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Saturday, August 10th, 2007
A nice relaxed hike today, albeit with more passages along some amazingly mucky cow-befouled sections of paths. I think I have worked out what is going on: the problem is not the cows, it is the trail-makers. Up until now hiking trails have in general been laid so as to avoid the tracks and paths along which farmers drive their cattle, but no longer. It is of course much easier to use existing paths, but there are, as noted, some disadvantages!
A follow-on comment also to the general topic of French / German differences: it was pointed out to me that there is another way of looking at them, namely that the French are much more easy-going than the Germans as far as order is concerned -- they don't have this obsession with perfect neatness, which may be nice to look at, but which demands a ton of effort in order to produce. I think this is right, and I'll also add that in terms of quality of life both German and French-speaking countries have remarkable strengths, and at the end of the day that is why we have chosen to divide our time between the two.
Back to the hike: we haven't had such an easy day since Stage 22 to Vorsiez, it felt like being on holiday! And after the previous couple of tough stages this was, at least for me, a good thing. In addition, the weather had improved and although the skies were still mostly cloudy we did see the sun from time to time and the temperatures were warmer.
After a lunch in an almost medieval setting at a hut just before the Col de Chaude, we walked 15 minutes further to the pass and looked down on beautiful Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). I can't speak for the others, but my feelings were more complex than I had thought that they would be. There was the expected pleasure of accomplishment -- we had just hiked pretty much the whole way across Switzerland, and not be the easiest route either. But there was also an awareness of how much we have still left to go (reinforced by the looming presence of the mountains we have to climb on the far side of the lake). Furthermore I had envisaged celebrating at Sonchaux with Lidia and Ioana (and Michelle), but with the first two leaving the hike because of the bad weather it looked like it might be "just" the three of us at dinner. And lastly, even if the hike had been easy, I was tired: more interested in a shower and bed than anything else.
But on balance, it still felt good :-).
And when Ioana called shortly after we arrived to say that she and Michelle would be coming up to have dinner with us after all, well, my spirits rose and I threw my "no fondue for dinner" resolution out the window! In fact I had both cheese and meat fondue in the course of a lovely meal accompanied by interesting conversation with much merriment. Thank-you Ioana and Michelle!
And a heartfelt thank-you also and especially to Russell and Sally for hiking through thick and thin with me to get here.
And I sit here now (two days later) and think: wow, we actually made it to Montreux. It's a nice feeling.
