way out of Chanaz

The view from the ridge:

And hiking along the river:

And the clear signs that Fall is just around the corner:

How can we not enjoy this? We are, but there is a beast (not really a beast, but I needed something to go with “Beauty”) …

This Via Gebennensis is well marked and mostly of very good trail quality. But, it’s not popular … yet.  (We saw no other hikers today). That’s good and bad. Good for the quiet enjoyment of the trail beauty, but a challenge for support and resources. Where on many trails, food and water stops are plentiful, here … not so much. So planning ahead for the next day or two’s meals needs is a requirement. Finding stores that are open and nearby for that meal planning is the next challenge. Today, we walked 2 miles to stock up for tomorrow’s longer hike.

It’s really not a big deal, but you can get run down after 6 or so hours of hiking and become grumbly about “more work. Truth is, we’ve been blessed and are thankful for enough health to do the journeys.

Bonne journee!

Today was 14 miles and 1,700′ of climbing. Totals are:  96 miles hike and 12,000′ of climbing.

A cool day for hiking as rain was projected off and on through the day. No rain, but lots of cloud cover to keep us cool.

So, what’s it like hiking in Europe? In the US, we have backpacking, which is done on remote trails, usually quite a distance from civilization.  You bring your own food and you sleep where you lay your bedding.

In Europe, the countryside is laced with trails going every which way.

Some trails are 20 minute lunch loops, some afternoon hike, and some go clear across the continent … like the one we’re on.

And unlike the US trail system, no trail is ever more than a few miles from the next town, cafe, etc.

That leads to a very popular pastime here of vacation trekking; going from village to village, hiking during the day and sleeping in nicer accommodations at night. Very civilized!

So, what about the trails? The routes place highest priority in dirt or gravel paths

Next in preference seems to be remote, paved roads

Then single-track (sometimes sketchy)

And sometimes,  just bizarre, like this “wall walk” that we had to do for about 150 feet.

And the last choice, though used sometimes, are the busier paved roads

Often, to avoid the busier roads, that trail signs will direct you 90⁰ or even 180⁰ opposite from the town you’re headed to, in order to use a farm path or a dirt trail.  It’s really okay as we never were in a race to get from one place to another.

Enjoy your path!

Today was 15 miles walked and 2,700′ climbed.  Our 6 day totals are:  82 miles walked and 10,300′ climbed. Tomorrow will be a rest day.

On arriving yesterday into Yenne, we did our usual routine;  find a store (that’s open), shop for food for the next morning and lunch, go to our hotel, B&B, or Gite, shower, wash clothes, route plan for the next day, update the blog, then dinner. After dinner, we try to take a walk to identify where the trail starts the next day.  It’s our routine.

So, on our after dinner walk, we got to the next day’s route marker, we found this sign:

Here’s the translation: Hey, Pilgrim! We’ve closed your trail for the 12 kilometers because of FIRE danger. But don’t worry, the map on the bottom of the page shows you an alternate route!

If you look very carefully at the route they show a route: and if you can figure where the trail is … you’re better than us!

Next thought:  What if we claimed we don’t speak French and do the original trail, anyways?  Darn, their sign is also in English! Okay, where is this “alternate”?

Bill remembered that, in our guidebook, they show a “variant”. On the photo below, the variant is the GREEN line, versus the ORANGE line for the original.

Okay,  not easy to read, but … at least it means that there’s a MARKED variant trail somewhere for us to find! Now, where to find the start of that variant?

Once again, that guidebook that Bill was discrediting came to the rescue! On the “resources” page, they state the the variant starts on the “corner opposite the Fer du Rhone hotel”. Hey, that’s where we’re staying! A quick trip outside and we see the variant marking. BINGO!  We’re on our way.

Rain: The issue with Fire danger is that Central Europe has had a dry summer. Typically, it’ll rain here every 5 – 7 days,  then get hot,  then rain, etc. This summer, the “rain” part was missing. As a result, there were several fires in Spain and Western France. As a precaution, some areas restricted access to minimize risks, like our current location.

Well, about 3 weeks ago the rain returned. Since we’ve been here, we’ve had 3 GOOD downpours. All that should mean that the risks are lower and the closed areas, reopened. Not so. Particularly since there’s only a couple of Pilgrims per day doing this trek. Hardly worth removing a whole bunch of signs. So, the detour remained!

Now, the walk was beautiful  … as always:

Two noteworthy items.  While hiking up a long, steep road,  we saw this painted on the road:

If you follow Pro cycling,  you would know that the current world champion is a Frenchman named Julian Alaphilippe. His adoring French fans call him “Loulou”! So, this writing on the road (very common practice by fans of cycling) was put there to encourage Loulou, who must have been racing there! Cool!

Next, we finally saw a Pilgrim who was moving slower than us …

All for now. Tomorrow is a planned rest day for us. Stay well.

16 miles and 2,400′ of climbing today.  Trip totals are:  112 miles walked and 14,400′ climbed.

Last night, we stayed at a very charming B&B, Le Pas de l’Ane (donkey step), which was beautiful, had a great breakfast, but no dinner.  If you had a car, there are restaurants 5 or so miles away … but we are on foot and just walked 15 miles.

So, knowing that we needed our own food, we carried freeze-dried backpacking food! Sounds questionable, eh?  It actually turned out well, with Diane adding some arugola for flair and both of us adding some excellent French bread. Here are the photos:

Today’s hike was beautiful, here’s a sample:

And, a beautiful Sunday morning “cross” cloud.

Now, on to today’s topic: Ascent, Grade and Surface. When we look at how far we want to walk, we try to keep the day’s climbing under 2,000′. Sometimes it’s easy, Sometimes not so much! In our planning, we figured that today’s stage would be 2,000′, +/-. We didn’t figure that last night’s stay was about 0.75 miles off our trail, and 200′ drop in elevation. Those numbers had to be “undone” to even start today’s stage.

And once again, today’s stop was 0.5 miles of the trail and … 200′ of additional climbing.  Oh well.

Now, not all ascent is the same.  From Yenne to St Genix, we climbed 2,000′ very gradually, making it hardly noticeable.

Other times, like today, we had a 600′ section that went “straight up”, then went “straight down”. Here’s the Strava elevation profile of the stage.  You can see the spike I’m talking about, below:

That kind of “ascent” can hurt!

Now, Surface:  if the ground is firm and smooth, it’s a whole lot easier to walk up (or down) than if it’s slippery. The worst is slippery and rocky, where the stones just roll under your feet as you try to step down. The last decent was slippery and rocky:

The grade was > 25%! It was tough!  We traveled about  1 mile/ hr on that stretch.

All for now. Laundry and dining await!

Today was 9 miles walked and 700′ climbed. An easier day to bring in a tougher week ahead. Our totals are 121 miles walked and 15,100′ of ascent.

We stayed last night in a “converted garage-cum-B&B , without the second ‘B'”! Wonderful hosts, modest accommodations.  The view from their place, however, was amazing!

And, they did have a pool to cool the toes!

The walk today was mostly along the base of a ridgeline, following a very long valley.

We have 2 or 3 days of this, then we start seriously climbing. We’ll hit about 4,000′ in altitude on Saturdsy … so enjoy the flats while you can!

A short note; while the scenery is universally beautiful, it’s not always friendly! This plant

(Stinging nettle) is very common in this area. There are also large varieties that can branch across the trail and snag the unwary Pilgrim (yelp!). We’ve learned to be careful …

French Connections: Here in the countryside, it’s a lot easier to meet people and have conversations. While our French is still miserable (even after 5 years of working on it) we have had good fortune to meet patient French people, who seem genuinely pleased to meet and talk with an American. Just people talking with people. This is one of the reasons we’ve so enjoyed these Caminos; people to people sharing.

We’ve also met Thierry and Elaine, two fellow Pilgrims from France. The friendliest folks you’ll meet. He’s a Harley rider when he’s not hiking (and has the tatoo to prove it!).

They’re walking about our pace, so we see them with regularity and they’re headed to Le Puy, so we should see them some more.

I should note that they are 2 of only 6 Pilgrims we’ve seen in 10 days in the trail.  We’re okay with that.

Au revoir

Today was 16 miles walked,  1,300′ climbed for a running total of 137 miles walked and 16,400′ climbed!

Today’s path, like yesterday’s (and the next couple days)  follow a very long valley from the foot of the Alps, to the east,  to the Rhone River (yep, well see that again)  and the beginning of the next mountain range to the west,  the Massif Central.

Strava provides a great satellite graphic of today’s hike, as:

Pretty cool, eh?

Going through valleys are nice, but are less “dynamic” than the mountains.  So, what did we see?  A Trojan Horse! (It was empty this time).

While walking through a plowed-over cornfield, the both of us had a deja vu experience; we’ve seen this thing before!

Here we are in the middle of literally nowhere, and there’s a direction sign giving you choices.

(You’ve got to look closely but there a very formal direction sign in the middle of this cornfield intersection! ).

I guess if you go left, you will go to cornfields, but if you choose right, you will also go to cornfields! Hmm, which way to go?🤔

Both of us immediately thought of the final scene in “Castaway”, where Tom Hanks stood at a similar role intersection and ponder where to go …

For us, we chose “go right”, mostly because that was our Camino direction.

Hope all are well!